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Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2005 10:02 pm
by Alejandra
I sold some componets of my actual PC P4 3.2Ghz 512MB (2 256MB sticks) with two 40GB ATA with SATA to PATA adapter in a RAID conf and MSI 875 MoBo.

Possible upgrade: P4 3.4Ghz 1GB (2 512MB sticks) and 2 real SATA drives (80GB each) my options Maxtor or Seagate, new graphic card, GF6600 AGP

Possible change: MSI K8 Neo4 (Nvidia chipset), AMD 64 3500, same memory and disks as above, graphic card: GF6600 PCI-E

If I upgrade I'll have more money to buy maybe an A09

Any comments?

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 1:27 am
by Bhairav
Go AMD! Make sure it's a Venice or San Diego chip, and also see if you can get a DFI motherboard if you're going to OC. Also, upgrade RAM to 1GB.. it's bloody cheap right now.

Re: Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 5:36 am
by MediumRare
Alejandra wrote:2 real SATA drives (80GB each)

Why would you get such small harddrives? :o Look for (at least) NCQ support in your new MoBo and drives.

G

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 5:59 am
by dodecahedron
what's NCQ ?

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 6:16 am
by MediumRare
dodecahedron wrote:what's NCQ ?

Native Command Queueing allows the drive to rearrange data requests to decrease seek time. My hardware doesn't support it, but if you're upgrading, it's something worth watching for.

G

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 6:21 am
by dodecahedron
is this something new? a feature only in newer chipsets (southbridges) ?

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 6:32 am
by MediumRare
dodecahedron wrote:is this something new? a feature only in newer chipsets (southbridges) ?

Yes, it's part of the SATA-2 specs. Someone else will have to fill in on details (which chipset etc.) but some harddrives supporting NCQ has been available for a while, e.g. Seagate Barracuda ST3160827AS.

G

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 9:30 am
by Alejandra
Bhairav wrote:Go AMD! Make sure it's a Venice or San Diego chip, and also see if you can get a DFI motherboard if you're going to OC. Also, upgrade RAM to 1GB.. it's bloody cheap right now.


Thanks Bhairav, The thing is... I sell hardware as a distributor, the wholesalers where I bought only have MSI and Abit MoBos, but for that processor they have only the MSI, there is another option, an AMD 64 3400 (754 pin) an the MoBo is also a MSI with Nvidia chipset.

If I bought this these things in the "street" the money I'll get for my old parts isn't enough.

As I said, even choices include 1GB RAM upgrade.

Re: Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 9:53 am
by Alejandra
MediumRare wrote:
Alejandra wrote:2 real SATA drives (80GB each)

Why would you get such small harddrives?


Well... let me say this way, is the money I'll get for my old parts, I can't spend a bit more on harddrives, I prefer to change my graphic card, one that handles HDTV signal, next step is buy one HDTV set :D

For the NCQ, the wholesaler have the Maxtor with NCQ but not the seeagate :(

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 9:56 am
by Alejandra
MediumRare wrote:Yes, it's part of the SATA-2 specs. Someone else will have to fill in on details (which chipset etc.) but some harddrives supporting NCQ has been available for a while, e.g. Seagate Barracuda ST3160827AS.

G


I checked at MSI site, but no word at NCQ on the MoBo specs, where else can I check?

Edit:
I visited MSI forums, it appears that the Neo4 Platinum does support NCQ :)

Re: Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 10:54 am
by oslik3
Alejandra wrote:...and 2 real SATA drives (80GB each) my options Maxtor or Seagate,


Alejandra, is it not cheaper to get one 160GB hard drive instead of two 80GB ones ?
Of course, it is possible you already thought of that and it's not available to you.

on NSQ and SATA-2:

Any motherboard with NForce4 "ULTRA" chipset supports NCQ. Just make sure it says "Ultra".

By the way, NCQ feature is nice to look for if you are upgrading , but if you can't find it, then don't worry too much about it. Currently, no reviews show that NCQ really improves hard drive performance for a single user PC. I think effects of NCQ can only be noticed in a server environment, where you have multiple simultaneous data requests (from multiple users)

Re: Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 11:21 am
by Alejandra
oslik3 wrote:
Alejandra wrote:...and 2 real SATA drives (80GB each) my options Maxtor or Seagate,


Alejandra, is it not cheaper to get one 160GB hard drive instead of two 80GB ones ?
Of course, it is possible you already thought of that and it's not available to you.


Well, sure its economical one 160GB HD, but in a RAID configuration I got better performance, even with the PATA to SATA adapters I get better performace than a PATA RAID configuration, so real SATA drives in the SATA RAID will be better.

on NSQ and SATA-2:

Any motherboard with NForce4 "ULTRA" chipset supports NCQ. Just make sure it says "Ultra".

