Spec me a high end workstation

DAVEM

DAVEM

DAVEM

Permabanned
Joined
27 Oct 2002
Posts
2,486
Hi,

I'm looking to upgrade, ATM I have:
Radeon X1300 512MB
4 x 512MB DDR
P4D 805
Audigy 4
DVD RW
300GB WD HDD

Not really bothered about upgrading the graphics card, sound card or HDD (I think they're all fine).

I was thinking of getting
Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLI
2 X OCUK value DDR2 4GB, so in effect 4 x 2 GB
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

I note that this motherboard is capable of supporting 32GB of RAM, but the problem is that 4GB modules cost a FORTUNE, so I think just sticking lots of 2GB modules in is the best option.

I take it I'll notice a big difference in performance if I go for this setup?

Cheers

Davem
 
What are you using it for? Considered Quad Core? If you're spending that much on RAM, I'm assuming it's for rendering or encoding or similar? If so, Quad core would be a good idea.
 
supernova9 said:
What are you using it for? Considered Quad Core? If you're spending that much on RAM, I'm assuming it's for rendering or encoding or similar? If so, Quad core would be a good idea.
Click to expand...

Maths and statistics on VERY large data sets. I keep running out of memory doing certain maxtrix operations on my Macbook (which also has 2GB of RAM). In terms of Quad core I just can't justify the expense, also I believe the main bottle neck to be memory. I wish there was a motherboard with about 16 DDR2 slots in it so I could but about 32GB of RAM in there :cool:
 
DAVEM said:
Maths and statistics on VERY large data sets. I keep running out of memory doing certain maxtrix operations on my Macbook (which also has 2GB of RAM). In terms of Quad core I just can't justify the expense, also I believe the main bottle neck to be memory. I wish there was a motherboard with about 16 DDR2 slots in it so I could but about 32GB of RAM in there :cool:
Click to expand...

Except Windows nor OSX would see 32gb..
 
Hornchurch said:
Except Windows nor OSX would see 32gb..
Click to expand...

um 64bit would :)

Personally I would put a quad core xeon (cheapest one and clock it) in it instead. Reasoning is simple, maths is processor intesive too, and it will last a lot longer than a dual core so long term savings.
 
lsg1r said:
um 64bit would :)

Personally I would put a quad core xeon (cheapest one and clock it) in it instead. Reasoning is simple, maths is processor intesive too, and it will last a lot longer than a dual core so long term savings.
Click to expand...

Its all to tempting to go buying more and more powerful CPU's but at the moment, I just can't do what I want, and the only thing stopping in that is the amount of RAM I have. So I'm thinking 8GB RAM and C2D is a good money vs. performance match?

Before I know it I'll be buying a Cleerspeed Accelerator!
 
With how much money are you willing to part, Dave? What you have spec'd looks pretty good for the most part. How CPU bound are these calculations? Is the function parallel, thus benefiting from more cores?

EDIT: If you're interested in moving to a dual Opteron/Xeon board (you don't have to populate both CPU sockets) it is fairly easy to find boards with 16 slots.
 
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