The Prescott 640-based PCHere's a rundown of the components that make up my home computer. I've got Windows XP installed and a slew of random applications that enable me to do the things I do all day and all night long while I sit at this machine. This computer gets used mostly for Internet, surfing, email, creating documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.), viewing photos, photo editing, graphics, digital video editing, making DVD's of home movies, making web pages, playing some video games, watching DVD's, storing important documents, ripping CD's to my iPod, etc., etc. So far I've been really happy with it. The motherboard by ASUS is great, lots of options in the BIOS for tweaking and so far has been extremely stable. Their web site is up to date and has the latest BIOS and various needed drivers. I had a Gigabyte motherboard in my last PC, but after almost 3 years it just quit, wouldn't POST, wouldn't boot, it wouldn't do a freaking thing. That's when I decided to build this computer.
Currently I've got it overclocked to 3.8GHz and it's running at 42ºC right now with it maxing out around 58ºC when it's really crunching. The CPU is Intel's Prescott 640 P4 3.2GHz with 800MHz FSB. I read a lot of good reviews about this CPU (at Newegg.com, of course) and for the price (I think it was $202 with free shipping) it was probably the best bang for the buck CPU you could buy at the time. But with all the new dual core (and now quad core) stuff that's coming out, it pails in comparison. It's compatible with 64-bit OS's so when/if I decide to upgrade the option will be there. I do a lot of Photoshop (batch processing tons of huge files) and video editing and such, I thought the Intel chip would better suit my computer needs over an AMD chip. And so far what I've been able to do with it, it works great and is super fast. Of course there are things I wish it would simply do faster, but nothing happens instantaneously (not yet anyway). My HTPC will be running my old AMD 2600+ with an EPoX mobo, Lite-On DVD player, and a WD 320GB hard drive.
I recently got rid of the stock HSF and replaced it with a no-name Sunbeamtech HSF. It runs a lot quieter and a lot cooler than before. So much so that I was able to squeak a few more MHz out of my FSB than before. When I first made this site I was running at 3.68GHz on the stock cooler, anything above that just got too hot. Now the system is stable and cool with a 238MHz core clock speed for a 3.8GHz CPU speed, all on air. I bumped up the The CPU voltage to from the stock 1.4V to 1.45V and the DDR RAM to 2.65V with stock timings. So far it appears stable and feels a lot faster than the stock 3.2Ghz. I wonder how much higher it can go, 3.9Ghz or even 4.0GHz? I'm not as surprised the CPU can run that fast, but I am surprised that the PC3200 (400MHz) RAM can run at 476MHz, it just seems way faster than it was intended to run. But Corsair memory rocks, what else can I say?
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CPU Intel 640 Prescott P4 3.2GHz 800MHz FSB OC'd to 3.8GHz (238MHz) Cooling Sunbeamtech CR-SW-775 Mobo Asus P5P800 Graphics ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB RAM CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR400 VS1GBKIT400 Dual Channel First Master HDD Western Digital 80GB IDE Third Master HDD Western Digital 320GB Caviar SE16 7200 RPM SATA External HDD Maxtor OneTouch 300GB Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 930B DVD-RW Drive LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SHW160P6S05 CD-RW Drive Lite-On LTR-52327S Case Antec TX 640B Speakers Logitech Z-3 Stereo Speaker System with Sub Modem Motorola Surfboard Router LinkSys BEFSR41 Printer Canon S520 Digital Camera Canon SD400 Peripherals Apple 30GB 5th Generation iPod with Video Performance 3DMark03 Score: 6222 (not the greatest score in the world, but it used to be 359!)
Here's a quick comparison of the four computers that I currently have running at home. Just about everything I own is pretty outdated, like the CPU's. motherboards, and graphics, but it all works great and it's so hard to throw away even a half-decent piece of hardware. So it all keeps getting re-used. This chart doesn't include some of my older PC's, like the 800MHz PIII in the garage with 128MB of memory and a 4GB hard drive, or the 333MHz eMachine that got me through college. I wonder if I can get that thing to boot up after all these years?
Description My Main PC The Kids' PC The HTPC Linux-Ubuntu Box Purpose Doing most everything, email, internet, photo editing, video editing, DVD burning, home videos, music, games, etc. Playing online games from Disney, Nick Jr., PBSKids.com as well as various PC games like Caillou and BoohBah. For watching movies, playing some games, watching online videos and TV shows, loudspeaker measuring, home videos and picture slideshows Just for messing around, learning Linux, playing games, surfing the web when all the other computers are otherwise in use. Operating System Windows XP w/dual-boot into Vista RC2. Windows 2000 Windows XP Ubuntu 7.04 CPU Intel 640 Prescott P4 3.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3200+ AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Intel P4 2.0GHz Northwood Cooling Sunbeamtech CR-SW-775 Stock HSF Stock HSF (resistor controlled) Stock HSF Mobo Asus P5P800 i865P Chipset BIOSTAR TForce6100-939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX EPoX EP-8RDA6+ Pro nForce 400 Intel i845 Chipset Graphics ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB Integrated Nvidia GeForce 6100 Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 64MB Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 64MB RAM CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB DDR400 VS1GBKIT400 Dual Channel 1x512MB Corsair DDR400 ValueSelect 1x512MB Kingston DDR333
1x256MB Kingston DDR3331x512MB PC133
2x256MB PC133First Master HDD Western Digital 80GB IDE Seagate 60GB 7200rpm IDE Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200JB 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Maxtor 20GB IDE Third Master HDD Western Digital 320GB Caviar SE16 7200rpm SATA n/a n/a n/a External HDD Maxtor OneTouch 300GB n/a n/a n/a Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 930B 19" Flat Panel 8ms Compaq P920 19" Flat Screen CRT Sony KDF-E50A10 3LCD 50" HD 720P Sony Trinitron Multiscan 200ES 17" CRT DVD-RW Drive LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SHW160P6S05 n/a Lite-On DVD ROM Drive n/a CD-RW Drive Lite-On LTR-52327S HP CD-R/RW Drive
ASUS CD-S520/A5n/a HP CD Writer Plus Case Antec TX 640B Antec NSK 4400 ABS Mini Tower Compaq Evo Mini Tower Power Supply Antec 400W Antec 380 Watt ATX12V v2.0 Rosewill RV400S-2 ATX12V Ver.2.01 400W Compaq 280W Speakers Logitech Z-3 Stereo Speaker System with Sub Polk Audio (non-powered) Swans M3, 5.1 Surround Sound, TC Sounds 12" 500W Sub (coming soon) n/a (for now) Modem Motorola Surfboard Networked Networked Networked Router LinkSys BEFSR41 Networked Networked Networked Printer Canon S520 Networked Networked Networked Printer Samsung ML-1210 Laser Networked Networked Networked Digital Camera Canon SD400 n/a n/a n/a Peripherals Apple 30GB 5th Generation iPod with Video n/a n/a n/a Performance TBD TBD TBD TBD
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