By the way, NCQ feature is nice to look for if you are upgrading , but if you can't find it, then don't worry too much about it. Currently, no reviews show that NCQ really improves hard drive performance for a single user PC. I think effects of NCQ can only be noticed in a server environment, where you have multiple simultaneous data requests (from multiple users)


Cool to know that.

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 11:25 am
by LoneWolf
My MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum has been a great board. Arguably the best board I've ever owned over 11 years of build systems. As for Native Command Queuing, my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB drives have it...I don't know that I'd notice a difference if it wasn't there though, I think it's more useful for servers whose drive access patterns are likely to be more random. I bought the drives primarily for low noise, speed, and the great 5-year warranty.

P.S. If you're going to even do moderate gaming, go with the Geforce 6600GT or 6800(vanilla, not GT or Ultra) PCIe instead of just the plain 6600. Otherwise, the 6600 is a good budget card. Note that the PCIe cards will cost you less in most cases than the AGP ones (the 6800 being a possible exception).

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 11:58 am
by Alejandra
Thanks, LoneWolf, yes I plan to buy a Geforce 6600, but one that has YPrPb component output cable or direct drive of HDTV displays, since my future plans is to get a HDTV set, also planning to buy the HDTV digital equipment from my Cable company (when more channels are available, right now only 3), but new shows are available to download in HR-HDTV format.

I'm not in gamming so much, if I play 2 times a year with lanparty is a lot, and since taking the whole equipment is heavy I just take my PowerBook with me :D I'm lazy :roll:

Re: Gonna upgrade/change my PC

PostPosted: Thu May 26, 2005 12:46 pm
by oslik3
Alejandra wrote:Well, sure its economical one 160GB HD, but in a RAID configuration I got better performance


Oh, I forgot that you wanted RAID... :oops: :o

PostPosted: Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:53 am
by Alejandra
LoneWolf wrote:My MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum has been a great board. Arguably the best board I've ever owned over 11 years of build systems. As for Native Command Queuing, my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB drives have it...I don't know that I'd notice a difference if it wasn't there though, I think it's more useful for servers whose drive access patterns are likely to be more random. I bought the drives primarily for low noise, speed, and the great 5-year warranty.

P.S. If you're going to even do moderate gaming, go with the Geforce 6600GT or 6800(vanilla, not GT or Ultra) PCIe instead of just the plain 6600. Otherwise, the 6600 is a good budget card. Note that the PCIe cards will cost you less in most cases than the AGP ones (the 6800 being a possible exception).


Hey, LoneWolf, do you replace the IDE-PATA Drivers with the standard drivers from MS or let the nForce drivers stay?

In my other (older) MoBos I did not install the Intel Acelerator blah blah or the VIA 4in1 IDE drivers for the Optical Drives, does this apply to the nForce4 drivers too?

BTW I got a MSI 6600 non GT card (I didnt install any game yet to test it).

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 3:38 pm
by LoneWolf
Alejandra wrote:
LoneWolf wrote:My MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum has been a great board. Arguably the best board I've ever owned over 11 years of build systems. As for Native Command Queuing, my Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 160GB drives have it...I don't know that I'd notice a difference if it wasn't there though, I think it's more useful for servers whose drive access patterns are likely to be more random. I bought the drives primarily for low noise, speed, and the great 5-year warranty.

P.S. If you're going to even do moderate gaming, go with the Geforce 6600GT or 6800(vanilla, not GT or Ultra) PCIe instead of just the plain 6600. Otherwise, the 6600 is a good budget card. Note that the PCIe cards will cost you less in most cases than the AGP ones (the 6800 being a possible exception).


Hey, LoneWolf, do you replace the IDE-PATA Drivers with the standard drivers from MS or let the nForce drivers stay?

In my other (older) MoBos I did not install the Intel Acelerator blah blah or the VIA 4in1 IDE drivers for the Optical Drives, does this apply to the nForce4 drivers too?

BTW I got a MSI 6600 non GT card (I didnt install any game yet to test it).


NForce3 and earlier, I used MS default drivers. On the new board, I'm using nVidia drivers. Some programs (ATI Multimedia Center) say my disks aren't running in DMA mode, but I think it's wrong (could be that it just doesn't "get" SATA drives). Either way, I've had no issues burning CD's or DVD's with nVidia's drivers. I'm running two SATA hard disks, and each optical drive is a master on its own PATA channel.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:08 pm
by Alejandra
LoneWolf wrote:NForce3 and earlier, I used MS default drivers. On the new board, I'm using nVidia drivers. Some programs (ATI Multimedia Center) say my disks aren't running in DMA mode, but I think it's wrong (could be that it just doesn't "get" SATA drives). Either way, I've had no issues burning CD's or DVD's with nVidia's drivers. I'm running two SATA hard disks, and each optical drive is a master on its own PATA channel.


Thanks, I also saw that this driver let you see/choose if you had a NCQ drive.

This is really a very good MoBo, just when Apple announce the Intel thing I switched to AMD :evil:
Well, I'll have two processors, one Intel and one AMD :P

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