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| 7/13 |
| 2004/8/27-28 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:33192 Activity:insanely high |
8/27 I'm currently running a 1.2 Ghz Celeron with 386 megs or so of RAM.
I'm thinking of buying a new machine, but I want to go cheap, maybe
less than $500. I want to end up with a nice machine and a crap
machine at the end of this. (Crap machine so my wife can do email and
stuff) so don't need a CD drive or monitor, and the video card
doesn't have to be great because I already have a nice one in my
current machine. A TNT2 would be fine (It just has to be good enough
to play video full screen). Any suggestions?
Will I be able to use the old ram in my new machine?
\_ What are you proposing? Buying a crap machine for your wife?
Buying a tricked-out new machine and giving her the Celeron, or
buying a new machine, and putting some of the Celeron's parts in it?
\_ Option B + C. I going to take the nice video card out of the
celeron, so I'll need one to replace that. I'll also take the CD
burner, and some RAM if I can. I'll probably need to buy: New
processor, motherboard, case, harddrve, and RAM for the new
system.
\_ OK. Almost any video card can play full-screen videos. I
could sell you an old Radeon VE for $10 or something or you
can go on Craigslist. The RAM is not transferable to the
new computer because the Celeron is probably using PC133 and
a new machine would be using DDR400 or the like.
I bought an ATX case I like and have had it for 6 years.
If you're video-card shopping, the magic word is 'overlay'.
\_ What's an overlay?
\_ Dell is routinely selling 2.8GHz systems for less than $500. See
http://gotapex.com. The Dimension 4600 systems are great and include
integrated video (but have an AGP slot), SATA, and typically 512MB
Ram. Watch out for the 2400's though, they don't have an AGP slot.
\_ AMD! AMD IS THE STANDARD ENTHUSIAST CHIP!
\_ That's interesting info. However, aren't chips up to 3.8 Ghz or
something now? Shouldn't I at least be able to get a AMD 64-bit
3Ghz processor cheap by now?
\_ Search the same page for amd and you'll get some results.
\_ And what the freak is an AMD Sempron? Sounds like a word for a
deformed shrimp.
\_ It is a brand-name that AMD came up with to prevent
Athlon(TM) brand from becoming perceived as "low-end"
because, frankly, they're not. Most of the current desktop
Sempron processors are K7-based cores. The only exception
is the 3100+, which is basically a true Claw Hammer (256k
L2) with a fuse blown to disable long-mode. It's
practically identical to a Drill Hammer Athlon 64 2800+
(512k L2), other than the fact that it has a smaller die and
that it cannot enter long-mode. All mobile Sempron chips
are K8-based, again with long-mode disabled.
It appears that all corporation-generated trade-markable
names get made fun of. Can _you_ come up with something
better? Seriously, I'd like to hear your opinions.
And above comments such as "I'm currently running a 1.2 Ghz
Celeron" and "aren't chips up to 3.8 Ghz or something now?"
really saddens me.
\_ why does that sadden you? i was running a 500 MHz celeron,
up until a few weeks ago, and it was all right for most
things, except playing some movies and all games.
though having 1 GB ram does do a lot.
\_ Those "2800+" numbers have become silly with so many chips
with the same number but different performance. Oh and do you
work in marketing? There is no need for (TM) on the Motd(TM)
CSUA(TM) Motd(TM) Copyright (C) 2004. All Rights Reserved.
\_ As much as I hate all those numbers, those are all that
most people look at. In fact, it saddens me that people
buy things based on numbers instead of even attempting to
learn a bit more about the products they're buying and
thinking about their requirements. It's not all that hard
to differentiate them if you just try little bit. For
example, at this point, I just cannot possibly recommend
anyone buy a K7-based processor. Embedded memory
controllers on K8-based processors are simply too
worthwhile to pass on. No, I don't work in marketing. I
work in microprocessor design verification. --ricky
\_ I'm kinda wondering about your sadness too. What part of
that post makes you cry?
\_ Except for that certain Celeron (known as CeleronA, I
think), they're like 300 horse power engine attached to a
1980's 2-speed automatic transmission. Seeing as how
during the most of the period these were available, Athlon
was also available at similar price points, it makes me
feel sad that people were buying these. The other part
about 3.8GHz thing, to me anyway, shows the lack of
understanding of microprocessors in general by the general
population. Not much I can do about it, but still
saddening. --ricky
\_ I'm sure the marketroids who probably spend many meetings
coming up with that would be hurt. I can only guess it's related
to the latin, as in "semper fidelis". I don't think it works
they way they think though. Just like celeron is supposed to have
the association with excel, accelerate etc. but to me just sounds
like celery. Or "sell her on". Or cellophane.
\_ Semprini!
\_ Update, I was going by Fry's anyway, so I stopped by to take a
look, there were some good deals, so I went ahead and bought
what I needed. I got: Athlon XP 2800+ and mother board for
$100, 512Mb of 400 Mhz ram, $60, and a Maxtor 7200 RPM 160 GB
HD for $70. In particular I think that HD is a pretty dang
good deal. I think this should cover me. -op |
| 7/13 |
|
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