GSBUG Hardware Info SIG

October 10, 2002

October 10, 2002 2

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGAgenda – October 10, 20027:00 – 7:05 Administration7:05 – 8:15 Featured Topic – Your New System:

Planning Phase8:15 – 8:30 Hardware News8:30 – 8:55 Random Access (Q&A)8:55 – 9:00 Recap, Preview, and Close

October 10, 2002 3

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGAdministrationWelcome! Please Sign In.What the SIG is…and 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/Q&A (First Come…)

October 10, 2002 4

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGAdministration (continued):Presentation materials will be posted at:http://gsbug.apcug.org/hwinfosig.htm

Prior presentation materials are also posted.

October 10, 2002 5

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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”.

October 10, 2002 6

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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.-party assessments. Develop the balance of the component setDevelop the balance of the component set ““Finalize” the spec (develop a set of minimums) – the Finalize” the spec (develop a set of minimums) – the

prelude to sourcing your components (next month).prelude to sourcing your components (next month).

October 10, 2002 7

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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?What’s 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.)?

October 10, 2002 8

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 9

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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.

What’s 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!

October 10, 2002 10

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 11

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 12

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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)

October 10, 2002 13

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 14

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 15

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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)

October 10, 2002 16

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 17

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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

October 10, 2002 18

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour New System: Planning Phase (continued)Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)

Chipset Intel -

http://www.intel.com/products/browse/chipsets.htm?iid=ipp_home+browse_chipsts&

NVIDIA - http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=products SiS - http://www.sis.com/products/index.htm VIA - http://www.via.com.tw/en/Products/prodindex.jsp

October 10, 2002 19

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour 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/chipsets.htm?iid=ipp_home+browse_chipsts&

Matrox - http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/home.cfm NVIDIA - http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=products SiS - http://www.sis.com/products/index.htm VIA - http://www.via.com.tw/en/Products/prodindex.jsp

October 10, 2002 20

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour New System: Planning Phase (continued)Review key component specs (technologies)(cont.)

Monitor type VERY subjective – see July SIG presentation materials

http://www.edscustomcomputers.com/PowerPoint/OCIPUG%20Hardware%20SIG%207%209%202002.ppt

October 10, 2002 21

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour New System: Planning Phase (continued)Review 3rd-party assessments-party assessments

www.aceshardware.com www.amdzone.comwww.anandtech.comwww.extremetech.comwww.pcmag.com www.pcworld.comwww.sharkyextreme.comwww.tomshardware.com

October 10, 2002 22

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour New System: Planning Phase (continued) Develop the balance of the component setDevelop 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

October 10, 2002 23

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGYour New System: Planning Phase (continued) ““Finalize” the specFinalize” the spec

Develop a set of minimums Develop a set of minimums Acceptable key components Acceptable other components

This is the prelude to sourcing your components (next This is the prelude to sourcing your components (next month).month).

October 10, 2002 24

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware NewsProcessors

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 Q1’03 and Q2’03, 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.

October 10, 2002 25

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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.

October 10, 2002 26

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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???

October 10, 2002 27

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware News (continued)System RAM – nothing newMotherboards

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 & cardsThe AGP 3.0, Rev. 1.0 spec was released (AGP 8X)

October 10, 2002 28

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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.

October 10, 2002 29

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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?).

October 10, 2002 30

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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 ControllersHighPoint announced the RocketRAID 1540, a 4-channel,

SATA, IDE RAID controller.

October 10, 2002 31

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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.

October 10, 2002 32

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGHardware 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 newChassis & power supplies – nothing new

October 10, 2002 33

GSBUG Hardware Info SIGRecap, Preview, and CloseRecapPreview

Featured Topic for November 14, 2002 – Your New System: Sourcing Your Components

Close (please police up the area)