New computer decisions

[johnridley]

So we have two computers to replace due to electrical surges. Maybe only one; depends on whether I decide to try to live with just the laptop.

I was shopping today online. Looks like the only reasonable way to avoid Windows Vista on a prebuilt machine is to get a Dell business class desktop. You can buy one of their regular home desktops with Vista for $349, or a business class desktop with basically the same specs (and the case looks identical except it's black instead of silver) and XP Home for $469. So it costs $120 to stay away from Vista. Yes, it's worth it to me. I prefer to buy computers that do what I want them to, not what I'm allowed to do.

At this point, I think I'm going to build my own. The $469 price has multiple compromises based on the fact that Dell is charging silly amounts for upgrades: going from 80 to 250 GB is something like $50, going to 500 GB is another $100 or so, despite the fact that you can just go BUY a 500 GB drive with the same specs for $89. Upgrading from a DVD/CDRW combo to a DVD burner is $87, even though a good quality DVD burner is $32.

For about $479 shipped I can get exactly what I want; an AMD 64 X2 dual core 4200+, 1GB RAM (may expand later, I don't want to dump too much money right now), 500 GB HD (cheapest $/GB), DVD burner, decent 500W quiet power supply. I'll install Linux (MythTV) on the machine that's for sure getting replaced, and if I get the 2nd, it'll get Windows 2000 (I'll not willingly jump into Microsoft's "activation" (Microsoft Genuine Annoyance) scheme).

If it weren't for Vista, I'd probably still be buying prebuilt machines; I don't mind building machines, but it's not my favorite thing to do in my spare time either. It only takes about an hour to bolt a machine together, but it's a bit irritating, and I haven't built one for a few years so I'm ignorant of some of the new power connectors, I only have seen pictures of PCI Express, etc.

Comments

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

The power connectors are keyed, they're just adding more copper to carry the current. Lower voltage, higher power draw, ya know.

PCI-E is obvious, it's a slot, the ports go to the back. There is a quirk in that the size of the slots doesn't automagically match the number of PCI-E lanes to that slot, you'll always have one, and you won't have more than the slot can handle, but there's lots of PCI-E 16 slots wired with only 8 lanes. Then again, the bandwidth of 8x PCIE is high enough that you really don't notice. This typically occurs on gaming boards where there are two 16x slots for running SLI mode video, but many of the PCIE bridges top out at 20 lanes.

For what you're doing, it's all slots. In the server realm, PCIE is a huge win, since we've needed something that can handle modern storage bandwidths -- quad GE, dual 4GB FC, Infiniband, 10G Ether, that sort of thing. PCI-X 133 couldn't really handle any of that well, worse, you really needed multiple PCI busses to do the work if you were dealing with multiple interfaces.

PCIE means you can load a server up with ram, dual ported FC to a SAN, dual or quad GigE to the network (or 10GB!), install ESX, and run 20-30 servers on one box. See, the number of single machines that needs that kind of bandwidth are low, but when you can stack them onto one machine, you get all the advantages of a high end server and storage system at a cost-per-virtual server that's rational.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know all that, I'm just saying I haven't actually built a machine for a while. It took about 10 minutes of poking around to figure out what's changed since then.

Honestly, most of that is irrelevant to me anyway. The Duron 900 with a PATA 100 drive is sufficient, if not great.

Actually it looks like I'll be getting a Dell with Vista and reformatting the hard drive. I found a configuration that's pretty decent, with a dual core AMD 64 for $329. Just the parts from newegg for an equivalent system would be close to $500. The only really irritating thing about Dell is that it's hard to get any info on their components; probably because they're saving the option of switching suppliers.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

The slots thing is a problem. All the machines I'm looking at, I'm going to fill every last slot as soon as I get it, at least for the PVR. I guess I am starting to see the utility of multi-tuner PCI cards.

I still hate buying a copy of Vista, giving Microsoft another check in their sales, but it's not worth $150 to me to keep that check away from them. Especially since I'll probably wind up getting two of these machines.

I was thinking about using my laptop as my primary machine, but then I remembered that the PCMCIA interface on that thing is very flaky, and it only has USB 1.1 on the back so I need a PCMCIA USB card to do the USB 2.0. Also my LCD panel won't work with it for some weird reason. All in all, I guess for $329 I'll just say screw it, get the Dell, throw Windows 2000 over the top of the Vista it ships with, and get moving again.

Having something like this screw up at least a week of spare time is extremely irritating. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't happen at a time when I've got a dozen other projects I'd rather be doing. But then again, I can't remember such a time.