New Machine Specs - Comments

[Paul Winterfell]

I am about to embark on the purchase of a new machine (the current one is
6 years old). I do not need "state of the art"; nor can I afford it; but I
want a little scope for upgrade in the next few years.

I do little or no gaming but I do spend LONG hours at the machine
compiling programs and editing documentation. Also, some quite complex and
large database-to-spreadsheet work.

Here are the specs I have come up with that are within my budget
($2500AUD). I have never used Athlon before and would appreciate comments
from experienced users about things like extra cooling & the cpu capacity.

Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra939 M/B (I will not buy another Asus)
Athlon64 3000+ E3 Venice core Socket939
1.0Gb Geil PC3200 400MHz DDR ram
Maxtor 200Gb SATA DiamondMax 10 Hard drive
Albatron GeForce PC6600GT 128M PCI-e Video Card
Coolermaster Wavemaster TAC-T01-BK Case
420 watt Topower TOP-526P6 power supply
Samsung 710N 17" LCD monitor
Samsung 16x/48x DVD-ROM
LG DVD Burner GSA-4163BBK

I want the extra dvd-rom drive as I play music all the time I am working
and can still use & burn other cd's.

My favoured supplier jumps to 3500+ cpu in "Venice" mode but does have
cheaper models in between?

The machine will need to run SuSE Linux v9.3 as it's primary os. I
have not yet decided whether I will dual boot with Windows XP?

There is very little flexibility in the budget, but I am happy to look at
alternatives. Any guidance to optimise the purchase would be appreciated.

Paul.

 

[John Doe]

I am about to embark on the purchase of a new machine (the
current one is 6 years old). I do not need "state of the art";
nor can I afford it; but I want a little scope for upgrade in
the next few years. ....
1.0Gb Geil PC3200 400MHz DDR ram

hopefully, that leaves at least one slot open

 

[Dean Court]

I am about to embark on the purchase of a new machine (the current one is
6 years old). I do not need "state of the art"; nor can I afford it; but I
want a little scope for upgrade in the next few years.

I do little or no gaming but I do spend LONG hours at the machine
compiling programs and editing documentation. Also, some quite complex and
large database-to-spreadsheet work.

Here are the specs I have come up with that are within my budget
($2500AUD). I have never used Athlon before and would appreciate comments
from experienced users about things like extra cooling & the cpu capacity.

Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra939 M/B (I will not buy another Asus)
Athlon64 3000+ E3 Venice core Socket939
1.0Gb Geil PC3200 400MHz DDR ram
Maxtor 200Gb SATA DiamondMax 10 Hard drive
Albatron GeForce PC6600GT 128M PCI-e Video Card
Coolermaster Wavemaster TAC-T01-BK Case
420 watt Topower TOP-526P6 power supply
Samsung 710N 17" LCD monitor
Samsung 16x/48x DVD-ROM
LG DVD Burner GSA-4163BBK

I want the extra dvd-rom drive as I play music all the time I am working
and can still use & burn other cd's.

I'd say the GFX card is overkill if you do little or no gaming, and do
you *really* need two optical drives ?, why not encode the cd's as MP3's
(or insert favourite encoding method here) you certainly have the disk
space.

I'd probably get a cheaper case too, and then spend the total difference
on a better monitor since you will be sitting there for long periods of
time, or maybe a slightly more reliable PSU - a tagan or an antec ?
there is definately more to it than wattage.

It sounds to me like comfort and reliability are your main requirements,
for general (non gaming use) the rest of the spec is pretty good.

 

[Paul Winterfell]

Thanks for these comments - they make good sense and I will think about
them carefully.

I'd say the GFX card is overkill if you do little or no gaming, and do
you *really* need two optical drives ?, why not encode the cd's as MP3's
(or insert favourite encoding method here) you certainly have the disk
space.

I thought the video card was pretty much "juniorville" of PCI Express as
it was, but I could look to shave some more off. There are lots of
pictures (2d & 3d) in the documents and I certainly don't want to
compromise text quality at all? I could rip & encode the music to ogg
vorbis before work I guess. I thought I read that swapping lasers between
reading and writing on a heavy usage basis burned these things out much
faster than single use, ie one for reading, one for burning?

I'd probably get a cheaper case too, and then spend the total difference
on a better monitor since you will be sitting there for long periods of
time, or maybe a slightly more reliable PSU - a tagan or an antec ?
there is definately more to it than wattage.

I looked again and there is a Tagan 420watt power supply that is actually
$10 cheaper than the Topower. I did some googling this afternoon and I
think I will change that out.

I had thought about the case. I'm such a novice because I keep my machines
for so long and so change such things so rarely! I just want it to
be cool (as in temperature cool). The supplier doesn't have a lot to
choose from, but the Wavemaster is kinda top end isn't it! I'm sure I
could shave $100 off.

It sounds to me like comfort and reliability are your main requirements,
for general (non gaming use) the rest of the spec is pretty good.

You are dead right! The monitor is the key initially. I will look at all
your suggestions, thanks.