|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
|
 Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:22 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| chiaa wrote: |
Here is why:
I took a random (a three minute search) pre-built from bb.co.kr It is one of their "Hit" computers, which means a lot of them are selling right now. This is a name brand pre-built, not a Johnny Computer pre-built which would be the same as you or me building one.
Specs of pre-built:
Celeron 3.06MHZ
DDR 256 MB PC3200.
160 GB 7200 RPM Samsung.
Video card: intel extreme graphics 2(??? on board i assume)
MB: No brand to be found.
Sound: on the MB.
DVD/CDR combo
All for the low price of 637.930 (if you pay cash)
Let's see what I can build for that money.
Chiaa's special:
Processor: Sempron 3100 110.000 Won
MB: K8N4-E 90.000 Won
RAM: DDR 512MB PC3200 we will take two for a total of 88.000
HDD: Same HD as prebuilt: 80.000
Sound card: Audigy 2 2005 77.000 (even though the MB I picked has on board 5.1 sound).
Video card: Radeon 9600 MOBILITY LP (128MB) 63.000
DVD/CDR Combo: 35.000 (various brands available in this price range)
Keyboard, mouse, tower, power supply and other misc.: 100.000 (on the high side)
Total 643.000
The difference:
4X the Ram
A real video card
A real sound card.
Actually able to upgrade.
You can fit your hands in the case on work on it when needed (wont have to remove three parts to add ram like you usually have to with those stupid pre-builts).
A BIOS that is not a piece of *beep*.
Same price.
For the pre-built and the Chiaa special I did little to no research on the products choosen. I wrote this whole thing up in a matter of 15 minutes. I make no claim that the chiaa special is the computer that anyone should get, I just took the most popular products for each computer part. I would have choosen differently for my own computer.
I am sure if I went high end on the two different types here, I could have saved money and made a better computer.
Show me a name brand pre-built that proves me wrong... |
To bad 9600 mobility is a laptop video card. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:31 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Add 5.000 Won and replace the word mobility with Pro. Like I said I did no research and just picked things. The only thing I did look somewhat closely at was to make sure the MB was the right one for the processor.
All of this was done on a Korean site in Korean by a white guy that can only point and hiss at his Korean mother in law. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pangit
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Location: Puet mo.
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| pc.danawa.com for prices, yeah? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 8:45 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Pangit wrote: |
| pc.danawa.com for prices, yeah? |
ah. My Korean friend helping me navigate through everything showed me this site. Pretty good prices. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 9:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Pangit wrote: |
| pc.danawa.com for prices, yeah? |
I always use bb.co.kr. Don't know which site is best for prices, but this is the site I am able to navigate through and it has every kind of item under the sun (besides puter stuff). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pangit
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Location: Puet mo.
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| chiaa wrote: |
| Pangit wrote: |
| pc.danawa.com for prices, yeah? |
I always use bb.co.kr. Don't know which site is best for prices, but this is the site I am able to navigate through and it has every kind of item under the sun (besides puter stuff). |
Cool. One more resource to add to the list. Thanks. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Thunndarr
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well, as I just upgraded, here's what I bought and what I paid with just a minor amount of shopping around at Yongsan.
Oh, and first of all, I had previously checked the prices on danawa, so I knew roughly how much I could expect to pay. Also, you must keep in mind that I hate shopping, and I am also lazy, which means I only shop around til I find someplace that gives me a good price without the B.S.
ASRock Dual SATA-2 motherboard. 79,000 won. It's a slot 939 (AMD) and has both PCI-Express and AGP graphics slots. (Probably a zillion mobo's in this price range.)
ASUS Nvidia Geforce 6600 with 256 MB ram. 130,000 won
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with the Venice core. 155,000 won.
I'm sure you can probably get better prices than that, but, as I said, I'm lazy and I didn't feel like looking aroun too much. The AMD 64 is a decent overlocker. It's stock speed is 1.8 G/hz but Anandtech.com reports it as easily getting up to 2.3 or 2.4 G/hz with stock cooling. Of course, your mileage may vary.
The video card, while not exactly cutting edge, is good enough for what I do and will get me by til I upgrade again.
The AMD 64 3000+ has a good price/performance ratio at the moment, good enough for my needs.
So, I spent 364,000 won.
You'd still need ram, hard disk, case, power, and an optical drive.
Anandtech has a great article about overclocking the Venice 3000+, and they mention only about a 5% difference in (system) speed between budget ram and high-end ram, so if you are looking to cut a corner, perhaps you don't have to get the ultra ram. I don't know. Anyway, you can definitely put together a solid system with parts from brand name manufacturers for a good price. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Gord
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:02 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Wrench wrote: |
| Actually it doesn't it uses 3.5 gigs of ram thats with the /pae switch (OS will report this amount 3.5 gigs). ou also have to problem that User page is locked so programs usually don't go over 1 gig of ram anyways. Unless you use /3gig switch as well. You can use more then 4 gigs of ram in 32 bit OS because of /pae (extends memory allocation to 36 bit which intel has had since Pentium Pro), but its not a smart idea, since the memory extension of pae is garbage. |
By default, Windows reserves 2GB for the kernel and 2GB for each application. So technically, if you have ten applications running you can use 22GB of RAM. Though generally people are more likely to have one giant application running.
