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> can be had for $300-500. A gaming PC needs more CPU and GPU horsepower, and probably more RAM and HD, which can easily double the price.

Eh? You don't need to spend THAT much to build a half decent gaming box, if you do your homework on pricing... (i.e. haven't taken advantage of any combo deals)

= Budget Gaming Box = (single channel)

$180 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Retail
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$77 MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P (422 reviews)
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
$110 7-7-7-20 MEM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227478
$70 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
$50 CASE: Antec Three Hundred (mail in rebate)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
$145 GPU: $150 ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (390W Load CF2)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363
-----
$632

Not including Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, HD, but you should have those laying around if you are upgrading.

If you want to go the Crossfire (CF) route, then double the price of the mobo, and add a second 5770 a year or two later.

> can be had for $300-500. A gaming PC needs more CPU and GPU horsepower, and probably more RAM and HD, which can easily double the price.

Eh? You don't need to spend THAT much to build a half decent gaming box, if you do your homework on pricing... (i.e. haven't taken advantage of any combo deals)

= Budget Gaming Box = (single channel)

$180 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Retail
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$77 MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P (422 reviews)
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
$110 7-7-7-20 MEM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227478
$70 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
$50 CASE: Antec Three Hundred (mail in rebate)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
$145 GPU: $150 ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (390W Load CF2)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363
-----
$632

Not including Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, HD, but you should have those laying around if you are upgrading.

If you want to go the Crossfire (CF) route, then double the price of the mobo, and add a second 5770 a year or two later.

> can be had for $300-500. A gaming PC needs more CPU and GPU horsepower, and probably more RAM and HD, which can easily double the price.

Eh? You don't need to spend THAT much to build a half decent gaming box, if you do your homework on pricing... (i.e. haven't taken advantage of any combo deals)

= Budget Gaming Box = (single channel)

$180 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Retail
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$77 MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P (422 reviews)
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
$110 7-7-7-20 MEM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227478
$70 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
$50 CASE: Antec Three Hundred (mail in rebate)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
$145 GPU: $150 ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (390W Load CF2)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363
-----
$632

Not including Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, HD, but you should have those laying around if you are upgrading.

If you want to go the Crossfire (CF) route, then double the price of the mobo, and add a second 5770 a year or two later.

> can be had for $300-500. A gaming PC needs more CPU and GPU horsepower, and probably more RAM and HD, which can easily double the price.

Eh? You don't need to spend THAT much to build a half decent gaming box, if you do your homework on pricing... (i.e. haven't taken advantage of any combo deals)

= Budget Gaming Box = (single channel)

$180 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Retail
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103727
$77 MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P (422 reviews)
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128392
$110 7-7-7-20 MEM: OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227478
$70 PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003
$50 CASE: Antec Three Hundred (mail in rebate)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
$145 GPU: $150 ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB (390W Load CF2)
      http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121363
-----
$632

Not including Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard, HD, but you should have those laying around if you are upgrading.

If you want to go the Crossfire (CF) route, then double the price of the mobo, and add a second 5770 a year or two later.

The most expensive part is the video card and prices there have dropped more than I like to think about, I bought an 8800gtx OC when they were new for nearly $600 (ya ya, but I'm still using it too) Now, the gts 250 has about 6 more stream processors, the same clock speed and memory for around 90 bucks, 60 on sale.

The top o the line AMD 4 core unlocked CPU, was like $350 -$400, the 6 cores came out and the 4 core is now around $175, less if you are lucky.

Yeah but the cheapest XBox 360 is only $149 for the whole system

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16868105037

I'm no fan of consoles, but it does seem like they are cheaper than PCs. Of course you'd expect that because console hardware is quite a bit behind PC hardware and consoles are not meant to be profitable on their own. Only the combination of the games and the console makes money.

Just for future reference,

33,000 USD of hard drives, currently at about 1.5 TiB for 80 USD, is 633,600 GiB.

633,600 GiB can store 158,400,000 songs, at 4 MiB apiece.

