The computer and electronics super geek thread

[Dante74]

In order to make things easier when making recommendations for a new system, in the future, please include answers to these questions if you want a recommendation. Feel free to add additional details where applicable.

"Recommend me a system" questionnaire (answer questions in the section that applies)

Laptops

1) What is the intended usage of this system? (ex. Internet/Email/Office/Pictures/Movies/Gaming/Server/CAD/Media Center/etc.)

2) What operating system will you use? (ex. Windows/Mac OS/Linux/etc.)

3) How much are you planning to spend or What is your intended budget for this system?

4) How big of a screen size or How important is the screen size?

5) Do you intend to use an external display/monitor?

6) Do you intend on traveling with the laptop or will the system remain stationary?

7) How important is the battery life or How much usage do you expect on battery only?

Desktops and Servers

1) What is the intended usage of this system? (ex. Internet/Email/Office/Pictures/Movies/Gaming/Server/CAD/Media Center/etc.)

2) What operating system will you use? (ex. Windows/Mac OS/Linux/etc.)

3) How much are you planning to spend or what is your intended budget for this system?

4) Do you intend to buy a pre-built or a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) system?

Old thread got moved to the Hall of Super Topics.

As promised here's some pics of my new rig.

Good thing I got 8 Gigs of RAM in there. I already got it up to 4.4 Gigs of memory usage last week just using Photoshop.

It's surprisingly quiet too, thank goodness!

[Duke Togo]

Your cabling makes the Baby Jesus cry.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Duke Togo

[Dante74]

You cabling makes the Baby Jesus cry.

You're only seeing a small portion of them too. Half the cables are hidden away behind behind the MB on the right side of the case..

Can't be helped though, 4 HDD's require a lot of cables. Maybe I'll try to tie them together a bit.

[emajnthis]

that's friggin awesome, makes me wish i had money for a new rig.

[Uxi]

I don't think it's the amount of cables it's the management (or lack thereof).

[Beltane70]

The system looks pretty awesome, Dante!

The cable management looks better than it does in my system!

[Dante74]

Thanks guys! Actually, untill Duke brought it up, I didn't even know there was such a thing as 'cable management'. In fact, the company I bought the system from put it together for me. I tend not to look at the insides of my computer, I look at the screen mostly.

BTW: For those of you that do 3D work, get one of these. You'll never have to look at a 'zoom extents' or "zoom orbit' button again. And it does wonders in Google Earth.

Edited November 2, 2008 by Dante74

[akt_m]

Why would you need to make things look pretty inside of the computer if it remains closed and unseen most of the time???

[David Hingtgen]

Heat/airflow/noise. Get the cables out of the way and everything gets better airflow, and thus runs cooler and quieter. Especially true for CPU/GPU----if there's a lot of cables in the way, blocking airflow to their heatsinks, they WILL run hotter and run up their fans more often, shortening their life.

[Dante74]

Heat/airflow/noise. Get the cables out of the way and everything gets better airflow, and thus runs cooler and quieter. Especially true for CPU/GPU----if there's a lot of cables in the way, blocking airflow to their heatsinks, they WILL run hotter and run up their fans more often, shortening their life.

Really? I'll go get some Tie-wrap then. Thank for the advice!

[David Hingtgen]

And especially with 4 hard drives---hard drives usually have no heatsink or fan, they only cool themselves by the air flowing around that's being driven by other part's fans---and if there's a ton of cables surrounding them, you're blocking their only means of cooling.

[Dante74]

The hard drive's are fine. They're in a seperate sort of cage which is being cooled by its own fan. The system drive is a 150 Gb Raptor. It's a 2,5" drive which is put in an enclosure for added cooling which also brings down the noise it produces.

Link to Cosmos S case.

Link to HDD enclosure

[Dante74]

Here's another pic of the insides of my system. More then enough cooling AFAIC. All fans run slow and quiet.

[David Hingtgen]

Ah, you've got a hard drive enclosure fan. (my case can do that, but I only have one HDD and it's suspended, so it has lots of space/air around it)

And a "bottom-mounted power supply". (many of the cases I was looking at had it, but I went with a traditional setup)

[Agent-GHQ]

And here I'm thinking of moving to a Mac. A MAC Pro. But after seeing yours, man I'm impress!!

Edited November 3, 2008 by Agent-GHQ

[emajnthis]

With the close up pick it's pretty obvious you don't need any cable management, all of the hot bits are away from the cables and have appropriate air flow, you need to get me a job with your company so they can "sponsor" my next computer purchase.

[azrael]

That intake fan at the top should be an out-take. Heat rises...And if the 20" fan is doing intake, then you seriously need to point that top fan in the opposite direction.

[Dante74]

That intake fan at the top should be an out-take. Heat rises...And if the 20" fan is doing intake, then you seriously need to point that top fan in the opposite direction.

You're right. I'll check as soon as I get home from work.

@emajnthis: I think the daily comute would be a bit of a problem.

