John W. Colby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Tue Oct 19 10:19:13 CDT 2004
Building is always a good idea. You might not be able to put a new mb in that chassis (HP used to design their stuff to prevent that) but if you buy an inexpensive case you can use the drives and stuff from the old machine in your new machine. You already have a monitor / keyboard. The new motherboards have almost everything else. You can even find motherboards with a video chip on the mb. Good enough to get you by, perhaps forever. I just bought a state-of-the-art motherboard for $75 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-123-219&depa=0 an AMD Athlon64 2800 for $140 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-452&depa=0 512mb ram for about $70 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-219&depa=0 This MB required a video card so I used a low end ATI 9000 which ran $40. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-386&depa=0 And finally a very nice case (you can get them cheaper but this one will last) for $70 http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-122&depa=0 $400, your own drives and monitor and a little work gets you a STATE-OF-THE-ART system (well, except for the video which still is better than the eMachines), particularly if you are already planning on installing your own OS. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Contribute your unused CPU cycles to a good cause: http://folding.stanford.edu/ -----Original Message----- From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jon Tydda Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 10:23 AM To: 'Discussion of Hardware and Software issues' Subject: RE: [dba-Tech] Desktop recommendation Don't touch Celeron with a bargepole... A Celeron is basically a Pentium 3 or 4 with no onboard memory, this makes them VERY slow compared to the appropriate Pentium equivalent. No amount of memory on the motherboard will make up for this, and it'll feel sluggish a long time before you get round to wanting to replace it. The same goes for the 533 fsb... I know not everyone can afford the latest fastest things, but you really do notice the difference between 800 and 533. I'd also recommend a bare minimum of 512mb RAM, if not 1gb. Also, on these (I hesitate to use the word cheaper, but I can't think of a good alternative, less costlier maybe) pc's, they tend not to use the fastest hard drives etc... I have a HP thing on my desk here, with a 40gb Maxtor drive in it. I put in an extra 80gb drive, that's maybe 2 years old, and I've since installed HD Tune, and the two year old drive beats the pants off the brand new one for performance and features. Spend a little more than the bottom of the range and you'll notice the difference, or get someone who knows that they're doing to build it for you is my advice. Jon -----Original Message----- From: Joseph O'Connell [mailto:joconnell at indy.rr.com] Sent: 19 October 2004 14:45 To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues Subject: [dba-Tech] Desktop recommendation I am looking for hardware suggestions and comments. My primary development PC just lost its hard drive. The boot sector is bad so I cannot reformat it. The PC is about 4 years old, so instead of replacing the hard drive, I started lookin for "deals" on new computers. Office Depot has an emachine for $370 that includes: Celeron D Processor 330 (2.66GHz) 256MB DDR PC2700 memory 60 GB hard drive DVD-ROM/CD-RW 8-in-1 memory card reader 17" flat screen monitor For $100 the system can be upgraded to include Celeron D340 Processor (2.93GHz) 512 MB memory DVD-ROM and CD-RW >From the Intel web site, I learned that the processor includes 256KB L2 cache and 533 MHz Front Side Bus. Although this is not the fastest computer, it is quite a step up from the HP Pavillion 733GHz Pentium that it will be replacing. Does anyone have experience with emachine? What is the difference between Celeron and Pentium processors? This seems like a terrific deal, am I missing something? The operating system is Windows XP Home. I will replace it with Windows 2003 Terminal Server. Any suggestions on how to configure the hard drive? Multiple partitions? If yes, what should each contain? All suggestions/comments/ideas are greatly appreciated. Joe O'Connell _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com The information in this e-mail is confidential and may also be legally privileged. The contents are intended for recipient only and are subject to the legal notice available on request from : webmaster at alcontrol.co.uk ALcontrol Laboratories is a trading division of ALcontrol UK Limited. Registered Office: Templeborough House, Mill Close, Rotherham, S60 1BZ. Registered in England and Wales No 4057291 _______________________________________________ dba-Tech mailing list dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com