Opinions on this spec?

[Curio]

Building a new machine for the wife - he current Duron system is showing signs of age. She's an artist so the priority is Photoshop and various other graphics packages, web design stuff, a bit of 3D modelling and some "girlie games" like The Sims, SimCity and the like. Multitasking performance is important as she often has various things open and big files flying around. The budget is around $850. She doesn't need a monitor as she already has a nice Sony Trinitron 200PS, and she can use her old mouse and keyboard as well. I won't be overclocking anything - it'll all be at stock. So...

PowerMax Dreamstar ATX case - $49.99
Antec All Clear Pro 120mm Double Ball Bearing Case fan - $13.49
Antec SmartPower 400 Watt Power Supply - $59.00
Pentium4 640 3.2GHz CPU - $289.00
Spire CoolWave II P4 Prescott LGA775 cooler - $20.49
Gigabyte GA-8I915G Pro i915G Chipset Motherboard - $101.00
Kingmax SuperRAM Dual Channel Kit 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - $97.03
Gigabyte ATi Radeon X600 PRO 128MB, 128-Bit, PCI Express - $104.00
Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $59.00
Sony 52x32x52 CD-RW/16x DVD-ROM (plus rounded cable) - $39.28
Creative SBS350 2.1 Speakers with Wired remote - $24.99
TOTAL = $857.27

Will be using the onboard audio/LAN. The case is still something I'm working on - that's not set in stone. The hard drive may seem small, but she dumps most stuff onto CD-ROM and doesn't keep it on the HD. She's coping fine with a 40GB right now.

I was thinking of pushing the boat out a bit and going for a DDR2 system - but am I right in thinking it isn't worth the extra money? I might be willing to spend the extra if it will make any noticable difference for her.....?

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

[Regs]

Even though I doubt the type of multitasking she does would take any advantage of the Intel architecture, I would actually just get a 500 series Intel instead of a 600 series. The 600 series just has slap on features from their Xeon server class counterparts, (An extra MB of L2 Cache for example), that hardly effect desk top apps.

For me to recommend any Prescott right now is hard. I would have to know for sure what exactly you plan to do with the computer because there is a huge payoff in choosing it vs. a AMD 939 64.

 

[Regs]

Hell, even Anands Winestone Multitasking Content Creation benchmark has the Intel beat with most of the programs you likely use.

. Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0.1
. Adobe® Premiere® 6.50
. Macromedia® Director MX 9.0
. Macromedia® Dreamweaver MX 6.1
. Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980
. NewTek's LightWave® 3D 7.5b
. SteinbergTM WaveLabTM 4.0f

Link

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Curio

Pentium4 640 3.2GHz CPU - $289.00
Spire CoolWave II P4 Prescott LGA775 cooler - $20.49

There is no way in hell that HSF will cool that CPU w/o it throttling constantly.

 

[ribbon13]

But whatever, go ahead and get Intel. Their dual cores will take a whole new chipset and motherboard. You'll cry when the first benchmarks of a Toledo vs a current P4 come out. And I'll be there. And I'll be laughing.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2005q1/pentium4-600/index.x?pg=11
Notice yours is second to the bottom?

I do professional 3D modeling. I love Intel. They make awesome SQL servers. But an Intel will never see the inside of my workstation.

 

[Curio]

Originally posted by: Amaroque

Originally posted by: Curio

Pentium4 640 3.2GHz CPU - $289.00
Spire CoolWave II P4 Prescott LGA775 cooler - $20.49

There is no way in hell that HSF will cool that CPU w/o it throttling constantly.

Are you sure about that? It's better than the stock Intel retail unit and it gets very good reviews. Can you recommend anther cooler then?

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Regs
Hell, even Anands Winestone Multitasking Content Creation benchmark has the Intel beat with most of the programs you likely use.

. Adobe® Photoshop® 7.0.1
. Adobe® Premiere® 6.50
. Macromedia® Director MX 9.0
. Macromedia® Dreamweaver MX 6.1
. Microsoft® Windows MediaTM Encoder 9 Version 9.00.00.2980
. NewTek's LightWave® 3D 7.5b
. SteinbergTM WaveLabTM 4.0f

Link

 

[ribbon13]

Also, my girlfriend is an avid player of the Sims 2. I wouldn't even attempt to write that off as a 'girlie' game in terms of how much resource it eats. I've seen it take 1688MB of physical ram, when she had a mansion with 15 sims 'stuck' there.

