SLUniverse Forums

Tyche Shepherd · 10-01-2008, 11:30 AM

I'm just about to order a new desktop PC - It will be used for a variety of tasks and will be running dual booted Vista 64bit and Linux (again 64bit) . I mentioned this here where I asked for some advice about dual booting vs virtualisation Talk about Linux (and help Linux noobs!) .

Aside from Second Life and SLU

the usage will be mainly data analysis and related programming - Think high disk and CPU usage - Graphic analysis is lower priority but I'd like to play some more graphically intensive games than SL (though it doesn't have to be customised for this).

My budget is fixed so I now have to decide between several options trading one off against the others.
What order would you put on these possible upgrades ?

CPU: Intel® Core 2 Duo E8500 upgraded to Intel® Core 2 Quad E9600
RAM : 4.0GB DDR2 800mhz upgraded to 4.0GB DDR2 1066mhz
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT 512MB to NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB

Tranquility · 10-01-2008, 12:07 PM

I am not an expert, but it looks like you have them in the most logical order for your work.

SL should run just fine on the 8500.

Sobriquet Kryakutnoy · 10-01-2008, 09:54 PM

From what I understand and what ZATZAi has stated previously, except in the case of applications specifically coded with 4 cores in mind a quad-core processor won't give you that great of a performance boost over dual-core. Unless you are simultaneously running several applications. But so far as individual application performance goes, not a massive difference.

I personally would go in the order of B, C, A. Or B, A, C. Depending on how many applications you are planning on running at once.

How big/fast is your hard drive, as well? If you are crunching large amounts of data a speedy hard drive is always handy. When I worked in professional video our biggest enemy, moreso than processing horsepower or display resolution, was actually drive access times.

Tyche Shepherd · 10-02-2008, 05:09 AM

The multiple applications running at once can occur a lot - A large MySQL database update whilst running a big dataset through a set of statistical routines as I'm also trying to browse is quite common .

The drives are 2x 500Gb S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s 8Mb cache (average seek 6ms) but I'm having them configured in Raid 1 - They are about the fastest I can get for budget yet still have two for raid 1 - There is a 1TB option with a 16Mb cache for about the same price but I'd have to sacrifice the Raid 1 option (And data loss scares me

) . 500GB is easily sufficient - The datafiles I work with are more in the 10 to 100Mb size - not like Video.

I've since looked at the differences between Vista Ultmate and Vista Home Premium and - The additional features in Ultimate are not what I really require so I'm cutting back to Home premium (unlikely to need over 16Gb Ram) . Which means I can upgrade CPU, RAM & Graphics

Walker Moore · 10-02-2008, 05:31 AM

Yeah, I went with a dual-core after reading ZAT's excellent advice. A quad-core is an easy future upgrade if required though. I think a dual-core CPU and a quiet SATA-II drive are essential for running Vista because with those you're not going to notice a performance hit when background tasks like indexing and system maintenance are taking place.

I also opted for Vista Home Premium x64 because I don't need the additional features of Ultimate. I got the OEM version, which is about £66. You just have to understand that support from Microsoft is practically non-existent and that it's tied to a single machine. If you ever have to replace the motherboard, you have to buy it again.

Do lots of research before buying a 1TB drive because some are showing higher than usual failure rates. I almost went with a Samsung F1 until reading the horror stories (and I'm not talking about amateur reviews here), and ended up going for a Western Digital 640GB SATA-II drive instead because reliability is more important than size.

ETA: I misread while speed reading. Apparently you're not buying a 1TB drive, but configuring a RAID array. Sorry.

Karl Herber · 10-02-2008, 06:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tranquility

I am not an expert, but it looks like you have them in the most logical order for your work.

SL should run just fine on the 8500.

Yep I'm running SL fine on a 8400 (though FPS slows to a crawl if I set SL graphics to "Ultra"

)

Tyche Shepherd · 10-02-2008, 06:56 AM

I've just received the new version of one of the main Statistical Suites I use and it seems that this version uses multi-threading on both multiple processors and multi-core processors for many of its algorithms so it looks like the Quad is a good upgrade in my case

Tyche Shepherd · 10-20-2008, 07:26 AM

My new PC is being shipped today - 2 weeks after ordering - It was delayed because the base motherboard for my model has been discontinued so they are upgrading to a higher spec one

