Bobo Balinski

Navinjohnson, Purdue does not require the freshmen to pick an Engineering major the first year, and they are exposed to all of the majors so that he will be better prepared to choose. With that said, he is strongly leaning towards a ME, and possibly also an EE. How was your first year at Iowa? One last question on the CPU's: What is the difference between a dual core Opteron and X2 Athalon, given the same ghz? Does the Opteron have any particular advantage over the Athalon?

My goodness, GREAT commentary. I know that he was using Inventor at high school, but he'll know better in a couple of weeks as to what CAD sw he will be dabbling with. Fairly loud chorus above for the 3800+. Here are the current prices at Newegg: - X2 3800+ 2.0ghz $64 - X2 4200+ 2.2ghz $80 - Opteron 175 2.2ghz $140 - Opteron 180 2.4ghz $165 - Opteron 185 2.6ghz $235 :confused: How would you spend my money??

2.6mhz sounds like underclocking.... We haven't tried the overclocking gig yet, seems to run so fine I am a bit nervous to tamper with it. What would be a safe bet in the OC world? It is amazing to see that we have 11 CPU options for an obsolete motherboard - only in America. I appreciate your ideas on the value options. My son is going off to college (1st year Purdue engineering) in a couple of days. He says he needs the upgrade because of all of the heavy CAD work he'll be doing. Am I a sucker or what???

So the Opteron 185 will work in this MB, and that is the end of the road.... Can I put any socket 939 in this MB? I noticed that there are not many 939's selling new (11 at Newegg), including the Opteron 185 for $235 and a X2 3800 for $64. I did not consider getting a used one, that makes sense I suppose. How does the FX compare to the X2?

We have a socket 939 DFI Lanparty UT nf4 Ultra D with a AMD Venice 3200+ cpu. What is a good value CPU for an upgrade? How does the FX compare to the X2? BBB

We just installed 2-7200.10 320GB drives as RAID 0. We follwed angrygames instructions for our motherboard. All went well except for the setup of Windows. We have been at the blue screen for hours waiting for Windows to "setup". What could we have done wrong? BBB

Thx for the links, tjv. This warrants sitting down and doing a little figuring. I was trying to get in to Newegg's site but they've been having problems all evening. Maybe tomorrow. Thx again. BBB

Thx for the replies, guys. You both seem to agree on the matter. I'll have to brush up on the perpendicular technology. So maybe we should get 3: 2 for the RAID 0 and 1 for data as you have done, Jamesvolta. I can't believe the size of disks now. I remember when 40 MB was huge. BBB

I would like to replace my old, small drives in my LanpartyUT nF4 Ultra-D system. So I am looking for something that is very stable and reliable for a RAID 0 array. I am planning on 2 SATA 300 drives. I have checked the prices on 10000rpm drives but they seem quite expensive. Should I put everything on the one array, or is it wise to add another drive for data? Any thoughts and advise will be appreciated. BBB

I am looking for 2 price point options: around $1500 and $2000. Darkorb, you are on target with what I was thinking. How do the Intel's and AMD's compare in this lower price range? Which is the best value?

My friend asked for some help in buying a mid-range gaming PC. When I was active on the matter 9 months ago AMD was the clear choice. Now Intel has their new product line out. These folks want a gaming PC that isn't really a gaming PC. They just want to run SIMS games. I know, I know. Someone suggested a $2800 Intel E6400 with dual GeFource 7900 GT. So I am trying to come up with a strong running, good value option. I am thinking a dual core AMD and a single video card system. What wisdom can you spare me??? BBB

Well, one would think that a 10000rpm SATA2 drive would be the way to go. But they are not on the market. So, should I get a SATA2 or a 10000rpm? The seek and latency times are better on the 10000rpm SATA1 than on a 7200rpm SATA2. So it seems like the data transfer rate (ie; SATA 1 vs 2) is somewhat inconsequential. Is that right? Does the SATA 2 3gb transfer rate prove important with massive data copying, as in doing a backup, but otherwise, is not important to running applications/games? Should Windows be put on a fast drive (10000rpm)? Do the games do better on a 10000rpm, or is does this only improve the initial loading of the game? I am starting to believe that the following is a smart config: 1. Windows goes on a pair of fast drives, RAID 0 (10000rpm), doesn't need to be large. The RAID 0 with 2 drives will nearly double the speed to the operating system. 2. Data, apps, and games go on a SATA2 7200rpm drive. 3. Get an external drive to back up the data. BBB

I appreciate all of your comments thus far. However I am still seeking out wisdom on RPM, cache, seek time, latency, and SATA 150 vs 300? BBB

We are putting our new system together and originally planned to use our old 40gb IDE drive until I can recover from the wallet shock of purchasing all of the goodies listed below. But now I am thinking I'll just sell my car or something and buy a nice HD system. I am looking for recommendations for both a non-RAID solution (assuming I do not get much for my car), and a RAID solution (assuming no one opens the hood and do not drive the car). Not knowing much about RAID, it seems that RAID 0 is the choice to get the OS operating fast, and RAID 1 is good for fault tolerance and diaster recovery for data files. What about seek time, latency, SATA 1 vs 2, 7200rpm vs 10000rpm, 8mb vs 16mb cache? Please advise. BBB

Whoa, talk about some help and advice. Rgone, I am confused on the CPU "multiplier". How do you even find this info on a CPU? Can you recommend a specific model of CPU that represents a good "value"? What about "stepping"? I've noticed that you can select different 3200+: with either a E3, E4, or E6 step? Is the PC4000 a wise choice for me over the PC3200? Keep in mind that I have never even built a PC, much less OC'd one. But, I am fearless and foolish, so therefore, I am ready. BBB