building an AMD machine for a client, question

M

Manaknight

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
5,446
so i'm grabbing the AMD combo at microcenter for a client build. She just needs a home computer to do billing/invoices etc for her brother who is pretty well off doing indie contracting in the area. she is on a some ancient system right now, maybe a p3 533 or something equally as horrid, win89 all that. so its wordperfect, word, internet..the usual but she wants something that will last so she wont have switch systems.

I was looking at the athlon II x4 640 deal, but keep reading about the successful unlocks on the 955. the L3 cache seems to make a difference in actual office work. My question is... what if any detriments are there to unlocking the 955 to a quad and leaving it at stock speeds otherwise? is this a bad idea for a system that i want as stable as possible and sort of a set and forget kinda setup.

She doesn't do a whole lot on the pc at home right now...though i suspect it will change to a home pc that is actually used once it can be actually..you know...used...128 megs of ram is not conducive to doing anything on a pc these days lol.
 
Since you're looking for stability using an unlocked chip wouldn't be the greatest idea. I had a 555 that unlocked the two extra cores and one ended up dying a month or so later and the other was unstable. The athlon x4 640 would be a better choice IMO.
 
just gonna do the athlon then and get a 955 for myself >_>

i figured as much. and i figure even without the l3, this is a lady that uses a 2.8 prescott at work and a 533 p3 at home.... i think she'll be set and see a world of difference with an am3 quad ;)
 
if this is just for bills and crap like that go with the athlon II x2 240.. no reason to go with a quad.. then get a 780g motherboard.. or hell even a 760g..
 
sirmonkey1985 said:
if this is just for bills and crap like that go with the athlon II x2 240.. no reason to go with a quad.. then get a 780g motherboard.. or hell even a 760g..
Click to expand...

doing the microcenter combo, so... 100 and change for board and chip is perfect. shes getting a quad because she wanted "future proofing" so it looks better on the invoice.
 
What mobo comes in the 100 dollar combo? I need to do a similar system and that is a great deal.
 
Manaknight said:
I was looking at the athlon II x4 640 deal, but keep reading about the successful unlocks on the 955. the L3 cache seems to make a difference in actual office work. My question is... what if any detriments are there to unlocking the 955 to a quad and leaving it at stock speeds otherwise? is this a bad idea for a system that i want as stable as possible and sort of a set and forget kinda setup.
Click to expand...
Don't even bother. Unlocking is not something you want on a box that is supposed to be stable and hardware maintenance free. Unlocking is strictly for enthusiasts who have the time to play around with the settings necessary to keep it stable. In a way, its kind of like taking an old woman's honda daily driver and throwing on a high-end turbo, then expecting them to know how to keep it maintained and preventing them from blowing it up.

If she wants a quad core, get her a quad core. Don't get her a lower end chip, unlock it expecting to get a quad (which you don't have 100% probability of doing in the first place), then expect the 100% stability. Your nuts if you think it will happen. That's like buying a lottery ticket thinking you will absolutely win the jackpot when the reality is more likely to be somewhere inbetween.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Don't even bother. Unlocking is not something you want on a box that is supposed to be stable and hardware maintenance free. Unlocking is strictly for enthusiasts who have the time to play around with the settings necessary to keep it stable. In a way, its kind of like taking an old woman's honda daily driver and throwing on a high-end turbo, then expecting them to know how to keep it maintained and preventing them from blowing it up.

If she wants a quad core, get her a quad core. Don't get her a lower end chip, unlock it expecting to get a quad (which you don't have 100% probability of doing in the first place), then expect the 100% stability. Your nuts if you think it will happen. That's like buying a lottery ticket thinking you will absolutely win the jackpot when the reality is more likely to be somewhere inbetween.
Click to expand...

thats what i figured but i am back to AMD for the first time since my opty 170 so i figured it bore asking.

just doing the 640 and calling it a day.
 
Manaknight said:
doing the microcenter combo, so... 100 and change for board and chip is perfect. shes getting a quad because she wanted "future proofing" so it looks better on the invoice.
Click to expand...


ahh 100 for that then yeah id definitely go with the quad..

badboyeee said:
OP, yup 640 would be the better choice for her. What motherboard are you getting?



