Quote:
Originally Posted by RWebb
motherboard & video card above NLA
not sure what I need to know to match things up & not sure I want to take the time to figure it all out...
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see post #34 and 32.
PC Connection Express - Detail
The 2.5" Laptop SSDs (Solid State Drives) drop in to this otherwise unassuming little box. RAM upgrade to 5GB (1x4GB, 1x1GB) is about $90 from NuRam.
I have Intel X25E-64GB SSD and 5GB RAM...I think I spent ~$1100 and it smokes my new i7-Quad core Dell at work, because the Dell still has a standard hard drive. My Mac boots and is ready to use in 15 seconds and everything feels positively instantaneous. It is a delight to use. I admit, though, I really needed a Mac for its OS and software development platforms (iPhone) rather than the best hardware money can buy. You can get faster processors, faster RAM, etc., etc.
Some will balk, the CPU is not good enough, there is not enough RAM, there is not enough H.D. capacity, it's overpriced...
-The Intel C2D 2.4ghz CPU almost never spends any length of time at full capacity.
The bottleneck in slow computers is not the processor.
-5GB is more than enough RAM. Even though it's 1066mhz, it's DDR3. Even when I am really working on the computer hard, it never pushes over 4GB utilized.
-For my media storage, I have a separate 500GB-7200rpm external drive. I have no lag accessing any media files or documents.
Applications, programs, launch, and "feel" is simply what you always imagined a modern computer should be. I credit this to Apple's efficiency in software resource management but MOSTLY this is about the Intel Extreme Series SSDs, which are small but will blow your RAID system into the weeds.
Additionally, you can put Windows 7 onto the Mac, with no real fuss (Boot Camp or virtualized with VMWare).
"Overpriced" is in the eye of the beholder. I use MATLAB, SolidWorks, ProEngineer, Pro Tools on my PC. I also use Logic Studio, MATLAB, Final Cut Studio, and Photoshop on my Mac. The ability to have everything work quickly, properly and with minimal hassle in ONE machine is priceless to me. I cannot be bothered to spend two weekends putting together and setting up a PC in parts that you have to QC yourself. I have friends in CS from college that put their own computers together, it is always a hassle and they complain they have had to send back the damn mobo or something 3 times to get one that works. My time and lack of frustration with an appliance is worth a lot to me, perhaps too much, but I don't just look at a number on the page when I buy something, I look at the whole experience of how I am going to get the thing to work how I want it to.