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[Apathy]

[ QUOTE ]
b) getting two 8800gtx video cards is ridiculously excessive for what you're likely to use it for.

[/ QUOTE ]


can you elaborate on this?

In my current setup I only use one dell 30inch and one dell 20inch screen but I would like the ability to have a third monitor in the future if I should choose to add that again as I have in the passt and I was under the impression I would need a sceond card for that purpose?

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
can you elaborate on this?

In my current setup I only use one dell 30inch and one dell 20inch screen but I would like the ability to have a third monitor in the future if I should choose to add that again as I have in the passt and I was under the impression I would need a sceond card for that purpose?

[/ QUOTE ]

According to newegg.com, you're going to be paying something in the order of $600 for each 8800gtx.

By comparison, one of the cards listed here at newegg will give you the functionally equivalent result. these cost around $75 (get one with a dvi plug) or so.


getting two 8800gtx cards is somewhat like buying a Ferrari F430 - and then getting a second F430 one to go to the shops as well. Sure, get a supercar for your fast driving, but if you also have a secondary need, get something like a Toyota Corolla to carry the shopping.

[Bremen]

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but I'd sooner get 8GB and Vista x64. That *will* make a difference on large databases, but only when a x64 postgreSQL for windows is available, IIRC not yet.

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mmm, fwiw I am running a 64bit postgres db. Of course I'd never hobble such a beast of a computer with windows [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[_dave_]

Josem,

What do you disagree with here?

I don't believe a am merely a "railbird" in these matters [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] I do spend a good deal of time messing with computer hardware and on occasion postgres databases.

Are you suggesting it is not worth running raid for database applications?

or that running Postgres 64-bit is pointless?

Because both have significant performance gains, when used on databases of a size > 2GB - which many PT / HM databases are.

Or is this more of a financial issue? I did note it was overly expensive to purchase this setup from Dell - but as I read it, this is a HSNL player who doesn't bat an eyelid at a 8800GTX SLI setup just to run a third monitor... Doubling DB performance for minimal cost I shouldn't imagine is a big issue here, no?

EDIT: If it makes me look like less of a "railbird putting not my own money in" - lose one of the 8800GTX cards, get an 8500, spend the change on a second Raptor and some more RAM. If you value data security over $100 - get an external HDD for backup too. Better?

dave.

[Apathy]

Ok, here are some changes I have made based on everyones suggestions:


Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6800 (8MB L2 Cache,3.2GHz Factory overclocked) English edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Edition edit
MEMORY 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz OC'd to 1066MHz-4 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB - WD Raptor 10000RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit
SECOND HARD DRIVE 320GB - Seagate 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit
SOUND CARD Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card edit
GRAPHICS CARD 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
Essentials
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition edit
INTERNET OFFERS No ISP requested edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE PC-cillin Internet Security with AntiVirus and Spyware removal 36-months edit
MODEM No Modem Requested edit
ONLINE DATA STORAGE 10GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Year edit
FLOPPY DRIVE & MEDIA READER Dell 13-in-1 Media Reader with Bluetooth edit
WARRANTY 1 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service and Tech Support edit
Accessories
SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
KEYBOARD Dell USB Keyboard edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
Option 1 No Digital Music Software Requested
Option 2 No Digital Imaging Software Requested





The total of this setup is 4,427 before 15% tax [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

I understand that I am overpaying for some stuff like the raptor HD but I have no clue how to install something like that unless its as easy as installing a vid card which Ive done before, plus I dont rly want to spend time doing all that.

I ordered just the one vid card since its all I need for now anyways and Josems ferrai point was well taken, ill just order another card as needed.


One question I do have though... is the HDs I picked a good choice? I dont understand what RAID means, can someone quickly explain what that is and what the benefits are?

I really want the 4k mem and its only 450 more so Im going to go with that,.. advice to have vista use it as it should? I read a little about it online and it sounds like the kind of thing that will be easy to do soon after some drivers come out or something.

I also switched the to get the MS office student edition.. I think that has excel and word maybe... good call?

[_dave_]

Looks like a baller rig [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]

I dont understand what RAID means, can someone quickly explain what that is and what the benefits are?


[/ QUOTE ]

I speak only of "performance" mode, RAID0 - basically is splits the data across a pair of drives, resulting in a near doubling of read speed, and an improvement in write speed too.

This is vary valuable for database applications (like PT/Postgres), since it will increase performance significantly - but since two mechanical devices are involved in the data storage, chances of irrecoverable error are doubled (one drive fails, you lose everything) - thus my recommendation to use a normal HDD as a database backup too.

[ QUOTE ]

I also switched the to get the MS office student edition.. I think that has excel and word maybe... good call?


[/ QUOTE ]

Meh, I'd sack it off to save money and use OpenOffice instead unless you have a good reason... although Student edition is indeed a bargain. Can you really get away with the student licensing?

dave.

[Apathy]

I guess so, its an option on the site so they must offer it to everyone. Basically its word and excel for 160 bucks... is that too much?

What is open office?

[_dave_]

[ QUOTE ]

I guess so, its an option on the site so they must offer it to everyone. Basically its word and excel for 160


[/ QUOTE ]
Over here, one must actually be a student (or teacher) to legally use the student/teacher version.

Using it in a business scenario is an offence, and the thing stamps *NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE* on anything we edit / print [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[ QUOTE ]

What is open office?

[/ QUOTE ]

A Free MS compatible office suite. Not as flashy, but perfectly workable... and Free [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Basically, If you were happy with Office 2000 - OpenOffice is great. If you were happy with Office 2003, OpenOffice is a bit old skool, but still workable.

www.openoffice.org

[fiskebent]

Wouldn't a RAID 0 setup with two 7200 RPM disks outperform a 10000 RPM drive by in effect giving you a 14400 RPM drive?

[ispiked]

I was curious, so I did some research into RAID0... Some points I took away:

* It looks like you'll be wasting space if you don't have two equally sized drives. You can only RAID the size of the smallest drive, so if you have a 160GB drive and a 320GB drive, you'll only be able to use 160GB of the 320GB drive as a RAID0 array. However, I don't know if that means you can still use the additional space as non-RAID space or not...

* The empirical performance gain isn't even close to twice as fast. According to this article, it's about a 1/3 speed gain at best.