Re: advice on getting good speed


"Neil Jones" <neil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:shJwg.78160$OT.57358@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am considering embarking on a project that requires considerable
computing
speed.

I am looking to build a good spec machine ( or machines) to handle the
task.
I have taken appart and assembled machines before but not for some time.

The critical application makes very very little use of the disk drives and
appears to hold its data in ram while it works on it. ( This makes sense
as
it is needs to be as fast as possible to work.)
It does not appear that the application is multithreading so dual core
procesors. I believe are of little help.


There are a plethora of different processors with numbers unreleated to
their speed.

I need to work out a combination of motherboard ram and processor that
gives
me reasonable speed without excessive cost.

State of the art may not be the answer since the task can be divided up
and
two cheaper machines may give more power than one more expensive model.

Can anyone provide me with information or direct me to a resource that can
help me?


OK, first, you need to be aware that dual core and hyperthreading are
different technologies. Essentially, dual core is two processors in the
same physical package. If a task is not multithreading, dual core can still
help it run better. The reason is simple. A dual core processor means that
there is more than one processor to share the load of handling OTHER
applications that are running at the same time.

Not knowing more about what you are wanting to do, it's hard to guess at
what hardware you might need. But unless you intend to run Windows Vista
while doing it, I think you'd get buy OK on any low-end dual-core processor
that is not crippled (like sempron or celeron, if they even make dual-core
versions of that), plus 1GB of really high-quality name-brand RAM. Find a
good name-brand mainboard with a decent chipset to go with it. Don't skimp
on the power supply, try seasonic or enermax.

Then build 2 or 3 of them. That's the way I'd approach it. If you want to
run Vista though, that is a whole other can of worms. -Dave


.

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