Comments on: Forever Upgrading http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Web Developer in the Metro Vancouver area. Technology, Web Development, Photography, Computers and Outdoor Activities Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:48:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Stephen Fung http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20587 Stephen Fung Mon, 11 May 2009 07:15:06 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20587 @jon Jennings - The Barracuda he has is an ES series. It isn't the run of the mill one and is built for enterprise level reliability with a much higher MTBF. He'll be fine. His whole system cost less than a Q6600 Quad Core. His headroom comes from the whack load of cash he saved (he was on a very tight budget) and I was in a position to help. Since he's on Photoshop, moving to CS4 will allow him to use the GPU to accelerate the software with the latest drivers and the CPU, which is actually a cherry picked E4300, will do 1333FSB, without breaking a sweat, with a minor voltage jump. Plenty of free upgradeability available when he choses to use it. @jon Jennings – The Barracuda he has is an ES series. It isn’t the run of the mill one and is built for enterprise level reliability with a much higher MTBF. He’ll be fine. His whole system cost less than a Q6600 Quad Core. His headroom comes from the whack load of cash he saved (he was on a very tight budget) and I was in a position to help.

Since he’s on Photoshop, moving to CS4 will allow him to use the GPU to accelerate the software with the latest drivers and the CPU, which is actually a cherry picked E4300, will do 1333FSB, without breaking a sweat, with a minor voltage jump. Plenty of free upgradeability available when he choses to use it.

]]> By: Stephen Fung http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20586 Stephen Fung Mon, 11 May 2009 07:04:47 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20586 Glad you like your new (old) system. Not bad for less than the price of a single Quad Core CPU :) Glad you like your new (old) system. Not bad for less than the price of a single Quad Core CPU :)

]]> By: Jon Jennings http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20585 Jon Jennings Sat, 09 May 2009 05:41:26 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20585 Sensible to stay a little way behind the leading edge of course. Everybody will have advice about what you should have done, shouldn't have done etc - and of course their advice always aligns with what they did themselves... which was of course the perfect thing to do etc etc In my personal case, I got a quad core. Not sure if it was a smart move but as Firefox and VirtualBox both seem to soak up memory and CPU, maybe it was worth it to leave everything else with breathing room. Note that there are some serious problems with the Barracudas. Be sure to do some searching, check the Seagate website and make sure your firmware is up-to-date. I think there were two or three major issues, the worst of which only affected the 1TB, but do some research to be sure. DDR2 memory is ultra-cheap right now. I'd have been tempted to go for 2x2GB so you still had slots free if you wanted to expand to 8GB. I went for 64-bit Ubuntu and run any Windows stuff I need in a virtual machine but sounds like you're more tied into Windows software than I was so harder for you to make the leap. As for NAS, there's a lot of proprietary systems out there but you always have to think "what happens if the NAS system dies?" - it's probably hell to get your data back off the hard drive. I bought a mini-ITX atom motherboard, a tiny case (this one: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=28232&vpn=MI-100&manufacture=Apex%20Computer%20Technology) and a 1TB drive and built an Ubuntu server out of it. Good experience, flexible software and, if the machine dies, I know I can get the data back off the hard drive. Sensible to stay a little way behind the leading edge of course.

Everybody will have advice about what you should have done, shouldn’t have done etc – and of course their advice always aligns with what they did themselves… which was of course the perfect thing to do etc etc

In my personal case, I got a quad core. Not sure if it was a smart move but as Firefox and VirtualBox both seem to soak up memory and CPU, maybe it was worth it to leave everything else with breathing room.

Note that there are some serious problems with the Barracudas. Be sure to do some searching, check the Seagate website and make sure your firmware is up-to-date. I think there were two or three major issues, the worst of which only affected the 1TB, but do some research to be sure.

DDR2 memory is ultra-cheap right now. I’d have been tempted to go for 2x2GB so you still had slots free if you wanted to expand to 8GB.

I went for 64-bit Ubuntu and run any Windows stuff I need in a virtual machine but sounds like you’re more tied into Windows software than I was so harder for you to make the leap.