The second trial of Jammie Thomas awarded the RIAA 1,920,000 USD for 24 songs, which comes out to 80,000 USD apiece.

For 158,400,000 songs, the RIAA would be awarded 12,672,000,000,000 USD (12 trillion short scale). That's only a bit less than the national US debt, which is 13,208,593,598,669 USD (13 trillion short scale) as of this comment!

I dare you to find a mouse thatdoesnt have some sort of scrolling function

The first one that comes to mind is the Logitech Marble, a fekking awesome trackball.

The multi-monitor thing? That I 100% agree with you on...it definitely bugs me too.

Actually you should try the Radeon based laptops if you want the video performance without the heat. I have been selling the AMD Neo dual core netbooks to my business customers (they like having a netbook powerful enough to run QB and HD projectors yet still light enough to easily fit in a briefcase) and liked the quality enough I got one for my dad. He uses his pretty much all the time, yet even sitting on a metal TV tray it doesn't get more than warm. Of course you aren't gonna play Crysis on a Radeon HD3xxx chip, but for older games and HD video it purrs like a kitten.

So if you want decent GPU performance without the space heater I'd try the new Radeon based. AMD is getting really good about heat, especially with the Neo. They are decent on battery life as well, with dad getting about 5 hours on his. If you want to take a look at one here is one of the two I have been selling, the other is an ASUS Newegg no longer carries.

Or, you know, go AMD. Because they don't limit ECC to only server parts.

Or, just buy any one of a half-dozen motherboards costing less than $200 and add a Xeon that is priced within 5% of the equivalent spec non-Xeon.

Sure, these might not be the best motherboards for gaming (although they are pretty competitive compared to other socket 1156 motherboards), but for a workstation doing everything else, they're great.

And, this way you get a motherboard that is thoroughly tested with ECC RAM (as that's what is expected to be used), and likely far better BIOS control of the ECC.

Or, you know, go AMD. Because they don't limit ECC to only server parts.

Or, just buy any one of a half-dozen motherboards costing less than $200 and add a Xeon that is priced within 5% of the equivalent spec non-Xeon.

Sure, these might not be the best motherboards for gaming (although they are pretty competitive compared to other socket 1156 motherboards), but for a workstation doing everything else, they're great.

And, this way you get a motherboard that is thoroughly tested with ECC RAM (as that's what is expected to be used), and likely far better BIOS control of the ECC.

If you have a low-profile PCI card, you don't even need something with an external box:

StarTech PCI Express to PCI Adapter Card Model PEX1PCI1

It's an adapter that turns your low-profile PCI card into a full-height PCI-express card.

Don't worry - VIA is still pushing out hardware that meets your requirements. Parallel, Serial - PCI and PCIe! :P

US: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138187
Canada: http://pccyber.com/?v=Product&i=MB-BS-VIOTECH3100%2B

Although in all seriousness, boards with PCI ports won't stop being produced overnight. You'll only have issues if you need a board with lots of them. Companies like Asus are still pushing out boards with a couple PCI ports.

Here's a passive heatsink board with 1, and a GF7025 board with 2:

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=50891&vpn=AT5NM10-I&manufacture=ASUS
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=50891&vpn=AT5NM10-I&manufacture=ASUS

Parallel and serial ports, I can agree with. Anyone who needs that in this day and age can buy a cheap adapter card. But PS/2? My mouse still works fine. My keyboard still works alright. I shouldn't have to buy a new mouse & keyboard just because the interface is dead. I can kind of see removing the PS/2 ports on high-end enthusiast boards, since they'd most likely have the newest USB based mice & keyboards. Low end and mid-range boards should keep at least one PS/2 port.

