The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

I'm not sure I know anyone not using a 64-bit OS any more.

 

If you are building a new machine definitely go with a 64bit OS it would be foolish not to. The hardware limitations alone mandate this these days and the compatibility issues are minimum and normally can be worked around with ease. Plus the price is the same with 32bit verses 64bit, no-brainer really.

 

That's fair enough. Personally, the 32-bit versions of modern OSes like Vista and 7 really wind me up, but I can totally understand building 32-bit machines in business/office setups. Just for home machines, when 64-bit OSes I don't think are any more than 32-bit versions, seems somewhat needless to limit yourself to 3.25GB of memory. The PCs I have 4GB in all run 64-bit OSes, the one with 2GB is still XP 32.

 

I personally think that 32 bit should have dies with windows 7 imo.

 

Not looking forward can cost you. So now you decide that you need more ram instead of just adding it you have to rebuild the server! Not the smartest move I'd say, better to be safe than sorry...

 

I did notice the timings of the Cas 8 Ram. The difference between CL 8 and 9 isn't big, and I could probably change the timings easily enough. And for the record, Windows 7 64bit is my flavor of choice at the moment. I have not had one program incompatibility, or security issue?

So you're 99% sure I can transform the dual core into a quad eh? And it would have more potential than the Propus. Why in the world is it being sold cheaper then LOL!

 

Saving $10 bucks wouldn't be worth the gamble to me so I wouldn't suggest it even though Russ thinks it's the way to go. But two 4GB sticks is definately what you should do, that way you can go another 8GB down the road maxing out the board at that point.

 

Agreed I really don't want to take the chance, that a wanna be quad core could have issues, or simply only works as intended. Besides, the Propus is plug and play Though I'll probably be playing with Ram timings anyway.

Any thoughts on a good cheap NAS enclosure? From what I'm seeing at the moment, I'm better off purchasing a built one. If I build one from scratch I'd save little to no money

 

Unfortunately there is no such beast. I've played with most of the cheap contollers and even the cheapy (low end) Netgears aren't too great either. If you want something nice it will cost you, so I don't really have any suggestions to cheap, sorry....

 

I figured as much. I've thought about purchasing WD enclosures from Ebay. That might be the route I take. Unfortunately, Mothers day is tomorrow. I shouldn't have procrastinated this

 

WOW! This one is really cheap! Decent reviews so far too. At that price, it's tempting. 12.99 shipped! I'd be willing to gamble with that. I guess the real question is, could it handle a 2Tb drive. Probably not the 3Tb drives eh?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145380

 

Steve,

I'm basing what I said on my own experience with owning an Athlon IIx4 630 Propus and just having built a Phenom IIx2 555BE that I easily unlocked the cores on. Even as a Dual core, the 555BE is the faster chip because of the much larger cache. Less MIPS but much faster thruput, so it takes much less time to accomplish tasks.

I really don't see it as being any risk at all, because it's not going to be overclocked. If you should get one with a weak core, you can trim that by using the individual core settings and drop the weak core down a little by using the Minus (-) setting.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

You're talking about the 630, I'm purchasing the 640. Probably not much difference, but I can't help but feel if I purchase the 555BE, I'm getting him a lesser chip, and mickey mousing it to save a penny. I realize unlocked, the 555BE should be a better chip, but what if I do get the gimp/lemon? It'd either delay his build, or he'd have a lesser performer. My mothers computer has the 620 Propus. It seems agreeable. But I haven't ran any strenuous processes on it either

Ha ha! Looks like I save 15$ with a promo code on that Ram too

 

Oman7,

The difference between the Cas 8 and Cas 9 is enough to easily be seen. I know because I tried both and then returned the Cas 9 Ripjaws. The build turned out to be the perfect combination of components, and runs like a well "oiled" machine! LOL!!

As far as Win7 64 bit goes, I'm just repeating what I've read on M$ own blog and a few other places. 128 updates for their regular Thursday updates, with most of them for previously unknown security issues is a bit frightening to me.

As far as the 555BE, and why it is cheaper is because production run has been halted on the Phenom IIx2s. It's no longer practical to have to cripple perfectly good Quad cores to make them, which is the reason I'm 99.9% sure that you will get a Quad core out of one. With any of the Propus chips, the limiting factor is the 4x512 L2 cache combined with the lack of any L3 cache. Even as a Dual core the 555BE is the faster chip. Noticeably faster! The likelihood of not getting at least a triple core out of it is almost non-existent! My customer is thrilled beyond words with it!

Russ

 

Well, I see your point. I truly do. I updated my last post by the way.

This build is not mine. If it were, i'd likely buy the dual core phenom. But since I'll only have it for a day, that just isn't enough time to do testing on it. And if it were to turn out being a 3 core, the propus 4 core would have an edge on it. Certainly with X264 encoding, if the guy ever uses it. He's a musician, so I think the 4cores should come in handy. He's also a gamer. And if he ever elects to do overclocking, I'm sure the propus could reach 3.5Ghz. The Dual core phenom may not.

No chance to update my order now. I purchased :S

Thank you all for your words of encouragement, and opinions

Since I saved 15$ on the Ram, I bought that cheapy NAS enclosure by Bytecc. I'll keep the thread informed, regarding usability, and what not