[???] Some Random Hardware Questions

Epyon

Epyon

Epyon

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1 Mar 2004
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1,790
It's been quite a while since I built a PC but I feel that my XPS 1530 is dying slowly and isn't up to gaming scratch (Star Wars Force Unleashed made it cry ...).

Anyway I have some random questions I need answers to:

  • Ideally I am going to have a Desktop for Gaming, Web Development, etc and a laptop for uni lectures, small developments. Even with the different tasks I need my files to be synced between the devices most of the time. Any suggestions on how best to sync this data? I want to beable to add a .ppt lecture and some notes and to return to my room and load it on my PC. I know it sounds complicated but it's a must if I'm going to go through with this set up.
  • I noticed some people are specing desktops with dual-cores, but I made my last desktop witha quad-core. Am I missing something?
  • I know on laptops i-series CPUs are the latest but is it still the case with desktops?

More questions on the way ;).

[UPDATE]

Epyon said:
It's about 2 weeks off but I need help now :D.


  • My proposed budget is £900 for the base unit and an additional £150-200 for a monitor.
  • I will at some point be looking towards a dual monitor setup so that needs to be taken into account
  • This will be used for 30% gaming (finished Force Unleashed so moving to Prototype possibly)/ 30% website development, coding, graphic design work, etc/30% general browsing activities, media, etc. I convert video quite a lot for my Zune so the quicker it can do that the better. My XPS 1530 with 2 GHz takes almost the full length of a TV series episode to convert one ...
  • The system will be in my bed room so it needs to be silent! If it has lights I may turn them off ...
  • I don't see myself overclocking at this moment in time so don't take that into account.
  • No need for an OS as I have MSDN access (speaking of which, is Windows 7 Chinese the same as Windows 7 normal is regards to serial keys?)
  • I was considering budgeting a SSD but they appear to be far too expensive so might let it good :(.
  • The system will likely need to last till I finish uni (Jun 11) so please the budget needs to be pushed please advise.
  • Lastly, I am not a super techy like I used to so the budget for monitor/base-unit can be moved around and made smaller to accomodate for a better monitor or case, etc. Just propose something to me :D.

Forgot to mention, but I am buying in 2 weeks so if there is a need to hold out then please state!

Anything I have missed?
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The intel 'i series' is still the newest yes. Some people make desktops with dual cores because they don't *need* quad cores for what they're doing basically. But if you're going for gaming then I'd suggest going for another quad core. What's your current desktop? If you already have a quad core system the CPU at least should still be up to gaming.

Can't be much help with the laptop stuff I'm afraid.
 
For the synchronisation you could do it very basically with windows 7 and libraries - but that would require both machines to be on (ie you work on files on the desktop when they are actually saved on the laptop).

There are proper file syncronisation programs, I suggest having a look at this page.

Alternatively, you could get a laptop with an integrated SD card reader and save all your files to a 4-16GB SD card (make sure it is a relatively fast one). Then when you come home you simply pop the SD card in your desktop SD card reader and work on the files. You could do the same thing with a USB flash drive - but it would protrude from the laptop.


As for the dual core desktops, these are generally for budget systems and/or gaming systems. In pretty much all modern games there is no benefit using a multi core CPU - modern dual cores are very fast and games often aren't very well multithreaded. However, for most mid-high end system specs you will see triple/quad cores as these can play ALL games fine and are useful for other applications (like CAD or video editing) where multiple threads are implemented properly. Hence, I would suggest that if your budget allows you go for a quad core as you will not only be gaming on it.

Intel i series are indeed the top dog in both laptop and desktop machines at the minute. The intel i7 930 is the fastest desktop CPU with decent price/performace. There are faster 7 chips, but these are only slightly faster and MUCH more expensive. For multi-tasking and gaming, the cheaper i5 750 quad core is definitely worth a look.

Edit: Nm, I failed to read that you sold the desktop.
 
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It's really worth looking at netbooks for the purposes of lectures. In particular the 6+ hours of battery life is fantastic when lecture halls often lack mains sockets. I've got a desktop and a netbook, and currently keep them synchronised using rsync. Netbook comes home, connects to network, data sorts itself out. A more flexible approach would be syncing data to a website from both laptop and desktop.

I wouldn't even consider doing any design work on the netbook, but for openoffice and firefox it's bang on.
 
cmndr_andi said:
the cheaper i5 750 quad core is definitely worth a look.
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I'll 2nd that, 4GB ram is still pretty standard for gaming desktops. And the HD 5770 or 5850 cards seem to be the most popular if you want a gpu suggestion. As for motherboards I'm a bit of a Gigabyte fan, but go with whichever one has decent reviews and seems like good value to you really.
 
Thanks a lot guys, I will look into rSync as I think internet sync may be pushing it data wise but network sync seems like a really good idea, I only need my pictures (30-40 GB) and documents (5-10 GB) ont he move so that should be fine.

SSD in a laptop/desktop sound like a good idea? To be honest I don't plan to buy for a month or 2 but I want to be prepared.
 
How about a roaming profile, using a mapped drive from your main Desktop machine. So you use storage on your main PC for all your course work.
 