The same with VGA. I've had the same monitor for the past 4 years. It worked fine when I bought it and it still works great today. It's VGA only, though. My last two graphics cards (an ATI HD 3870 and a 5750) both have only DVI and (in the 5750's case) DisplayPort. They both came with a VGA->DVI adapter, thankfully. I can see with removing VGA in a way, but only if they provide an adapter for VGA montiors. But, DVI? Why? Most computer monitors today are primarily DVI (some also include VGA and DisplayPort), so why remove something current? Not only remove it but, replace with it with the wrong successor. DisplayPort would be a much better choice for replacing DVI. (And I think it's kind of funny that the hardware I linked to is a PCI card)

Even cheaper from Netgear ($150 in cart, it was the first item in the router section):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833122326

It has "simultaneous dual band", USB support, etc. I don't see what the problem is.

What exactly IS a cable?

You HAD to ask... so here's the Slashdot answer:
Cat5
HDMI

What exactly IS a cable?

You HAD to ask... so here's the Slashdot answer:
Cat5
HDMI

"My desktop has a far bigger screen than any mobile device would be comfortable with carrying."

I'd agree with the multiple screen idea, but this article is for people sitting next to cheap mid-range Dell desktops and their single or dual monitor. As laptops move on to 8 and 16 core cpus with 16 and 32gb RAM and many terabytes of storage with two or more HDMI outputs for additional monitors for the same price as their 32 core 64gb desktop non-geeky and non-technical people are going to switch. This has been predicted for many years and it will happen, hardware is advancing faster than the software, very few programs require more than two cores and you can buy 6 cores for $200.

MiniPCI based SSDs, if they exist at all(I've never seen one) are doomed to forever be super-niche items. Why? Because miniPCIe SSDs became a fairly major product category with the rise of the netbook. (a randomly chosen example. No endorsement is implied; just to demonstrate how easy to find they are.) Since basically no new laptops are coming out with miniPCI slots, only miniPCIe slots, there just isn't a whole lot of demand. If you actually meant PCIe, though, shop away!(assuming your laptop has a large enough empty space. The SSD cards are usually rather longer than the wifi or cell cards.

As for CD-ROM replacements, the trick is that there is no standard for the actual modules that swap in and out of laptops. The CD-rom drives themselves, are standardish(not "standard" as in "you can get replacements and all the cables and connectors you could want wherever parts are sold"; but they all seem to be approximately the same). By the time the manufacturer has put a custom plastic housing around them, and possibly a custom hot-swap connector, anything goes. Many; but by no means all, laptop models have a module available(from the manufacturer, or a third party) that will allow you to put an HDD in the CD-ROM slot. They are just dumb mechanical adapters and will work just as well with an 2.5 inch format SSD.

3: SSDs using a different port than SATA. Perhaps have it interface as a direct PCI-E device with a custom bus to add more SSD capacity in a similar form factor to RAM DIMMs.

Seriously...?

I built a Shuttle SFF PC once, and the barebones kit started around $200-$400, and that's before dropping in a CPU and RAM.

You can start at less than $180, with CPU at around $150 (for Core 2 Duo or Quad), and 4GB of RAM for less than $75. A video card 5-10 times as fast as the GeForce 320M is around $50.

So, for around $450 you can buy faster hardware in about the same form factor as the Mac Mini, but with far more future expandability.

your use-case is purely media streaming, in which case the new mac-mini will have to face the following competition:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815293008&Tpk=asus%20o!play

your basic $99 HD media streamer, granted it doesnt have wifi, but slightly more expensive models do...

yeah, it was wrong in that it wasn't purely a distillation of the article, but rather a synthesis with my own experiences. i should have accurately represented it as such.

i was terse because i was miffed at his hubris to assume that no one's been working in filesystem, swap, and application IO tuning for the last 40 years or so, something i've actually done (but of course, not for 40 years).

everyone makes choices on which abstractions to use and which to discard for performance/cost purposes. the author is merely asserting (without actually stating it) that enough people have the same use case of 16:300 ram:disk that it is worth discarding the abstraction that says that the application should just assume that everything it writes to/reads from is ram. OK, but this is hardly revolutionary. Nor is it universally correct for all cost/performance tradeoff decisions.

