Quote: Original post by Jemburula
Thanks nts, that was some excellent info. One query I have in regards to the processor though... I've never really understood the amount of Ghz. I understand that the one you linked was for a two core... so does that mean 2.67 * 2 Ghz performance?

Not exactly. Ghz isn't the only measurement for performance (good example would be the P4 and Athlon). There are quite a few other things that come into play, such as IPC the number of instructions you can execute per clock, the cache sizes and latency, the front side bus speed (memory to cpu b/w), etc. I would suggest that you have a look at some reviews.

Quote: Also a side question on laptops... someone told me that laptop processors perform just as well even though the Ghz are lower, simply because the components don't have to travel so far. To me that also doesn't make sense because I thought Ghz was a measure of how many floating point calculations per second? So it laptop CPU's should return similar results then if they were equal in performance?

Not exactly. In the days of the Pentium 4 and the Pentium M, the PM performed better in some cases then the much higher clocked P4. Not because the components are closer but because the architecture was very different. The P4 was designed to be a high power and high clocked part and generated quite a bit of heat. Producing a lot of heat isn't good in a laptop because of the reduced airflow, so the PM was designed to be a low power part and clocked lower. The PM performed very well in some of the tests, a 1.8Ghz PM matched a 3.0Ghz P4 for example but this wasn't the case for every test.

Now Intel is using almost identical processors for laptops and desktops, the Core line (Core 2 Duo).

Quote: What would I require for a RAID set up? What is the difference between RAID and regular HD technology. I think there are a few 200 GB raid hard drives sitting at work I might be able to acquire because my boss said they were used for the servers but they were upgraded and no other computer in the company uses RAID.

Better read up on RAID, it would be too much to explain here. I personally run a RAID5 setup (with dedicated controller card) but that isn't really something every desktop needs.

Quote: What does "after market" mean?

When you buy a Retail CPU it comes with its own heatsink, which works but if you want better cooling or less noise you can replace it with another.

Quote: Original post by Jemburula
nts: difficult to give a price range... say 3000-4000$AUD, so if you can be bothered converting that to whatever your currency.

daviangel: forgive me all, but this just got on my nerves...you sound like an arse. I said "gaming graphics cards", "gaming machine designed to WOW my friends". I even admitted to not knowing much about the latest hardware, so what is your pickle? But in case you did not get my point... it will be a home computer in which I will be playing games and doing general tasks as well as programming, I hope it will last a long time hence why I am leaving my budget a bit open-ended. How much more specific do you want me to be? I will be playing music and clicking the start button occasionally? I'd love to be able to use both keyboard and mouse at the same time. Come to think of it, I might even run Windows occasionally. Possibly with one or more applications open at once. Sorry about that, but it is one of my pet peeves when people horde it over you that they know more about something in one area as if they were Zeus himself. There's your bone, dog.

"if you can be bothered converting that to whatever your currency"
Don't worry next time I won't even bother responding to one of your post since obviously you can't even be bothered to help yourself!

Ok fool, how do you propose I magically find out what currency nts uses? He has no location listed. I'd appreciate it if you didn't bother to post anything in any of my threads if you are willing to do so, I find that will reduce the stress on your tiny brain and help manage most of the garbage posted on GameDev.

nts: all right that Intel CPU sounds awesome. Unfortunantely I could only find it for about 1.5k$AUD but that's still ok, will have to weigh up everything else I get but a good CPU is a must.

Quote: Original post by Jemburula
nts: all right that Intel CPU sounds awesome. Unfortunantely I could only find it for about 1.5k$AUD but that's still ok, will have to weigh up everything else I get but a good CPU is a must.

Which one, if it's the E6700 then that would be way overpriced (paid 1.5K for my quad core).

Try this (E6700), might help, I don't know anything about Australian computer stores so can't recommend a place to order from.

Ghz arent the same thing any more.

Intel changes its architecture and with more in parallel execution inside the CPU (ontop of the multi-cores and higher bus speeds) and much larger caches (4meg on E6600 E5700...) the new Core2 processors are quite a bit faster even with an apparently lower Ghz.