GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• October 10, 2002

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Agenda October 10, 2002
• 700 705 Administration
• 705 815 Featured Topic Your New System
  Planning Phase
• 815 830 Hardware News
• 830 855 Random Access (QA)
• 855 900 Recap, Preview, and Close

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Administration
• Welcome! Please Sign In.
• What the SIG isand is not.
• Is an information resource for computer users
  and potential computer users
• Is NOT a way to get your computer built or
  repaired (contact the GSBUG Daytime Hardware SIG)
• Log Random Access/QA (First Come)

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Administration (continued)
• Presentation materials will be posted at
• http//gsbug.apcug.org/hwinfosig.htm
• Prior presentation materials are also posted.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase
• What follows is intended to assist you in
  planning for your new system. The objective is
  the development of your new system specification
  (spec).
• We will address only mainstream solutions no
  overclocking or exotics.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• The Process
• Answer four basic questions.
• Develop short lists for key components CPU, RAM
  type, chipset, graphics solution, monitor type.
• Review key component specs (technologies).
• Review 3rd-party assessments.
• Develop the balance of the component set
• Finalize the spec (develop a set of minimums)
  the prelude to sourcing your components (next
  month).

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Answer four basic questions
• What are the intended PRIMARY uses of the system
  i.e., what will the system be used for 80-90
  of the time?
• How long does the system need to last?
• Whats your budget?
• Other than budget, what are KEY constraints in
  re
• Anything that needs to be carried over?
• Anything that will dictate any significant part
  of the solution (software and/or carry-over
  hardware compatibility, physical constraints,
  etc.)?

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Answer four basic questions (continued)
• What are the intended PRIMARY uses of the system?
• General business apps (word processor,
  spreadsheet, database, presentation)
• Personal finance
• Multimedia processing
• Photo editing
• Internet browsing
• Entertainment (games)
• Attempt to quantify importance x frequency

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Answer four basic questions (continued)
• How long does the system need to last?
• If 2 years or less, tend to the upper mid-range
  for your spec
• If over 2 years, tend to the upper end for your
  spec.
• Whats your budget?
• If under 1000, max RAM (up to 256MB) and storage
• If over 1000 but less than 2000, max RAM (up to
  512MB), storage, CPU, and graphics solution
  (card)
• If 2000 or over, enjoy yourself!

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Answer four basic questions (continued)
• Other than budget, what are KEY constraints in
  re
• Anything that needs to be carried over?
• Consider how your new system will be impacted.
• Establish hard requirements.
• Anything that will dictate any significant part
  of the solution (software and/or carry-over
  hardware compatibility, physical constraints,
  etc.)?
• Compatibility operating system, expensive or
  critical apps
• Physical space, noise

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop short lists for key components
• CPU
• Low end P3, old and new Celeron, Duron, C3
• Mid-range Athlon XP (up to top 2 SKUs), P4 (up
  to top 3 SKUs)
• High-end up to and including the fastest Athlon
  XP or P4 you can find

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop short lists for key components
  (continued)
• RAM type
• Low end PC133
• Mid-range PC266, PC333
• High-end add RDRAM (all versions)

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop short lists for key components
  (continued)
• Chipset
• Low end Intel 81x/845G, SiS 651/740, VIA
  ProSavage
• Mid-range Intel 845E SiS 645/745 VIA
  KT266A/333, P4266A
• High-end add Intel 850E, SiS 648/R658, VIA KT400

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop short lists for key components
  (continued)
• Graphics solution
• Low end integrated graphics (integrated into
  the chipset) try for an AGP port
• Mid-range mid to upper-mid-range GPU, 32-64MB
  RAM
• ATI RADEON 7500 9000 Pro Matrox G550 NVIDIA
  MX 440, 4200
• High-end up to and including max performance
  GPU, 128MB RAM
• ATI RADEON 9700 Pro Matrox Parhelia, NVIDIA 4600

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop short lists for key components
  (continued)
• Monitor type
• Low end 17 CRT
• Mid-range good quality 19 CRT, 15 LCD
• High-end up to and including 18 or larger LCD
  and the best 21 CRT (games)

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review key component specs (technologies)
• CPU
• AMD www.amd.com
• Intel www.intel.com
• VIA/Cyrix - http//www.viatech.com/en/viac3/c3.jsp
  

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)
• RAM type
• Micron www.micron.com
• RAMBUS www.rambus.com
• Samsung www.samsungusa.com

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)
• Chipset
• Intel - http//www.intel.com/products/browse/chips
  ets.htm?iidipp_homebrowse_chipsts
• NVIDIA - http//www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGEprodu
  cts
• SiS - http//www.sis.com/products/index.htm
• VIA - http//www.via.com.tw/en/Products/prodindex.
  jsp

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)
• Graphics solution
• ATI - http//mirror.ati.com/products/index.html
• Intel http//www.intel.com/products/browse/chips
  ets.htm?iidipp_homebrowse_chipsts
• Matrox - http//www.matrox.com/mga/products/home.c
  fm
• NVIDIA - http//www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGEprodu
  cts
• SiS - http//www.sis.com/products/index.htm
• VIA - http//www.via.com.tw/en/Products/prodindex.
  jsp