$40 EverCase E4252B-53
$75 Seasonic Tornado 400w PSU
$12 Antec 120mm

$119 Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
$58x2 Corsair VS512MB400
$190 AMD ADA3200BIBOX

$69 Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST380817AS
$60 NEC ND-3520a

$160 Sapphire X700 Pro

~$841

Can you swing that?

Edit: Shaved $20 for a better, cheaper video card

 

[thirdlegstump]

With PS, you want maximum disk I/O performance as well as multithreaded performance. Intel is the way to go in this case. Go with an Intel chipset and a fast IDE drive as I still think SATA drivers are a bit funky here n there. SATA just doesn't feel smooth under stress.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: deathkoba
I still think SATA drivers are a bit funky here n there. SATA just doesn't feel smooth under stress.

It doesn't make any difference, except for the cable type. As far as XP is concerned it's just another ATA drive.

 

[Curio]

Thanks for all suggestions. Given me lots to think about...

One thing, the reason I went for P4 instead of A64 in my original spec is because I know somebody who runs both (and who I trust) and he says his A64 rig at home murders his P4 work machine when it comes to gaming, but he finds the P4 much smoother for multitasking. I've also seen this backed up on various other forums - by people who actually use the machines, not just based on benchmarks. Of course, I've also read plenty of comments by A64 users who say there's no difference. It's very confusing and driving me nuts to be honest

I'm not ordering for another few weeks yet, so I'll keep my eye on things...

 

[thirdlegstump]

Let's just say I work as a tech for a a/v post production studio running a bunch of dual xeon scsi rigs and have conducted exhausting tests running various platforms. Often enough AMD will be faster at one thing but that doesn't mean much when you've got other tasks to finish at the same time.

 

[ribbon13]

Intel owners are gonna cry this fall man... it's called Toledo. Dual-core A64 And Intel's advantage in multitasking is going to dissappear like a fart in the wind.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: ribbon13
Intel owners are gonna cry this fall man... it's called Toledo. Dual-core A64 And Intel's advantage in multitasking is going to dissappear like a fart in the wind.

Also, you'll need a new MB to use a 2c Intel CPU. An AMD 2c CPU will just drop rite in with only a BIOS update. Sweet!

 

[Curio]

To be honest, that won't affect my decision. I've been tinkering with PC's for around 15 years now - first thing I learned is that something faster is always just around the corner. My wife won't be interested in upgrading (apart from maybe a video card upgrade...) for at least a couple of years. She's currently using a 1.2GHz Duron, 384MB SDRAM and GeForce3 Ti 200 - and if it wasn't for the fact it's started to become a bit flakey she's generally quite happy with it.

 

[ribbon13]

Then you shouldn't be worried about multitasking performance comparisons. And if she likes photoshop a lot, then she should see an SMP machine... to scoff at upgrading to dual cpu over a video card when she's more a multitasker is just... stupid in gentle terms.

 

[PeteRoy]

You better not use 3rd party cooler, Intel coolers are very high quality while most 3rd party coolers stink.

To get cool and quiet pc, get a Intel approved case

Newegg sell those

 

[ribbon13]

The Evercase is linked earlier is the poster child for bang for buck quiet cases... uses a 120mm fan, and the Seasonic uses a 120mm too... moves a lot of air and is extremely quiet... its probably the quietest config you can get short of water cooling or vapor phase.

 

[mcveigh]

I have an evercase...great quality. I love it.

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Curio
To be honest, that won't affect my decision. I've been tinkering with PC's for around 15 years now...

Then why start a thread asking "Opinions on this spec?" Were you just looking for support?

Curio: That's a great system. It will run damn near cold with that CPU, and HSF. It will also run circles around an A64. Great choice. :thumbsup:

 

[Curio]

wow, this is the most unfriendly board I think I've ever had the misfortune to visit! It's like the old 3dfx v nVidia days of a few years ago - forums full of idiotic fanboys who can't take even a slight word against their chosen "side" without getting all defensive and insulting. Pathetic.

I wasn't looking for "support" at all - within a few replies I had almost changed my mind and gone for AMD instead. I still might. I also wasn't "scoffing" at anything either....

