Budget Machine Thread Of Joy™

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 28th, 2008, 3:25

deject wrote:new list is deject approved!

fucking fanboy

In all seriousness, right now nvidia are fucked in the mid range

The 8800GT is a great lower end card, 9800GTX/+ are decent mid range cards, but slightly slower than a 4850, and not in the same price band yet, not to mention the 9800GTX+ isn't out yet.

GTX260 and 280 show promise, but are currently ~£60 and £170 more than the 4870. So they're being ignored, apart from in the more money than sense category.

Fear · Post by **Fear** » June 28th, 2008, 13:37

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:apart from in the chickenz category.

fix'd

Fear · Post by **Fear** » June 28th, 2008, 13:42

Also might be worth pointing out that windows XP can only use 4.29 billion addresses.

The common misconception is that means 4GB RAM, it's doesn't, it's 4.29 billion addresses which would equate to 4GB RAM if your PC contained nothing else. You need to take away gfx card memory addresses, cpu addresses, pci/pci-e address space, etc.

This normally leaves you with about 2.5GB worth of addressable memory. If you stick more than 2GB in a Windows XP machine it's fairly pointless.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 28th, 2008, 16:16

Fear wrote:Also might be worth pointing out that windows XP can only use 4.29 billion addresses.

The common misconception is that means 4GB RAM, it's doesn't, it's 4.29 billion addresses which would equate to 4GB RAM if your PC contained nothing else. You need to take away gfx card memory addresses, cpu addresses, pci/pci-e address space, etc.

You're right, apart from the bit about 2.5GB of ram, my machine (fairly heavily loaded, with a 768mb graphics card) sees 3.25GB, which is enough of a performance boost, IME, to make it worthwhile.

ISTR it's only really the GPU that affects this significantly, very few pieces of hardware need that much space, I think most machines will see a loss of something like GPU-memory + 200MB (Max)

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 28th, 2008, 16:18

Also, the other option would be suggesting those 3GB memory kits that are starting to appear, but I suspect they cost more than 4GB, and are possibly less compatible.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 2nd, 2008, 17:05

Little update for PSU wattage and price, changed from 500w to 600w, just to allow a little more headroom for newer GPUs

Post by **deject** » July 2nd, 2008, 18:36

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:ISTR it's only really the GPU that affects this significantly, very few pieces of hardware need that much space, I think most machines will see a loss of something like GPU-memory + 200MB (Max)

This is pretty much true. A good rule of thumb for how much your 32-bit Windows will see is 4GB - your Video RAM. It will be within 256MB or so.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:33

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Cases:
Antec 900, cheap, large, fairly ugly. Obviously, any ATX case on the market is fine, I just picked one out of the hat (~£75)

Not worth a full review yet...

Having had just picked one of these up, I'm pretty impressed, I prefer slick, sexy aluminium cases, but the 900 is very, very good indeed, well built, comes with shitloads of good fans, will hold as many drives as you could reasonably expect (out of the box, without shiny backplanes etc, it'll take 6hdds, and 3 Optical drives)

Cooling is pretty decent.

2 little niggles so far;
It's possible to mount a PSU in such a manner (upside down) the fan can't get any air, a sticker would be nice to warn you.

Holy fuck the LEDs on the fans are bright, easily fixed by cutting the wires going to the LEDs though (I'd leave one connected so you(r missus) can tell the machine is on though.)

Great value case, no killer issues I've noticed, will continue to recommend

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:39

Cost?

EDIT: nvm, it's on the front page

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:41

Hehulk wrote:Cost?

about £67 now. not sure how it'll hold say, a 4870X2. or a GTX280, but it should be ok.

edit: damn your edits.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:42

Ah, but the front page says £90 (Unless you just edited that)

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:44

Hehulk wrote:Ah, but the front page says £90 (Unless you just edited that)

no it doesn't.

And it also says: Last edited by Dr. kitteny berk on Wed Jul 02, 2008 18:04; edited 15 times in total

which was the most recent price update, and a nehalem warning.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:48

I Win At Reading.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:49

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:55

I know of a good butchers there

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:56

Hehulk wrote:I know of a good butchers there

Are you saying you enjoyed some good pork in Reading?

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:57

More bacon and sausage (Might have been pork sausages, this was a couple of years ago)

*Doesn't rise to the bait

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 6:58

Hehulk wrote:More bacon and sausage (Might have been pork sausages, this was a couple of years ago)

*Doesn't rise to the bait

So, you're saying you enjoyed a sausage in Reading?

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » July 31st, 2008, 7:37

Nope, that'd be where I bought them. Not many pubs with decent amounts of camping space in a city

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 31st, 2008, 7:38

Hehulk wrote:Nope, that'd be where I bought them. Not many pubs with decent amounts of camping space in a city

see that? that's too easy.

5punk

Budget Machine Thread Of Joy™

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