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Author Topic: Holy specs on this PC  (Read 3694 times)

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SirPoonga

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Holy specs on this PC
« on: October 17, 2002, 06:29:23 am »
I was watching late night infomercials.  I don;t fall into marketting, I usually laugh at it, and this one is no exception.  But it is a good price for what you get.
http://www.tigertv.com
The marketting was funny, they are claiming they came up with the idea of the windowed pc:)  Also they made a big deal about the 7200rpm drive.  If anyone read slashdot last week we all know a 5400rpm wd is the fastest, quietest drive out there.  The 8mg cache  on a 5400 will be overall faster than a 2mg cache on a 7200.  I;m sure 8 meg 7200s will come out soon though.
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1540/

Anyway, looking at the specs, other than the video card (unless you get the gamers upgrade) it is very high tech as you can get.  BTW, that thing on the top of the monitor, 8 channel microphone, wtf?

$1500 isn't bad for a commercial product like that.  My favorite feature, being I have a very nice digicam, is the card readers on it.

BTW, it comes with overclocking software, I haven't seen that in a commercial product.

isugoat

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2002, 01:11:31 pm »
err the WD SE that has the 8 MB cache is a 7200 RPM drive...
on a side note, i always have to watch the infomercials whenever I see them seling a computer...some of the deals really aren't that bad and its nice to see so many of them sporting AMDs.

hyiu

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2002, 01:54:47 pm »
although I'm not a professional in computer hardware... but I thought 10,000 rpm gusty HD were out yrs ago....

I donno how quiet they are... but they have to be faster than 7200rpm and the 5400rpm ones.... right ??.....
 ???  ???

am I missing something here ?? misunderstanding ??
 ???  ???
Another Brilliant mind ruined by education....  :p

SirPoonga

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2002, 07:15:42 pm »
although I'm not a professional in computer hardware... but I thought 10,000 rpm gusty HD were out yrs ago....

I donno how quiet they are... but they have to be faster than 7200rpm and the 5400rpm ones.... right ??.....
 ???  ???

am I missing something here ?? misunderstanding ??
 ???  ???

Like isugoat said, 7200 8meg cache drives are you.
Yeah, there are 10,000 rpm drives, expensive.
If you read that slashdot article, rpm doesn't determine speed.  It's a combo of cache and rpm.  Those 5400rpm drives in the article are faster than the 7200 because they only used 2meg cache 7200 rpm drive.  I didn't read the article completely, it's rather long, I just went to the conclusion.  I'd assume they are comparing 5400 8meg cache drives to 7200rpm with 2meg cache because the price is relatively the same.

isugoat

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #4 on: October 17, 2002, 07:58:20 pm »
although I'm not a professional in computer hardware... but I thought 10,000 rpm gusty HD were out yrs ago....

I donno how quiet they are... but they have to be faster than 7200rpm and the 5400rpm ones.... right ??.....
 ???  ???

am I missing something here ?? misunderstanding ??
 ???  ???

Like isugoat said, 7200 8meg cache drives are you.
Yeah, there are 10,000 rpm drives, expensive.
If you read that slashdot article, rpm doesn't determine speed.  It's a combo of cache and rpm.  Those 5400rpm drives in the article are faster than the 7200 because they only used 2meg cache 7200 rpm drive.  I didn't read the article completely, it's rather long, I just went to the conclusion.  I'd assume they are comparing 5400 8meg cache drives to 7200rpm with 2meg cache because the price is relatively the same.

what I was tryin to say before is that I don't think there are 5400 RPM drives with 8 MB cache.  the write up was probably on the Western Digital Special Edition drives, they're 7200 RPM with 8 MB cache, and as far as I know, the only IDE drives with 8 MB cache.

as far as higher RPM drives, there are higher RPM drives all the way up to 15,000 RPMs, but IDE drives only go up to 7200 RPM so far.  IDE is the only type of connection the vast majority of motherboards support today.  the 10k RPM and 15k RPM drives have SCSI connectors.  they're waaaay more expensive, typically only used in businesses.   they are faster but also louder.  if you have the money you can grab a SCSI PCI card ($20 for a cheap one, up to $100s or $1000s for a really good one) and buy a drive and throw it in pretty much any computer.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2002, 08:00:34 pm by isugoat »

SirPoonga

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2002, 08:38:25 pm »
what I was tryin to say before is that I don't think there are 5400 RPM drives with 8 MB cache.  the write up was probably on the Western Digital Special Edition drives, they're 7200 RPM with 8 MB cache, and as far as I know, the only IDE drives with 8 MB cache.

