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Old 3rd May 2009
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Default Building a New System, Ideas

My Dell Optiplex GX620 is proving to be rather slow for my needs, so I'm planning on building a new system. I intended on going for Core i7, but that's too expensive. I've listed the configuration below. Please let me know what you think.

Uses:
- FreeBSD 7-STABLE/8-CURRENT (not sure)
- General multimedia (music, videos, ripping, converting, etc.)
- File sharing/hosting/server
- Print server
- General development
- Matlab
- Desktop tasks (word processing, internet, etc.)

Configuration:
- Apevia X-QBOII MicroATX case w/ 500W PSU
- LG 22X DVD +/- RW Dual Layer LightScribe
- (2 sets for total of 8 GB) 2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-800
- Intel G45 Micro Motherboard w/ X4500HD Graphics
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
- Seagate 500GB SATA II HDD
Price: ~$650

Do the Intel drivers support the X4500HD including accelerated 3d?
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Old 3rd May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatux View Post
Do the Intel drivers support the X4500HD including accelerated 3d?
I don't think so. I'd love to be proven wrong.
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Old 3rd May 2009
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Quote:
- Print server
I would propably buy a network printer here and attach it to my router.

Quote:
- Apevia X-QBOII MicroATX case w/ 500W PSU
What is its efficency?

Get PSU with as high efficency as possible, I would go for 400-450W with 85%+ for this box, check PSUs from here: http://80plus.com/manu/psu/psu_join.aspx

Quote:
- LG 22X DVD +/- RW Dual Layer LightScribe
I also have LG DVDRW, never had any issues with them.

Quote:
- (2 sets for total of 8 GB) 2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-800
Better get 2 x 4GB instead of 4 x 2GB - 2 times lower power usage.

Quote:
- Intel G45 Micro Motherboard w/ X4500HD Graphics
I would try Q45/Q35 for lower power usage, but G45 should also be ok here.

Quote:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Get the low power 'S' version, its 65W TDP instead of 95W:
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets...oc.aspx?i=3505

Maybe e8600 will be better idea here, most things should be working faster with faster 2 cores (3.3) instead of slower 4 cores (2.8), and again, lower power usage ;p
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu...0_4.html#sect0

Quote:
- Seagate 500GB SATA II HDD
Stay away from Seagate, you drive will die in notime, also Seagates have too high Random Acces time, get WD Black or WD RE3 for speed and/or Green Edition for storage.
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Old 4th May 2009
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I would buy an AMD Phenom II X4 or X3, while they can't beat the i7, they offer good competition for the Intel Core 2 -- And are cheaper too!

The Asus M3N-HD is a nice mainboard with good onboard graphics performance.
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Old 4th May 2009
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The AMD system is about $70 cheaper. I'd rather get the better system than the cheaper but comparable at this point, so I can stretch it out a little longer. Also, the MicroATX boards for AMD suck.
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Old 4th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatux View Post
The AMD system is about $70 cheaper. I'd rather get the better system than the cheaper but comparable at this point, so I can stretch it out a little longer. Also, the MicroATX boards for AMD suck.
With new 45nm AMD's tripple core Phenom X3 you can enable the 4th core using ACC (SB750 south bridge):
http://techpowerup.com/86100/Phenom_...om_II_X4?.html

Also latest 65nm Athlon X2 can be upgraded to quad core using the same method:
http://bios.techpowerup.com/92330/At...Quad-Core.html

780G/790GX are great chipsets with great graphics and also low power consupmtion, but you will be limited to 2D with RadeonHD driver for some perios of time (propably about a year).
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Old 4th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by vermaden View Post
With new 45nm AMD's tripple core Phenom X3 you can enable the 4th core using ACC (SB750 south bridge):
http://techpowerup.com/86100/Phenom_...om_II_X4?.html
Also latest 65nm Athlon X2 can be upgraded to quad core using the same method:
http://bios.techpowerup.com/92330/At...Quad-Core.html
The X3 CPU's are X4 CPU's where a (small) defect was found in one of the cores, this core is disabled and the CPU is sold as an X3.
So yes, you can re-enable the fourth core, but if you have even the slightest care about stability, you will leave the fourth core disabled.
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Old 4th May 2009
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I like to run everything stock. I don't like to overclock or mod at all.
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Old 4th May 2009
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That depends on the exact cpu you get imho, some are bad, some dont. Its just cheaper for AMD to do maintain only 1 line of quad cores and then brand them as they want instead of creating 3 lines of 2, 3 and 4 core cpus.

Also if they upgrade the microcode/instructions on the quad core, upgrades are automatically done in x3 and x2 as well 'for free'.
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You don't know what's wrong with the fourth core, maybe it's a subtle flaw that might not make the core broken at first, but make it more prone to breaking, or it might have a subtle flaw that might only show up once every X calculations.

