UC: AWA-ready comp advice, please

[Ben Zwycky]

OK, the time is soon approaching for my new comp. My budget is ready, my basic choices are clear, but I have a few options. First, the basic configuration, then the alternatives.

ASUS K8N-E Socket 754 nForce3 250Gb AGP 8x 2xRAID S-ATA 4xUSB 2.0 2xFirewire onboard 8-channel audio and Gigabit LAN

AMD 64 3400+ Newcastle Boxed

2x512MB Kingston 400MHz CL 2.5

3x80GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 PLUS 80GB, S-ATA NCQ, 8MB cache, 7200rpm (630MB/s transfer rate)

Lite-ON 52x CD-ROM

Lite-ON SOHW-1653S DVD 16x+R 12x-R 4x┬▒RW 4x+R9

Ergo Chicony Keyboard

Genius Wireless Optical Mouse 800DPI

17ÔÇØLCD Hyundai L70N TFT contrast 500:1 Luminance 300 cd/m2 refresh time 12ms TCO99

Edimax EN-9130 TXL 10/100 PCI without bootrom OR

US Robotics 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit NIC PCI adapt├®r [uSR997902] (for the old comp to link them together and share our new DSL connection (sometime next month) (the router is 4x10/100 Ethernet)

I would move over my old Radeon 9200 (and possibly SB audigy player) from my current PC.

And I would ask the shop to recommend the case and power supply to cope with this setup (and more for when the 9200 eventually canÔÇÖt cope any more and I put an X800 in there) comfortably with no heat or stability issues, and get them to build it so I have their guarantee on it.

This setup gives me a little room in my budget for improvements, but IÔÇÖm not sure which changes would make the most difference.

1. It has to be an LCD monitor, because we havenÔÇÖt got room for another CRT. IÔÇÖm not very familiar with LCD monitors, as to which are good manufacturers, but Hyundai is a big name, and their offering was pretty cheap. Other manufacturers offered even cheaper 17ÔÇØ screens, but IÔÇÖve never heard of them (BENQ, NEOVO, Prestigio) Are those Good manufacturers? IÔÇÖm assuming you want high contrast, low brightness and low refresh time to reduce eye strain. Some pricier ones from Samsung and Acer caught my eye:

Samsung 710N 600/300/12 17ÔÇØ

Acer 500/250/12 19ÔÇØ

The Acer one would require sacrificing one 80GB drive to fit it in the budget, the Samsung one merely by swapping the three 80GB drives for two 120GB drives, or dropping the memory to CL 3

2. Memory. Does Core Latency affect performance significantly? Would it be better to have 2 512 MB DIMMÔÇÖs at CL 2.5 or 3 512MB DIMMÔÇÖs at CL 3 (A little more expensive, but not that much)?

3. Would having 2 120GB drives be noticably slower than 3 80GB drives? with 3 80 GB drives thereÔÇÖs more flexibility in arranging them, you can have all three RAID 0ÔÇÖd together for stunning speed, or just two of them with the third a separate drive to give you more space, keeping the more demanding programs on the faster drive

4. Is it possible to use the network cards to directly link between the two computers at Gigabit speed and at the same time seperately connect to the broadband router (which only runs at 100Mb/s max)? IÔÇÖm guessing not, so thereÔÇÖd be no point in going for the faster network card.

Thakns in advance for your help

[jamotto]

quote:

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Originally posted by Ben Zwycky:

1. IÔÇÖm assuming you want high contrast, low brightness and low refresh time to reduce eye strain. Some pricier ones from Samsung and Acer caught my eye:

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The only problem with the stat's on the box is they are not generally comparable between different brands. If you can, I would suggest you go to the nearest computer store and check out the models first hand.

Last time I looked at LCD's Samsung was a good brand as well as Viewsonic, Eizo, Dell, Phillips and LG Electronics. The 12ms response time is good and should prevent ghosting on the screen when something moves quickly across the screen.

quote:

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2. Memory. Does Core Latency affect performance significantly? Would it be better to have 2 512 MB DIMMÔÇÖs at CL 2.5 or 3 512MB DIMMÔÇÖs at CL 3 (A little more expensive, but not that much)?

