rip van winkle needs a new motherboard

[The_Jeff]

So I've been out of the computer game since, oh, 2003. Current main rig got a full blown virus and instead of reformatting its 40GB HD I'm going to substantially improve my storage. Since everything's SATA I figure why not get a motherboard/CPU/memory combo.

Newegg usually has killer combos but not lately. I got a AMD Sempron (?)/mobo/ram combo for $50 about two years ago I'm very happy with in a media PC app.

The current flock of sub $100 mobos are those teeny ITXs with 1 or 2 PCI slots and 1 PCIe. I like having several PCIs in my *real* computers.

Also they seem to be running single or dual core Atoms. I have an atom dual core in my dell mini netbook and it's okay I guess with the slow SSD drive.

My 2003 celeron 2.6 GHZ spanked my 98 K7 400 MHZ. But we seem to have peaked clock speeds in the same general vicinity so the good/better/best CPUs have me

. Any reader's digest hardware comparo sites would be useful to me.

I know fast hard drives are where it's at and ok spending money there. But can someone point me at a resonably priced mobo/CPU combo that isn't completely bottom of the barrell?

 

[Colt45ws]

How much are you looking to spend?

 

[The_Jeff]

trying to keep it under $80 for the drive and $80 for the rest. Of course the rule of $15 will make it 2x better keeps popping up.

 

[BearZDefect]

IMO, some years ago, Intel made their CPU labels useless for determining performance. With their E###0, T###0, X###0, etc, it's hard to tell what is faster than the other. I can guess by a few specs, like cache size, MHz, and a few others, but I think they created this scheme purely for marketing purposes.

Ex, how much faster is a T8400 than a T4400? (I know that depends somewhat on the task.) Aside from cache size, is there any other difference between them? Power consumption?

eljefino, sorry about this sidetrack.

 

[BearZDefect]

I should add, Intel has nice spec sheets on their processors, where you can see all the features, and TDP numbers, but it still leaves you guessing about the actual computing performance, and power consumption in typical applications.

 

[greenaccord02]

If you don't know what you're looking at in the raw specs, just find a few processors in your price range and then compare their benchmark scores on reviewers' sites.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
IMO, some years ago, Intel made their CPU labels useless for determining performance. With their E###0, T###0, X###0, etc, it's hard to tell what is faster than the other. I can guess by a few specs, like cache size, MHz, and a few others, but I think they created this scheme purely for marketing purposes.

Ex, how much faster is a T8400 than a T4400? (I know that depends somewhat on the task.) Aside from cache size, is there any other difference between them? Power consumption?

eljefino, sorry about this sidetrack.


It's not a sidetrack, that's what I've been struggling with. I typically get AMD and have been quite happy. The celeron was a black friday emachines special-- also good. I've also found that by buying a seperate graphics card, last years model, even a used one on ebay, I drastically lower CPU load. "Gamers" (not me

) with money to blow keep the obsolecense curve where it's useful to me.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
IMO, some years ago, Intel made their CPU labels useless for determining performance. With their E###0, T###0, X###0, etc,


I don't know about any other factors, but I do know that certain prefixes indicate that the CPU is or is not capable of CPU-based virtualization.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

New Egg's bundle kits have some good values there, especially on the low end:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboBundleDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.352460

Good MB (my favorite AMD M/B!) with digital connectors, decent CPU for your purposes, 2GB RAM, Case,...add your favorite disk drive and CPU fan, you're all set.

 

[labman]

Check Tigerdirect. I got a good deal a couple of years ago on a PC Chips MO/AMD chip. You won't get the service you do at New egg, but the price may be right.

 

[The_Jeff]

Nice Combo TNS I'll think along those lines. Wish one could substitute a HD for the box, everyone has boxes and they aren't really worth the $60 IMO.

 

[labman]

I put my new MB, HD, and power supply in an old 90's vintage biege case. It still has a turbo light. Everything fit perfectly.

 

[The_Jeff]

Now I'm looking at a dell optiplex GX620 on ebay that I could pick up locally. Bidding starts at $1.

Supposed to have the Intel Pentium D840 3.2Ghz, any good?

Deal includes a 500 GB SATA hard drive so even if I chuck the mobo in the future due to dry caps or whatever I should come out ahead.

 

[BearZDefect]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
If you don't know what you're looking at in the raw specs, just find a few processors in your price range and then compare their benchmark scores on reviewers' sites.

Agreed, but I rarely find a direct comparison on a reviewer's site of two processors I'd like to compare.

I understand the raw specs just fine, but they don't tell the whole story about relative computing performance and power consumption.

Originally Posted By: uc50ic4more
I don't know about any other factors, but I do know that certain prefixes indicate that the CPU is or is not capable of CPU-based virtualization.

Here are some spec sheets:

For the T4400:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=40739

For the T8300:
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=33099

You can see that the T8xxx supports VT whereas the T4xxx does not.

Why is the max TDP for the T8100 and T8300 more than the T8700?
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=33916
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37006

I am sure there was a T8400 and T8600 last year (perhaps with the 1066MHz FSB like the T8700), but no spec sheets for those anymore?

Oh well, in the end it's not a big deal to me anyway.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Now I'm looking at a dell optiplex GX620 on ebay that I could pick up locally. Bidding starts at $1.

Supposed to have the Intel Pentium D840 3.2Ghz, any good?

Deal includes a 500 GB SATA hard drive so even if I chuck the mobo in the future due to dry caps or whatever I should come out ahead.


Don't, repeat, DON'T purchase a GX620. Bad P/S burn up the M/B's. We have seen too many failures of these units. KHHHHRAP.

 

[Colt45ws]

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Now I'm looking at a dell optiplex GX620 on ebay that I could pick up locally. Bidding starts at $1.

Supposed to have the Intel Pentium D840 3.2Ghz, any good?

Deal includes a 500 GB SATA hard drive so even if I chuck the mobo in the future due to dry caps or whatever I should come out ahead.



Don't, repeat, DON'T purchase a GX620. Bad P/S burn up the M/B's. We have seen too many failures of these units. KHHHHRAP.


http://www.badcaps.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6055
Its so bad they have a kit in the store to redo the motherboard.

 

[The_Jeff]

yeah I was reading about those optiplexes on the badcaps(?) forums and the small form factors do worse than the fullsize ones, and I'm looking at a fullsize.

If in fact bad power or ventilation is to blame I can modify the old case and PS to accept these parts. And I don't plan on paying more than a tank of gas on this.

But a new CPU/mobo/ram combo for cheap is still on my radar, its a question of finding the deal.

 

[The_Jeff]

ok, yuck, that optiplex's CPU is 4 years old, kind of a bit aged... might buy it just for the 500 GB hard drive tho...

 

[Cutehumor]

check your local craigslist as well for pc stuff. there are still folks who have to buy the latest and greatest windows 7 so they buy a new computer. Their vista machines are collecting dust. so there could be some deals out there.

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

Didn't realize the GX620's had cap problems.


What have repeatedly witnessed is a bad P/S knocking out the M/B...and sometimes the RAM. Dell would replace all of it under warranty. Granted the GX620 is not near as failure-prone as the GX270, HP Evo530, etc, but still, it's a poor design.

Another thing about the GX620 was the Philips IDE DVD-RW drives were quite bad quality-wise.


The Optiplex 745 and higher have been real good so far.