Nope, look up the list they tested.

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2002, 08:39:59 pm »
I see.... thx for the explanations....
good to learn more info....

 ;)   ;D  
Another Brilliant mind ruined by education....  :p

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2002, 11:19:47 pm »
look up the list they tested.
Sorry SirPoonga, isugoat is right.  Western Digital HD ending in
"AB" are 5400 RPM with 2 meg,
"BB" are 7200 RPM with 2 meg, and
"JB" are 7200 RPM with 8 meg cache.

The article is not clear, and IMO should have had a table with each HD's specs.  I thought the same way you did until I looked up the specs at Western Digital's web site.  Check out http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=32 (7200/8)
vs
http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=5 (5400/2))
Robin
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SirPoonga

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #8 on: October 18, 2002, 04:37:39 am »
look up the list they tested.
Sorry SirPoonga, isugoat is right.  Western Digital HD ending in
"AB" are 5400 RPM with 2 meg,
"BB" are 7200 RPM with 2 meg, and
"JB" are 7200 RPM with 8 meg cache.

The article is not clear, and IMO should have had a table with each HD's specs.  I thought the same way you did until I looked up the specs at Western Digital's web site.  Check out http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=32 (7200/8)
vs
http://www.wdc.com/products/Products.asp?DriveID=5 (5400/2))

you're point?

"Equally surprising was the performance of Western Digital

planetjay

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2002, 06:42:15 pm »
I was watching late night infomercials.  I don;t fall into marketting, I usually laugh at it, and this one is no exception.  But it is a good price for what you get.
http://www.tigertv.com
The marketting was funny, they are claiming they came up with the idea of the windowed pc:)  Also they made a big deal about the 7200rpm drive.  If anyone read slashdot last week we all know a 5400rpm wd is the fastest, quietest drive out there.  The 8mg cache  on a 5400 will be overall faster than a 2mg cache on a 7200.  I;m sure 8 meg 7200s will come out soon though.
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1540/

Anyway, looking at the specs, other than the video card (unless you get the gamers upgrade) it is very high tech as you can get.  BTW, that thing on the top of the monitor, 8 channel microphone, wtf?

$1500 isn't bad for a commercial product like that.  My favorite feature, being I have a very nice digicam, is the card readers on it.

BTW, it comes with overclocking software, I haven't seen that in a commercial product.
The website claims to be:
Quote
The #1 computer show on television!
In what 3rd world country?
planetjay.com. Still in Chicago. Still no hurricanes!

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2002, 09:04:05 pm »
Quote
... isugoat is right.  Western Digital HD ending in
"AB" are 5400 RPM with 2 meg,
"BB" are 7200 RPM with 2 meg, and
"JB" are 7200 RPM with 8 meg cache.
you're point?

"Equally surprising was the performance of Western Digital
Robin
Knowledge is Power

wescotte

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #11 on: October 24, 2002, 05:36:49 am »
Ok, I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure this is how it works. The RPM speed is geared more towards seaktime. The cache would become more useful for constant use. In a mame type environment you're generally not going to be using the harddrive all that much. The rom loads and it's in memory no harddrive useuse for the most part except saving states and maybe screenshots which in most cases won't make a hell of alot of difference. However with larger roms more cache would be of benifit loading them. The other issue is heat. 7200 = much hotter HD and more likely to fail from heat related issues. Keep those badboys cool. I'd say in normal computer issues go with a slower RPM and more cache however for a mame machine go higher RPM and less cache. However I strongly recommend you jsut buy the best damn drive you can :)

wescotte

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Re:Holy specs on this PC
« Reply #12 on: October 24, 2002, 05:42:23 am »
Little followup on harddrives. 10,000RPM drives exist. I believe mostly in a SCSI format which is gonna break you cost wise. Brand issues.. WD is one of my least favorite HD manufactors. I've used them all for years (and in quantities of thousands as I've built PCs for the past 7 years). I'd prefer a IBM or Maxtor over WD but the price of a WD generally will get even me to purchase. I've seen more WDs die than Maxtor or IBM over the years (I think IBM might be out of the HD market now) The nice thing is WD has the best customer support on the warrenty. In most cases you'll get a new drive if it does fail. One more note on a quiet drive. I've found WD's to be quite loud in comparison to others.. Now I personally think having a quiet computer is not an issue I'd try to build around. Performace/Power but building something be to quiet? Seems pointless to me.