The MSI 785GM-P45.. it's mATX tho and I wouldn't do more than a moderate overclock..

If you want ATX and safe moderate overclocking go with the MSI 785G-E53 for an extra $9.99.

Check out: http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/1005_AMDbundlePROMO.html
Click to expand...


just because its mATX means nothing.. you will hit the limits of the processor before you hit the limits of the motherboard..
 
badboyeee said:
OP, yup 640 would be the better choice for her. What motherboard are you getting?



The MSI 785GM-P45.. it's mATX tho and I wouldn't do more than a moderate overclock..

If you want ATX and safe moderate overclocking go with the MSI 785G-E53 for an extra $9.99.

Check out: http://www.microcenter.com/specials/promotions/1005_AMDbundlePROMO.html
Click to expand...

yep did the full atx, i have one of those boards at work being used as an OCR box, works awesome. gonna get myself a 955 to tinker with
 
450 said:
Are you driving to the columbus mc or does PA have one now?
Click to expand...

meeting a buddy in youngstown and heading up to the mayfield heights one.

My usual B&M is the columbus one, hitting microcenter and KDB in a single trip makes for a fun day.

PA has one in Philly, they really need one in PGH since they would have no competition.
 
Manaknight said:
meeting a buddy in youngstown and heading up to the mayfield heights one.

My usual B&M is the columbus one, hitting microcenter and KDB in a single trip makes for a fun day.

PA has one in Philly, they really need one in PGH since they would have no competition.
Click to expand...

KDB? What's that?

EDIT: Nevermind, looked it up, its karaoke.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Don't even bother. Unlocking is not something you want on a box that is supposed to be stable and hardware maintenance free. Unlocking is strictly for enthusiasts who have the time to play around with the settings necessary to keep it stable. In a way, its kind of like taking an old woman's honda daily driver and throwing on a high-end turbo, then expecting them to know how to keep it maintained and preventing them from blowing it up.

If she wants a quad core, get her a quad core. Don't get her a lower end chip, unlock it expecting to get a quad (which you don't have 100% probability of doing in the first place), then expect the 100% stability. Your nuts if you think it will happen. That's like buying a lottery ticket thinking you will absolutely win the jackpot when the reality is more likely to be somewhere inbetween.
Click to expand...

+1 agreed

It's akin to stealing from the old lady. Not cool. She will never know, but you will because you'll be dealing with the headaches.

Besides, older people coming from old computers are usually amazed by the speed of a new system. My grandmother is still on a old Socket A system. The board went out, bad caps, replaced the board. Upgraded the Duron 800 with a Athlon XP 1100 I had laying around along with some more memory. I think it was 128MB that she had and I bumped it to 768MB. She literally thought it acted like a new computer. She was amazed by the speed. It was funny.
 
I think youd be better off getting a low TDW cpu and an SSD, but thats just me...
 
I picked up the MC deal also but it was for an X4 630. It runs 13 VM's at once with no hiccups. HD's being the bottleneck of course I recommend it.
 
86 5.0L said:
I think youd be better off getting a low TDW cpu and an SSD, but thats just me...
Click to expand...

SSDs are too pricey for what they give an average user. sure, that half second less load time might be a big deal for an enthusiast, but a grandma would never even notice the difference. the only thing different would be booting faster, but thats really not important in any way.
 
ekuest said:
SSDs are too pricey for what they give an average user. sure, that half second less load time might be a big deal for an enthusiast, but a grandma would never even notice the difference. the only thing different would be booting faster, but thats really not important in any way.
Click to expand...

i know but a quadcore is little on the extreme too, extra heat and power usage, with not enough noticable gains
 
86 5.0L said:
i know but a quadcore is little on the extreme too, extra heat and power usage, with not enough noticable gains
Click to expand...

not really on the amd side. if you can get, for example, a nice X4 combo for $100 and a X2 combo for $75, then its worth getting the little extra power for the small cost increase, and definitely worth it when you can tell the client theyre getting a future-proof quad-core. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top