The switches you are referring to is to change the 2/2 balance to 1/3. (1GB kernel / 3GB application). Generally not something one should do under normal usage. But regular XP running a single application is limited to using no more than 4GB.
That is the physical limit of Windows, regardless of what the harware is.
http://www.brianmadden.com/content/content.asp?id=69 covers it all very nicely. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
muggie2dammit
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Location: Ilsan, Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Thunndarr wrote: |
Well, as I just upgraded, here's what I bought and what I paid with just a minor amount of shopping around at Yongsan.
ASRock Dual SATA-2 motherboard. 79,000 won. It's a slot 939 (AMD) and has both PCI-Express and AGP graphics slots. (Probably a zillion mobo's in this price range.)
ASUS Nvidia Geforce 6600 with 256 MB ram. 130,000 won
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with the Venice core. 155,000 won.
So, I spent 364,000 won.
|
Pretty good set of parts. The Asrock motherboards give pretty good performance for the money, but they don't usually overclock well. But who cares? You want cheap, flexible options, and good enough quality, and Asrock does that well.
The 6600s can't really do a lot with the 256MB RAM, but if you're doing graphics manipulation, that's where they start to use it. And the 3000+ - good choice.
Muggie2 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
muggie2dammit
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Location: Ilsan, Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 2:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
| cubanlord wrote: |
| actually, I am looking for the geforce 6800gt or 6800 ultra...a pretty penny though... |
The 6800s use pretty much the same power as the 7800 series; and the performance jump over the 6800GT is impressive. I'd be tempted to steer you toward one of the 7800GTs, but it really depends if you need that level of power or not.
On the other hand, I tend to build higher power systems, so it might be that the 6800GT is exactly in the sweet spot for you in price terms.
Muggie2 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cubanlord
Joined: 08 Jul 2005
Location: In Japan!
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
| hey muggie...What type of HUGE difference is there between the Geforce 6800Gt and the 7800? Is it that different?? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wrench
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 3:58 am Post subject: |
|
|
| muggie2dammit wrote: |
| Thunndarr wrote: |
Well, as I just upgraded, here's what I bought and what I paid with just a minor amount of shopping around at Yongsan.
ASRock Dual SATA-2 motherboard. 79,000 won. It's a slot 939 (AMD) and has both PCI-Express and AGP graphics slots. (Probably a zillion mobo's in this price range.)
ASUS Nvidia Geforce 6600 with 256 MB ram. 130,000 won
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with the Venice core. 155,000 won.
So, I spent 364,000 won.
|
Pretty good set of parts. The Asrock motherboards give pretty good performance for the money, but they don't usually overclock well. But who cares? You want cheap, flexible options, and good enough quality, and Asrock does that well.
The 6600s can't really do a lot with the 256MB RAM, but if you're doing graphics manipulation, that's where they start to use it. And the 3000+ - good choice.
Muggie2 |
Apparently this mobo overclocks like mad. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
muggie2dammit
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Location: Ilsan, Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
| cubanlord wrote: |
| hey muggie...What type of HUGE difference is there between the Geforce 6800Gt and the 7800? Is it that different?? |
In terms of power, it seems to use no more than the 6800GT, some sources saying that it uses less power, others saying it's minimally higher.
But depending on what games you're playing, at higher resolutions the 7800GT comes into its own.
Quake 4 1600x1200 6800GT 42.7fps
7800GT 62.9fps
1280x1024 6800GT 54fps
7800GT 64.9fps
News update:
nVidia released a new card this week - the 6800GS. It may be worth looking at this one - it's supposed to be a very good bargain. Prices seem to range between $200 and $250 overseas. Hasn't made it to Korea yet, that I've seen, but it shouldn't be much higher than those prices.
Muggie2 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
muggie2dammit
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Location: Ilsan, Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2005 7:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Wrench wrote: |
| muggie2dammit wrote: |
Pretty good set of parts. The Asrock motherboards give pretty good performance for the money, but they don't usually overclock well. But who cares? You want cheap, flexible options, and good enough quality, and Asrock does that well.
Muggie2 |
Apparently this mobo overclocks like mad. |
Yes, so I've recently heard. Makes a bit of a change from usual for Asrock, but it's a welcome change! Taking the FSB up well past 300MHz stably is impressive. And for the price - well, if it could do 4V memory voltages I'd almost (but not quite) be kicking myself for going for a DFI LANParty Ultra-D.
Muggie2 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
