Re: deciding on a new amd64 system
On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 11:15:06PM +0200, Gilles Sadowski wrote: I'm also inquiring about hardware for a new system. Based on previous posts (with some replacements for parts I didn't readily found in the closest shop), here is my tentative list (with alternative choices): CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU AMD Athlon64 5000 RAM 1024MB DDR2-6400 800Mhz Fan Zalman CNPS9500 Stock fans actually work quite well, are very quiet, and unless you intend to do serious overclocking, I wouldn't bother with a seperate fan. I would pick the Core 2 over the Athlon 64 at this time. The Core 2 is a more modern design and performs better. The Athlon 64 is still nice, but it isn't a match for the Core 2. MB (Intel CPU) Asus P5N32-E SLI + S775 DualX16 FSB1333 FW GbLan MB (Intel CPU) Intel Mbo DP965LT-Skt LGA775/1066/DDR2-800/SATA/IDE/1394 MB (AMD CPU)Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe-AM2/SATA/Wifi/DDR2-800/G I have only bought Asus boards since 1993 now, and have no intension of changing. The one intel board I have dealt with at a previous job didn't last very long before it died. I was unimpressed. Asus seems to have much more thought out board designs. Nothing wrong with the intel chipset though. I used an Asus P5B in the last machine I built (for my sister) and it just works. HDD WD 320GB SATA HDD WD 160GB SATA HDD Seagate 160GB 8MB SATA-II HDD Seagate 320GB 16MB SATA-II I would certainly go for the WD drives. I have used many WD3200KS drives, as well as some 250 and 500GB versions. Case Silverstone TJ01-SI (No power supply) Case Antec Atlas (TruePower Trio 550W) Power Fortron Blue Storm 500W 23dB Power Silverstone ST50EF-Plus (recommended) I have lately been very happy with silverstone cases and power supplies. Machine so quiet you have to check the power light to make sure you actually turned it on. I really like the TJ04-B and the TJ09 (for a large system). Silverstone power supplies use very large fans which make almost no sound. Very high build quality too. GraphicsAsus Extreme N7600GT Silencer 256MB 7600GT is a very nice card. Good performance for the money. Screen Samsung 205BW Screen Samsung SyncMaster 226BW (recommended) I never did like samsung screens. Screen ViewSonic VG2230wm Viewsonic has usually done well for me. Headset Plantronics 340 Microphone Plantronics Audio 15 I have no idea on those. I use a 10 year old set of rather nice sony head phones, and I have a pair of JBL Multimedia Pro speakers that sound amazing and cost $10 (Didn't make much sense to me). KeyboardCherry Cymotion Expert G86 Black USB Mouse Logitech MX40 Laser I tend to stick with some logitech mouse and keyboard. Sometimes a wireless combo like the mx3200 or similar. Is there some reason to avoid some of the above HW (e.g. no linux support, bad components,...)? I think everything on your list has linux support. What would be the preferred choice (for CPU, MB, HDD, case, screen, power supply, fans)? Is it safe to assume that currently, an AMD CPU performance is equivalent to an Intel CPU at about the same price? No I wouldn't assume that. And remember the cost you pay is for a whole system, not just the cpu. After all if $100 extra gives you double the performance, and the whole system costs $1000, is the extra $100 worth it? I would think it is, but for some people that don't need the extra performance, it might not be. Of course you can get a stupid little Athlon 64 X2 3600+ system from dell for $399CDN at the moment. Hard to beat that price/performance ratio. Of course it is a Dell, so who knows... :) -- Len Sorensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: deciding on a new amd64 system
On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 08:21:53PM -0500, Jaime Ochoa Malag?n wrote: The RAM is very important take care of this... True. So far I have been happy with Corsair, and OCZ. Certainly go for a well known name brand. -- Len Sorensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: deciding on a new amd64 system
