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Post by johnnybee on May 19, 2013 0:01:06 GMT
I got round to completing my new rig this weekend, courtesy of an insurance payout on a 20-year policy. However, with the hindsight of the last two years on what is a very basic income, I've re-used several bits of the Phenom3, and kept prices down by sourcing new-ish bits that work well together and although not 'current' as in today's technology, have come together to make a workable but inexpensive system that will do everything I want of it. Working on the principle that bigger is better (in a figurative sense) I took Kenny and Nike's advice and started with a decent Asus board, in this case an M4A88T-M that has a pretty good fit of onboard features as standard, such as ATI HD4250 vid output with HDMI, a gigabit LAN chip, a decent 128-bit sound chip and USB3. That accounted for £27, so I then looked for a top-end CPU to go with it and found one in the form of a Phenom BE955, 3.2 GHz four core chip with a 6Mb L3 cache - cheap enough at fifty quid. To go with that, I also found four 4Gb Corsair DDR3 1600 modules on auction on eBay, so I did my normal trick of a last-minute bid of ten quid plus 55p, and wound up paying £52.55 for all four. I'm keeping the midi ATX case as it fits my workstation very well; however as the old XP2700 rig has now shown some signs of instability - and it's really only an indulgence, I've broken it up and boxed up the bits that are useable. Part of that stash is the PSU, a 500W aOpen unit with all manner of weird power connections including SATA, 4 and 6-pin auxiliary power plugs and even a couple of dedicated PCI-E supply terminals. That's forming part of the "new" setup, so I then turned my attention to what sort of drives I'd need for the project, and how they would fit in with the rest of the system; with the advent of SSD's I was very tempted to go down that route, initially looking at something like a 64Gb drive for the OS and programme files; however they still ain't cheap, and I'd find it hard to justify that sort of money when I already have several SATA 1 drives in my box. So, I decided that I'd go for a SATA2 primary drive, and retain the capacity of 1Tb as a secondary drive but gain in response times by using the potential 6Gb/Sec of the SATA2 for the primary. My neighbour recently converted from a desktop to a tablet, and his "old" system has (had!) a 300Gb SATA2 as its only drive. Not being funny, but Dave isn't the brightest spark in the bucket when it comes to computers, so when I suggested (truthfully) that SATA2 wouldn't make much difference to its value, he agreed for me to swap-in a 400Gb SATA1 drive before he put it up for sale on eBay. Now then, Dave isn't a smoker, but Diane - who died a year or so ago - was; when I tell you that it took me the best part of a day to clear the crap out of that PC and make it look presentable, you'll get an idea of just how bad it was - I think the term 'minging' fits quite well! There you have it; not cutting edge by any means, but more than quick enough for the human brain's capability. I'll be finishing it all off tomorrow, after having cleaned all the tobacco tar, dust, fluff and ciggy ash out of the case and optical drives; I HOPE that it'll all go well, but you never know until the moment arrives - wish me luck, people!
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Post by vikingken on May 19, 2013 15:47:49 GMT
A 64 GB SSD isn't big enough to run Windows 7, if you run a lot of big programs John. You could move your Program Files to a secondary drive, but things can get a bit complicated if you go that route. I tried it years ago before SSDs came out and you need your wits about you every time you install anything, or very strange things can happen. The entire OS needs to be kept together, for easy use and peace of mind. Mini Two has got a 256 GB SSD and thats as small as I would want to go, even with a baby netbook with external storage. Mirtle has got a 500 GB SSD with a full installation of the stuff I use and 1 TB USB3 drive for storage. BB has got a 64 GB Crucial M4 SSD, but thats just a super charger for the 10000 rpm 500 GB HDD. It works and is cheaper than a 500 GB hybrid which doesn't. I have already been down the hybrid route and they are crap.
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Post by johnnybee on May 20, 2013 1:03:35 GMT
Fair enough, Ken; just have to mention that not so long ago, a 64Gb drive was bloody huge to most people - I remember very well buying a 6.4Gb Seagate off a feller on eBay and thinking I'd won the lottery or something! Up til then the biggest disc I had was 1.2 GB, and that had all the usual stuff on it, with W2K Pro as an OS. Most of the apps I use these days don't amount to more than three or four gig, if that; I always use a secondary drive for storage and leave the C drive as clean as I can - some downloads can hog space with temp files like you wouldn't believe, and the last thing I wanna be doing is double-downloading stuff cos the cache is overloaded. All that said, the case isn't going to arise - at least this time out; as I said, I can't justify the extra expense when I already have several perfectly useable SATA drives in my box. Maybe if work picks up over the next few months I might be tempted to go that way; however for the time being, I'm enjoying being able to have a beer when I want one, and eat proper grub instead of frozen processed shyte that I wouldn't normally feed to a dog! How times change, eh?
