Anyone know about computer processors?
 

Hey all,

I was in Fry's Elecronics last night pricing some stuff for a laptop I recently bought and figured since I was there I'd brush up on what the newest technologies were for desktop PC hardware. My current desktop is kind of aging (homebuilt AMD Thunderbird 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, etc. . . ) so I figure I'll probably retire it in the next 6-12 months and build a new one so I can stay reasonably current. I need to be able to run modelers like 3D Studio, Form Z, SketchUp as well as stuff like Photoshop, Illustrator, AutoCAD and Revit - preferably without ridiculous delays. My current system can do it, but really slogs down when the models or renderings get complicated.

Anyway I looked at the rack of motherboards & processors - seems like the most cutting-edge stuff at present is dual-core Opteron units (64-bit) running about 2.5GHz with front-side bus speeds of 333 MHz. Is this true? Is there faster/better stuff out there? I think the pinset on the most "fresh" looking motherboards was a socket 939 or something like that. I used to be really into this stuff (built a ton of Pentium, PII and related systems from that era), but stuff has become way more non-standardized now and I'm not sure what the "stuff to watch" is.

Suggestions welcome from the tech geek corner.

When I get ready to start upgrading I start checking out places like http://www.sharkyextreme.com/
http://www.tomshardware.com/
http://anandtech.com/

MaximumPC magazine isn't a bad place to look either.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I think we're in a period where the "next big thing" hasn't really emerged.

The new Core 2 Duo from Intel is coming up really well on benchmarks. I just got the parts for my first one a few days ago and haven't had a chance to assemble it yet.

They also aren't too expensive for the mid-range ones, and motherboards seem to have pretty high availability as well.

Unless you're really stuck on buying stuff locally, you can usually do a lot better than Fry's pricewise too. Hit Newegg.com or one of the other big online shops.

If/when you're ready to pick stuff up, drop me a PM, I go through lots of parts and avoid some of the price flucations and may be able to save you a couple of bucks on memory. (I bought a lot before the recent jump)

^--what he said. The new Core 2 Duos are pretty damn kickass.

I stopped by my c shop today to tell him I want one built. I left it up to him to list what I need for video work. Much more than good hardware I left open.

He said windows media something. I said sure.


I hit the above site for their suggested $2,400 unit built from good mechanicals. I printed great info.

Then the bride says that at work some guys use 2 or 3 "wide screens" and they're great to work with all day. Says they got a deal of around $900 for a bunch of large ones like "26 inches".... if that makes sense?


btw... I don't know wtf I'm doing

September High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide-September 22, 2006
It is time for another edition of our High-end Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, where we take $2500 in cash and assemble feature-rich, high performance gaming systems using readily available parts. If you ever wanted to know exactly what $2500 could buy in today's PC market, look no further than our latest edition of this guide.


starts below
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/3633871



ends below
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/10707_3633871__8


I'll list the intel, not the AMD


Intel Pentium D System

Case: ThermalTake Armor VA8000BWS Full Tower w/Antec 550W PSU - $237
Processor: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz) Retail - $327
Cooling: Retail HSF - $0
Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe - $202
Memory: 2x1GB Corsair XMS2-6400 (TWIN2X2048-6400C4) - $316
Hard Drive: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA - $208
Video Card: PNY GeForce 7950GT 512MB - $300
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 204B 20" LCD - $350
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic - $117
Speakers: Logitech THX Z-5300e 5.1 Speakers - $134
DVD-/+RW: Samsung 18x DVD+RW/-RW SH-S182D - $32
Communications: Onboard LAN - $0
Mouse: Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse - $67
Keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard - $68
Operating System: Windows XP Pro - $138
Floppy: Generic - $5


Total: $2,501




Closing Remarks
Overall, it was another good month for our high-end PC buyer's guide, and we managed to slide in a few nice upgrades. The Core 2 Duo was the most prominent of these, as Intel has a real winner here, and current system buyers receive an incredible bang for the buck with this processor line. AMD should also have received an impressive CPU upgrade, but the problem is that no one sent the Athlon 64 X2 5000+ an invitation to the party. Without this 2.6 GHz powerhouse available, the AMD system suffered a bit compared to Intel.

The move to the higher-end GeForce 7950 GT 512MB also raises gaming performance and gives us a very powerful SLI option down the road. Equally impressive were the ATI price drops to the Radeon X1900 XT 512MB, which when combined with the new GeForce 7900 GS and 7950 GT, made high-end video cards a real buyer's market. There were a few other system improvements, such as a spacious full tower case, an updated DVD writer and gaming keyboard, but it's always nice when you can upgrade the two core performance components.

