On Fri, 2006-03-17 at 17:04 +0200, Avraham Rosenberg wrote: Hi,
> Thanks for the fast answer, full of information and common-sense. > I'll insert a couple of words at the appropiate places... > Think nothing of it. Happy to help. On Fri, Mar 17, 2006 at 01:50:26PM +0200, Gilboa Davara wrote: > > On Fri, 2006-03-17 at 12:15 +0200, Avraham Rosenberg wrote: > > > 2- P4 or equivalent AMD processor 2.5-3GHz > > > > I'll start by saying that I'm a long time AMD fan, so take my words with > > a grain of salt. > > Reason being: > > A. AMD is faster. (At least till the Intel Conroe core is release - > > ~Q3/2006) > > B. AMD uses cheaper DDRI memory. > > C. Unlike Intel AMD tend to have longer socket longevity. (A > > 939/Athlon/Sempron64 board should be upgradable - to a Sempron CPU, > > throughout 2006 into 2007) > > D. AMD's 64bit performance (especially if -march k8) is much better then > > current generation P4s. > > E. If you are looking for el-cheapo solution nothing beats the > > 754/Sempron combo. > > > What is that > < Feel free to skip this part... it's mostly background reading that might help you...> AMD has 3 different sockets (motherboard types.) and 3 different CPUs. Sempron64: (Socket 754 and 939) Pro: Cheap while yielding acceptable (or above) desktop performance. -Best- price performance. Cons: Slower then the Athlon 64; no dual core options. Athlon64: (Socket 939 only) Pro: Wide performance and price range. (From cheap low-end to super-expensive dual core X2/FX CPUs) Cons: Low-end Athlon64 are more expensive then relative Sempron64 CPUs. Opteron: (Socket 939 for single CPU, Socket 940 for multiple CPU) Pro: Server/Workstation CPU; Scales from single core, single CPU workstation to 8/16-way dual core server configuration. Cons: Expensive. Socket 754: Pro: Fast, very cheap (CPU+board at under 800nis), in most cases, limited to AGP graphics card. Cheap DDRI memory. Cons: Problematic upgrade path (AGP only, about to be EOL'ed) Socket 939: Pro: Top of the line desktop platform, wide price (CPU+boards start at ~1200nis) and performance range, upgradable (PCI-E, dual-core CPUs, etc). Cheap DDRI memory. Cons: Will be EOL'ed during 2007. When coupled with low-end Sempron64/Athlon64 yields limited performance over Socket 754. Socket 940: Pro: Top of the line. Scales from single CPU to 8-socket/16-core configuration. Cons: Expensive; requires expensive memory. Intel has a rather identical setup: CPUS: Celeron: (Socket 478, 775) Pro: Cheap, gives acceptable performance.. 64bit on socket775. Cons: Slower then the AMD Sempron64. Same price. *DEAD* platform P4/Celeron family is to be replaced in Q3/2006 by the Conroe family. Pentium 4: Pro: Acceptable performance. 64bit on socket 775. Interesting option: Relatively cheap low-end dual core CPU. (820 for ~1400nis) Cons: Single core slower then Athlon64. Dual core being used for tiling by the dual core Athlon64X2. *DEAD* platform P4/Celeron family is to be fully replaced in Q3/2006 by the Conroe family. Xeon: (Socket 478, 603/604) Pro: It carries the Intel brand name. Nobody got fired for buying Intel. Cons: Same as the P4. Platforms: Socket 478: Pro: Cheap. Uses cheap DDRI memory. Cons: EOL'ed. No upgrade path. AGP only. Socket 775: Pro: Low-end to high-end dual core CPUs. Cons: Expensive DDRII memory. No upgrade path (dead platform). Socket 603/604: Pro: It carries the Intel brand name. Nobody got fired for buying Intel. Cons: Don't get me started.... <End of Jump> Seems that you are looking for a reasonable desktop machine and that's being used for simple desktop tasks. (As opposed to heavy servers, software development, multimedia, gaming, etc) As a result, I'd go with a Socket 754 board with a low-end Sempron64 CPU. It's cheap, fast and should be upgradable to a faster Sempron64 CPU for packet-change-price down the line. My Windows/CentOS/BSD machine is such a machine: Board: Gigabyte GA-K8NS. CPU: Sempron64 2800. Memory: 2 x 512MB, PC3200 (DDR400) Disk: 80GB IDE (PATA). Graphics: Leadtek GF6600GT. DVDROM. Apart for the rather expensive graphics card (by rather I mean >500nis), this machine is dirty cheap.... You can buy one for less then 2000nis. > > Sorry, I meant 2.5 in > AFAIK there are no 2.5" floppy drives. You sure you don't mean 3.5" 1.44MB floppy drives? > > Any vendor you had good experience with ? > I had good experience with: My current supplier: http://www.zigzag2000.co.il/catalog/index.php Other fine options: http://www.exlmarket.co.il/index-new.html http://www.pandas.co.il/ > > Couple of questions. > > A. What your budget. > > > Considering my modest performance needs, this is not really an > issue. I do not need to look for the cheapest. On the other hand > buying much above my needs does not make sense, in the eyes of a > man of my generation (I am 73). I'll be happy to help you again when you upgrade -this- machine... in say, 5-7 years? :-) > > B. For how many years do you plan on buying this machine? > Do not plan: Until it dies or becomes far behind the standard > needs (first thing that happens) > > Any machine (including the Sempron64/Socket 754) should suite your needs. Oh... make sure they put good cooling (even if it generates more noise). Bad/insufficient cooling is the number 1 machine killer. Gilboa ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
