OT: Migrating from XP to Win7

[PeterH]

I'm not sure Atelco has very much to chose from...

The example from nas8e9 has quite a fast processor (x4) and very strong power supply (600W!)
But all smaller units seem to be poor regarding storage etc. Sorry that I don't know enough about other manufacturers.

One thing: as far as I know *all* current AMDs are ready for virtualization and 64bit.

[admin]

The example from nas8e9 has quite a fast processor (x4) and very strong power supply (600W!)

Does this mean almost double electricity costs?

The smaller one, AMD Athlon64 X2 215, with 2 SATA places, can I use 2 SATA HDs here (and exchange the SATA DVD with an IDE DVD)?

[nas8e9]

The example from nas8e9 has quite a fast processor (x4) and very strong power supply (600W!)

Does this mean almost double electricity costs?

The smaller one, AMD Athlon64 X2 215, with 2 SATA places, can I use 2 SATA HDs here (and exchange the SATA DVD with an IDE DVD)?

Per Compucase's website, there are 1 internal (occupied by the supplied HD) and 2 external (one FD, one empty) 3,5" drive bays, so there is room for 2 HD's.

As for the power supply, it *should* only use as much power as is being requested by the components. Power supplies do vary in terms of efficiency; the better ones claim at least 80% efficiency.

[nas8e9]

Dell currently has an offer for a desktop: the first colum, the one with an AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad Core 810. The base price after discount is EUR 399,-; for an additional EUR 33,- you get Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and for another EUR 30,- you get 4 instead of 3 GB for a total of EUR 462,-, including tax. If I understand your specification correctly, you'd only have to add a second HD to this configuration yourself.

[admin]

Dell currently has an offer for a desktop: the first colum, the one with an AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad Core 810. The base price after discount is EUR 399,-; for an additional EUR 33,- you get Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and for another EUR 30,- you get 4 instead of 3 GB for a total of EUR 462,-, including tax. If I understand your specification correctly, you'd only have to add a second HD to this configuration yourself.

Thank you, but I will almost surely stay with atelco. They have a great service, are around the corner, and know me personally.

[nas8e9]

Dell currently has an offer for a desktop: the first colum, the one with an AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad Core 810. The base price after discount is EUR 399,-; for an additional EUR 33,- you get Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and for another EUR 30,- you get 4 instead of 3 GB for a total of EUR 462,-, including tax. If I understand your specification correctly, you'd only have to add a second HD to this configuration yourself.

Thank you, but I will almost surely stay with atelco. They have a great service, are around the corner, and know me personally.

They don't do custom builds?

[admin]

Dell currently has an offer for a desktop: the first colum, the one with an AMD Phenom™ X4 Quad Core 810. The base price after discount is EUR 399,-; for an additional EUR 33,- you get Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and for another EUR 30,- you get 4 instead of 3 GB for a total of EUR 462,-, including tax. If I understand your specification correctly, you'd only have to add a second HD to this configuration yourself.

Thank you, but I will almost surely stay with atelco. They have a great service, are around the corner, and know me personally.

They don't do custom builds?

They do! I'm not a hardware geek enough (you might have guessed by now) to know what's possible. Say if I want 8 GB max RAM, more than 2 SATA, virtualization -- would there be a clearly cheaper solution than the "4media! AMD Phenom II X4 940" (599,-)? I'm already almost getting soft for latter...

[PeterH]

If they are "around the corner", and they are good, and you can talk to them, they should be able to confige a system for your needs, much cheaper than 600€!

Maybe smaller graphic, maybe graphic onboard. (You don't play much in 3d?)
Smaller power supply. (400W or so, maybe less.)
Maybe smaller cpu (X2 instead if) - you can buy a much better in 2 years, when those get cheap.
2*2MB RAM? Expandable by oher 2*2MB.
I'd say AMD, as always with virtualization. Athlon X2? X3?

Just some ideas!

[nas8e9]

They don't do custom builds?

They do! I'm not a hardware geek enough (you might have guessed by now) to know what's possible. Say if I want 8 GB max RAM, more than 2 SATA, virtualization -- would there be a clearly cheaper solution than the "4media! AMD Phenom II X4 940" (599,-)? I'm already almost getting soft for latter...