Please note that the prices in our guide do not include shipping costs or taxes. The final system price also reflects a "best case" scenario of finding an online vendor that stocks the majority of internal components, or having access to a number of local computer retailers for system quotes and comparison shopping. Also, throughout the compilation of this guide, we have made every attempt to ensure availability and realistic street pricing of the included components.



me........ it adds up fast

Adding more ram will bring back another year or so of life to your current system, and can be done dirt cheap.

They blew the budget by a dollar. F.

;)

thx for reply



this windows ME is 6yrs old and has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.


another pelicanhead suggested that i could use the w2000 without having the headaches of the XP pro. I think that's great but I'm concerned about using the newer faster programs with it.

Windows ME sucks - I'd upgrade immediately to either 2000 or XP. That'll probably solve a lot of your problems right there. XP Pro is a bit of a memory pig, but it's more stable, at least in my experiences. Adding more RAM and going to XP Pro would probably make it bearable for a few more years.

i have it in my head that i need the whole 9 yds.

so I guess that site put together good parts? I would like to buy a video camera and be able to play around with the movie.

thx

This is my new gaming rig.
DFI Lanparty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard
Athlon 64 X2 4400 2.2Ghz 2MB Cache
OCZ Dual Channel Gold GX 2048MB PC4000 DDR 500MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)
2X BFG GeForce 7900 GT / 256MB GDDR3
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
2X WD Raptor 74GB - Raid 0
Lite-on SHM-160P6S
Ultra Blue Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower
Ultra X2 550-Watt

I also have an extra 2 gigs of matching ram for the release of Vista. I cost me about $2k.

Considering that Blue works at a small company whose name I believe is Intel, his comments might be heeded. My nephew also works for them and before buying any new MB or processor I always spend a few minutes with him talking about the pro's and con's of each one.

Agree with Id10t. Personally I buy a processor that is one level down from the current fastest. Then put 1 or 2 gig of RAM and the fastest, largest hard drive I can find. Just went with 300 gig and 400 gig/7200 rpm hard drives in my desktop and a 100 gig/7200 rpm drive in my laptop. Both made a very noticeable difference in the performance.

For me W2000 is the only way to go. XP is too automated for me. It tries to take over the computer and I am too techie to let this happen. Formatted my laptop and took it back to W2000 after having to work with XP for almost a year. Much easier for me to work with and faster.

If you really want to get slick, put dual or triple LCD screens on your computer. Just takes two extra video cards and screens and really makes working, gaming or multi-tasking a lot easier.

64 bit processors are AWESOME, problem is XP64bit has not been fully adopted..so, your application might not be written for 64 bit yet, and then there is drivers and the cost of getting 64 bit apps $$.

dual processors will allow you to multi task faster, core duo is dual processors on a chip,

Multi threaded processors (hyper threaded) is a pseudo dual processor, but there is a wait state for single threaded processes.

And you will need XP Pro to take advantage of the above.

or use linux and compile your own apps.

Yeah, I built a decent PC a couple of years ago using the 3.2MHz Pentium. I checked back a couple of months ago figuring that I'd be able to get something that would blow it away--much like the 3.2 blew away the 2.0 that preceeeded it. No such luck. There are better, faster processors at the very high end of course, but in the "upper-middle class" there's nothing to incent me to build a new machine.

Waiting for the dual core thing to mature to the point where upgrading is a no-brainer.

Same with hard disks. Got my 15,000 rpm SCSI drives that are ancient history by now, yet what's out there that's THAT much better?

"He said windows media something. I said sure."
"btw... I don't know wtf I'm doing"


ok pamajka. that finally registered, thx.



then the other expense just seems to be the mechanicals of the box like fans, & heat exchangers. They had a nice write up on the suggested box. It will make flipping parts around easy.

this is what I came up with and all I know about.



http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MHGSBG/article.php/10707_3633871__4


Hard Drive: 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA 3.0 Gb/sec.
2 x HD ($104)
Current Cost: $208
Months on list: New
Price Change: N/A


The specific hard drive component has not been upgraded this month, as we're sticking with the updated Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB model. The 7200.10 drives support SATA 3.0 Gb/sec. (with NCQ), which is double the theoretical bandwidth of initial SATA 1.5 Gb/s hard drives, and fully supported by both our motherboards. Due to falling hard drive prices - the Barracuda 7200.10 320GB has dropped to just over $100 - we're suggesting a dual drive configuration, either in a RAID array for increased performance, or to attain a whopping 640 GB of total storage space. Even discounting the RAID performance benefit, this method is still an economical method of hitting 640GB, as Seagate 7200.10 400GB drives are priced at over $160 and the 500GB model sits at $225 or more.

