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Old 02-28-2006, 10:41 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Lightbulb Computer Specs 101
Computer Specs 101

Revision History
  • v1.00 Feb 2006 Initial draft
  • v1.01 Apr 2007 Major rewrite here

Contents
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 04-07-2007 at 08:12 AM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:41 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Preface
Thanks to some VIPs for giving me the push to finally do this, Ive been meaning to do this for the last few months, just seems like a big undertaking (in terms of maintanance). In any case, this stuff should hopefully be updated monthly.

As for pricing, while I will be trying to get the best price, that may not always be the case however look at it this way: if you can find a better price then great! The suggestions are only there as a baseline to compare to, I would expect people to do their own price searching and bargain hunting, the pricing here is only included as a guineline.

Due to the complexity for picking out systems for people all across the planet who may or many not have the same access as everyone else this guide will be broken down first by region and then by intent/budget, this way there is the least amount of scrolling around. Of course, once you do scroll down to the individual sections, it's still pretty messy but thats the price of catering to everyone.

Applicable to all sections:
  • I dont pick out peripherals like mice and keyboards and that silliness
  • I dont pick out monitors, speakers, printers, card readers either
  • I also dont pick out operating systems or software
  • So if you need these things, make sure you keep that in mind when picking the budget category.

When navigating to your prospective geographic region, the breakdown is into three groups
  • Work machines Machines in this bracket emphasis the processor, RAM and harddrive the most: the video subsystem is rarely a concern as most buyers for these serious machines will be looking to have their machines run 24x7 or to be able to do some statistical analysis or something to that effect rather than play games.
  • Play machines Machines in this bracket, short of going the PentiumM route (which generally will be more expensive as well as more finicky) will be an AMD dominated arena due to the performance/dollar ratio. The emphasis here will be the videocard, CPU and ram
  • General purpose machines Profiled as a family PC or one which literally is a multirole system: this machine will empgasise the same things as the play-machine except the videocard requirements will be toned down significantly (but more than allow the user to play when he/she wishes)


As for regionality, in particular, European readers, all prices have VAT included.
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 02-28-2006 at 11:11 PM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:46 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Section 01 - American Buyers
Where to Buy Stuff?
Here are some places you can start with
Categorical Reccomendations
  • Work Oriented machine
  • Play Oriented machine
  • General Purpose machine
__________________
ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:47 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Default -- American Buyers --
Work Machines
Budget: <500USDNot much to say here, got a 1GB dualcore box with 250GB 16MB cache harddrive; only thing that was compromised on was having onboard video. This however isnt an important consideration for a work machine so it is an acceptable loss for the raw value of the machine

Budget: <600USDUpping the budget allows us to jump to the PentiumD 820 as well as add a discrete videocard, again a hell of a deal for what you're getting

Budget: <700USDWith the budget here we can finally get a balanced system based on the Athlon64 X2. The A8R-MVP is an added bonus: flagship performance for a far-from-flagship price

Budget: <800USDHere we move to the X2-4200 and away from "included" (although decent) power supplies.

Budget: <900USDThe budget here now allows us to upgrade the harddrive as well as the RAM.

Budget: <1000USDThis is a very formidable workmachine: two 250GB high performance drives, a proven motherboard and CPU, 2GB of RAM and an excellent power supply. Realistically, after this machine we're just looking for ways to spend money (except when it comes to the later SMP machines)

Budget: <1100USDAlthough I am normally opposed to putting such a gaming oriented motherboard in a work system, this machine offers an extensive amount of support for infrastructure: twin RAID5 configurations and an obscene amount of HDD connectivity justify the motherboard switch

Budget: <1200USDThree 300GB drives (so ready for RAID5 configuration), an aftermarket cooler to allow the system to handle virtually any heat related issues that may (but probably wont) arise, this box will serve as a fairly robust data archival server if needed. Very good for people looking to do video processing and animation.

Bigger Budget?
Well short of a $2000 budget, not much really is going to be improved here without seriously unbalancing something. With the higher budget, we can finally move to a Opteron 2xx configuration for true SMP/SMT (ideally Opteron 265 or higher). To balance this out, a decent RAID5 and memory configuration are needed (explaining the cost). Throw in the cost of the eATX case and various controller cards, the prices will climb very quickly.
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 03-01-2006 at 09:47 AM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:48 PM   #5 (permalink)
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Default -- American Buyers --
Play Machines
Budget: <500USDHard drive and PSU were skimped (whithout compromising the system however) but this is a hell of a machine for the budget.

