Author Topic: Computer Standards  (Read 4220 times)

Offline ibis

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Computer Standards
« on: May 28, 2010, 07:59:00 PM »
I was wondering what the latest computer standards were.  I have not bought a new one in so many years I don't even know what rocks and what doesn't. 

In a list from minimum, normal to The SHIT, list the memory, HD, CPU processor, etc.
 :P

Offline micksimmonds

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #1 on: May 28, 2010, 08:06:54 PM »
I think the latest and greatest is like the Intel i5/i7?

I have a Intel Quad Core 3.2ghz with 6GB RAM, running Windows 7 Ultimate, in a HAF932 Case, 10TB of Hard Drives, and a nice ATI HD 4670 GFX Card, whilst the GFX card was low end, still plays everything good that I throw at it, more a workhorse  ;D
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Offline HammysHangout ( Hammy )

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2010, 12:10:42 AM »
i am running an i7 860, 2.8ghz, 8gb ram, adaptec 5805 sas/sata controller, and 10tb of disk space as well.., win7 pro 64bit

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Offline funky49

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2010, 08:03:46 AM »
What are your needs? What is your budget?

CPU: For laptops, you want to stick to Intel with at least a Core2Duo. Whatever ghz is fine. Get more speed if you spend time rendering video or something. I'm not sure if the Core i7s offer a lot more for the money over a Core i5, but I could be wrong. Core i3 is kinda like a fancy Core2Duo.

RAM: 2 gigs is minimum. 4 gigs if you do a lot at one time on a computer. 8gig if you do a lot of things at the same time (virtual machines) but be sure to run a 64 bit OS if you want to use more than 3.25gigs of ram.

HDD: You can g with a SSD hard drive for your 'OS' drive and a SATA drive as your 'data' drive'. Raided SSDs for your OS drive and raided SATAs for your data would be the shiznit.

Video: I have no clue. Whatever has a DVI out to your DVI monitor. Or two DVI outs to two DVI-input monitors if you need more screen real estate. Try to get an LED-backlit LCD display for laptops.

OS: Windows 7 is nice, try to avoid Vista. If you know a college student you can get Win7 for $65 - www.win741.com - buy them a few 12-packs for their trouble. I guess Ubuntu is the current cool Linux distro to go with.
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Offline HammysHangout ( Hammy )

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2010, 12:08:31 PM »
i got a dead ssd drives on my desk :o)

was used in linux server, both died after a month of being online.

G.Skill 128GB

not sure what caused failure, im sure if i reformat it it will be fine.
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Offline ibis

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2010, 10:05:19 AM »
What are your needs? What is your budget?

CPU: For laptops, you want to stick to Intel with at least a Core2Duo. Whatever ghz is fine. Get more speed if you spend time rendering video or something. I'm not sure if the Core i7s offer a lot more for the money over a Core i5, but I could be wrong. Core i3 is kinda like a fancy Core2Duo.

RAM: 2 gigs is minimum. 4 gigs if you do a lot at one time on a computer. 8gig if you do a lot of things at the same time (virtual machines) but be sure to run a 64 bit OS if you want to use more than 3.25gigs of ram.

HDD: You can g with a SSD hard drive for your 'OS' drive and a SATA drive as your 'data' drive'. Raided SSDs for your OS drive and raided SATAs for your data would be the shiznit.

Video: I have no clue. Whatever has a DVI out to your DVI monitor. Or two DVI outs to two DVI-input monitors if you need more screen real estate. Try to get an LED-backlit LCD display for laptops.

OS: Windows 7 is nice, try to avoid Vista. If you know a college student you can get Win7 for $65 - www.win741.com - buy them a few 12-packs for their trouble. I guess Ubuntu is the current cool Linux distro to go with.


What I need is a new tower, the one we use at the house finally died after 8 years.  Not interested in video editing, hard core gaming, etc.  I just need a solid workhorse that will last me a few years.  hats why I was asking for the three levels of specs; to get an idea what is baseline, low end and high end.

Offline funky49

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2010, 11:48:46 AM »
What I need is a new tower, the one we use at the house finally died after 8 years.  Not interested in video editing, hard core gaming, etc.  I just need a solid workhorse that will last me a few years.  hats why I was asking for the three levels of specs; to get an idea what is baseline, low end and high end.

What will you be doing on this machine? Any gaming? Mostly Office and web browsing?
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Offline Niloc

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2010, 05:43:35 PM »
What I need is a new tower, the one we use at the house finally died after 8 years.  Not interested in video editing, hard core gaming, etc.  I just need a solid workhorse that will last me a few years.  hats why I was asking for the three levels of specs; to get an idea what is baseline, low end and high end.


Pretty simple then - for a new desktop it's Core i3 for lower end, Core i5 for midrange and Core i7 for the high end.

Since you don't need high-end gaming or video editing then a Core i5 is probably the best bang for the buck, while still being something that will last several years. Some of the Core i5 chips are supposed to overclock really well too.

The Core i7 has hyperthreading, the Core i5 does not. That's the main difference - but then there's the marketing bullshit - as far as I know all Core i3's are dual-core, some Core i5's are dual, some are quad. Some Core i7's are quad, some are 6-core (sex-core?).

I'd go with a quad-core i5. The 6-core AMDs are also worth considering, or even a quad-core AMD if you want to save some money.