On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 06:02:02AM +, Sam Varghese wrote: I have used both Intel and AMD dual-core and find AMD better for my work; I'm basing this on one thing, the speed of processing video files. Which intel? The P4 was a piece of [EMAIL PROTECTED] design wise. The Core 2 is nothing like it. The Core 2 seems to beat the Athlon 64 X2 on everything. The P4/Pentium D hardly ever beat the X2 on anything. I had an ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard but the graphics cooler died and I could only get a GA-K8NF-9 as replacement. Graphics cooler? What does that have to do with A8N-SLI? I've found the smaller WD drives to be flaky; the bigger SATA ones are as good or as bad as Seagate. You won't find drives of the quality of the Quantum Fireball anymore. I was so annoyed when Quentum moved the HD business to maxtor. :( First thing after building, boot from a Knoppix live CD and run memtest to pick up any memory errors. I agree about Kingston. The experience of many people (at least on Athlon 64 systems and Opterons) is that memtest will not catch a lot of problems caused by ram that isn't quite compatible with the amd memory controller. Perhaps it is ram that isn't quite up to the spec it claims to be. The AMD memory controller seems to expect things to do what they claim and drives them to the limit (good for perforamnce after all). Best way to find out if ram is causing a problem is to swap it out with something else and see if the problem goes away in that case. -- Len Sorensen -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: deciding on a new amd64 system
Of course you can get a stupid little Athlon 64 X2 3600+ system from dell for $399CDN at the moment. Hard to beat that price/performance ratio. Of course it is a Dell, so who knows... :) -- Len Sorensen If you go the Dell route be sure to pick the Ubuntu pre-installed choice. It may be Ubuntu, but it is the GNU/Linux sale that counts. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: deciding on a new amd64 system
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 04:09:22PM -0400 Lennart Sorensen said: On Thu, Jun 07, 2007 at 06:02:02AM +, Sam Varghese wrote: I have used both Intel and AMD dual-core and find AMD better for my work; I'm basing this on one thing, the speed of processing video files. Which intel? The P4 was a piece of [EMAIL PROTECTED] design wise. The Core 2 is nothing like it. The Core 2 seems to beat the Athlon 64 X2 on everything. The P4/Pentium D hardly ever beat the X2 on anything. The Core 2. I had an ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard but the graphics cooler died and I could only get a GA-K8NF-9 as replacement. Graphics cooler? What does that have to do with A8N-SLI? It's a little fan next to the graphics chip, comes on the motherboard. Once it starts making a racket, you can live with the noise or else get the board replaced. I chose the latter option. I've found the smaller WD drives to be flaky; the bigger SATA ones are as good or as bad as Seagate. You won't find drives of the quality of the Quantum Fireball anymore. I was so annoyed when Quentum moved the HD business to maxtor. :( First thing after building, boot from a Knoppix live CD and run memtest to pick up any memory errors. I agree about Kingston. The experience of many people (at least on Athlon 64 systems and Opterons) is that memtest will not catch a lot of problems caused by ram that isn't quite compatible with the amd memory controller. Perhaps it is ram that isn't quite up to the spec it claims to be. The AMD memory controller seems to expect things to do what they claim and drives them to the limit (good for perforamnce after all). Best way to find out if ram is causing a problem is to swap it out with something else and see if the problem goes away in that case. My experience has been different so I'll agree to disagree. Sam - -- (Sam Varghese) http://www.gnubies.com In Genesis, it says that it is not good for a man to be alone; but sometimes it is a great relief. My PGP key: http://www.gnubies.com/encryption/sign.txt -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGaJ1UZyXhknb+33gRAj11AJ92e0aORu7jlQ30xzJ9FsliI5L1RQCgi0Nv SNqj4eUry15Nq0RB1+wnk4o= =Hd4c -END PGP SIGNATURE- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Ideas why dvd playback is jerky?
Is this an issue with the amd64 arch, or something else? I have an AMD 5600+ cpu paired with an Nvidia 7600 GS card, which strikes me as more than adequate to work with a DVD (my older XP 2500+ had no problems...). The video is literally jerky, and poorly sync'd with the audio. It doesn't seem to matter what player I use. I have done nothing with card settings, but do have the latest driver in place. Relavent parts of my xorg.conf: - Section Module Loadi2c Loadbitmap Loadddc # Loaddri Loadextmod Loadfreetype Loadglx Loadint10 Loadvbe EndSection ... Section Device Identifier nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] Driver nvidia BusID PCI:1:0:0 EndSection - Is there other info I could provide? Anyone have thoughts which might help? Should I install a 32 bit system on this machine for these things? Kenward -- In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be _teachers_ and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have. - Lee Iacocca -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
