Parts ready to assemble.My boss found out I was sort of a minor computer geek so he asked me to build him a new computer. He wanted the computer for mainly video capture/editing and PVR functionalities. I chose the following parts for him:
- CPU: Athlon 64 X2 +3800 S939 (dual core)
- Heatsink: Zalman 7000B Al-Cu
- RAM: 2 x 512MB (1GB) PC3200 DDR RAM
- Motherboard: ASUS A8N-VM CSM (integrated video, LAN, audio)
- Hard Drives:
1. 36GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM
2. 320GB Seagate 7200.10 7,200RPM
- Case: Antec Sonata II with 450W PSU
- Tuner/Capture Card: Sapphire Theatrix (ATI Theater 550 chipset)
- OS: Windows XP Professional Media Center Edition 2005
The new computer (on the left) beside my own older Sonata I computer.Because of school and work, I haven't followed the computer scene for the last couple months. As the result, I made a few bad choice of parts. I warned my boss this would happen, but he was persistent in having his computer built as soon as possible.
My first mistake was choosing the S939 socket. This socket is getting phased out and being replaced by the AM2. They are equally priced but the AM2 is more future-proof as newer CPUs will use the AM2 socket.
Choosing the Raptor hard drive was worst though. I believed all Raptors dominated the single non-SCSI drive category. Some Raptor models still do, but the 36GB model I chose - the smallest in the line, has since fallen from its throne. When I benchmarked the drives, I found the Raptor's 62MB/sec transfer rate totally obliterated by the Seagate 7200.10's blazing fast 78MB/sec. Superior spindle speed, it seems, is no longer an accurate gauge of raw performance.
To be fair, the Raptor still sports enterprise-class ruggedness and reliability, and it has low seek latencies, which interrelates to increased responsiveness in certain applications, that no 7200RPM drives can match, but in light of this new information, the premium for this drive is simply too high.
All in all, it's still a decent computer. It's extremely quiet - practically silent when the hard drives are idle, and it's definitely fast enough for whatever my boss needs to do. And judging by his response, he is certainly happy with the computer, which is ultimately all that matters.
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