Couple of Hardware Questions

[slinga]

Hey guys,

Anyway I'm almost ready to blow my $3k computer hardware scholarship. I can only buy from sites that use purchase orders, so here's what I came up with so far:

Component Description Price Quanitity Total URL

Motherboard + CPU Dual 1.8 Xeon's + Mobo $319.00 1 $319.00

Ram 4 x 512; # Six (6) 184-pin 2.5v DDR DIMM Sockets # Supports up to 12GB Registered DDR266/200 $73.00 4 $292.00

Keyboard\Mouse RF Wireless $19.00 1 $19.00

Speakers Sicufuro $174.00 1 $174.00

Case 10 Bay ATX $19.00 1 $19.00

DVD\CD Burner Samsung 52x $32.00 1 $32.00

Video Card Sapphire 0 $0.00

Monitor $229.00 2 $458.00

Laptop IBM T30, 1.8 Ghz $1,075.00 1 $1,075.00

Laptop Memory 512 * 2; 200 pin sodimm pc2100 $86.00 2 $172.00

Networking Networking Set $17.00 1 $17.00

Wireless Router D-Link $43 $0.00

I scrapped my idea of getting a subnotebook as they aren't ready yet. Is ram forward compatible? My laptop takes PC2100 ram, if I put PC3200 will it work at the slower speed?

I would of bought everything from Newegg except they don't take purchase orders.

Also anybody know where I can buy a server power supply?

Does PCI-eXpress work in PCI-X slots? I'm guessing not. Can anybody recommend a decent vid card? I wanna do dual monitor display, and my machine comes with a nic.

And no, I don't need a dual cpu machine. I'm not even a gamer. I just want one. And I got $3K to blow. So nyah

 

[Curtis]

Originally posted by slinga@Sat, 2005-02-26 @ 10:08 AM

I scrapped my idea of getting a subnotebook as they aren't ready yet. Is ram forward compatible? My laptop takes PC2100 ram, if I put PC3200 will it work at the slower speed?

Well technically yes, but don't go buying PC RAM for it.

Also anybody know where I can buy a server power supply?

Googling "EPS 12V power connector" gives you a range of what to look for.

Does PCI-eXpress work in PCI-X slots? I'm guessing not. Can anybody recommend a decent vid card? I wanna do dual monitor display, and my machine comes with a nic.

PCI-e and PCI-X are completely different technologies. No cross- or backwards compatibility between the two. PCI-X should be backwards compatible with PCI, but there aren't many interesting PCI-X cards unless you're looking for a SCSI RAID card.

That motherboard has no AGP slots so you're limited in your graphics card choice to finding a PCI model. You basically have a choice between an ATI Radeon 9200-era card, or an Nvidia GF4-era card - both of which are several generations old. I suppose you could find a decent Matrox PCI card on eBay for few dolalrs, but you aren't going to be playing games with any of the above.

And no, I don't need a dual cpu machine. I'm not even a gamer. I just want one. And I got $3K to blow. So nyah

[post=130510]Quoted post[/post]​

Meh...suit your self.

 

[Scared0o0Rabbit]

Actually, it's my understanding that games tend to run slightly slower on an SMP box. I don't do much gaming myself, but doom 3 seemed to run fine on mine, so *shrug*.

As for power supplies, I'm a big fan of the ttgi power supplies for situations that use a lot of power and you want something reliable. I run a ttgi 550 watt power supply, and have been quite pleased (except for the blue glow it gives off). If you try froogling ttgi 550 you should be able to find it pretty easily.

I've really enjoyed running an SMP box, it tends to make computer use a lot more tolerable. These days I can barely stand using a single cpu system with windows.

 

[it290]

I think Doom 3 might actually have SMP support, as opposed to most games. I know Q3A did.

 

[Curtis]

I thought it was just the server component that supported multiple processors? Besides, this box will not run to many games due to the general lack of 3D acceleration.