I certainly won't be coming here again - there is no valuable or reliable information or opinions.....just juvenile nerds frothing at the mouth over their beloved brand of choice. Anybody who dares to even mention Intel is set upon, patronised and insulted until they go away. Which is what I'm going to do now...

Have fun kids.

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: Curio
wow, this is the most unfriendly board I think I've ever had the misfortune to visit! It's like the old 3dfx v nVidia days of a few years ago - forums full of idiotic fanboys who can't take even a slight word against their chosen "side" without getting all defensive and insulting. Pathetic.

I wasn't looking for "support" at all - within a few replies I had almost changed my mind and gone for AMD instead. I still might. I also wasn't "scoffing" at anything either....

I certainly won't be coming here again - there is no valuable or reliable information or opinions.....just juvenile nerds frothing at the mouth over their beloved brand of choice. Anybody who dares to even mention Intel is set upon, patronised and insulted until they go away. Which is what I'm going to do now...

Have fun kids.

Well, I'm a little reticent to say it, but there's a lot of truth in what you just said, Curio. This is something I've endured myself for awhile, as there a number of developmentally arrested adolescents on this site that spend more time gaming than interacting with other humans, and boy does it show: rude, mean, illiterate, pseudo-intellectual "kids" who need to grow up a bit and get a life beyond their computer. And I won't even get into the America haters and socialists who post their lies and laughable political propaganda in their sigs, as if anyone with a brain would actually be persuaded to their absurd point of view. :roll:

I've referred to some of Anandtech.com's posters before as "wolves and lambs." Tonight, you got a few blunt and borderline wolf-like responses (although it could have been worse :laugh: ), but there will also be times when you'll get polite, respectful, and genuinely helpful advice from folks like mechBgon, KGBMan, Zepper, CraigRT, Matthias99, and actually quite a few others as well. Folks tend to be direct on these forums, and I do too, prolly because computers are things that some people have strong opinions about. It just takes some getting used to.

I've only been 'into computers' for about two years, and I'm nowhere near the top of the learning curve yet. I learn a LOT from this site, and I try not to let the *ahem* 'less helpful' members get to me too much. Who cares what they think? Take the good and discard the bad. Learn from the good guys and ignore the rest.

Just stay away from the Politics & News forum if you want to retain any faith in humanity. :laugh:

Hope you'll reconsider, as it looks like you have some years of experience & knowledge some of us could benefit from. No worries ... whatever you decide, I wish you well.

EDIT: I would like to clarify that I personally have never had any probs with anyone from this particular thread before. My comments above were more about some other members whose posts I've found to be consistently, um, unhelpful. I won't mention their names -- they prolly know who they are! :laugh:

 

[Duvie]

I was going to say the P4 is a good choice for the multitasking though I have no respect for the prescott chips...Ever wonder why they dont put the 3.2c northwood up against the 640 and 540??? Because they would get their asses kicked...Get a northwood 3.2c and then you will be getting some speed, less heat etc...the cache wont make much of a big deal...

otherwise I have to agree with the rest I would get either a 3200+ or a 3500+ A64....

 

[Ken90630]

Ever wonder why they dont put the 3.2c northwood up against the 640 and 540??? Because they would get their asses kicked...

Is that because of the Prescott's longer pipeline? If so, at what clock speed do you think the Prescotts 'catch up' and surpass the Northwood? I think Anand found that to be around 3.6GHz, IIRC from his tests when Prescott was new on the scene. Since you live and breath these chips, Duvie, what's your take?

 

[mcveigh]

Originally posted by: Curio
wow, this is the most unfriendly board I think I've ever had the misfortune to visit! It's like the old 3dfx v nVidia days of a few years ago - forums full of idiotic fanboys who can't take even a slight word against their chosen "side" without getting all defensive and insulting. Pathetic.

I wasn't looking for "support" at all - within a few replies I had almost changed my mind and gone for AMD instead. I still might. I also wasn't "scoffing" at anything either....

I certainly won't be coming here again - there is no valuable or reliable information or opinions.....just juvenile nerds frothing at the mouth over their beloved brand of choice. Anybody who dares to even mention Intel is set upon, patronised and insulted until they go away. Which is what I'm going to do now...

Have fun kids.

it can be harsh here...just ignore the idiots