OT : Hardware Recommendations for new build

arcorob wrote on 8/14/2006, 1:34 PM

This really caught my eye....We can all build speed demons if we throw enough MONEY and favorite processors at them (check out the SECRET SPEC ON INTEL 905 Dula core at Toms hardware)

But the poster wanted to challenges us. So..here is the challenge... DO IT ON A SHOE STRING and help him RE-USE some of what he has. You would be amazed.

First,
Recommend 3.4 P4 Northwood (less Heat than prescott ) and can be had for about 120.00 bucks...AND CAN BE OVERCLOCKED EASILY at least TO 3.8 WITH MINIMAL COOLING

Board - Easy . Asus P4P800 Delux. Support up to 10 drives ! 4 IDE raid with VIA , 2 Serial ATA 150 , 4 IDE (Primary and Secondary)
Cost - approx 90 bucks

He has 4 drives ( I would recommend using on the via raid, raid zero so he has an A to B copy scheme) , just buy one more drive for the Op system - Cost about 55 dollars for a fast 80 gig C: drive

Memory ...LOL...1 GIG UNDER 100 BUCKS AT NEWEGG

So for about 365 dollars....He is golden....

So ...is there a challenge for something FASTER or more Robust in an economical package ? NOt in an AMD thats for sure (teh dual raid as well as FULL IDE PRI and SEC is teh kicker) ?

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 8/14/2006, 2:16 PM

The huffing and puffing of the single-core obsolete architecture P4 3.4 won't even be heard by the AMD X2 driver looking in his rear view mirror (as far as I can see from using both of these myself), so I don't quite understand what you're trying to say on performance.

He told us he got his X2 for the same price as the P4 you suggest, and mobos are the same price for either (and harder to find mobos w/o RAID these days), so where are the savings?

He can certainly reuse his existing drives, and upgrade those later as he grows out out of them, or wants more performance.

arcorob wrote on 8/15/2006, 5:57 AM

Very true but if were to go new tech then THIS http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/05/10/dual_41_ghz_cores/index.html

Would leave the AMD huffing and puffing... The real cost is in the drives he is stuck with. If you notice, most newer mobo's give you one ide (single hard drive and optical disk) plus SATA 3.0

Teh cost of the drives is killer.

But you raised a good point. BTW...I just purchased one of the Dual Cores that is in the Tomshardware article for 95 at new egg and plan to do the grand experiment...The drives though will kill me....LOL

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/15/2006, 7:57 AM

Here's the latest "Bang for the Buck" configuration from ExtremeTech. It is Core 2 Duo E6600:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2003031,00.asp

Jerry

Jay-Hancock wrote on 8/15/2006, 8:35 AM

Very true but if were to go new tech then THIS

Looking at the benchmarks on the "video encoding" page on that review, there are two tests: running the "Clone DVD" program and doing a DivX 6.1 encode. In the first test, the higher end AMDs outperform the 805 no matter what you overclock it to. In the second test, it only beats the AMDs after you OC it to 4.0 GHz.

Overclocking the 805 up to those speeds requires expensive and difficult-to-install water cooling, not such a bargain after all.

I do have an 805 that I purchased as a bargain for my media server PC. I don't use it as my digital video editing PC. I am considering using it as a network renderer. I OC'd it, but not to extreme levels (I didn't install water cooling and I didn't change any voltages). As a medium performer, it is a great bargain. But I don't have any intention of trying to tweak out every last bit of performance from it. I don't want that much power consumption (it is always on and usually just runs as a file server and media server). And I don't want to risk making it unstable.