This combination should work:

Code: Select all

1  Jet Delta mit 420W-Netzteil                37       37
1  AMD Athlon II X2 240 Box, Sockel AM3       50,50    50,5
1  Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H, AMD 785G, ATX    80       80
2  4096MB-KIT Corsair XMS2 PC8500, CL5       109      218
1  Samsung HD103UJ 1TB 32MB SATA II           86,33    86,33
1  Samsung HD322HJ, 320GB, 16MB               47,53    47,53
1  LG GH22NP20 schwarz bare                   27       27
1  Scythe Ultra-Kaze Gehäuselüfter 1000rpm     7,90     7,9

Total                                                 554,26

This offers you 8 GB RAM with 2 HD's to keep the VM's off your main HD. I would check with Atelco whether they're happy there is enough cooling; if noise is a great concern to you, you may look at another processor cooler. Otherwise, I think the above combination should do what you want.

An alternative processor would be the AMD Athlon II X4 620 Box AM3, which is EUR 37,50 more expensive (EUR 88,-). Should you go with that one, you may wish to check with Atelco whether the power supply of the Jet Delta is still enough (EUR 37,50 plus an additional EUR 50,- for a more powerful power supply wouldn't be such a good deal). I'd say the Athlon II X2 240 should be enough, however.

Should you want to go with their 4media! AMD Phenom II X4 940 (which has an ever faster processor... ), you'd have to budget for EUR 599,- for the base configuration, around EUR 100,- for another 4 GB and around EUR 50,- for a second HD. Perhaps surprisingly (I don't have the best track record...), the above custom build would be cheaper.

[PeterH]

...not bad!

The x2 seems enough (for what Don seems to want)...

You can think about starting with 1*4096MB - that's 109€ less. And can add whis whenever you need. Maybe cheaper till then...

[nas8e9]

You can think about starting with 1*4096MB - that's 109€ less. And can add whis whenever you need. Maybe cheaper till then...

You could indeed: the motherboard has 4 slots while the memory sticks are 2 GB each, so installing just one kit leaves 2 slots open. A slightly cheaper option would be the 4096MB-Kit GEIL Black Dragon PC2-8500 DDR2-1066 CL5 (EUR 99,- instead of EUR 109,-).

[PeterH]

We don't know what Atelco can and wants to offer. But I think this is a good base to start asking them.

Don: if you don't have programs working multithreaded, it doesn't make sense to take much cores, like X4. In this case I'd prefer to take an X2, maybe with some more MHz.

I think AMD will make much more CPUs for socket AM3, so I think that in maybe 2 years you can buy a very cheap (with respect to todays cost) X4, that's very fast.

[nas8e9]

While I'm practicing cost-cutting: the System Builder version of Windows 7 Professional is EUR 135,70 while the full retail version is EUR 279,-. The disadvantages of the System Builder version are that it gets tied to your PC (specifically your motherboard: if your motherboard dies, your license dies with it) and that you can't use Microsoft Support (the "live person on the other end of the phone"-variety).

[admin]

Thanks for the support, guys!

I just did some looking around at atelco and now I'm spoiled concerning the box: I MUST have the Coolermaster CM690!

Would this work?:

Code: Select all

1  Box:       Coolermaster CM690                         76,63 €  76,63 €
1  Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Box, Sockel AM3       50,50    50,5
1  MainBoard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H, AMD 785G, ATX    80       80
1  RAM:       4096MB-KIT Corsair XMS2 PC8500, CL5       109      109
1  HD 1:      Samsung HD103UJ 1TB 32MB SATA II           86,33    86,33
1  HD 2:      Samsung HD322HJ, 320GB, 16MB               47,53    47,53
1  DVD-RW:    LG GH22NP20 schwarz bare                   27       27
                                                           Total 476,99

[nas8e9]

Thanks for the support, guys!

I just did some looking around at atelco and now I'm spoiled concerning the box: I MUST have the Coolermaster CM690!

Would this work?:

Code: Select all

1  Box:       Coolermaster CM690                         76,63 €  76,63 €
1  Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Box, Sockel AM3       50,50    50,5
1  MainBoard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H, AMD 785G, ATX    80       80
1  RAM:       4096MB-KIT Corsair XMS2 PC8500, CL5       109      109
1  HD 1:      Samsung HD103UJ 1TB 32MB SATA II           86,33    86,33
1  HD 2:      Samsung HD322HJ, 320GB, 16MB               47,53    47,53
1  DVD-RW:    LG GH22NP20 schwarz bare                   27       27
                                                           Total 476,99

Seems like a nice and roomy case that does come with both a front and a rear cooling fan included but *not* with a power supply. One option would be the Xilence Power 500 Watt / SPS-XP500.(12) (EUR 29,90).

Plenty of expansion possibility with both the motherboard and the case!