Saturday, August 1, 2009

Calling all nerds

The motherboard in our computer died this week. This is what I'm thinking of replacing it with
  • GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AMD Motherboard
  • AMD Phenom II X4 920 2.8GHz Quad-Core Processor
  • Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 Desktop Memory
  • Kingston SSDNow V-Series 64GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid state disk drive
The 64GB solid state drive would be for the O/S. I already have two 300GB SATA drives which I'll use for data (pictures and stuff). Initially I'll load Vista Home Premium 32-bit; but, I'll upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit when it comes out. I know, I know, if I were a real nerd I'd load Linux - but I just have too much invested in windows software (photoshop, office, etc.). The open source equivalents just aren't quite ready for prime time IMOHO.

Thoughts?

Note, I know I could do better. I could get a 3.0Ghz processor and a motherboard that supports DDR3 memory. But this seems to be the best for the money combo. I estimate less than $500 at newegg.com.

7 comments:

David Baker-@DB389 said...

I would get the DDR3 upgrade. I switched from 2 gb of DDR2 to 2g of DDR3 and the speed is amazing!

playasinmar said...

Do I remember you computer died just a year ago?

What you need is a UPS Surge protector.

If my memory serves, that is.

Abelard Enigma said...

No, I had to reformat and reload Vista about a year ago - but the hardware was fine. And, I have a UPS surge protector.

Abelard Enigma said...

Problem is that most DDR3 m/b's also have AM3 sockets and cost more. AM3 CPU's cost more, DDR3 memory cost more. It just bumps the price up more than I can justify - seeing as how I'm currently unemployed.

But, I'll keep poking around newegg.com to see what I can find :)

Rob said...

Wait for Windows 7 if you can. Vista is crap. I know, I've been suffering with it for 2 years and loathe it.

El Genio said...

How much are you paying for the SSD drive? Do you really need the additional speed it provides? I wanted one for my laptop really bad, but the price differential was so huge I went with a larger drive that wasn't as fast.

Abelard Enigma said...

I don't need space. I already have nearly 1.5TB of hard disk space. My purpose in getting a solid state drive is strictly for speed. It's to load the O/S on since most I/O operations are for accessing system and application files - not data. The one I listed is about $135.

I agree that Vista has problems - but I don't think it is crap. I actually kinda like it. But then, I was an OS/2 fan - so what do I know? Maybe I'm just a glutton for punishment. :)