Re: OT: my new PC rocks!!

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 12/30/03 

Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:33:42 -0000

[ Don't know who wrote this because I can only see it in Mozzie's
reply and he didn't attribute it ;) ]
> >Hmmm... So you're not into the "roll your own" approach then?
> >As far as *I'm* concerned, there is no substitute, but... I can
also
> >appreciate the "one source/one warranty" (and etc) school of
thought.

Well, actually, I do _both_...the "one source / one warranty" thing is
great for buying the "latest and greatest" machine (also, generally,
the "package deal" has the benefit that they usually ensure that all
the components really do work well together...you know, the
motherboard has been chosen because it can cope with the bandwidth of
the "mega-super video card" installed...when "rolling your own" the
research and matching up of things is all in your hands...this
"benefit", though, of course depends on who's providing the "package
deal" for you...if they are your typical "high street" dealer who
doesn't know their arse from their elbow, then it probably won't be
the case...but my "package deal" was actually part "roll your own" and
part "package deal"...the store actually puts them together and
provides "packages" of configurations they've worked out work really
well together (so you sort of pick what you'd like from a "menu" of
packages that they've designed to work well :)...and you can ask them
to make minor "modifications" here and there...and I got to talk to
their guy who puts the machines together, who totally understood what
I was talking about that I knew he really was a proper "expert" in
doing this sort of thing and researches it all up and tests out
different configurations that the ones on offer really have been
"tweaked as best as I can manage" by him...plus, when I came to
collect it, he was running some impressive _demos_ in order to test
and benchmark them, so he knows how to measure these things
properly...that's the best sort of store...big enough that they have
"muscle" and "special deals" and so forth, but small enough that they
can actually talk directly to you and actually know what they are
talking about...not too big to go "impersonal" but not so small that
there's one guy who never has what you want in stock and charges the
Earth for it...shame there isn't some law that "freezes" stores at
just the "right" level so that they would all be like this ;)...

> yeah alot of ppl. told me i should've done that instead of getting a
package
> deal...i mite do it for my next comp tho heh =)

It has benefits _and_ drawbacks...the potential "drawback" being
basically what prompted me to talk about this with Randy in the first
place...the components inside a PC do all "depend" on each other quite
a bit so, for instance, you could stick in a really fast video card
but because the RAm and bus bandwidth isn't particularly "the best",
it's not really running as fast as it should do...the point being that
if you _really_ want "the best", then you'll have to "clue yourself
up" quite a bit on all the specifications and what's important in
motherboard choices and so forth...meaning that you could - until you
become a bit of a "guru" (though, of course, like all "gurus", you
learn by _doing_ and learning from your mistakes and stuff :) -
actually put together something not quite as good as a "package deal"
where this stuff was already worked out by an "expert" on your behalf
(though, not always...some stores don't care and stuff any old crap
together in a box that there'd be no particular advantage to the
"package deal" there :)...the essential point being that the "package
deal" is also often buying you "expert knowledge" of PC construction
at the same time (often costing more because, sure, there's "labour
costs" for those "experts" as part of the price :)...

And I remembered Randy saying he does video editing and "high
bandwidth" things like that, that was what prompted me to make the
joke that you could tell because the most important specification
Randy mentioned was the _motherboard type_...most people, you see,
would, of course, talk about CPU speed, RAM size, hard drive space and
what type of video card first...but the "bandwidth hungry" doesn't
forget to mention the motherboard as well (because, after all, all
these other components need to be _connected_ together and it's the
quality of the motherboard and how fast its bus can work that
determines if these "fancy" stuff are actually able to run at their
fastest ;)...the "weak point" in the PC architecture, actually, is,
generally speaking, the _connections_ between things...the CPU and GPU
and sound card and so forth can almost certainly outpace your bus
(that's why there's "caches" and "AGP buses" and so forth :)...and the
way PCs are designed, if one component like this is slow in the
system, it slows practically _everything else_ down to the same
speed...

If, for example, every memory access literally went to the RAM every
time (no cache :) then it doesn't matter how fast your CPU is capable
of running, it'll run at the _bus speed_, NOT the clock
speed...because it keeps having to stop and wait for things to be
delivered to and from memory almost constantly (that is _why_, of
course, caches were introduced...it's a way to allow the CPU to
outpace the bus significantly without this being a problem - it's
actually working with the cache (level 1 being almost "register-like"
in speed ;) and "lazily" accessing the actual RAM memory as little as
possible - _UNTIL_ the dreaded "cache miss"...that's also why "cache
misses" are so nasty...it doesn't just slow down to bus speed but
there's clearing the cache and reloading it and so forth...a scheme
that works well when it works but has a much nastier penalty for those
occasions when it doesn't work...but, all in all, most memory _is_
accessed in "cache friendly" ways - the "locality of reference"
principle and so forth - that it's an overall winner :)...

Mind you, if you just want "good" and not necessarily "the best in the
whole universe"...or, simply, _cost_ is the most important thing and
buying it "piecemeal" can often come out significantly cheaper...well,
don't be afraid to "roll your own" as PCs are actually _designed_ for
it to be as "painless" as possible to do...my "second machine" is
exactly such a beast...just a mish-mash of the best "spare parts" from
older machines or things friends were just going to throw out,
anyway...in fact, there's even a potential to make a simple business
out of something like that...when a friend with the "super-duper
gaming PC" throws out their machine because - oh dear - it's
"obselete" by only a month (one of those "I must always have the best"
kind of people :) then you can grab their old stuff for a fraction of
the price (even, if you're lucky, they might just _give it to you_ or
hand it over for a "token" amount...because you've solve their "how to
easily dispose of this machine without hassles" problem for them ;)
and put together a machine to sell on to someone else who's not so
bothered that it isn't "the best on planet Earth"...say, another
friend who wants to get a really cheap PC for their kid to do their
schoolwork on...a simple piece of "recycling" like this can even
become a great source of simple income...I've never done that sort of
thing but I know people who actually do this kind og thing and make a
nice profit out of it to keep them in "crisps and pop" for all-night
gaming sessions, so to speak ;)...

Beth :)