[extropy-chat] TECH: Computer Upgrade Paths...

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, May 15, 2004 at 10:03:32AM -0700, Robert J. Bradbury wrote:
> 
> I ran across the Specs/Prices for the HP Compaq Presario S6900NX recently
> and it looks like you can pick up a really nice machine based on the AMD
> Athlon 64 (I'll never buy an Intel again because they desupported the
> YC72 video camera within months of its release).  The price from Radio
> Shack or Walmart seem to bbe running in the ~$1100 range.

I'm installing an Athon64 2 GHz 1 GByte DDR400 system right now (Fedora Core
2 test3 x86_64 and Windows 2000). Asus K8V SE Deluxe, 10 krpm WD SATA drive,
Antec Sonata case, Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu heat sink, dual-head (19" BenQ LCD)
ATI Radeon 9600, passively cooled.

Very cheap (most components free, though), good performance. I definitely do
recommend Athlon64, if you're on a budget.
 
> Now its only a 2GHz machine but its running a 64 bit processor/bus.

Doesn't help much (only 20-40%) if your OS doesn't support it.
 
> It looks like most of the stuff one would want is included in the
> machine with the possible exception of a sound card.

Most onboard audio is nigh to useless, so I would invest in an (external)
audio card (stay away from anything SoundBlaster, though, even it claims to
do 24 bit audio -- it doesn't).
 
> Now if all of this is accurate -- why on earth would one want a
> Dell Dimension XPS (@ ~$1900) or an Apple G5 (@ ~$2800+).

Dell has some speedy machines (P4, no AMD) for the money, so I wouldn't diss it.
Neigher Apple, G5 entry level is some 1.9 kEur. All of above are good
machines. I would definitely recommend any G4/G5 OS X box for a
legacy-nonencumbred novice (and for some professional as well).
 
> [One could buy ~2 Presario's for the price of an XPS or ~3 Presario's
> for the price of a G5...]
> 
> Now, if one can find a vendor selling the Presario without the
> preinstalled Windows XP the price should be even lower (if one
> then installs Linux and perhaps WINE (to get windows compat.)).

I use dual-boot (Win2K, won't touch XP) and VMWare for redmondwork. Which
isn't often -- it's mostly for testing, and Windows-only software to placate
S.O. (she's doing fine in both Fedora and Jaguar, though, it's only for
speciality software use).
 
> Is the productivity on a Pentium 4 or a G5 *really* so much higher
> than an Athlon that it justifies this kind of price differential?

OS X (I type this on an ssh IEEE 802.11g session on a G4 Panther iBook) is very good for
productivity. It saves time on tinkering, system usually does just work (and
due to GNU/Darwin underneath, and some support forums one has usually a good
chance to fix anything doesn't, in finite time).

> [You have to remember that I'm typing this on a dual Pentium Pro
> @ 200 MHz (~6 year old technology) and it usually meets my needs
> just fine...]

You're untypical. Meaning, you're not a gamer, nor a video freak, not even
SOHO office type person. There's different "best" hardware for each user
profile nowadays.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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