Mmap isn't always the correct choice either. In fact, using mmap is the thing that provides the abstraction that your disk is memory for you, so you can hardly blame application programmers for using the abstraction naively, especially when they may have no idea what hardware decisions have been made. maybe using raw file IO and keeping your accesses to multiples of the system IO size would be better. Of course if you do that you might also want to pay attention to stripe sizes if you're striping your jbod scratch. make them an even multiple (or better, a power of 2 multiple) of your system IO size as well.

also, xdd's pretty fly for benchmarking i hear.

http://www.ioperformance.com/

And personally i prefer to maximize RAM size and IO bandwidth over processor speed for most applications.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200302+1072521815&QksAutoSuggestion=&ShowDeactivatedMark=False&Configurator=&Subcategory=302&description=&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

Good suggestion, although I'd say that if you're replacing the VCR (and thus teaching new menus and settings anyway) it's probably easier to just go for a proper DVR instead. Newegg has a tuner/DVR for $140. Throw in a decent sized hard drive and you've got everything covered in one box for $200, and a device that (IMO) is altogether more elegant than a VCR or DVD Recorder.

Maybe something like this would be cheaper?

I would hardly say this is the world's first.

Impact deceleration against a hard surface is way more than 4g. That said, normal shock tolerance for HDDs in non-operating mode is more like 250g—more than enough to handle a drop from any reasonable carrying height. Just remember to run the "conveyance" S.M.A.R.T. self-test as soon as you reconnect the drive, to scan for possible damage and remap any bad sectors.

Soft rubber or silicone cases (like these) can help, too, by spreading out the impact and thus reducing the deceleration.

Best Buy

Do yourself a favor next time.

and have everything you've described

A quick check of Newegg shows only a single 4:3 monitor that would have more than a 1600 pixel height in such a configuration, and it costs over 3 grand.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16824255011

each is 1920x1200

i put one in landscape mode, then i bought an articulating monitor arm, and i put the other one in portrait mode. the setup looks schizophrenic, but listen up folks:

browsing the internet on a 16:9 monitor in portrait mode is a dream

try it some day. you capture so much of a webpage you are usually peering at through a slit you are constantly scrolling through with lots of unused screen real estate on either side

as a web developer, it helps too, believe me: the landscape mode screen for code/ packet inspection/ debugging/ email, etc... the other screen for a really good 10,000 foot overview of what you are actually putting up in the browser in terms of page layout

trust me folks: get a 16:9 monitor and put it in portrait mode if you browse a lot on the internet. it is about as good as it gets in terms of ui experience

In terms of number of outputs, Matrox has indeed been doing it for years. The difference is that their gear tends to be fairly expensive(particularly when you consider its brutally tepid performance) niche stuff. According to their price sheet, their 8-head will run you $2K. Their cheapest quad-head is $330. And these are for display controllers that are basically suited for 2D applications.

By contrast, the ATI stuff, with vastly superior GPU peformance, and typically more RAM, is cheaper. 5-heads will run you $220. 6 will run about $500; because you can't seem to get 6 without a 5870, which isn't a cheap chip.

This 12-head monster, since it is probably a relatively short-run enthusiast catcher, may well land in the ~$1000-~$1500 zone; but that will still make it cheaper, faster, and with more heads and RAM than the Matrox equivalent.

sadly i have to use HDD because i can't afford an LTO4-5 drive..

HDD's are sensitive to shock we all know that - so i put them in Silicon cases for storage in the bank vault

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817990010

they work well and aren't expensive.

USB Flash drives and cards can be brought back to as-new performance by performing a write-erase pass over the entire drive.

Care to suggest a USB flash card reader that you know supports the Erase cycle? According to the SD Assoc.'s tool, mine doesn't.

