[dba-Tech] Desktop recommendation

Francisco Tapia fhtapia at gmail.com
Tue Oct 19 10:52:29 CDT 2004


WOOT!, 800mhz FSB wow... now that's speedy :D  I love my EpoX board. 
It has really been reliable. now to save some money for AMD64, which I
am planning on buying... I think by the time i can save for one, I may
be able to get the ones for dual core or who knows quad core support
:D


On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 11:19:13 -0400, John W. Colby
<jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com> wrote:
> 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
> 
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-- 
-Francisco
<a href="http://pcthis.blogspot.com">Pc This! pc news with out the jargon</a>



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