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My next PC, I need ideas


Richard McLellan 1041084
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Richard McLellan 1041084
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I would like some input from the techy members. When I can upgrade, what should I go for?

 

I was thinking about trying to get hold of a dual processor m/b for P4's at 3.4Ghz.

Should I go for 64 bit instead? Which ones can be overclocked? I am after as much speed as possible.

 

What graphics card? Again this has to be fast.

Is 2Gb ram enough? I have Xp Pro waiting to be used.

 

Your ideas and input are welcome.

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Keith Smith
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Core duo 2.66Ghz is overclockable to 3.2 and beyond. Or, you could get the 3.0Ghz model and OC that.

 

Geforce 8800GT is an excellent card for the money. You could wait for the Rev 2 of the 8800GTS, which will beat the 8800GT (right now the GT is faster than the rev 1 GTS, something NVidia doesn't normally do).

 

You can spend much more on an 8800 GTX or Ultra, but I don't think the value for money is there. 2GB is generally good enough.

 

What little I've read indicates that 64-bit doesn't see much gain (if any) for the apps as they are currently written.

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Robert Gilbert 1040898
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Richard McLellan 1041084
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This is why I asked. I am not entirely convinced of 64 bit due to Vista being a complete pig. It is in my opinion nothing more than bloatware with many many issues to be resolved. This is why I am still with the idea of sourcing a dual processor m/b for the fastest Pentium 4's. This would work great with XP pro as that can manage 2 chips.

 

MS should have got XP64 working before they launched Vista.

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Robert Gilbert 1040898
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That's what happens when you try to trump the competition while not having all your ducks in a row. I usually watch the new stuff pretty close before I make a move to make a radical upgrade. I had a really strange problem to confront when I built this last PC. I bought an Antec case but not one of their power supplies (cheap one, saving money). About a month after I started using it I smoked the power supply. I went to the local computer store and bought an Antec Neo 550 watt power supply. I am running an Asus P5ND2-SLI deluxe board. It would not boot up, and since I had smoked the PS I thought something else was the problem. replaced the MB and the Processor before an Asus tech asked what power supply I was using. Seems there was some sort of conflict with the early model Antec PS's and the MB I was using. About three weeks of "now what " So I guess looking at componant compatibility is something to be aware of.

 

Bob G.

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Luke Kolin
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This is why I asked. I am not entirely convinced of 64 bit due to Vista being a complete pig.

 

Vista and 64-bitness are completely orthogonal. There are 32 and 64-bit versions of Vista, just like there are 32 and 64-bit versions of XP. Most of my production code at my job runs in a 64-bit ecosystem (albeit not Windows) without issues. In fact, the data sets are so large it cannot run in a 32-bit address space.

 

This is why I am still with the idea of sourcing a dual processor m/b for the fastest Pentium 4's. This would work great with XP pro as that can manage 2 chips.

 

Pentium 4s (especially the Prescott cores), compared to the Core 2 family achieve the dubious distinction of generating twice as much heat with half the performance. Anyone with even a bottom-end Core2 Allendale will probably be able to run circles around your rig. You should also be aware that the late-model Pentium 4s (the Prescotts, again) are 64-bit chips as well.

 

MS should have got XP64 working before they launched Vista.

 

By all accounts, XP64 works pretty well. Driver support is rather spotty, but that's not really Microsoft's fault.

 

Cheers!

 

Luke

... I spawn hundreds of children a day. They are daemons because they are easier to kill. The first four remain stubbornly alive despite my (and their) best efforts.

... Normal in my household makes you a member of a visible minority.

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