Budget: <600USDSurprisng what $100 can do, we improved the processor, motherboard, power supply and harddrive. This system here is a hell of a buy for the price!

Budget: <700USDTook a step back with a few components but this is a highly balanced dualcore gaming box.

Budget: <800USDWith an extra $100 we've upgraded the videocard and harddrive significantly as well as made a minor improvement to the motherboard

Budget: <900USDShuffling things around we've managed to get a X850XT into the box -- nothing to balk at.

Budget: <1000USDWith 1GB of RAM, a 7800GT and a dualcore X2 this spec is here to show you how much you're really should be paying when you buy from an OEM.

Budget: <1100USDThe extra $100 goes towards getting a non-combo motherboard with a solidly overclocked videocard as well as upgrading to 2GB of RAM

Budget: <1200USDA whole bunch of shuffling was done here to make room for the X1800XT but it fit

Budget: <1300USDSome shuffling was done but this is a fairly balanced box packing a X1900XT in it ... and unlike OEM boxes, this one doesnt cost more than a few small countries.

Budget: <1400USDAn upgrade in the HDD, RAM and the addition of a aftermarket cooler is what an extra $100 fetched us.

Budget: <1500USDThe extra $100 allows us to shuffled the harddrive configuration (for 200GB more space) around and improved the HSF
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 03-07-2006 at 11:47 PM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:48 PM   #6 (permalink)
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Default -- American Buyers --
Budget: <1600USDAdding an extra 100GB and upgradsing to a class leading power supply we're definitely approaching the maximal performance/price value point for this type of system

Budget: <1700USDFor a system that will easily cost you a few grand when bought from an OEM, this box packs a whallop of performance for it's price.

Bigger Budget?
Realistically after this point I'm essentially looking to spend money and it's not really for a few more budget steps that I can direct the system to a more balanced state (i.e., add a RAID5 infrastructure as well as upgrade the memory and then processor/motherboard)
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:49 PM   #7 (permalink)
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Default -- American Buyers --
General Purpose Machines
Budget: <500USDThis is a fairly well balanced and affordable box which should be able to tackle most things thrown at it whether it be straight up work, gaming or something in between

Budget: <600USDA dualcore gaming oriented rig for $600 .. there's not a lot to balk at here.

Budget: <700USDThe extra $100 goes a long way to upgrading both the CPU and the videocard.

Budget: <800USDHere we've shifted the entire platform over to an X2 based system

Budget: <900USDAs a general purpose machine the 7800GT will prolly be the best allaround card to suit the task in the videocard department for some while

Budget: <1000USDThe extra $100 allows us to upgrade the harddrive and CPU here.

Budget: <1100USDUpgrading to 2GB as well as tacking on an aftermarket cooling this machine is more than able to tackle virtually anything thrown at it

Budget: <1200USDDoing a bit of shuffling, you can get an extra 200GB and improve the HSF.

Bigger Budget?
Anything after this price point and again I find my self looking to spend money so as far as reccomendations go, if you've got more money to play with (and the above specs havnt net your performance needs), make a post and we'll deal with it on a case by case basis.
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:54 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Section 02 - Canadian Buyers
Where to Buy Stuff?
Here are some places you can start with
Categorical Reccomendations
  • Work Oriented machine
  • Play Oriented machine
  • General Purpose machine
__________________
ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:54 PM   #9 (permalink)
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Default -- Canadian Buyers --
Work Machines
Budget: <500CADReally not a whole lot of options in this ballpark! Do note that the motherboard is AGP based and so wont be really upgradable anymore. If this is a problem the Foxconn 761GXK8MB-RS [SiS761GX] ($80.92) will provide a PCI-Express based upgrade path however the SiS chipset isnt exactly spectacular by any means. If the budget can be stretched by a few dollars, the MSI K8NGM2-L [C51G-6100] ($84.99) will offer no compromise.

Budget: <600CADA huge jump from the above, this box features a harddrive upgrade as well as an upgrade to a dualcore configuration.

Budget: <700CADHere we've uupgraded the processor as well as stepped up the harddrive significantly in both size and performance.

Budget: <800CADTaking a minor penalty to the harddrive, we can make a switch to the superior Athlon64 X2 system here.

Budget: <900CADWith an extra $100 we can upgrade the CPU and bring the HDD back to the 250GB mark

Budget: <1000CADHere we've upgraded the box to 2GB

Budget: <1100CADHere we move to an extremely solid motherboard and discrete video solution and do a minor upgrade on the memory

Budget: <1200CAD