My first quad-core build

[philo]

My wife outgrew her dual core machine with 8 gigs of RAM

She uses the machine for Photoshop and InDesign and has both programs
running at once.

Got this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135363

plus 16 gigs of ram



It took all of 10 minutes to put together.


Not too bad for "cheap and quick"


It seems like only yesterday she bought that P-1 75mhz with 8 megs of
ram and a cost of 5x the money it took to put the present one together.

 

[Paul]

My wife outgrew her dual core machine with 8 gigs of RAM

She uses the machine for Photoshop and InDesign and has both programs
running at once.

Got this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135363

plus 16 gigs of ram



It took all of 10 minutes to put together.


Not too bad for "cheap and quick"


It seems like only yesterday she bought that P-1 75mhz with 8 megs of
ram and a cost of 5x the money it took to put the present one together.

It's a mini-ITX. I guess one of the
requirements, was to hide it in a shoe box

And the TDP on the processor, is pretty good. Only 25W.

"A6-5200"
http://products.amd.com/en-us/NotebookAPUDetail.aspx?id=66

The fastest practical processor purchase ($300 range),
gives you about a 4x better benchmark on multi-threaded
stuff. So there's still room to build a faster
(more power hungry) machine. Maybe when she does some
movie editing, you'll get your next commissioned build order.

Paul

 

[philo]

It's a mini-ITX. I guess one of the
requirements, was to hide it in a shoe box

And the TDP on the processor, is pretty good. Only 25W.

"A6-5200"
http://products.amd.com/en-us/NotebookAPUDetail.aspx?id=66

The fastest practical processor purchase ($300 range),
gives you about a 4x better benchmark on multi-threaded
stuff. So there's still room to build a faster
(more power hungry) machine. Maybe when she does some
movie editing, you'll get your next commissioned build order.

Paul

I just used a small ATX case I had in my shop. It had a 350watt PSU in
it already so I just left it. The machine will probably not be used for
video editing,but if it is...it's going to be simple stuff.

The mobo price was exactly the same as the RAM price.



I also have some HUGE cases in my workshop that I may never be able to
use up...maybe I should put them on my local Craig's list cheap.

 

[miso]

You might want to go on Newegg and tell them what RAM you used. There
seems to be an issue based on the reviews.

I built an Atom PC a few years ago. You don't realize the time you waste
installing the CPU and heat sink. Not that the task is difficult, but if
you only build a PC every few years, the heat sink attachment is always
different. Then there is the case of the plate you need to put on the
back of the mobo. Compound the problem if the heat sink you bought fits
a number of different CPUs, so you have to find the proper parts. The
Atom ITX was a breeze, as I suppose this board was.

Photography these days is RAM intensive more than CPU intensive, so it
sounds like you did the right thing. These photo editors need a lot of
RAM for "undoing".

It isn't clear from what I can find on the internet if the memory is
interleaved. Benchmarks have shown two way interleave is worth the
effort. Anything beyond that is kind of dubious with DDR3.

 

[philo]

You might want to go on Newegg and tell them what RAM you used. There
seems to be an issue based on the reviews.

I built an Atom PC a few years ago. You don't realize the time you waste
installing the CPU and heat sink. Not that the task is difficult, but if
you only build a PC every few years, the heat sink attachment is always
different. Then there is the case of the plate you need to put on the
back of the mobo. Compound the problem if the heat sink you bought fits
a number of different CPUs, so you have to find the proper parts. The
Atom ITX was a breeze, as I suppose this board was.

Photography these days is RAM intensive more than CPU intensive, so it
sounds like you did the right thing. These photo editors need a lot of
RAM for "undoing".

It isn't clear from what I can find on the internet if the memory is
interleaved. Benchmarks have shown two way interleave is worth the
effort. Anything beyond that is kind of dubious with DDR3.

The only "issue" I saw mentioned with RAM is that if only one stick is
used, it needs to be in slot 1.

It was nice not to worry about cpu and heat sink but I have built so
many machines it's become rather routine to me by now.