-l

While I agree with your point completely, how many folks have a real need to pound the silicon THAT hard? I build new PCs for a living and I can say that even with the ultra low end AMD duals a good 70% of the time the things are running at 800Mhz, simply because average folks don't have enough heavy lifting to keep the cores fed. I like to game and edit A/V and even with that kind of hardcore lifting probably 70% of the time my AMD quad is idle.

But the fact that they are idle IS the reason why I've been upselling many of my customers to the new AMD quads. With the new quads having 4 cores idling at 800MHz means they can do all their basic tasks, surfing, email, listening to music, and have C&Q keep their machine whisper quiet while giving them a smooth experience. And of course by having a quad when they DO have heavy lifting it gets done MUCH quicker, while still leaving the machine responsive. And with the new Radeons having hardware transcoding built in tasks such as A/V editing are very smooth, much smoother than those shitty Intel IGPs. And at just $99 for a 2.9GHz quad, it really is an easy sell.

So while I have NO doubt there are folks out there where the $1000 for the new Intel quads would be money well spent, hell some folks might even need a dual socket 12 core, for most folks that additional $800 would be much better spent on bigger HDDs, an SSD boot drive, plenty of RAM, etc. And the fact that I built my AMD Quad, with a 925 CPU, 8Gb of DDR2 800, 2 500Gb HDDs, dual burners, an HD4650 1Gb, and W7 HP x64, all for less than the cost of a SINGLE Intel 6 core, is just frankly an insane deal IMHO. For all the jobs I can think to throw at it the AMD kicks butt and doesn't heat up my apt.

Yep. I have a couple of these running XBMC Live off a USB stick.

Mostly they're used in the living room and the family room to play my DVD collection which I ripped to ISOs on a 12TB Windows Home Server machine. I have a few 1080p .ts vids that won't play well on it but it handles my Music Video collection; which are all 1080p x264 MKVs with around a 10MB/s bitrate; without a problem.
The cheaper Revo 230 can easily handle anything an old Xbox could and a lot more. The one I bought as a test when I was setting up my system is now an emulator machine and it plays many emulated games that the Xbox would choke on beautifully.

Yep. I have a couple of these running XBMC Live off a USB stick.

Mostly they're used in the living room and the family room to play my DVD collection which I ripped to ISOs on a 12TB Windows Home Server machine. I have a few 1080p .ts vids that won't play well on it but it handles my Music Video collection; which are all 1080p x264 MKVs with around a 10MB/s bitrate; without a problem.
The cheaper Revo 230 can easily handle anything an old Xbox could and a lot more. The one I bought as a test when I was setting up my system is now an emulator machine and it plays many emulated games that the Xbox would choke on beautifully.

I just don't see their prices being that great. I mean we are talking $342 and $216 when I can get an AMD 6 Core for $199 and an OEM AMD Black Quad for just $118. Compare that to the Intel 6 core at $1000!

Sure if you have to have the absolute fastest silicon on the planet Intel is the one to get (or if you just HAVE to have the biggest ePeen) but unfortunately Intel knows that too and will make you pay big time. The flip side of course is that Intel has the absolute shittiest IGPs out there, and by cutting Nvidia off at the knees have made damned sure it's gonna stay that way.

So these new chips with their very uncertain OC really don't impress me. One really needs to look at the cost of the total solution when building a new machine, and right now I'd say the bang for the buck is firmly in the AMD camp for anything less than $1000.I have been building a lot of AMD duals and quads for customers and thanks to the excellent Radeon IGPs providing hardware acceleration of all the major formats even the low end duals and quads multitask beautifully while playing HD smooth as butter.

So I don't really know who these chips are for-OCers would be better off buying the high end Intel chips if they are going for max speed, while those with a budget would be a hell of a lot better off going AMD for the more affordable boards with better IGPs. And if all you care about is OCing on the cheap, you can get an OEM AMD Black Dual for $54 or an OEM AMD Black Triple for $89, and with the right board you can even unlock the missing cores. The dual would probably be the best for aggressive OCing thanks to the larger die allowing for more cooling.

