what pc do you normally use

[barrys]

> My favorite is my old laptop, a OCZ 15" nvidia DIY.
Does this mean you built your own laptop? I guess I really have been out of the pc building for a while...

On the new Dell (i5-750/1333 FSB) I put in an SSD drive with a SandForce controller as a second boot drive running Win7 Pro. SandForce is a must on the SSDs unless you buy Intel. That thing boots in something like 10 seconds and most of that is BIOS POST from the mainboard and the RAID controller (I'm not using RAID). It loads IE faster than I can double click. So, no matter what, that's where all the storage technology is going. I work for a storage company, and in our industry SSD is the future.
I can't imagine how fast a linux PC would be running on a good SSD drive. That would be fun. I just still can't tollerate linux's UI for a desktop I run apps on. It's getting better, but it's just not there yet. And, in the end, it's all about the software... For general use running many different apps, Windows or Apple are the only viable options to me.

 

[barrys]

Just found this on DIY laptops:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/diy_notebooks/
Amazing... Thanks for the tip on that. I might try it...

 

[shane96ranger]

> My favorite is my old laptop, a OCZ 15" nvidia DIY.
Does this mean you built your own laptop? I guess I really have been out of the pc building for a while...

On the new Dell (i5-750/1333 FSB) I put in an SSD drive with a SandForce controller as a second boot drive running Win7 Pro. SandForce is a must on the SSDs unless you buy Intel. That thing boots in something like 10 seconds and most of that is BIOS POST from the mainboard and the RAID controller (I'm not using RAID). It loads IE faster than I can double click. So, no matter what, that's where all the storage technology is going. I work for a storage company, and in our industry SSD is the future.
I can't imagine how fast a linux PC would be running on a good SSD drive. That would be fun. I just still can't tollerate linux's UI for a desktop I run apps on. It's getting better, but it's just not there yet. And, in the end, it's all about the software... For general use running many different apps, Windows or Apple are the only viable options to me.

I didn't know anyone was selling solid state drives yet? I've often wondered why they didn't catch on a few years ago. Who is making them? The only drawback I can think of is it would be hard to recover data. I agree that the Linux UI is terrible, but I've only used older versions of RedHat and SuSe. I really got sick of the mounting and unmounting drives. I really have a low tolerance for nonsense, and to me that was BS to have to do that. I have a buddy that has Linux XP that he says looks and acts a lot like Windows XP. I've been thinking of getting a copy and putting it on my old IBM to mess around......no nonsense like though.

 

[barrys]

> didn't know anyone was selling solid state drives yet?
It's a big market now with many vendors. The best bang-for-the-buck SSD is the OCZ Vertex 2 or Agility 2 (must have the "2"). The SandForce controller they use is very compatible, reliable, and blazingly fast. Anything with the SandForce is fine though and other vendors are selling drives with that controller. The branded Intel drives are just as good but pricey.

 

[shane96ranger]

> didn't know anyone was selling solid state drives yet?
It's a big market now with many vendors. The best bang-for-the-buck SSD is the OCZ Vertex 2 or Agility 2 (must have the "2"). The SandForce controller they use is very compatible, reliable, and blazingly fast. Anything with the SandForce is fine though and other vendors are selling drives with that controller. The branded Intel drives are just as good but pricey.

What interface are they? I'm guessing you could just use SATA?

 

[barrys]

All the new ones are SATA. There are some PATA (IDE) ones out there, but they're way expensive and they suck. I had one teammate tell me the PATA one he tried performed worse than a traditional hard drive. You also have to be careful that your PC has 300mb/sec SATA and not the older 150mb/sec or you won't get the most out of a SandForce SSD. But, any SATA interface speed with an SSD will still be faster than a magnetic disk.

 

[shane96ranger]

All the new ones are SATA. There are some PATA (IDE) ones out there, but they're way expensive and they suck. I had one teammate tell me the PATA one he tried performed worse than a traditional hard drive. You also have to be careful that your PC has 300mb/sec SATA and not the older 150mb/sec or you won't get the most out of a SandForce SSD. But, any SATA interface speed with an SSD will still be faster than a magnetic disk.

My "Mommy Board" does 3gb/s. It's an ASUS M4A785-M. It has an ATI Radeon 4200 video on board which I am actually using for now. It's sharing 512mb of my 4GB of ram though, so I want to get a PCI-E video card for it (not that I notice the difference, I just hate the principal of shared memory). I really really like the HDMI out though. I love that I can play my movies that I have in AVI/MPEG/Mp4 on my big TV. I also know there's better technology, but this is what I can do for now. Like you said before, when you have kids you have to sacrifice....and this is one here =).

