Need a new system for work

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Thu Feb 14, 2002 9:03 pm

I've been out of the loop for a while in terms of motherboards and processors, so I don't know what's new and great any more. The system is going to be using a lot of fairly intensive MS Office work (if Office work can be intensive

), a good deal of Photoshop, probably moving into a good deal of Flash programming, and lots of web design-type programming. The big issue here is STABILITY; I will sacrifice a few MHz to get a rock solid system. So here are my questions:

1) I'm probably going to go with AMD because they are so cheap compared to Intel. What do I care, I own both stocks!

Anyways, I'm thinking something in the 1600+ range or so. How would this compare vs a P4 of any speed?

2) I need a ROCK SOLID motherboard. Again, I am willing to sacrifice some performance features to gain on stability. Someone mentioned a DFI board to me, although I can't remember the model # now. I've heard the AMD761 chipset is pretty good. Thoughts?

3) The biggest thing I can't decide is if I want to go dual processors or not. Someone told me Office 2k is multithreaded? I know the latest versions of Photoshop are multithreaded, but I am stuck on 5.0LE until I get some scratch. Anyone know if this version is multithreaded? And I also assume that Flash 5 is multithreaded but I suppose I should ask.

4) SCSI? Part of me says that it would be worth it in the long run, but part of me still cringes at the cost. If I did go SCSI, it would definitely be Ultra160, 15k HDD. But it would also mean new CD drives also. Whats a good SCSI burner and CDD and what do they run these days? I've got a ATA66 RAID array now, but 15k is SOOOO appealing!

5) Monitor. I've got a 17" Dell right now that works, but I would like to go 19" or bigger. What's a nice flat screen 19" monitor? Price?

I've got a GTS2, a NIC, a sound card and Win2k Pro that are fine for now. Thanks for the input, its greatly appreciated!

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Fri Feb 15, 2002 12:00 am

! would going SCSI 160 mean new CD drives? Even if your current drives are IDE just run them on the secondary IDE cable. (?)

A friend and I argue over CPU brand... and with that goeth Chipset manufacturer etc. A week ago or so I had to conceed that Intel had caught or passed AMD... ( boy it hurt after being on top for a year ) but we didn't discuss price. IMSHO, based on a few 'reliable' articles, the new P4 is king for games and multimedia by a bit. AMD quietly gave up it' s promise to undercut Intel by 25% years ago.. and Intel now supports DDR memory ( at least via ASUS )... I don't game so would probably go AMD for honor's sake *& but for my little brother built an Intel 2.... x (?) system two months ago. His wife is berry happy killing alien slime things as we speek.

IMSHO, it really seems that the HD I/O is the current bottle neck. Can you do multi chanel SCSI? Mirror the OS HD and RAID5 the rest of the system?

!

Sorry: lotto fever getting the best of me :+

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 10:04 pm

Well I do a lot of CD->HDD transfers involving big files. Besides, if I am going to do this, I want to do it right.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Sat Feb 16, 2002 10:11 pm

as far as hd's go...if U want Great proformance and to save a little.

4.5-9.1g scsi BOOT drive 10-15k. then go dual 100g 8meg chache WD drive raid drives.

any amd chip with a + after it is there PR rating...which makes it apx what a p4 would be. liek I said APX.

Scsi is great and everything. I mean I have 2 all scsi systems and wouldnt trade them...but if U want compasity and scsi it kind of sucks. in one system I have a 9.1 boot, then 3 9.1's software raided and an 18g.

main system just as a 36g scsi drive.

in the 2 ide systems I got a 120g, and a 15g.

Greg

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Sun Feb 17, 2002 10:07 am

OK. It took me a while to figure out that "compasity" is supposed to be "capactiy" but I think I got the jist of what you are saying.

Any recommendations on a dual Athlon motherboard that is stable?