It's a gamble.
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Old 5th May 2009
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If I'm going to be limited to 2d, then I don't want it. I'm also not willing to spend on a graphics card.
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I've reconfigured the system. The configuration now is:

Antec Mini P180 Black Computer Case
MSI G45M W/ X4500HD Graphics --> The Q45 is lacking certain features.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W
(2) Crucial Ballistix 2x2GB DDR2-800 --> The 2x4GB kits are ridiculously expensive.
LG 22x DVD +/- RW Dual Layer Lighscribe
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Western Digital 500GB SATA II
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Old 16th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ninjatux View Post
I've reconfigured the system. The configuration now is:

Antec Mini P180 Black Computer Case
MSI G45M W/ X4500HD Graphics --> The Q45 is lacking certain features.
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500W
(2) Crucial Ballistix 2x2GB DDR2-800 --> The 2x4GB kits are ridiculously expensive.
LG 22x DVD +/- RW Dual Layer Lighscribe
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
Western Digital 500GB SATA II
So, what did you come up with for a final price?

-Tim
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Old 16th May 2009
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I also bought a new system ...

AOpen G528 casing
Asus M2N68-CM
AMD Phenom II X4 920
4x 2GB 800MHz Kingston RAM
2x 500GB WD Caviar RE3 (gmirror RAID-1)
SeaSonic S12II-500
Intel PWLA8391GT NIC

Seagate 80GB and 400GB hard disk migrated from my old system.

Total cost about 520 euro ... I bought the CPU on ebay for 140 euro (New in box, sealed), the rest is new ...

The CPU is so fast, this system is replacing a PIII 800, I was used to getting coffee with cookies when building a port ... Now it's done before I can get out of the chair
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Old 16th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
The CPU is so fast, this system is replacing a PIII 800, I was used to getting coffee with cookies when building a port ... Now it's done before I can get out of the chair
Congratulations, CS!

The jump from your PIII to this one is huge, as you mention. I built a box for scottro some time ago that has a 3GHz Q6600 in it. Damn, that thing is fast. My dual Athlon (old style) builds world in about 45 minutes; his takes about 12 minutes. The extra cores help, but that is still twice the raw speed. His is also nearly silent. which takes a bit of work.

I'll probably put together an i7 system in a few months to replace this old workhorse. It is fine in most ways, but building things is rather tedious if you use source as I do.
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Old 17th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
The CPU is so fast, this system is replacing a PIII 800, I was used to getting coffee with cookies when building a port ...
When I upgraded my desktop to a p4 2.4ghz from a p3 500mhz port compilation times dropped by 4x. I think you got yourself almost a 25x increase in compute power (throughput).
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Old 17th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
The CPU is so fast, this system is replacing a PIII 800, I was used to getting coffee with cookies when building a port ... Now it's done before I can get out of the chair
I got the same feeling when I swapped from dual Athlon XP to Intel Q6600.

BTW, why GeForce 7050 / nForce 630a based instead of, for example AMD's 780G?
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Old 17th May 2009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
I also bought a new system ...

AOpen G528 casing
Asus M2N68-CM
AMD Phenom II X4 920
4x 2GB 800MHz Kingston RAM
2x 500GB WD Caviar RE3 (gmirror RAID-1)
SeaSonic S12II-500
Intel PWLA8391GT NIC

Seagate 80GB and 400GB hard disk migrated from my old system.

Total cost about 520 euro ... I bought the CPU on ebay for 140 euro (New in box, sealed), the rest is new ...

The CPU is so fast, this system is replacing a PIII 800, I was used to getting coffee with cookies when building a port ... Now it's done before I can get out of the chair
I was interested because I am a reseller here in the US. It looks like your price is pretty much what I would have been able to build it here in the US for. Too bad the VAT would probably kill any competitive bid I could give you guys as I do ship to most international destinations (except Nigeria and the like).

Like you, I still like my AMD and I am a channel partner. The Opterons seem better to me than the Phenom though. Most of my servers are running dual core or quad core Opterons. Way more power than I need even for virtualization.

-Tim
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Old 20th May 2009
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Like you, I still like my AMD and I am a channel partner. The Opterons seem better to me than the Phenom though. Most of my servers are running dual core or quad core Opterons. Way more power than I need even for virtualization.
I looked at Opteron too, but that would be much more expensive. The CPU is more expensive but I would also need to but a much more expansive mainboard.
This system is more than powerful enough for my purposes, I used a PIII800 and it (more or less) worked fine ...

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Originally Posted by vermaden View Post
BTW, why GeForce 7050 / nForce 630a based instead of, for example AMD's 780G?
Because this was a nice mainboard for a nice price ... Usually the chipset doesn't matter that much (Depending on what you do with the system ...).
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Old 20th May 2009
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So, the Core i7 system was coming close to $900. I figured that for longevity, I'd rather just go for a Nehalem Xeon system instead. I hope to get this by the end of the summer.

Cooler Master Cosmos
Sparkle Nvidia GeForce 9400GT
PC Power & Cooling 610W PSU
OCZ Gold 3x2GB 6GB TriChannel DDR3-1600
ASUS Z8NA-D6C Dual LGA-1366 Motherboard
Intel Xeon E5504 2.0 GHz 80W
LG BD/HD Reader DVD+/-RW Burner
Western Digital Caviar 500GB SATA 300
Price: ~$1000
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