 

[barrys]

I should have been more clear on the SATA speed specs. In general, people refer to SATA I and SATA II. SATA I is 150 megabytes/sec which is about 1.5 gigabits/second.
SATA II is 300 megabytes/sec which about 3gigabits/second.
Here's the spec:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA
Anything sold in the past few years is going to have SATAII. SATA III (6 g bits/sec) is showing up on some new mommy boards. It's not likely you'll be able to take advantage of that since even the fastest SSDs are going to have a tough time saturating SATA II. And, you have to read the fine print on this (and USB 3.0). Usually you have to sacrifice video access speed to turn on the SATA III so then your PCI-Ex16 will actually only run at 8x. Depends what's important to you and what you can actually use.

 

[Jaymz9350]

My "Mommy Board" does 3gb/s. It's an ASUS M4A785-M. It has an ATI Radeon 4200 video on board which I am actually using for now. It's sharing 512mb of my 4GB of ram though, so I want to get a PCI-E video card for it (not that I notice the difference, I just hate the principal of shared memory). I really really like the HDMI out though. I love that I can play my movies that I have in AVI/MPEG/Mp4 on my big TV. I also know there's better technology, but this is what I can do for now. Like you said before, when you have kids you have to sacrifice....and this is one here =).

Are you using a 64 bit OS? if not you'll loose the the memory anywasy even with an add on card. And most of todays cards even the low end have hdmi with sound (ati's for sure do and I think the newer nvidias as well) so you'll still have that.

 

[barrys]

> Are you using a 64 bit OS? if not you'll loose the the memory anywasy even with an add on card.

Please explain...

 

[Jaymz9350]

> Are you using a 64 bit OS? if not you'll loose the the memory anywasy even with an add on card.

Please explain...

if it's a 32bit OS it can only address 4gig total including the vid RAM. so if he buys a 512 MB video card he looses the 512MB of system RAM just like with the shared memory he currently has.

 

[shane96ranger]

if it's a 32bit OS it can only address 4gig total including the vid RAM. so if he buys a 512 MB video card he looses the 512MB of system RAM just like with the shared memory he currently has.

Not sure I understand what you mean either. If the card has it's own memory, why would it use my ram still? Otherwise, what would the point be in ever putting ram on board with the video card?

EDIT: I just re-read that. Why would MS do something so lame?

 

[Jaymz9350]

EDIT: I just re-read that. Why would MS do something so lame?

It's not Microsoft, it's the limitations of 32bit architecture would be the same on Linux or OSX.

 

[shane96ranger]

It's not Microsoft, it's the limitations of 32bit architecture would be the same on Linux or OSX.

See, you learn something new everyday. This sounds like something my dumb ass Operating Systems teacher at ITT should have taught us.

 

[AllanD]

Once you replace the lowest bidder crap on an OEM you have basically a "hand rolled PC". Aside from the often cheap motherboards and power supplies they use the same components.

Also the second biggest problem I've had is with the pre-bundled OS. If you wipe that also and do a fresh install without their crap it works great.

So after wiping their crap bloat filled OS and replace their cheap components what exactly makes them more stable or reliable than a "hand rolled system"?

Refresh in your brain that I said "Buisness Desktop" which are typically computers that are LEASED in bulk to corporate clients who have even less of a sense of humor than your typical protection detail officer in the united states secret service.

Just because your homerolled pride & joy seems stable doesn't mean it is...

How many times have you had a minor "clitch" that went away when you closed all your applications and rebooted?

I've gone MONTHS without rebooting. (or shutting down!)

THAT is stable.

Now I should also point out that there's a world of difference between a $300 WalMart Special, a $500-700 computer you bought from Staples or Best-Buy
and the powed desktop workstation computer that come corporation bought
starting with a high end "Power workstation" computer with a base price is $2200 and before they added another grand woth of optional upgrades onto it...

And when those computers come off lease or (if the customer bought them) they literally get dumped on the market for pennies on the dollar.

Like the D5000T I'm supposed to be getting, it's scacely two years old
and while yes, I could buiild/buy something that would out perform it I'd be hard pressed to do so for less than four times what I'm paying for it.

And unless you are a hard core gamer why would anyone care?

You DO NOT need a cutting edge lightspeed computer to post here on TRS, surf ebay or rip and compress audio files off that new Disturbed CD
(presuming like me you still insist that music you buy comes as a physical artifact)

BTW, the big manufacturs buy their MoBo's from Asus, Gigabyte and Intel too... my likely next computer is an HP D5000T and that MoBo is actually mfg'd by Asus, but since the MoBo identifies itself as an HP I can get
drivers, firmware and BIOS updates from HP...

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