[Techtalk] Asking for new PC recommended specs

[Julie]

Kai MacTane wrote:
> At 9/30/03 12:21 AM , David Merrill wrote:
> 
>> POWER:  480 watt power supply (extra quiet model, woo hoo!)
>> MOBO:   Intel D875PBZLK 875P 800MHz FSB 8xAGP Hyper-Threading SATA Gb LAN
>> CPU:    2.80GHz P4, 800MHz FSB, 512K cache, Hyper Threading
> 
> 
> IME, you can get a better MHz/$currency_unit ratio from AMD chips. But 
> that's just a general rule, and in your specific case, you may not be 
> able to find a cheaper AMD at your desired speed (or a faster AMD at 
> your price point).

Something else to look at, especially if the machine is actually
doing more than one thing at any given time, is dual processor
motherboards.  I bought my first dual P3 board just about the time
P4s were coming out and the performance was much nicer than what
I've seen from faster, more expensive machines.  I have a 1.8GHz
P4 in the house that is slower than the dual 933MHz P3 I used to
be running (this is a dual AMD 2000+ MP box -- Tyan Tiger MB).

The really, really nice thing about dual processor boards, from
my perspective, is that two slow processors can be cheaper than one
bleeding edge fast processor -- and you can always upgrade CPUs
later when they become cheaper.  Or you could run it as a uniprocessor
until you can afford a second faster processor.
-- 
Julianne Frances Haugh             Life is either a daring adventure
txjulie at austin.rr.com                  or nothing at all.
					    -- Helen Keller