Interesting please go on ... roaming ...

A netbook may not be ideal as I still want to be able to watch HD content on it for when I'm away from the PC.
 
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316353

Used on a lot of networks you set one machine as the server which when you log on to your network it downloads all your profile details, save locations files, favorits. So no matter what machine your using your always have a central point which has your data you don't save to your C: unless your on the main machine.

Used by a lot of home working and company networks.
 
So I can use it to sync say my documents, photos and music over a network or the net? Sounds really good but what if I can't connect?

Also I use Windows 7 ... I think that might make a difference.

[SSD] Should i be buying 2 SSDs or 1 reasonable large one, I need about 60-80 GB for my system files and games (Stars Wars Force Unleashed takes 25 GB!!!).
 
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if yoiu cant connect let you signin with default, if too much you could use brief case to keep a stored set of folders sync ed

with SSD
[SSD] Should i be buying 2 SSDs or 1 reasonable large one, I need about 60-80 GB for my system files and games (Stars Wars Force Unleashed takes 25 GB!!!).
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personally i limit the applications to my raid and have games on second HD raid. You should have the most important files on an SSD, OS/applications. Games depends on the size and how much speed you want.

With Arma2 I was getting stutter stuck it on my SSD and it dissappeared.
 
Sounds to me like you're talking yourself into a like for like replacement rather than a desktop + laptop combination. Does HD content away from your room really matter more than a working-day battery life for a work laptop? For that matter, what do you want to carry 30gb of pictures around for.

Rsync moves changed data but not unchanged, so your 30gb of data will update itself in seconds if you've only changed a few word documents. Even better it only moves pieces of the changed files rather than the entire thing, and offers real time compression while it does so. It's very well written really. I went through a stage of doing this over ssh when the netbook was far from my room, might start doing so again. There's internet access all over my uni, probably is at yours too.

I'm using ubuntu netbook remix on my laptop, on the grounds that it's quicker than windows, makes better use of the screen size, and as it doesn't need an antivirus or heavyweight firewall, nothing runs on it to slow it down more than the OS. I accept that windows 7 is the best thing ever and anyone suggesting alternatives must be stoned to death in the interests of keeping this thread on track.

SSDs are brilliant. Don't expect them to do things they cannot however. Applications open faster but run at about the same pace. Installations are faster, but not done all that frequently. I've moved my (vertex) ssd into my netbook rather than my desktop, as I really appreciate the little atom system working quickly, and my desktop doesn't seem to benefit. It's never rebooted and most programs I use are left open anyway. Design work showed no benefit from using one, so I imagine the models are held in ram while they're being worked on.
 
I don't want like for like as such I just want to be able to watch HD content like movies without stutter, not talking silky smooth but watchable. Gaming on a laptop I've had enough of to be honest, maybe I'll toss guild wars on it for good measure.

SSDs aren't cheap sadly :(. 64 GB for about £130 JEEZ!

The laptop is the least of my issues as until my XPS 1530 dies I wouldn't be replacing it.
 
Bit hard to know what to say, as the question isn't very well defined.

Web development will at worst feature photoshop, so a good dual core would be fine. People are starting to recommend quad cores for games, it's possible that the majority vote is right on this one. Gaming is still gpu limited though, and how much of your budget you blow on the graphics card depends on how much you care about games looking pretty relative to other parts of the computer being fast. Plus you haven't mentioned a budget.

At a guess you want an i5 750, 4gb of 1333mhz ram, m-atx board of your choice and the Antec mini p180 with a corsair h50. Basically copy the arrangement Hotwired has done, the Antec is beautifully designed and as quiet as a case can be. PSU is dictated by the graphics card, which is dictated by how much you care about games.
 
Hotwired? Who that?

I may possible cover an nVidia ION 2 netbook depending on the price. Website development isn't going to be a primary function of the mobile device just an additional capability for if I need it when visiting a client or away from my PC.

I noticed on MSDN (I love being a computing student) that there is a copy of Windows 7 with Server 2008, is this what I will need in order to use roaming profiles? Do I need this installed on both my laptop and desktop or just my desktop?

Budget ... to be honest I don't have one at the moment most likely the max I will want to spent is nearer a grand. I'll be needing everything from monitor (dual setup at some point) to mouse, speakers, etc. The laptop will come once this one dies.
 
Syncing over uni networks can be a bitch, best way to do it may well be to set up a mini-network in your room and use something like rSync. You can do this with a basic router.

For faster throwing-around of files, go with dropbox (so you don't have to sync every time you want to swap PCs). If your uni is a pain in the butt, as many are, you could take a leaf out of the software development book and use SVN. It's really for tracking version code, but it also works handily well for syncing folders easily, and tends to work nicely with restrictive NAT/firewalling. It's as easy as "put powerpoint and notes in folder, click commit. Go to other computer, click update".

http://www.projectlocker.com/ provide 500mb of free SVN hosting, which we use a lot for our stuff. It won't be a lot of use for syncing music and all your other crap, but for throwing uni work around the place it's very effective.
 
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