frank said:
I need a new computer rather then purchasing one I wanted to rebuild
this one. I have a Dell tower I need a recommendation for a mother board
and processor. I use my computer for photography, banking, email and,
surfing the web.
Frank
Performance-wise, these two competing products are pretty close
to one another. Both are more powerful than the previous generation
of 3GHz P4 processor.
Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 $170 125W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103773
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 $230 65W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003
Intel still has some breathing room, above the 6000+ of AMD. The
price is not much higher. One significant difference here, is
the first of these is a quad core processor, and there the trick
is, to keep the four cores busy. One new game can do it. Some
multimedia applications can. Photoshop is kinda a mixed bag when
it comes to multiple cores, and some filters are limited to a
single core, while others can use more than one core.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 $280 95W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 $300 65W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028
The 6850 is easier to compare, head to head, with the first
two processors, because it is still a dual core. In some situations
it will be 20% faster, but the other two are pretty fast as it is.
The power numbers stated above, are for when the processor is 100%
busy, and when the chips are idle, they'll use less power than that.
In fact, with the 65W power envelope of the Intel Core2 Duo processors,
we are getting to the point where the motherboard chipset is using
a significant amount of power.
For benchmarks, Tomshardware may have the largest chart. But I don't
necessarily like the benchmarks themselves. Photoshop, for example,
already has a defacto standard benchmark, but Toms seems to have
their own benchmark test. You really want a blend of filters, to
try to cover typical usage patterns for a user, as a single filter
may exaggerate the results.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=921&model2=877&chart=437
This Anandtech result is from PC Worldbench 5, and this table has
a separate section for the Photoshop test. But it more or less shows
the same thing as the Toms result, in that the E6600 is a hair faster
than the AMD 6000+ dual core.
http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/cpu/intel/Core2DuoLaunch/wb1.gif
To get the AMD power consumption down to the 65W level, you'd have
to drop down to this. This might complete the Anandtech Photoshop
benchmark in 290 seconds, versus 260 seconds for the E6600.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Windsor 2.6GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM2 $130 65W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103759
You've made your intended usage pretty clear in your post, but I
don't have a feeling for how price sensitive you are.
Memory is really cheap, and 2x1GB is $75 if you ignore the rebate.
This product would be suitable for either platform.
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211066
For motherboards, the general trends are:
1) Microatx motherboards are cute and cuddly. They are 9.6" x 9.6" and
so people are tempted to put them into smaller cases. Microatx
motherboards generally have integrated graphics. The graphics are
low in performance for games, but are good enough for other usages.
Even Photoshop would be fine. The problem with the boards is, the
BIOS is generally not full featured (you can live with that) but
the real kicker, is the product quality. You are more likely to
run into a dog, by looking at these boards.
The reason for that, is Microatx are considered to fit the small
business niche, and are more cost competitive. Since the boards
are cheap, they have to cut corners on them.
2) Full size ATX boards are 12" x 9.6". That may mean using a larger
case than you might have wished. The benefit of a larger case for
your first build, is there is more room to work in there, inspect
your wiring and setup, and see what you're doing. So in that sense,
the full size ATX board shouldn't scare you away.
For a board suitable for the AMD processors, this is an example. This
even has a Firewire port, in case you want to connect a Firewire device
like a camera. Don't let the SLI video slot setup bother you, as you'll
only be using one video card slot and the other one will remain unused.
The second PCI Express x16 slot is not limited to video, and you could
put a $1000 RAID card in that slot if you wanted. But for the time
being, video cards are the main application of a slot like that.
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - $135
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16813131013
For Intel, there are a number of choices. This one has a decent number
of interface types on the I/O panel,
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $165
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131196
In addition to reading the Newegg customer reviews for a motherboard,
Asus has a forum for each motherboard. You can see if there are problems
with a board here.
http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=P5K-E/WiFi-AP
For the Intel processors, the 965P boards are another alternative, and they
might be a bit more mature (mature means > 5 BIOS releases -- update
BIOS right away when you get the board).
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel (solid caps) $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128012
For video, what card price buys you, is 3D gaming performance. A $200 card
is faster in games than a $50 card. For Photoshop, the two cards are equal.
One thing to look for, is output capability, and connector types. Finding good
information about this for video cards, is difficult. This card, for example,
has two DVI connectors. At least one of the connectors supports dual-link DVI
(can drive an Apple 30" Cinema display). Both connectors have VGA signals on
the connector, but a dongle is needed to create the normal 15 pin VGA connector
output. The product box contains only one dongle, so if you wanted to drive
two VGA analog monitors, a second dongle would have to be purchased.
POWERCOLOR X1550 512MBDDR2 Radeon X1550 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131038
In terms of output capability, this document describes the X1xxx series of
cards from ATI.
http://ati.amd.com/technology/avivo/pdf/Avivo_Display_Engine_Whitepaper_v2_final.pdf
This page describes the options for DVI, and the above X1550 card has two
DVI-I connectors. One of the DVI-I connectors is dual link, but that is
not visually obvious. (Many of the connectors have all the pins necessary for
dual link, but without signals to drive them, the interface ends up being single
link digital capable.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi
Your original question was about the computer case. What would I use ?
Not the Dell, that is for sure. The Dell has lots of proprietary features, that
serve it well. But the front panel wiring, the cooling system, are non-standard,
and likely won't work out.
This is an example of a big case. You won't have trouble fitting stuff into this
case.
COOLER MASTER CM Stacker STC-T01-UWK Black/ Silver Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower $145
23" x 9 " x 21"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119039
This is a more conventional size - includes an 80% efficient 500W supply.
More than enough power for your system. 17'' x 8.1'' x 18.5''
Has a 120mm fan in the back, which I like.
Antec Sonata Designer Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply $170
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129036
Have fun,
Paul