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Post by nike on May 20, 2013 10:54:14 GMT
SSD's have come way down in price lately, but even now, i'd opt for SATA3 drives in preference to them. The speed difference is not noticeable enough in a bog basic system such as your's JB, so I wouldn't bother with one.
You paid a lot for that ram mate! I can get a 16gb kit of Kingston Hyper-X DDR3-1600 ram for $110.00Au
Here's a review of your processor compared to an i3 Intel from Toms hardware. www.tomshardware.com/forum/329121-28-phenom-black-edition-6ghz-intel-core-2100
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Post by johnnybee on May 20, 2013 17:19:40 GMT
That's about the same money I paid for it, Kev, give or take a few bob either way. In the UK the 4Gb modules normally fetch around 20-25 quid, so 52 for all four isn't a bad deal. I've just been through the posts on that link you gave me, which seemed to be a bit of an argument about AMD vs.Intel; the usual crap about Intel being better than AMD, trying to say that a dualcore is quicker than a quad and all the other bollox. What they (conveniently) DON'T say is that Intel stuff is up to 30% dearer than AMD's. I's fairly obvious that the whole convo is based on gaming abilities, which isn't my bag at all; the only 'game' I play is FSX with most of the bells and whistles turned down, so therefore the CPU useage never gets to the point where heat becomes a problem. That seems to be the major advantage of the Intel over the AMD; however another thing they don't mention is the fact that AMD's memory control regime is far superior to Intel's, as witnessed by the relatively smooth, progressive graph of memory vs. time for the AMD system. By comparison, the Intel system shows a series of peaks and troughs, maxing out at several points along the timeline - hardly conducive to seamfree gaming, if that's what you want to use it for. Frankly, it's an argument that will probably rumble on into the next ice age; however I've tried both makes up to the dualcore chips, and frankly there doesn't seem to be a lot between 'em - except that AMD is considerably cheaper than Intel. QED.
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Post by johnnybee on May 23, 2013 0:32:52 GMT
Still waiting for the memory to arrive..... When it does, I'll collar our postman, Micky, and sing him off the premises with that old favourite, 'Thanks for the Memory'.... Ya gotta havva laff, aintcha?
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Post by vikingken on May 23, 2013 1:22:50 GMT
Why I went the extra expense of a SSD, Intel i7 push out a lot of heat. Laptops do not have the best of cooling systems, even though they are much better than they were. Having a SSD makes a mile of difference to the temperature of the whole machine. In front of the keyboard, used to get hot with a HDD and now it doesn't even get warm. Heat is a killer of electronics and an expensive drive might be cheaper than a new laptop in the long haul.
I'm using Mirtle now, bloody Beastly Bulldozer threw a rod last night. I know whats wrong, but I couldn't be bothered to fix it today. Something kicked the BIOS out, it happened once before and I still dont know what causes it. I have to take one of the graphics cards out to reset the bloody thing. Its a lot of buggering about for a two minute fix.
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Post by johnnybee on May 23, 2013 23:42:57 GMT
Hehe! Love the terminology, Ken - 'threw a rod' - it ain't a triple expansion recip, ya know! Mindya, I remember only too well having to take HMS Striker in tow after her main engine exploded on her way back from a Red Sea patrol in 1966. Striker was one of the LCT's that had participated in the D-day landings in '44; however after the C of H she got sidelined into the Gulf area to provide an amphibious capability during the Aden conflict. That threw a rod all right, but it also threw part of the crank and most of the reduction gearbox across the engine room with it - the place was an absolute shambles. She never went to sea again; the cost of repairing it, and the risks of towing it 3000 miles was just too much, so the crew were paid off and she was scrapped in May 1967. Shame - she'd have made a nice museum piece!