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 4:34 pm

Tyan Tiger MP S2460 is a good dual athlon mobo. I got it a couple months back from newegg.com for around $200... been stable so far.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 5:24 pm

Enter the contest over here at KDC one of our great sponsers is giving away a Dual athlonboard!!! bing bing bing. Just a heads up.

Greg

Busby · Post by **Busby** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:41 pm

One suggestion for stability: Avoid VIA

Dual P3s is still a stable and cost effective option. If you aren't going for preformance for games a dual P3 900 with 512-1024 MB of memory would be stable and fast for the program usage you are talking about.

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:47 pm

I don't know: I sell or use only ASUS, and have had little problem with VIA chipsets aside from the Athlon 1.33 and 1.4 Gig CPU's... As long as I update the 4in1 firmware when doing repairs they work faaaaaaar better than the Dells we have.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 6:51 pm

U fricken people have to get Over the VIA amd stuff. You DO realize intel has chipsets that ant perfect aswell. I dont know about asus cause I dont use them anymore but VIA has been fine for me since that kt133 chipset.

Greg

Busby · Post by **Busby** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 7:08 pm

Put it this way: too many horror stories about VIA and problems. SB Live and VIA chipset causing data corruption and stuff like that. It all differs. I have had too many problems with VIA related problems (IDE preformance, blue screens, compatibility, etc.) and personally dispise them. With the ALi chipset barely behind in speed why have to worry about constant 4-in-1 driver updates and other problems? Unlike some people, not everyone has enough money to buy new sound cards or such to fix a problem that should not even be happening. Intel may have some problems but they aren't as great as VIA. Don't wanna start any VIA vs Intel wars, just simply stating my opinion. Your opinion may differ. It's the same as the ATI and nVidia battle. Some prefer one while others prefer the other. It's about personal preference and personal experience.

TruckStuff: For reliability and stability I would go with dual P3s and an Intel SMP chipset. While I've heard the dual AMD boards are also stable, it is newer technology and therefore problems can arise with certain hardware combinations. Also if your thinking about SCSI, VIA chipsets have a problem with PCI preformance and things above the PCI Speeds (like Ultra160 SCSI). There was an article on the net somewhere that details it. Again my personal suggestion for stability and good multi-threading preformance would be a dual P3 solution w/ Intel based mobo. AMD is not yet proven in the dual CPU market.

FuNPoLiCe001 · Post by **FuNPoLiCe001** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 11:08 pm

i believe you are talking about the problem with the Via southbridge on their newest chipset, which has problems with ATA133

i don't know whether it has problems with a SCSI card

i have personally never had a problem with via, but i've only used the KT133 chipset. I m running an Asus A7V and I've ran it for almost 1.5 years, no problems @ all. Using WinXP and I leave my computer on all the time, none of that performance, blue screen, SB Live stuff.

Guess I m lucky

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Mon Feb 18, 2002 11:26 pm

well thats anotherthing...I have been using scsi for Years on via chips...just because one dip ant smart enough to install stuff properly doesnt make it a fact.

Greg

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 12:08 pm

Well, I would really like to go with DDR for the added bandwidth, so I think I am going to stick with something in the AMD realm because I don't want to shovel out the cash for a 2gig P4 to get DDR on that. And it sounds like I will go with an AMD chipset; I don't want to even flirt with danger on this system (at least minimize it I guess). Whats a good AMD761 board?

Busby · Post by **Busby** » Tue Feb 19, 2002 4:17 pm

Originally posted by nexus_7
well thats anotherthing...I have been using scsi for Years on via chips...just because one dip ant smart enough to install stuff properly doesnt make it a fact.

Greg

Uhhhh installing a card and making it work and having preformance issues because of chipset isn't because it wasn't installed properly.

i believe you are talking about the problem with the Via southbridge on their newest chipset, which has problems with ATA133

i don't know whether it has problems with a SCSI card

Nope it's been with the newer but not just the newest. <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/ ... ml">Here's the article</a> or the <a href="http://www.tecchannel.de/hardware/817/index.html">full in-depth one</a>.