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the CL 2.5 will get you at most a 6% increase in speed. I would pick latter option, can never have too much memory.

quote:

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3. Would having 2 120GB drives be noticably slower than 3 80GB drives? with 3 80 GB drives thereÔÇÖs more flexibility in arranging them, you can have all three RAID 0ÔÇÖd together for stunning speed, or just two of them with the third a separate drive to give you more space, keeping the more demanding programs on the faster drive

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If you are going to put them in a RAID config. there should really be no difference in performance.

[Ben Zwycky]

Yeah, I was looking at LG as well, but the best local shop has all LG LCD monitors "temporarily unavailable". I'll probably try for the Samsung and see if I can fit in the 3 CL3 DIMMS. Thanks for the advice.

[Wolferz]

Ben, I am running 2x 30GB, 10k RPM Western Digitals in S-ATA mode RAID 0

And it flies.

Loading Winblows XP will take around 8 gig of HD space right off the bat.

I'm not too keen on MoBos with integrated anything, although my Asus P4C800E has integrated sound (not used) and the Intel Gigabit LAN.

The LAN seems to set up it's own internal network to speed up data transfers as well as providing internet connectivity.

As for the monitor; I bought a 19" LCD made by Envision. I like it for the dual inputs it provides. IE: RGB and DVI so it's very compatible with any video card. The unit also comes with a pair of built in 6 watt speakers that sound like crap, It's only detracting feature.

I have 2 more 17" envision monitors in the house that have performed well for over 2 years.

Good Luck with your project.

[Ben Zwycky]

Yeah, but there aren't any decent MB's without integrated soundcards, and I was more interested in it's RAID capabilities. I was originally also wanting to go for 2x WD 10k rpm Raptors 37 GB plus another cheap 160 GB drive for cheap storage, but it was a bit pricy, and the shop was out of stock of 37 GB Raptors. I have win2k, and no intention to upgrade to XP. I have a headset, and 5.1 speakers, and am looking only at monitors without integrated speakers.

Is it possible to partition a drive consisting of multiple hard disks RAIDed together?

[LostInSpace]

quote:

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Originally posted by Wolferz:

I'm not too keen on MoBos with integrated anything, although my Asus P4C800E has integrated sound (not used) and the Intel Gigabit LAN.

The LAN seems to set up it's own internal network to speed up data transfers as well as providing internet connectivity.

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It's always good to have some sort of redundancy. I'm not partial to using the integrated sound, video etc.. motherboards as primary equipment myself but it's nice to have them anyway just in case my plug-in peripherals crap out for whatever reason at least I have back up hardware to keep going until a replacement can be had.

[Supreme Cmdr]

The buying guides at Sharky Extreme are usually the first place one should look when shopping around.

e.g. November 2003 Video Card Price Guide

[Ben Zwycky]

OK, I found a place that sells a good-looking LG monitor for less than the place I was looking at (that was out of stock of LG monitors:

itÔÇÖs an LG 17ÔÇ£ L1730S contrast ratio 550:1 / 250cd/m2 / 12ms

If this is a good one to go for then itÔÇÖll save me almost 100$ and allow me to aim a little higher with the rest of my configuration.

IÔÇÖve also been considering the socket 939 version, since it allows the use of four memory modules at once, and the 939 winchester core has a much improved stability and heat issues, whichÔÇÖll come into play if IÔÇÖm going to leave it running a lot. Being a more expensive motherboard, IÔÇÖd have to go for the 3200+ to keep within my budget, because there was a big jump in price to the 3500+ last time I looked. Now, as far as memory is concerned I have some options which I would like peopleÔÇÖs opinion on:

1. 4x 256MB CL2

2. 2x 512MB CL3 + 2x256 MB CL3 would this have greater bandwidth than option 3, or cause problems by having diferent size modules?

3. 3x 512MB CL3

3. 4x 512MB CL3 (most expensive option, obviously, but I can just about fit it in my budget, or go very slightly over.

At the moment IÔÇÖm leaning towards option 2, if there are no problems with that, since thatÔÇÖll allow me to have bigger hard disks.

Another issue is the case/power supply. If I order it from a local on-line store, IÔÇÖll have to specify this as well. Are there any special requirements for AMD 64 processors? Should it be a P4 approved one, or will any do? Is Sweex, Gembird, Chill, Ultra Power, Eurocase, Aopen or Fortron a good manufacturer for power supplies (those are my options)? What should I look for in the case itself?