So as a former lifelong Intel man I just don't get who these chips are aimed at. Plus with many parts of the country still reeling from a shitty economy you really need to look at the price of the total build, and in that case AMD wins pretty much any sub $1000 build IMHO. The much better IGPs and much more affordable high quality boards tip it over into the AMD camp. IMHO the Intel board situation is just still too high for quality boards.

I just don't see their prices being that great. I mean we are talking $342 and $216 when I can get an AMD 6 Core for $199 and an OEM AMD Black Quad for just $118. Compare that to the Intel 6 core at $1000!

Sure if you have to have the absolute fastest silicon on the planet Intel is the one to get (or if you just HAVE to have the biggest ePeen) but unfortunately Intel knows that too and will make you pay big time. The flip side of course is that Intel has the absolute shittiest IGPs out there, and by cutting Nvidia off at the knees have made damned sure it's gonna stay that way.

So these new chips with their very uncertain OC really don't impress me. One really needs to look at the cost of the total solution when building a new machine, and right now I'd say the bang for the buck is firmly in the AMD camp for anything less than $1000.I have been building a lot of AMD duals and quads for customers and thanks to the excellent Radeon IGPs providing hardware acceleration of all the major formats even the low end duals and quads multitask beautifully while playing HD smooth as butter.

So I don't really know who these chips are for-OCers would be better off buying the high end Intel chips if they are going for max speed, while those with a budget would be a hell of a lot better off going AMD for the more affordable boards with better IGPs. And if all you care about is OCing on the cheap, you can get an OEM AMD Black Dual for $54 or an OEM AMD Black Triple for $89, and with the right board you can even unlock the missing cores. The dual would probably be the best for aggressive OCing thanks to the larger die allowing for more cooling.

So as a former lifelong Intel man I just don't get who these chips are aimed at. Plus with many parts of the country still reeling from a shitty economy you really need to look at the price of the total build, and in that case AMD wins pretty much any sub $1000 build IMHO. The much better IGPs and much more affordable high quality boards tip it over into the AMD camp. IMHO the Intel board situation is just still too high for quality boards.

I just don't see their prices being that great. I mean we are talking $342 and $216 when I can get an AMD 6 Core for $199 and an OEM AMD Black Quad for just $118. Compare that to the Intel 6 core at $1000!

Sure if you have to have the absolute fastest silicon on the planet Intel is the one to get (or if you just HAVE to have the biggest ePeen) but unfortunately Intel knows that too and will make you pay big time. The flip side of course is that Intel has the absolute shittiest IGPs out there, and by cutting Nvidia off at the knees have made damned sure it's gonna stay that way.

So these new chips with their very uncertain OC really don't impress me. One really needs to look at the cost of the total solution when building a new machine, and right now I'd say the bang for the buck is firmly in the AMD camp for anything less than $1000.I have been building a lot of AMD duals and quads for customers and thanks to the excellent Radeon IGPs providing hardware acceleration of all the major formats even the low end duals and quads multitask beautifully while playing HD smooth as butter.

So I don't really know who these chips are for-OCers would be better off buying the high end Intel chips if they are going for max speed, while those with a budget would be a hell of a lot better off going AMD for the more affordable boards with better IGPs. And if all you care about is OCing on the cheap, you can get an OEM AMD Black Dual for $54 or an OEM AMD Black Triple for $89, and with the right board you can even unlock the missing cores. The dual would probably be the best for aggressive OCing thanks to the larger die allowing for more cooling.

So as a former lifelong Intel man I just don't get who these chips are aimed at. Plus with many parts of the country still reeling from a shitty economy you really need to look at the price of the total build, and in that case AMD wins pretty much any sub $1000 build IMHO. The much better IGPs and much more affordable high quality boards tip it over into the AMD camp. IMHO the Intel board situation is just still too high for quality boards.

I just don't see their prices being that great. I mean we are talking $342 and $216 when I can get an AMD 6 Core for $199 and an OEM AMD Black Quad for just $118. Compare that to the Intel 6 core at $1000!