[myk]

Well, I'll never put together a rig like Dante's, but I'll just live without. Nice system though!

Anyway, I'm playing with the idea of building another system, but it's been a few years since I've done so and I have to admit I'm a little lost.

To begin with, what's the story on Pentium processors these days? I don't get the whole dual core, core 2, core 2 duo, quad core names for the current processors. I'm not looking for performance 'specs, rather just what processor would be adequate for respectable performance without having to take out a loan. Also, why are the processing speeds lower than what they used to be during the non dual core processor days? For example, I'm running a 3.4ghz Pentium, but I'm guessing my CPU isn't as efficient as the dual core ones that run at much lower frequencies (?).

Secondly, with the processor I'd have to pick out another 'mobo; suffice to say I'm not sure what to look for, other than PCI-E for a video card and SATA. Is RAID something I should set up? I've been told that RAID doesn't necessarily guarantee substantial performance gains so I'm not sure about that either. Speaking of video cards, should I SLI or not? Seems like a neat gimmick but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

I can't think of anything else to ask right now. I should state that I'm looking for mid-grade, respectable performance out of my system, with a slight nod to graphics capabilities. My current system: 3.4ghz, 2g's of RAM, 8600 GT, 75g Raptor, and I've always been able to play the latest games (up to COD4) on high settings without any problems at all. Any opinions or advice is greatly appreciated...

[Dante74]

If your current system can still handle games like COD4, I'd say it still is on par with today's mid-range PC's. I'd consider waiting another year and get a i7 based system when prices go down. i7 (or Nehalem) is Intell's latest processor which, supposedly, is a major step forward and it can take full advantage of DDR3 memory.

[Duke Togo]

That intake fan at the top should be an out-take. Heat rises...And if the 20" fan is doing intake, then you seriously need to point that top fan in the opposite direction.

Might be able to take it out all together, really. I'm down to two 120mm case fans these days, and they do very well.

[mikeszekely]

Man, these Core i7 benchmarks make me want to replace my barely six-month old Wolfdale and mobo. The 920 (which I think is the low-end i7) looks like 20-30% better performance over the E8600... and I got an E8400.

[azrael]

To begin with, what's the story on Pentium processors these days? I don't get the whole dual core, core 2, core 2 duo, quad core names for the current processors. I'm not looking for performance 'specs, rather just what processor would be adequate for respectable performance without having to take out a loan. Also, why are the processing speeds lower than what they used to be during the non dual core processor days? For example, I'm running a 3.4ghz Pentium, but I'm guessing my CPU isn't as efficient as the dual core ones that run at much lower frequencies (?).

The Core i7s are looking to be fairly pricey. ~$300 for their lower end. Regardless, you should look at multi-core processors. There will be more software out there that will take advantage of it.

Secondly, with the processor I'd have to pick out another 'mobo; suffice to say I'm not sure what to look for, other than PCI-E for a video card and SATA. Is RAID something I should set up? I've been told that RAID doesn't necessarily guarantee substantial performance gains so I'm not sure about that either. Speaking of video cards, should I SLI or not? Seems like a neat gimmick but I'm not sure if it's necessary.

Depends on what you want to use RAID for. Do you wish to do RAID 0, 1, 10/0+1, 5, etc...? SLI is nice, but most with cards becoming better every quarter, it might better to wait for a better card.

I can't think of anything else to ask right now. I should state that I'm looking for mid-grade, respectable performance out of my system, with a slight nod to graphics capabilities. My current system: 3.4ghz, 2g's of RAM, 8600 GT, 75g Raptor, and I've always been able to play the latest games (up to COD4) on high settings without any problems at all. Any opinions or advice is greatly appreciated...

If your system can run COD4, then you can afford to wait a little more.

[myk]

Thanks for the input, guys. Yeah, this thing I built over 3 year ago has no problem with COD4 on high settings so I guess I can wait a bit. Maybe I'll try and buy a game like Crysis or something to distract myself.

As for RAID, I guess I'm not really sure what that multiple drive stuff is about, as well as the corresponding numbering that goes with it. As I said, there have been some that have told me that RAID doesn't guarantee a performance increase, but it does sound interesting.

In regards to the v-cards, I don't see why a single 9800 GTX isn't just as good as 2 8600 GT's in SLI mode. I guess it looks cooler? I dunno.

If anyone has a 'mobo and CPU preference, as well as configurational recommendations, like the RAID, SLI, etc, please throw it out there for me so I can mull over some ideas...

[azrael]

If anyone has a 'mobo and CPU preference, as well as configurational recommendations, like the RAID, SLI, etc, please throw it out there for me so I can mull over some ideas...

Depends on what you plan on doing with it. I can shoot for cheap-and-won't break a budget-deal, or I can go with blow-your-wallet. It also helps to know how much you actually intend to spend on it.

[Dante74]

That intake fan at the top should be an out-take. Heat rises...And if the 20" fan is doing intake, then you seriously need to point that top fan in the opposite direction.