As for NAS, there’s a lot of proprietary systems out there but you always have to think “what happens if the NAS system dies?” – it’s probably hell to get your data back off the hard drive. I bought a mini-ITX atom motherboard, a tiny case (this one: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=28232&vpn=MI-100&manufacture=Apex%20Computer%20Technology) and a 1TB drive and built an Ubuntu server out of it. Good experience, flexible software and, if the machine dies, I know I can get the data back off the hard drive.

]]> By: Tyler Ingram http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20582 Tyler Ingram Wed, 06 May 2009 13:25:13 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20582 @ShawnKnight Yea Stephen said I should look at SSDs but the cost is a bit high for me. Perhaps when the price goes down a bit I'll look more into them. @trishvancouver lol, you saw me lugging the box? It was a long way, i was thinking of taking the false creek ferry back, but decided to suck it up and take the bridge! A bit of exercise doesn't hurt right? @ShawnKnight Yea Stephen said I should look at SSDs but the cost is a bit high for me. Perhaps when the price goes down a bit I’ll look more into them.

@trishvancouver lol, you saw me lugging the box? It was a long way, i was thinking of taking the false creek ferry back, but decided to suck it up and take the bridge! A bit of exercise doesn’t hurt right?

]]> By: @trishvancouver http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20581 @trishvancouver Wed, 06 May 2009 06:28:28 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20581 hey tyler, i was driving home across the bridge and saw you lugging a big box, that's a long way to pack a new computer!!!! hey tyler, i was driving home across the bridge and saw you lugging a big box, that’s a long way to pack a new computer!!!!

]]> By: Shawn Knight http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20580 Shawn Knight Wed, 06 May 2009 01:44:32 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20580 Yeah that system should certainly help with processing times and as you mentioned, the CPU is upgradable. Were these all new parts or bought used? The only thing I would suggest to really give the system a kick in the pants is a solid state drive (SSD). Although expensive, a 60 GB with your photo programs will blow you away. I just toyed around with a pair in RAID 0 and was opening 3-4 MB picture files in Photoshop CS3 in 2 seconds flat. Yeah that system should certainly help with processing times and as you mentioned, the CPU is upgradable. Were these all new parts or bought used?

The only thing I would suggest to really give the system a kick in the pants is a solid state drive (SSD). Although expensive, a 60 GB with your photo programs will blow you away. I just toyed around with a pair in RAID 0 and was opening 3-4 MB picture files in Photoshop CS3 in 2 seconds flat.

]]> By: shazron http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20578 shazron Tue, 05 May 2009 21:42:59 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20578 I find that generally every year (if you don't care for a gaming rig), upgrading your computer is worth it just for the performance gains. For example a savings of 30s in compile time or browser load-up time really adds up, and overall it will lead to $ or time savings. Sometimes upgrading some parts you hit a ceiling (but it could be good enough). I find that generally every year (if you don’t care for a gaming rig), upgrading your computer is worth it just for the performance gains. For example a savings of 30s in compile time or browser load-up time really adds up, and overall it will lead to $ or time savings. Sometimes upgrading some parts you hit a ceiling (but it could be good enough).

]]> By: Tyler Ingram http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20577 Tyler Ingram Tue, 05 May 2009 21:41:21 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20577 Depends on the other components I suppose. I wonder if I should install the webcam work sent home with me one day. I guess I'm just used to keeping my drivers and such up-to-date it just become a bit routine for me. Depends on the other components I suppose. I wonder if I should install the webcam work sent home with me one day. I guess I’m just used to keeping my drivers and such up-to-date it just become a bit routine for me.

]]> By: Kimm http://www.tyleringram.com/blog/forever-upgrading/comment-page-1#comment-20576 Kimm Tue, 05 May 2009 21:35:13 +0000 http://www.tyleringram.com/?p=1304#comment-20576 only part I hate about updating is when you update one thing... you gotta update everything else(webcam, tablet&pen etc)as well to work with say vista. Bleh. only part I hate about updating is when you update one thing… you gotta update everything else(webcam, tablet&pen etc)as well to work with say vista. Bleh.

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