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Post by johnnybee on May 24, 2013 23:54:57 GMT
Well, it's all together and running nicely, thank Kerrrist! It's been a fraught day with several false starts and a few backward steps, so please bear with me, folks! Okay then; my daughter Wendy Woo dropped the CPU and memory in to me just before midday, and stopped for a cuppa and a chat before sodding off down the shops for stuff to take with them for the long weekend - they're off to Torquack, apparently. I'd already part-assembled the MB onto the carrier plate and made a template-type I/O cover for the MB stack so I was part-way there; however, this case (Antec Aero midi-ATX) is quite tight for space in some areas, which means that assembly is a staged process - some things have to go in before others, otherwise it won't fit. I got as far as the last stage in the process, which was the installation of the Hard Drive enclosure at the front of the case - when I found, much to my annoyance that no matter which way round I tried, the HDD's would not go in with the (very tall) Corsair memory modules installed. I looked at ways I could remove the heat spreaders from the modules, but knowing my luck I decided that the risk of damaging them was too great - bugger it! With a great deal of frustration I took the whole thing apart again and considered the possibilities of using another case, but the choices were limited; I had that old Dull Dimension thing that's (a) too heavy and (b) built explicitly for Dull-designed motherboards, so that was a no-brainer. My old AOpen case had been modded for the server mobo and other 'add-ons', so the only real choice was an old steel coolemaster ATX jobbie that used to house my old XP2700 setup - plenty of room there, so after a quick rub round with a rag I started all over again. This time it all went like clockwork - that extra little bit of space makes all the difference; I was able to lift the mobo more-or-less complete from the mATX case, and with a bit of transposition of the standoffs it went into the bigger case sweet as a nut. Half an hour later, after a couple of slices of Marmite on toast and a strong cup of Yorkshire tea, I was ready for the first light-up - sadly it wan't the immediate success I'd hoped for; despite the fact that the 2 terrabyte primary drive was to all intents and purposes as I left it before the last rig died, the BIOS refused to recognise it as a boot drive. After some messing around with the BIOS settings I remembered that a fresh install of W7 preserves an old installation - thanks, lads - so I decided to do a fresh install instead of buggering about. Couldn't believe how quickly W7 loaded on this one - partic'ly after the performance with Trev's bag o' shyte - and within 30 minutes I found myself doing the normal reconfiguration routine we all go through after a reload. So, apart from the fact that I've now got a full ATX system upstairs - which really isn't a big deal - I'm reasonably happy that although I've had a few setbacks, I got there in the end - not the best way to spend a day of your life, but at least I achieved what I set out to do! Tek care, folks.
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Post by Filly on Jun 17, 2013 14:06:17 GMT
Wendy Woo isn't married to Pecks by any chance is she?
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Post by johnnybee on Jun 17, 2013 20:52:40 GMT
Hehe! Nah, she's married to a lovely feller called Andy, who oddly enough works for my elder son Stewart at the JLR Expo facility at Whitley, just outside Coventry. They've got just the one nipper, Jacob, who's now nine; they wanted more, but sadly Woo was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthiritis at 23 so looking after the one is quite enough. She's still a sight more active than me, bless her - she's 40 next month!
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Post by johnnybee on Jul 10, 2013 0:11:10 GMT
Just as a PS to wind this one up, the Phenom system's still running fine, and with the addition of a nVidia 9600GT PCI-E graphics card I can now play FSx with all the bells and whistles turned up full blast. Another small addition is a dedicated PCI USB2 card, which has two internal sockets; as the case doesn't have provision for front USB outlets, I've connected the 3.5" fan control/USB combo to one of 'em, and used the other to take an 8Gb Kingston Datatraveller memory stick as a readyboost drive. So far so good - all hunkydory; however there's been another development, inasmuch that my NDN Dave realised that his Acer rig wasn't going to be worth a lot, so he's donated it to me as a thank-you for looking after his cars and his family's cars for the past thirty years! It's an early core duo system on an Intel board with 2Gb of DDR2 667MHz, so that's going into the bin - or maybe eBay as a bargain bundle - so I'm now looking for an AMD replacement; the Acer case is a really nice piece of kit, so I'm thinking something around the later 65 watt Athlon2 as a basis with a minimum of 8Gb of DDR3 to go with it. The trend towards tablets, handhelds, i-thingys and mobile superfones seems to have slowed quite a bit in the past few months - as I predicted - so a relatively cheap and cheerful desktop could become a better option for your verage inet user in the future. We'll see - meanwhile have a good week, folks!
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