. Finally I should be able to play SL again

, my current laptop just grinds to a halt after awhile

Ramonna Villota · 10-20-2008, 07:30 AM

congrats

See you in SL

10-01-2008, 11:30 AM	#1 (permalink)
Tyche Shepherd Fortuna vitrea est Goats ?.. fuck'em .. Let them milk themselves Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 4,040 SL Join Date: 26th April 2007 My Mood:	New PC hardware advice I'm just about to order a new desktop PC - It will be used for a variety of tasks and will be running dual booted Vista 64bit and Linux (again 64bit) . I mentioned this here where I asked for some advice about dual booting vs virtualisation Talk about Linux (and help Linux noobs!) . Aside from Second Life and SLU the usage will be mainly data analysis and related programming - Think high disk and CPU usage - Graphic analysis is lower priority but I'd like to play some more graphically intensive games than SL (though it doesn't have to be customised for this). My budget is fixed so I now have to decide between several options trading one off against the others. What order would you put on these possible upgrades ? CPU: Intel® Core 2 Duo E8500 upgraded to Intel® Core 2 Quad E9600 RAM : 4.0GB DDR2 800mhz upgraded to 4.0GB DDR2 1066mhz Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT 512MB to NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 512MB __________________ Vanguard of the LolCatz Revolution This Post was financed by The National LolCatz Archives Clancy Sullivan :Yeah. YEAH! The sultry seamstress of mirth is definitely in charge now. Certified 7.8 on the Official Non-Arbitrary Trout Algorithmic Slut scale

10-02-2008, 05:31 AM	#5 (permalink)
Walker Moore The Son of Avatar Hiding Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 8,105 Doom Rider Champion! My Mood:	Yeah, I went with a dual-core after reading ZAT's excellent advice. A quad-core is an easy future upgrade if required though. I think a dual-core CPU and a quiet SATA-II drive are essential for running Vista because with those you're not going to notice a performance hit when background tasks like indexing and system maintenance are taking place. I also opted for Vista Home Premium x64 because I don't need the additional features of Ultimate. I got the OEM version, which is about £66. You just have to understand that support from Microsoft is practically non-existent and that it's tied to a single machine. If you ever have to replace the motherboard, you have to buy it again. Do lots of research before buying a 1TB drive because some are showing higher than usual failure rates. I almost went with a Samsung F1 until reading the horror stories (and I'm not talking about amateur reviews here), and ended up going for a Western Digital 640GB SATA-II drive instead because reliability is more important than size. ETA: I misread while speed reading. Apparently you're not buying a 1TB drive, but configuring a RAID array. Sorry. __________________ twitter \| last.fm \| flickr

10-20-2008, 07:30 AM	#9 (permalink)
Ramonna Villota Senior Member Helvetti Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Iceland - Kansas Posts: 2,858 SL Join Date: 3/6/06 My Mood:	congrats See you in SL __________________ Ramonna Þú ert með andlit sem aðeins móðir getur elskað, Tík elskhugi kyssast minn munnur http://www.flickr.com/photos/25968648@N08/

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

10-01-2008, 12:07 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tranquility Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 400 My Mood:	I am not an expert, but it looks like you have them in the most logical order for your work. SL should run just fine on the 8500.

10-02-2008, 05:09 AM	#4 (permalink)
Tyche Shepherd Fortuna vitrea est Goats ?.. fuck'em .. Let them milk themselves Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 4,040 SL Join Date: 26th April 2007 My Mood:	The multiple applications running at once can occur a lot - A large MySQL database update whilst running a big dataset through a set of statistical routines as I'm also trying to browse is quite common . The drives are 2x 500Gb S-ATAII 3.0Gb/s 8Mb cache (average seek 6ms) but I'm having them configured in Raid 1 - They are about the fastest I can get for budget yet still have two for raid 1 - There is a 1TB option with a 16Mb cache for about the same price but I'd have to sacrifice the Raid 1 option (And data loss scares me ) . 500GB is easily sufficient - The datafiles I work with are more in the 10 to 100Mb size - not like Video. I've since looked at the differences between Vista Ultmate and Vista Home Premium and - The additional features in Ultimate are not what I really require so I'm cutting back to Home premium (unlikely to need over 16Gb Ram) . Which means I can upgrade CPU, RAM & Graphics

10-02-2008, 06:56 AM	#7 (permalink)
Tyche Shepherd Fortuna vitrea est Goats ?.. fuck'em .. Let them milk themselves Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 4,040 SL Join Date: 26th April 2007 My Mood:	I've just received the new version of one of the main Statistical Suites I use and it seems that this version uses multi-threading on both multiple processors and multi-core processors for many of its algorithms so it looks like the Quad is a good upgrade in my case

10-20-2008, 07:26 AM	#8 (permalink)
Tyche Shepherd Fortuna vitrea est Goats ?.. fuck'em .. Let them milk themselves Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: UK Posts: 4,040 SL Join Date: 26th April 2007 My Mood:	My new PC is being shipped today - 2 weeks after ordering - It was delayed because the base motherboard for my model has been discontinued so they are upgrading to a higher spec one . Finally I should be able to play SL again , my current laptop just grinds to a halt after awhile