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)
• Monitor type
• VERY subjective see July SIG presentation
  materials http//www.edscustomcomputers.com/PowerP
  oint/OCIPUG20Hardware20SIG207209202002.ppt

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Review 3rd-party assessments
• www.aceshardware.com
• www.amdzone.com
• www.anandtech.com
• www.extremetech.com
• www.pcmag.com
• www.pcworld.com
• www.sharkyextreme.com
• www.tomshardware.com

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Develop the balance of the component set
• See prior SIG presentations re
• Hard drives and floppies
• CD, DVD, and other non-floppy", removable-media
  drives
• Sound processors, sound cards, and speakers
• Modems, NICs, chassis, power supplies, HFAs,
  fans, keyboards, and mice

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Your New System Planning Phase (continued)
• Finalize the spec
• Develop a set of minimums
• Acceptable key components
• Acceptable other components
• This is the prelude to sourcing your components
  (next month).

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News
• Processors
• AMD released the Athlon XP 2700 (2.167GHz) and
  2800 (2.25GHz) processors - first with 333MHz
  FSB (167MHz DDR). Fall availability.
• AMD 8th Generation Athlon and Opteron processors
  delayed one quarter (now Q103 and Q203,
  respectively).
• Intel released 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz Xeon workstation
  processors, both with 400MHz FSB simple line
  extensions. Intel also released a 2.0GHz Celeron
  processor (P4 core) simple line extension.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Core Logic (chipsets)
• Intel released the 845PE, 845GE, and 845GV MCHs
  (Northbridges). All support Hyper-Threading
  technology (HT) - dual processor mimicing coming
  with the 3.06GHz P4 (Nov). The 845PE/GE support
  DDR333 (PC2700) DRAM. The 845GE has a faster
  core speed for the integrated graphics engine
  (266MHz). The 845GV adds 533MHz FSB processor
  support. They also announced that the 850E has
  been validated for PC1066 RDRAM (max 1.5GB) also
  supports HT.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Core Logic (chipsets)(continued)
• VIA announced that the previously announced KT400
  (VT8368) and KT333 (VT8367) Northbridges are both
  enabled to support the new AMD Athlon XP 2700
  and 2800 processors with 333MHz FSB neither
  spec shows a 333MHz FSB capability. Therefore???

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• System RAM nothing new
• Motherboards
• ASUSTeK, Gigabyte, Intel, and MSI announced
  boards based on the Intel 845PE, 845GE, and
  845GV. The Intel D845PEBT2 has OPTIONAL SATA
  RAID and IEEE 1394 the spec (TPS) suggests there
  may also be a Promise-based IDE RAID version.
• Graphics processors cards
• The AGP 3.0, Rev. 1.0 spec was released (AGP 8X)

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Graphics processors cards (continued)
• 3Dlabs/Creative drop P10 plans for the desktop.
• ATI released the ALL-IN-WONDER 9700 PRO RADEON
  9700 PRO VPU, 128MB RAM, AGP 8X, supports DX 9.0.
  Video capture and edit version of the RADEON
  9700 PRO.
• NVIDIA released AGP 8X versions of the GeForce4
  MX 440 and Ti 4200 GPUs (previously code named
  NV18 and NV28, respectively). Leadtek only (?)
  customer to announce associated cards.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Hard Drives
• IBM announced the Deskstar 180GXP series
  60-180GB, ATA/100, 7200 rpm, 699Mb/sec internal
  transfer rate, 2MB and 8MB cache versions, 3 yr
  warranty?
• Maxtor announced the MaXLine II and MaXLine Plus
  II series of Enterprise ATA drives unclear
  that they will be available to the general
  public. MaXLine II includes 250 and 320GB
  models, 5400 rpm, ATA/133 and SATA, 2MB cache,
  44MB/sec internal transfer rate, 3 yr warr.
  MaXLine Plus II includes 200 and 250GB models,
  7200 rpm, ATA/133 and SATA, 8MB cache, 54MB/sec
  internal transfer rate, 3 yr warr (5 yr warr?).

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Hard Drives (continued)
• Western Digital announced the WD2000JB drive
  the Special Edition (8MB cache) version of the
  200GB Drivezilla. A 180GB Special Edition
  version is also now available (8MB cache, 3 yr
  warr like the Drivezilla).
• Hard Drive Controllers
• HighPoint announced the RocketRAID 1540, a
  4-channel, SATA, IDE RAID controller.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Other Drives
• Lite-On released the LTR-52246S 52x24x52 CD-RW,
  fastest currently available.
• Plextor released the PlexWriter 48/24/48A (ATAPI)
  and 48/24/48U (USB 2.0) 48x24x48 CD-RWs.

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Hardware News (continued)
• Sound processors cards
• Creative Labs announced the Audigy 2 sound
  processor and sound card (including Platinum
  model front access) 6.1 analog, 24-bit DVD
  audio, THX certification, 24-bit/96kHz recording,
  106 dB SNR. Also announced a 6.1 speaker system
  Creative Inspire 6.1 6600. Sixth speaker is
  rear center.
• Modems NICs nothing new
• Chassis power supplies nothing new

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GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

• Recap, Preview, and Close
• Recap
• Preview
• Featured Topic for November 14, 2002 Your New
  System Sourcing Your Components
• Close (please police up the area)