Sure if you have to have the absolute fastest silicon on the planet Intel is the one to get (or if you just HAVE to have the biggest ePeen) but unfortunately Intel knows that too and will make you pay big time. The flip side of course is that Intel has the absolute shittiest IGPs out there, and by cutting Nvidia off at the knees have made damned sure it's gonna stay that way.

So these new chips with their very uncertain OC really don't impress me. One really needs to look at the cost of the total solution when building a new machine, and right now I'd say the bang for the buck is firmly in the AMD camp for anything less than $1000.I have been building a lot of AMD duals and quads for customers and thanks to the excellent Radeon IGPs providing hardware acceleration of all the major formats even the low end duals and quads multitask beautifully while playing HD smooth as butter.

So I don't really know who these chips are for-OCers would be better off buying the high end Intel chips if they are going for max speed, while those with a budget would be a hell of a lot better off going AMD for the more affordable boards with better IGPs. And if all you care about is OCing on the cheap, you can get an OEM AMD Black Dual for $54 or an OEM AMD Black Triple for $89, and with the right board you can even unlock the missing cores. The dual would probably be the best for aggressive OCing thanks to the larger die allowing for more cooling.

So as a former lifelong Intel man I just don't get who these chips are aimed at. Plus with many parts of the country still reeling from a shitty economy you really need to look at the price of the total build, and in that case AMD wins pretty much any sub $1000 build IMHO. The much better IGPs and much more affordable high quality boards tip it over into the AMD camp. IMHO the Intel board situation is just still too high for quality boards.

I just don't see their prices being that great. I mean we are talking $342 and $216 when I can get an AMD 6 Core for $199 and an OEM AMD Black Quad for just $118. Compare that to the Intel 6 core at $1000!

Sure if you have to have the absolute fastest silicon on the planet Intel is the one to get (or if you just HAVE to have the biggest ePeen) but unfortunately Intel knows that too and will make you pay big time. The flip side of course is that Intel has the absolute shittiest IGPs out there, and by cutting Nvidia off at the knees have made damned sure it's gonna stay that way.

So these new chips with their very uncertain OC really don't impress me. One really needs to look at the cost of the total solution when building a new machine, and right now I'd say the bang for the buck is firmly in the AMD camp for anything less than $1000.I have been building a lot of AMD duals and quads for customers and thanks to the excellent Radeon IGPs providing hardware acceleration of all the major formats even the low end duals and quads multitask beautifully while playing HD smooth as butter.

So I don't really know who these chips are for-OCers would be better off buying the high end Intel chips if they are going for max speed, while those with a budget would be a hell of a lot better off going AMD for the more affordable boards with better IGPs. And if all you care about is OCing on the cheap, you can get an OEM AMD Black Dual for $54 or an OEM AMD Black Triple for $89, and with the right board you can even unlock the missing cores. The dual would probably be the best for aggressive OCing thanks to the larger die allowing for more cooling.

So as a former lifelong Intel man I just don't get who these chips are aimed at. Plus with many parts of the country still reeling from a shitty economy you really need to look at the price of the total build, and in that case AMD wins pretty much any sub $1000 build IMHO. The much better IGPs and much more affordable high quality boards tip it over into the AMD camp. IMHO the Intel board situation is just still too high for quality boards.

Here try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157194&cm_re=ion-_-13-157-194-_-Product

$134 plus the various parts you have laying around and maybe a couple of cheap sticks of RAM.

Or try this one with a PSU included -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500027&cm_re=ion-_-13-500-027-_-Product 90watts :-) That's what the PSU is rated for, you won't use but maybe half that.

Just peruse NewEgg and you'll see how cheaply this can be done. Hell, I'm tempted to build a second one myself! http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&srchInDesc=atom&Description=ion&page=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

Here try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157194&cm_re=ion-_-13-157-194-_-Product

$134 plus the various parts you have laying around and maybe a couple of cheap sticks of RAM.

