UPDATED BENCHMARK (ITS FASTER I PROMISE)

[geoffc]

~$5k

but i haven't bought a new pc for over 8 years. Mostly been rebuilding and upgrading a frankenstein pc for years now.

but i have a few possible arch viz contracts that will pay this one off quickly, so i decided to 'go big' to last me a few more years.

problem with high end pc's, is that you get major buyer's remorse immediately, since I'm sure there will be faster/cheaper pc's next month (as we all know)

[jacksc02]

good call, it will be worth the investment

[jujubee]

Nice times Geoff. Is it a Tyan motherboard in that Boxx?

[geoffc]

Nice times Geoff. Is it a Tyan motherboard in that Boxx?

Tyan Tempest 5000xt

I was intending to wait until the first part of next year for the quads, but my older P4 pc died last month, right as these woodcrests were being released, and max 9 64 bit was announced.

So I ordered this system, and it was Boxx's wait for the Tyan mobo that had me waiting for 5+ weeks. Great company and product though, just like everyone had said.

[jujubee]

Hope you don't mind me doing this, but curiousity got the best of me:

Tyan Tempest iXT5000 - $429
5160 Woodcrest processors - $915.00 x2 = $1830
4GB kit (2GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-5300 - $915
Power Supply - ~$100
Good Case - $125
Good Graphics Card - $400-500
DVD R/W - $25
Windows - $125

So roughly around $4,049 plus tax & S/H - $4,200. At least with Boxx you get support and a warranty. That's a very reasonable price. You'll get a lot of mileage out of it.

[Fernando_Blanco]

Hi,

That time is too close to Peter's 4 Dual core Opterons( 1.46sec)
And 60 sec. faster than the "regular" dual core Xeon Dempsey.
Impressive chip.Not to mention it's OC margins..

[geoffc]

Hope you don't mind me doing this, but curiousity got the best of me:

Tyan Tempest iXT5000 - $429
5160 Woodcrest processors - $915.00 x2 = $1830
4GB kit (2GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-5300 - $915
Power Supply - ~$100
Good Case - $125
Good Graphics Card - $400-500
DVD R/W - $25
Windows - $125

So roughly around $4,049 plus tax & S/H - $4,200. At least with Boxx you get support and a warranty. That's a very reasonable price. You'll get a lot of mileage out of it.

That's all pretty close, but you might be a bit short on a full retail legit Win XP Pro 64bit ($300), quadro might be a tiny more, $150 for a sata HD, and a decent 600w ps (~$150).

See, normally I've built and rebuilt my systems, as a total hack geek. And I was tempted to do so this time too. But with just the retail costs of the components above, I really didnt want to screw it up.

And yes, Boxx not only gave me a good amount of advice on purchase timing and components beforehand, but it comes with a 3 year next-day on-site warranty and a very clean build inside.

Hey, what really sold me on their service, is the fact that my Boxx rep, John, repeatedly talked me down from a Quadro 4500 or even the 3500, which would have been ~$600 more than the 1500. He just continually pointed out that for what I was doing, the 1500 came so close to the 3500, that I really shouldnt spend the extra money.

Oh, and as a normal purchaser of Dell systems for my architectural 'office day job', how incredibly happy was I to see the Boxx show up with ZERO bloatware. All it was was Windows, Nero and IE.

[jujubee]

Yeah sorry. Missed a few of those important details. It appears at least with this new hardware you're getting a deal with the Boxx system - I'm not sure how they're profiting from this sale but they must get some discount with OEM processors (can't imagine much), RAM, and Tyan motherboards. I'm jealous! :P

I should add you could swap out the RAM for 4 1 gig sticks and perhaps save as much as half cost on the RAM there.

[GregM]

Congrats on the new system and the benchmark Geoff! That's the Boxx system I have been looking at since the Woodcrest's became available, so I'm jealous like jujubee. I don't think you can go wrong getting a Boxx system. I'm probably going to wait for Vista to come out just for the sake of compatability before I buy a new system - and to get the OK from "the one who must be obeyed".

-Greg

[Spikeadeliv]

test done on a £500 self build

Hello everybody, test done on a £500 self build, Dual Core 2.4Ghz, MSI Mobo and 2 GB memory



Suffice to say I am pleasantly surprised with my purchase.

Spike

[jow]

Nice time Spike and nice price, where did you go for parts?

[Geertvdp]

Going back 2 pages and compare both dual core times (cpu@2.4ghz) I notice there is a full minute difference between the Vray 1.47 and the 1.5 version bench file.
It makes comparing cpu performance more difficult...

[geoff]

Hey Spikeadeliv,

I'd be interested in the specs to.
Looking to buy a new machine and was looking at a AMD 4800.
This looks faster & at the price I was looking for!

Geoff

[Spikeadeliv]

Here goes!

Here goes!

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail £186.55 £219.20

MSI P965NEO-F, i965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX £59.89 £70.37

2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4200 (533), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £128.42 £150.89

All from Scan, ordered Thursday arrived Saturday!

Spike

[geoff]

Thanks mate.
Can't be arsed trawling through the rest of the post to find out which is quickest.
A bit better than my 13 minutes on my current rig!

Geoff