Mark Breen
marklbreen at gmail.com
Tue Jun 14 08:43:23 CDT 2011
Hi Rocky All Mr Colbys suggestions are super. If you want another more simple measurement, simply ignore the brand of proc, and just pick a price point USD 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 200, 240 ... for all these prices there is a proc to match, and more or less corresponding performance. Also, there is a m/b to match the proc, and as always in life, there is a cheap board to match the cheap proc, and the same for the high end stuff. I built two lovely little machines with AMD proc and m/b, fun to build and no enormous investment if it went wrong. AMD have a one core proc, but for the sake of about $5, you may as well start with a dual core AMD for about $45 - $50. Many sites think that the i7 proc from Intel is the current best performance, and the i7 950 is not so expensive now (approx $190) Windows will not care which brand you go with. Building the machine is like Mecana, it is not only about the finished product, it is the process. Remember*, "Jedi Warriors build their own light sabres"* :) Mark On 13 June 2011 21:58, Rocky Smolin <rockysmolin at bchacc.com> wrote: > So what's the processor of choice? > > Rocky > > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby > Sent: Monday, June 13, 2011 10:22 AM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp > > I concur with John too! ;) > > I know that for folks who have never built a machine it is scary but once > you get over that (unless something goes wrong... it is trivial to build) > the ability to upgrade and the future lack of fear makes it well worth > doing. > > I routinely upgrade my existing systems. Dual core to quad, to hex, 2 gigs > to 4 to 8, 320g hd to tbyte etc. It costs waaaaaay less that buying a > whole > new machine and you can continually have fast systems instead of systems > that are always old / slow (after the first year you have them). > > I built a dual socket server with 16 dim slots. > > I populated one side with the old opteron 8 core and 32 gigs of ram. The > mb/proc/memory was around $1700. I am (im)patiently waiting for the > bulldozer chip to arrive and drop in price, but when it does I can drop in > one or two of those chips and bump my server from 8 cores to as many as 32, > with faster processors to boot and update my memory up to 128 gigs as well. > > I can't even tell you how much I saved by not going the dell/hp route, but > it would be at *least* > 3-4 times as much and 4-5 times as much for future upgrades. > > And... I used my old server hardware to build a Virtual Machine server. I > got a 16GB quad core VM for *free* because I reused my old SQL Server > hardware for that after the upgrade. > > BTW I am using SSDs both for boot drives as well as for storing database > files for SQL Server and they are awesome (if expensive). > > John W. Colby > www.ColbyConsulting.com > > On 6/13/2011 12:22 PM, Drew Wutka wrote: > > I concur with John here. From a business standpoint, if you are > > supporting a large network, you can't afford to build each machine. > > But in a single or only a few environment, you will get better prices > > with building your own machine, then a single purchase from a > > manufacturer like Dell. > > > > The machine I built in January, that I posted about on OT, cost me > > about a grand, and similar hardware, actually.... lower level hardware > > (my machine has more ram and bigger hard drives), cost about 1,600 > > from Dell. > > > > Originally, the machine I built only cost $650. That was the case, > > the motherboard, an i5 Quad Core, 8 gigs of RAM, video card, and two > > 500 gig hard drives. I already had a 500 watt power supply, only > > component I didn't originally buy. A few days later I bought three > > terabyte drives, > > 8 gigs more of RAM (maxing out that motherboard). That was almost $300. > > And more recently I popped another terabyte drive in (making my 'data' > > drive a RAID 10, vs a RAID 5), bought a new 850 Watt power supply, and > > a nice UPS (put the total closer to 1300, the ups was almost 200). > > > > There has already been suggestions to use a SSD OS drive, I personally > > have not done that. The mirrored drives for the OS are pretty fast. > > While SSD drive are definitely faster than their mechanical > > counterparts, they are still limited by the bus they operate on. > > Plus, SSD drives do have longevity issues, and are not recommended for > RAID's. > > I always prefer RAIDS for safety reasons.... ;) > > > > Drew > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of jwcolby > > Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 12:12 PM > > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > > Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Shopping for a new comp > > > > I would advise building your own. You may or may not save money but > > you learn what is required to do so (it is easy) and you are no longer > > afraid of digging in and upgrading. I have not purchased a desktop > > since 1988. I build my own and upgrade them to keep them fast enough. > > > > I recommend AMD because the motherboards tend to be usable for many > > years with just a processor upgrade. > > > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.6 > > 67 > > 457 > > > > > > Intel processors are fine but there are just too many different > > processor sockets etc. Upgrading to a faster processor may or may not > > even be possible. > > > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.6 > > 61 > > 393 > > > > http://www.newegg.com/Store/MasterComboStore.aspx?StoreID=7&name=DIY-P > > C- > > Combos > > > > John W. Colby > > www.ColbyConsulting.com > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com >