swzaske wrote:
What do you want it to do?
Some of everything. I don't want it to be sucky slow at anything....I'm
not a gamer though I have tried to be...just can't find the time for
it. However, I run MATLAB a lot and need it to not be super slow (and
certainly not be in the lower rung in performance using the bench
command). I do some video manipulation but not serious amounts. I want
to create some movies too. And the rest is typical stuff that everyone
does (bluray, music, word, powerpoint, etc.).
I don't do loud systems, either. My PCs have to be quiet, so no
screaming vid cards in my boxes.
I guess I want it to be rock solid, too, as I have little time for
hacking and tweaking anymore. Life sucks. :)
I recently bought an Nvidia 8100 chipset mobo from Asrock, Athlon II
X2 240 and Nvidia 9600 GSO for a dirt cheap price and some RAM from
Ebay. Super inexpensive upgrade to the socket 939 unit it replaced and
a fast machine for a dual core with the 3.36 GHz overclock it's
running at.
Had some problems with the board not POST'ing reliably until realizing
that my Corsair RAM rated at 1.8v would not run reliably at that
setting (2 separate sets of Corsair). The EPP SPD was defaulting at
1.8 during the initial boot after being built and I had to reset the
CMOS to get it started up which caused me to believe the board was
defective. A simple BIOS error on the part of Asrock engineers but
simple to fix now that I know the cause. I've had 3 of these boards
now which makes me feel like an idiot but the box was dirt cheap to
build and quite competent, stable and energy efficient. Just set the
RAM at1.9v and everything is peachy.
Anthony Q. Martin wrote:
What's the best "bang for buck" base system right now? Not looking
for top of the line, just reasonable power per $$.