Hmmm....I've been outed. :D

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/index.html
http://pcworld.com/article/id,126342-page,1/article.html
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795

Actually you can do it without any extra video cards, if you're afraid to open up your box. Matrox makes a product that lets you plug two or three monitors into it, effectively doubling or tripling your resolution. Don't know how it does what it does but a coworker has one and likes it a lot.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/dh2go/home.php
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/home.php

I was just looking at the Tom's hardware tests. Using the WinRAR compression test, My old 2.0 Northwood would take 11:27 minutes. My current (yet over two year old) 3.2 Northwood takes 4.36 minutes--an incredible improvement. Even the more recent Pentium D 960 only improves that down to 3:05. Now, finally, these Core 2 Extreme processors can do it in just over 2 minutes.

Still, that doesn't seem like a huge improvement for over two years and costing over $1000! I'll upgrade when there's a processor that's more than twice as fast in real world applications and games, that costs in the bread-and-butter range of $300-500.

Need Help Selecting Screen

I just bought a new machine and need a screen to do multi-media.

I bought
Core 2 Duo
NVidia GeForce 512mb
Windows XP Media Center
+++

This is based around the Sharky $2,400 system on 1st page of this thread. I copied and handed it to the computer shop wrench. I paid $2,400.

Now yesterday I went looking for a screen size I could deal with.
The 27" TV screen seems to be the correct size for my eyeballs and distance. I don't understand wide screens to comment on them. I also know nothing about screen quality for doing pics and home video.

I need a flat unit to bolt to the wall behind my desk.

Any suggestions on what I should use ?

Any other suggestions on anything including books ?


I just spent $98 for 3 XP books so presently it's happy birthday to me.

thx all for at least reading this.

Blue pointed you to Toms Hardware it's a great reference site.

Agree completely with Joe - I stay with Win2K and Linux; XP is a no-go for me because of microsoft's fetish for policeware. Note: ms is primarily focused on DRM, not on a better o/s. I'm also staying FAR away from Vista. See: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/ATR-VistaAttackSurface.pdf

I like AMD processors - the 64-bit work exceptionally well, and dual-core will be my next build. Two things to watch out for: Heat and Noise. Get a big mother power supply - you'll need it with the graphics requirements you've described. Consider temp-variable fan speed control to keep the racket down.

You can't have too much RAM.

I also really like drive racks - they allow you to build different system configurations just by swapping hard drives. Really improves system flexibility since the same hardware can do radically different things without configuration compromises.

Ron,

Stay away from the TV/Computer monitors. They try to do both jobs and are not good as a computer monitor. I have a 21", and two 19" LCD monitors and love the setup. If you want you can try two of them and go from there. Aaron mentioned a setup that will do this without an additional video card.

Doing multi-media, Jim is correct and you cannot have too much RAM. A fast hard drive helps as well.

Joe

When building your new machine, I suggest something in keeping with its' performance.

Such as a new custom tower case.
http://images12.fotki.com/v213/photo...585/117-vi.jpg
Details of the above.
http://images19.fotki.com/v359/photo...19585/9-vi.jpg

Or, duplicate the famous "ORAC".
http://images19.fotki.com/v34/photos...800wWMk-vi.jpg

Or, perhaps something a bit Art Deco.
http://images19.fotki.com/v34/photos...ase212a-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v354/photo...case227-vi.jpg
http://images19.fotki.com/v34/photos...case219-vi.jpg

All images courtesy of Bit-Tech.net's prodigious archives.

This is the monitor I came up with for my eyes and distance.

It seems like the best in class is Dell 2407 WFP wide screen and the 23" ACD [apple c d].

Dell has something about creating color at a 6 and the ACD is 8.

The ACD is about $400 more

Dell list is $799, retail on their site is $679
Dell max resolution is 1920x1200 on the wide screen.
Dell response time is 6ms

It seems that once I also consider Dell's bells and whistles it's 6 in one hand.. etc

There is some kind of screen color balancing gizmo running from around $75-275

I'm going to my computer builder and see if he wants to sell me the Dell.


i asked a pelicanhead about programs on e-mail and he hasn't had time to answer.

You can also save yourself significant $$$ by skipping the ms office suite. OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org) is more than good enough and has a powerpoint clone to boot. Cost: free for the download.

I have completely banished the ms office suite from all computers here and use OpenOffice exclusively. Have had no problems with word docs or excel sheets my clients forward to me and they have no problems with the docs I send them. Great stuff Put the cash saved into more RAM, better monitor (I use a 21" Samsung and like it lots), or your Porsche.

Just received tower today without a screen. The Dell 24" wide has Samsung internals. I would have to buy an adaptor to use this old screen because of some "card" that was selected.


I'll start with the download as I'm sure the bride's NYC white collar docs will be fine now... thx




there's a green streaking issue with the Dell 24 monitor that I found out about if anyone also decides to also buy one.