New PC advice please

[erifulton]

Hi all.

With Uncle Kevs moolah, I am looking to get a new PC (this one wont open MS Word...). Below is what I am looking at. Please give me some advice on whether you think they are alright (and if all the parts would all work together). In both builds the case, keyboard, mouse and speakers are fairly generic.

PC 1. INTgamesEL

MOBO: Intel S775 Gigabyte GA-EP43-UD3L
CHIP: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (2.80GHz/45nm/1066FSB/3MB) LGA775
RAM: Desktop DDR2 Ram 2GB Kit (2x1024MB) PC8500 1066MHz Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/2GN 5-5-5-15
VID CARD: PCI-e (nV) 9500GT 1GB Sparkle SF-PX95GT1024U2-HP (550/800MHz)
HDD: 3.5" HDD SATA-300 500GB 16MB Seagate (7200rpm)
DVD: 5.25" SATA DVD Buner/Rw Samsung SH-S223-BL 22x Black (oem)
MONITOR: WideScreen LCD Monitor 19" ASUS VH192D (5ms)
PSU: Power Supply 650W Coolermaster eXtreme Plus RS-650-PCARE3-AU (with SATA Cable)

PC 2. AMD

MOBO: AMD AM2 S940 Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3P
CHIP: AMD AM2 Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 6000+ (3.0GHz/2MB/89w)
RAM: Desktop DDR2 Ram 2GB Kit (2x1024MB) PC8500 1066MHz Kingston HyperX KHX8500D2K2/2GN 5-5-5-15
VID CARD: PCI-e (nV) 9500GT 1GB Sparkle SF-PX95GT1024U2-HP (550/800MHz)
HDD: 3.5" HDD SATA-300 500GB 16MB Seagate (7200rpm)
DVD: 5.25" SATA DVD Buner/Rw Samsung SH-S223-BL 22x Black (oem)
MONITOR: WideScreen LCD Monitor 19" ASUS VH192D (5ms)
PSU: Power Supply 650W Coolermaster eXtreme Plus RS-650-PCARE3-AU (with SATA Cable)

According to itestate.com.au the prices for the above would be PC 1: $1054 and PC 2: $952

Thanks in advance.

[Grunf]

I think that $100 doesn't make a big difference in price and in my own opinion it is better to buy computer with the Intel processor. What I know from my personal experience, AMD processors are overheating from time to time (they are faster than Intel processors) so you'll need a good fan to stop it from overheating - that's my personal experience..
Now I'm using Intel and I'm very pleased with it.

Best regards (and wishes in buying a new computer!)
G

[yucapareja]

Hi erifulton,

The intel is good but is core 2 duo (2 cores), with 50$ more you
can buy a AMD Phenom II X4 (4 cores).

[struceng]

I suggest you to spend some more money and;
1) Take this Intel cpu,
2) Buy a case with good air circulation.
3) Change your motherboard with the one supporting raid and overclocking,
4) Buy one more hdd with the same model and capacity,
5) buy good quality memory,
6) Overclock the cpu to 3.5GHz,
7) Raid this two hdd with raid0 configuration.

There are so many steps but this will double your working speed, be sure!

I am using Q6600 (quad core at 2.4GHz) at 3.2GHz by overclocking and three hdd with raid0 configuration (275 MB/sec reading speed) without any problem. For the same speed, it costs very less by this way. You must by a small power supply and backup your files time to time as usual. We are engineers and always dealing with multiple large files at the same time. Our computers must be very fast and they deserve our care.

Regards.

[concreteok]

struceng,

since we are at this. can i have some more tips from you, what OS are you using? how to choose good quality memory, any examples? technically, what happen when we 'raid 2-3 hdd'?

many thanks in advance.

[verongskey]

Intel® Core™2 Quad Processors are the best choice, not so expensive these days. I have Q6700 with 2.66 GHz clock rate.

For motherboard, Gigabytes' Ultra Durable 3 is still the best for me, it comes with a software to safely overclock your processor.

At least 512MB video card (1GB will be best)

You should have at least 4GB RAM

[struceng]

struceng,
since we are at this. can i have some more tips from you, what OS are you using? how to choose good quality memory, any examples? technically, what happen when we 'raid 2-3 hdd'?
many thanks in advance.

Dear Concreteok,
My OS is XP SP3 64bit, but I am using various versions of Windows on the disk. What I mean with good quality is the ones designed for overclocking. I suggest manual overclocking because you can only achive the speed I mentioned by this way (with ~1.45 core voltage!!!). Automatic overclocking or performance boost will not do it. Mine is Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C4DHX and I suggest that brand. Memory will get very hot in overclocking and ordinary ones crashes and restarts the system. There are different types of raid configurations like raid0, raid1, etc. but the fastest one is raid0. In raid0 you can use the total capacity of your hdds and data will be splited by clusters into the hdds you mounted. Because of writing to these hdds at the same time, your data will be handled in less time. Hdd is the slowest part of memory+bus+cpu+hdd system (I dont count CD, usb memory etc.). More hdd means more speed but of course it is limited with raid system you have. And dont forget to backup your data files periodically (you should do that either way). If any of your hdd is damaged, it means your data files are lost because remaining datas on the other hdds will be useless. With power supply, backup and conscious usage there will be no problem. I am using in that way for one years and with no problem.

Regards.

[concreteok]

strueng,

i started to get very interested in the 'beast' you have now. if you don't mind, can you share the exact system you are having here in detail (i won't be able to digest, i know!) and i will try to get someone (a local friend who are good at computer stuff or a friendly computer guy at shop) to set up the budget for one here in my country. i guess i wont be able to get tat from dell (not our Dell Brett the Great) or other customised system available off shelves. if you are sharing, try to be as detail as you can. can PM me too if you do not want to make it public. of course, you can call above tips as the max you can divulge.

in any circumstances, thank you very much for sharing.

p/s: btw, xp sp3 32bit performance very far off from your 64bit version? very difficult to get the 64bit here.

[struceng]

Dear Concreteok,
You can call it as an old beast compared with the ones that can be compiled in todays technology.

Because I dont want anyone try to overclock+raid0 and burn his/her pc with my instructions, I should post full configuration and setup details to the ones seen at post#4.

Like most of the newest versions of engineering softwares, SAP2000 also started to support large memory usage support for 64bit systems with v14. Not very far of performance levels but a visible difference of handling of large files. May be more differences can be given.

Regards.

[solwilliam]

HI
I think you should go for second one.It has better configuration...