As for the rest get an SSD for the boot drive, at least 80 gigs, then a big data drive - the 1.5 terrabyte drives are currently the best $ per gigabyte. 3 terrabyte drives should be out later this year.

Any ATI or Nvidia card will work since you're not interested in high-end games - something around $150 should last the life of the machine.

As others have said, go with Windows 7, 64 bit. Pro or Ultimate if you want XP mode, but that's probably not necisarry - Win 7 has already been out long enough so that there's a lot of software choices. Home Premium is cheaper and will work fine.

At least 4 gigs of RAM. I'd go with 8 or 12.

Optical drive of your choice - a DVD burner can be had for around $22 these days. A Blu-Ray reader will cost a bit more, a Blu-Ray burner will still run you some cash, thought they have come down a bit. I'd go with either the basic DVD burner or the Blu-Ray reader - I don't see much point in a Blu-Ray burner, the blanks are still crazy expensive and they only hold 25gigs - not really a practical backup option when you've got thousands of gigs on a single hard drive.

Other than that I'd try to find a motherboard with USB 3.0, or a USB 3.0 add-in card, and get at least a 650 watt power supply.


If you just want something pre-built I've set up several clients with these;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883103238

They're closer to the low-end than the mid-range though, but cheap and solid machines. You can even go $50 lower by dropping to a triple-core, or $50 lower than that for a dual-core.

Downsides to them - shared video memory, no SSD. Nice & compact, though not very expandable.

Offline ibis

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2010, 11:15:46 PM »
This was great information!!!!  THANKS!!

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #9 on: June 08, 2010, 11:28:31 PM »
Pretty simple then - for a new desktop it's Core i3 for lower end, Core i5 for midrange and Core i7 for the high end.

Agreed, don't touch anything less.  I got a 17" laptop core i5 4G RAM 500G hard drive for $600, so take your shopping from that baseline.  In 3 more years you'll get twice the computer for $300.

The Core i7 has hyperthreading, the Core i5 does not. That's the main difference - but then there's the marketing bullshit - as far as I know all Core i3's are dual-core, some Core i5's are dual, some are quad. Some Core i7's are quad, some are 6-core (sex-core?).

That's not exactly true, a core aspect of the Nehalem architecture is the re-introduction of Hyperthreading to the consumer market across the entire line of core i3/5/7 processors.  If it's not available in some, it's a minority of the models available.  Core i5's have "turbo boost" which is either a clever marketing ploy or a nice power saving feature for notebook computers.  There are in fact dual core core i7 processors.

I still contend Intel came out with the ultimate processor 18 months ago, then realized if they sold it to everyone they'd kill their business for a few years, so they crippled those processors umpteen different ways in order to introduce an entire line of 30 different crippled versions of the Core i7 processor at 30 different price points to keep AMD at bay and confuse their customers.  Intel has hardly upgraded the core i7 for 18 months yet have been able to hold pat on pricing for well over a year... it's phenomenal market control.  Unless you need performance for a specific reason just shop by price, there's hardly a good way to make heads or tales of this, but I do think core i5 should be a minimum purchase.
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Offline Niloc

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2010, 02:34:25 AM »
That's not exactly true, a core aspect of the Nehalem architecture is the re-introduction of Hyperthreading to the consumer market across the entire line of core i3/5/7 processors.  If it's not available in some, it's a minority of the models available.  Core i5's have "turbo boost" which is either a clever marketing ploy or a nice power saving feature for notebook computers.  There are in fact dual core core i7 processors.

You're right. When I first read about the Core i5 only the ones without hyperthreading were out. The strange thing is that the i5 with 4 physical cores is still the one without hyperthreading, the dual-core i5s have it, so they all appear to have 4 cores in Windows, while the i7's all appear to have 8 (or 12 for the one 6-core model). The marketing on these is a real mess, no way to know how many cores you're getting from the branding.

Looks like the i7 can handle triple-channel DDR3 while the i5 only does dual-channel. Triple channel is nice for a high-end system since you typically get 6 RAM slots on a full-sized mobo, easier to deck it out with 12 or 24 gigs of RAM, but definitely overkill for a mid-range box.

As for dual-core i7's, those I haven't seen - are they being marketed as i7's or are they using the same silicon and being marked as a different part? If they're mobile/low-power chips I don't keep up with those as much, for the desktop I haven't seen any though.


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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2010, 10:23:06 PM »
As for dual-core i7's, those I haven't seen - are they being marketed as i7's or are they using the same silicon and being marked as a different part? If they're mobile/low-power chips I don't keep up with those as much, for the desktop I haven't seen any though.

They are the mobile chips
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Offline funky49

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2010, 08:56:40 AM »
i5 is sick. the only way i've been able to choke the thing is to set up VMs to eat up the ram. i need to render some video to make this thing cry or something. oh, i'll rip these Saved By The Bell DVDs I borrowed!
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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2022, 04:51:53 AM »
The Core i7 has hyperthreading, the Core i5 does not. That's the main difference - but then there's the marketing bullshit - as far as I know all Core i3's are dual-core, some Core i5's are dual, some are quad.

Offline HammysHangout ( Hammy )

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Re: Computer Standards
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2022, 08:43:58 PM »
The Core i7 has hyperthreading, the Core i5 does not. That's the main difference - but then there's the marketing bullshit - as far as I know all Core i3's are dual-core, some Core i5's are dual, some are quad.

Um, You do realize this post is 12 years old? welcome to the village?
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