Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 00:43:01 -0700 From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Some h/w recommendations please... Message-ID: <F234vv5VuWivMjZMx2f00006e86@hotmail.com>
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>Indeed this such questions have been asked before. Alas, an archive >search did not give quite what I need, so here goes... > >I would like to build a client box powerful enough for development work; >including app development using GUI frameworks, web stuff including >server side scripting, etc. This would also be my fun machine. > >Here are some of the recommendations I am after: > >CPU: P4's have come down in price: a 1.5Ghz is around CAD$230. Of course You really don't need the latest and greatest CPU. A P3 or fast Celeron would work fine. I do _NOT_ recommend the Pentium4 at all. In most applications, the higher end Pentium3s are faster. The reasons for this have to do with design decisions made when designing the P4, optimizing it for high clockspeeds rather than good real world performance. Clockspeed does not equal real world speed. >a P3 is much cheaper and a Celeron is even more so. These would all work. I would really recommend an AMD AthlonXP over the Pentium3 and an AMD Duron over the Celeron. Both AMD parts are faster in real-world performance at a similar price or clockspeed than the Intel counterparts. There are many references to this on the web. Here are a few articles from particularly prestigious hardware review websites: http://www.anandtech.com/cpu/showdoc.html?i=1554 http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/01q4/011031/index.html As an added bonus, AMD chips are cheaper (though compared to the P3, the motherboards are more expensive--note the TOTAL system price) and AMD systems use DDR memory extensively, compared to the P4's more expensive and higher latency Rambus and its incredibly slow SDR RAM. Note: SDR = Single Data Rate, a phrase coined to differentiate between "Double Data Rate" (DDR) RAM. SDR is the most commonly used RAM now, and isn't necessarily slow, but the P4 was designed with high bandwidth in mind and the newer, more affordable P4 motherboards that employ SDR RAM are essentially castrating a chip that many say already lacks gonads. (I apologize for the rather crude wording) >RAM: I can definitely afford 256Mb and possibly 512Mb, I think going to >a 1Gb would be a stretch. You can get good, quality memory from Crucial, a division of Micron, at www.crucial.com >Motherboard: not at all sure here: have heard good things about ASUS ASUS is one of the top motherboard manufacturers. They made their reputation both on producing stable motherboards when many were "rushed" and crash prone, and by making large OEM deals to sell many boards. Other good companies that generally make excellent quality modern boards include MSI (Microstar), ABit, Tyan, and Gigabyte--among others. >Video: again not sure here Depends on what you plan to do. From what you described above, 3D acceleration is not a top priority. Matrox makes excellent quality video cards that have a great picture quality (they use very good quality DACs, something many manufacturers skimp on to save costs) and support very high resolutions without getting blurry or unresponsive. ATI also makes good 2D cards. If you get a card made by just about any other manufacturer, be sure to read reviews of the card that mention the 2D image quality. (most reviews do not). There does not seem to be a predictable correlation between good picture quality and price/manufacturer/model. >Monitor: I have heard good reviews about some Samsung models, again not >sure While, in general, I think Sony products are junk--they make very good monitors. Most companies do anymore. I do not know much about monitors, but an uncle of mine in the movie special effects biz recommends Sony, Hitachi (who recently announced that they would stop making them), and one other whom I cannot remember. I have never used a Samsung monitor. >In terms of the HD, CDRW/DVD ROM, etc. I am okay with. > >So, if you have a few moments I would appreciate your input. I want to >limit my spending to around CAD$1500, maybe maxing out to CAD$2000 with >a large monitor, etc. Going from 19" to 21" monitor has an unproportionally large price increase. For a programming workstation, I would almost say it is necessary. As a developer in Phoenix, AZ a while back, I often wondered how anyone could possibly get by without 2 21" monitors. (Now if only they would give some of them to me, to replace my aging 19") Just my $0.01 Charles Burns _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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