Just checked the top fan. It's an out-take fan afterall. Only the big 20 cm fan is intake.

[taksraven]

Is this still the type of thread that you don't take home to motha?

Bring back that subtitle, an excellent play on words.

Taksraven

[vermillion01]

cute gundam usb drive

[taksraven]

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00101100 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110000 01100101 01110010 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 00101100 00100000 01101001 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110111 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01101101 01110101 01101110 01101001 01100011 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00111111

01010100 01100001 01101011 01110011 01110010 01100001 01110110 01100101 01101110

[Morpheus]

Hi all, I'm currently using Winamp v5.52 on my laptop, however I notice sometimes winamp.exe took around 60%-80% CPU which not right. I already went to Winamp forum and tried the troubleshooting there in order to reduce the CPU usage, however it still doesn't work for me.

So I want to change Winamp to another player which are easier to use, anyone got a suggestion?

PS: Will you buy a PC from this store?

Cheap PC

Edited November 10, 2008 by Morpheus

[VF-19]

Hi all, I'm currently using Winamp v5.52 on my laptop, however I notice sometimes winamp.exe took around 60%-80% CPU which not right. I already went to Winamp forum and tried the troubleshooting there in order to reduce the CPU usage, however it still doesn't work for me.

So I want to change Winamp to another player which are easier to use, anyone got a suggestion?

PS: Will you buy a PC from this store?

Cheap PC

Well, I would. After all, the BSOD is only from one PC...

[Chowser]

looking to upgrade the video card in my computer before I give it to my son for school/college.

it's only got a 375W power supply, so I wasn't really looking to do that big of an upgrade. (yeah, Dell power supplies suck)

it's currently got a GeForce 7900 GS with 256MB Ram. (this is what it came with in 2007)

I was looking at replacing it with this

Radeon 3870

I don't think it'll overtax the power supply. The computer is:

Dell XPS410

2.4GHz Core 2 Duo

2GB Ram

Vista Home Premium

500 gb HD (Raid 0?)

2 DVD burners

nothing else attached. There's plenty of room in the case as the only card inserted in there now is the 7900GS. His montior will actually be my old 32" Sharp LCD hooked up by HDMI hopefully. If not, he can have the 22" Dell LCD and I'll buy myself another monitor.

Will he notice any improvements with the 3870 card, or should I just leave him with the 7900 GS. The 7900GS was good enough for me when I played Oblivion and Crysis (medium settings only), but since I built my own computer with two 9800GTX SLI'd, I'm pretty much spoiled.

I don't want to replace the power supply since I still have some warranty left in the stupid thing (work made me buy it since they paid for half of the system) If anything happens, I can swap out the video cards before the tech gets here)

[lechuck]

Chowser, I think you are being a bit to harsh on the dell power supply.

I've got a dimension 9100 using the same PSU with a Geforce 8800 GTS (first iteration) hooked up and can say that I've never had any problems. I think Dell probably just underrates the PSU to cover their butts.

I'd say you can go ahead and update the graphics card. Or if you are still not sure, then try do a search on the Dell forums.

Might come up with something more conclusive.

Edited November 14, 2008 by lechuck

[Chowser]

yeah, i know i'm a bit harsh on the power supply, i just can't seem to get registered on the Dell Community to ask questions.

I've had no problems with either of my Dells, they're tough and they work great.

If you're having no problems with the 8800, then I guess I'll spring for a 9800 for him since they're running around the same cost as the 3870.

one of these I guess:

XFX

EVGA

MSI

here, found an old pic (don't really feel like going digging the XPS out of the desk again until I'm ready to swap cards)

Edited November 14, 2008 by Chowser

[mikeszekely]

yeah, i know i'm a bit harsh on the power supply, i just can't seem to get registered on the Dell Community to ask questions.

I've had no problems with either of my Dells, they're tough and they work great.

If you're having no problems with the 8800, then I guess I'll spring for a 9800 for him since they're running around the same cost as the 3870.

one of these I guess:

XFX

EVGA

MSI

Be ABSOLUTELY certain the card will fit. Get dimensions, and do some measuring. A friend of mine has a 3850 and he was quite shocked at the size. I have a 9800, and it dwarfs his 3850. In fact, my home-built computer sits in a mammoth Antec P182 full-size ATX case, and I had to remove one of the hard drive bays.

Also, check the power connectors on the card, and make sure the power supply has the necessary cabling. I've seen cards that require no dedicated power rail, some that use 4-pin, some that use 6-pin, and mine uses a pair of 4-pins.

Antec's website has a PSU calculator that'll tell you if your power supply is adequate for a certain setup. Without know exactly what kind of hardware you've got, but going by what you listed, I estimated you can use the 3870 and be sitting at about 300w. If you use the 9800, you'll be around 340w. So the PSU should hold up fine as long as you don't spring for something on the NVIDIA's GTX 2 line (although I don't recommend ATI's X48 series either, as that'd put you awfully close), providing the card can actually fit in your case.