For those looking into a new system who may be interested (the rest of you
may want to skip lots of techie stuff, following):
I just recently built a new system from selected parts, after my old
system's motherboard (or CPU -- I've got no means of independently testing
those two parts) died. The old system was about 8-10 years old (old enough
that I've forgotten when I got it). The objective was to get a system that
should be useful for some 5+ years, have full control over parts used and
hopefully save some money. An equivalent pre-built system (had there been
one) would have run about 35+% more than what I spent, as far as I can
determine.
Here's the part list:
ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 AM3+ AMD 990FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD
Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Eight-Core
Desktop Processor FD8350FRHKBOX
ADATA XPG V1.0 series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3
12800) Desktop Memory Model AX3U1600GW8G9-2G
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire
Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen
CPU Certified Haswell Ready
Seagate Hybrid Drives ST1000LM014 1TB MLC/8GB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s NCQ
2.5" Laptop SSHD -Bare Drive
Rosewill BLACKHAWK Gaming ATX Mid Tower Computer Case, come with Five Fans,
window side panel, top HDD dock
I purchased all the parts from Newegg, but they're readily available from
many sources. I kept my old, smaller-capacity 2.5" Seagate hybrid drive
that was my existing system drive as it was less than 5 years old. The new
Seagate is my data storage device. I re-used my existing AMD FireGL video
board, ASUS DVD burner and Rosewill internal memory card reader.
I found the "Build System" feature at pcpartpicker.com very useful for this
build. It lists thousands of parts, performs "sanity checks" on one's
selected combination of parts, and also displays the best available prices
from multiple vendors for each item as well as a running total of the cost
of the build.
The AMD processor was chosen because it outperforms the class-equivalent
Intel processor on many tests--at a much lower price point--and is more
than adequate to my needs. The Rosewill case was chosen because it has an
integrated SATA 'toaster' on its top (which will recover some space on my
desk, and reduce cable clutter), others with similar connections are
available from other vendors. The case also accommodates either 2.5" or
3.5" drives in most slots. I chose the ASUS motherboard because it uses
military-grade certified parts where possible, and all solid capacitors. At
work we've been seeing a relatively high early failure rate or short
overall lifetime of motherboards in the last few years. This is across our
installed base of about 1000 machines, all bought from reputable
'name-brand' vendors. The failures have been mostly caused by failure of
cheap capacitors. I'd recommend making sure any personally purchased
motherboard for a custom-configured system uses all solid caps; it adds
very little to the price
The *really* nice thing was being able to simply plug in my existing system
drive and start right up. Fedora Linux simply detected the new hardware and
re-configured itself on start-up. A plus was that the open source drivers
for AMD graphics cards are getting better and better rapidly, and are much
easier to deal with than those required for Nvidia's GPUs. Not a single
program had to be re-installed; nothing had to be downloaded from some
manufacturer's website. It Just Works.
The most difficult portion of the whole build was setting up to live copy
my data from my old data drive to my new one, in such a way as to preserve
mount point names so I wouldn't have to re-index photos with Digikam. All
of about 15 minutes of extra work, not counting the actual copying time. No
cloud services required.
Of course, you could also install Windows on this hardware, instead of
Fedora (or other Linux distro). But why would you ask for trouble? :-)
---
Scott
On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 3:10 PM, Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 1/3/2014 2:10 PM, Jim Nichols wrote:
> > Thanks, Moose, for the analysis. I took a look at LightRoom, and found
> > that the latest version will not run on my old XP system. I will
> > probably get a new computer in the Spring, after my tax work is
> > completed, and might choose to upgrade my software at that time. I
> > really dread setting up a new system, so I procrastinate!
>
> Oh man, do I ever hear that! I really need a new desktop. I think this one
> has been in service longer than any of its
> predecessors. But I so much am NOT looking forward to the process.
>
> In the past, I've always installed on the new system only what I know I
> will really use, then leave the old system
> running. Then as I find other things I want/need, I can use them on the
> old system, then install on the new. When I've
> not had occasion to use the old system for a year or so, it goes into
> storage, and the one before it can be dumped.
>
> Being me, my computers end up with amazing numbers of programs on them. I
> have no idea at the moment what quite a few
> are for. The gentle transition gets rid of the chaff without risk of
> cluttering up the new one with dross nor missing
> something I need. It's tried and proven, but a pain I'm not looking
> forward to.
>
> > I certainly want no part of the latest developments in cloud storage.
>
> They are quite useful for a family or group with various sorts of devices.
> When I take a pic with my iPhone, it appears
> automagically in the DropBox folders on my computers and Carol's computer
> and iPad. I would consider using it as a
> further backup, but the number of GBs I would need to store aren't
> anywhere close to free.
>
> Reticent About Replacement Moose
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
> --
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>
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