Or try this one with a PSU included -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500027&cm_re=ion-_-13-500-027-_-Product 90watts :-) That's what the PSU is rated for, you won't use but maybe half that.

Just peruse NewEgg and you'll see how cheaply this can be done. Hell, I'm tempted to build a second one myself! http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&srchInDesc=atom&Description=ion&page=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

Here try this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157194&cm_re=ion-_-13-157-194-_-Product

$134 plus the various parts you have laying around and maybe a couple of cheap sticks of RAM.

Or try this one with a PSU included -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500027&cm_re=ion-_-13-500-027-_-Product 90watts :-) That's what the PSU is rated for, you won't use but maybe half that.

Just peruse NewEgg and you'll see how cheaply this can be done. Hell, I'm tempted to build a second one myself! http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&srchInDesc=atom&Description=ion&page=1&bop=And&Order=PRICE&PageSize=100

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1156

Looks like it's 16+4. The +4 is channeled out of the PCH (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_P55). Therefore when you're using anything on the PCH (like USB and SATA), you're stealing bandwidth from the non-video PCIe slots, because it shares the same connection to the CPU. So he was a little off on his point about other interfaces stealing bandwidth from the video card. Turns out it only steals bandwidth from whatever you have in the third x16 slot or the x1 slot.

The Asus M4N98TD EVO can do 16+16+2 with an AMD chip. I think the point was that for the segment that this chip is targeting, it is severely hobbled in terms of PCIe bandwidth. These chips can only do x8/x8 SLI and AMD chips can do x16/x16 SLI.

I'd like to see a board that disputes that the 1156 socket can only handle 16+4 lanes.

Yes, looks like 16+4 or whatever, it's still more than the 16 claimed by original poster. As you did not bother reading the whole discussion, here's X16/X16 SLI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130258

And there's the board that disputes what you are asking for. Not to mention that if you know what you are talking about, true X16/X16 does not really make a difference in most common situations.

Why would you do this? A complete ready to roll ASROCK 330 complete with memory and CPU can be bought for $350 or so http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856158009&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Barebone+Systems-_-ASRock-_-56158009 Add a MCE remote with IRDA receiver or a BT dongle and a PS3 remote and it's DONE.

With that you can play 1080P video perfectly using VDPAU on Linux - I do this regularly. It draws little power, has HDMI output including 5.1 surround via the HDMI, and is TINY. I swapped out an overclocked C2D for this tiny thing and couldn't be happier.

Seriously, there's no sense in building a beast when these little ION powered rigs do it all just fine. the ASROCK is only just one of several cheap ION machines out there too but it's the one I'm most familiar with. Heck I may be buying more to play video on additional TVs here pretty soon and I think there's even a LiveCD just for it.

*sigh* I thought this was a tech site. What does one have to do to counter this kind of junk?

Here's (an allegedly non-existent) LGA 1156 board with 3 x PCI-E X16 slots: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130238

There's plenty of room for those USB 3.0 and SATA-600 cards with the extra 4 expansion slots, even if the parent seems to suggest that just having them integrated would eat up the PCI-E lanes.

These mother boards will handle two 12 core Opterons: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200302%201071357038&name=Dual%20Socket%20G34

And here's a tri-SLI LGA 1156 board for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130258

To show how much full of shit you are, see this for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131641

Triple SLI at X16/X8/X8, or dual SLI at full X16/X16. Seems to be somewhat more than your alleged 16 lanes.

I'm down to my last two XBOXen (components just die after 10 years).

Is there currently another device that runs XBMC and is/has:

    o sub $100;
    o instant on;
    o ethernet & video ports;
    o IR controller support;

Something like the WD TV Live seems to have the right hardware but I suspect the GUI blows and codec support is always a couple of steps behind.
Has anybody tried the b-rad firmware?

Any suggestions? (I'm quite open to building my own but can't see how to meet all of the above criteria.)

All of these ones: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150636%201749646482&name=SLC