Delta Virtual Airlines Water Cooler | PC Support |
W7, 2.6GHz |
DVA5544
Captain, A320
Joined on February 07 2008
"I'm at a 15° chin-up attitude." Spiez, Bern Schweiz
34 legs, 58.3 hours
24 legs,
34.9 hours ACARS
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Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 09:57 ET by Alexander Kolb
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Hello guys.
Pre-Windows 7 (like last weekend), I was ready to buy a 2.93GHz processor (the rest of the setup isn't important at the moment) from HP.
However, imediatley after W7 was released, HP re-did their entire line, removing the 2.93 GHz processor from all exept one computer. Unfortunatley, this computer can not have more than a 512ATI graphics card or DDR2 RAM selected.
All of their "high performance" computers now contain either i7 or i5 cores with a 2.6GHz speed, except for one computer at 3.2 which is a few thousand dollars over my $1200-ish price range.
Why did everything get "slower"? Are i5 and i7 cores faster, even with a lower GHz?
And would this be a good setup:
XPS8000 intel core i5 2.66 GHz
nVidia GeForce GTS240 1024MB GDDR3
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066 MHz - 4 DIMMs
X-Fi Xtreme Audio (audio card)
Thanks a lot guys! The new jumbeling of all this stuff has really gotten me confused on what's "good anymore", because I remember that last winter when I was going to buy a computer (but Dell fell thru on me), a 3.0GHz computer was a "must have". However I'm sure that's changed.
Alexander KolbCaptain, A320
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DVA7373
Captain, B757-200
OLP
Joined on May 31 2009
"Howdy" Southeastern United States
72 legs, 187.6 hours
32 legs,
85.4 hours online 67 legs,
153.2 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.1 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 10:01 ET by Nicholas Taylor
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Alexander, the way the i5 and i7s are set up, even at a lower clock speed, they'll run many programs more efficiently than a regular quad core at the same clock speed. So yes, that is fine.
Nicholas TaylorCaptain, B757-200
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DVA5544
Captain, A320
Joined on February 07 2008
"I'm at a 15° chin-up attitude." Spiez, Bern Schweiz
34 legs, 58.3 hours
24 legs,
34.9 hours ACARS
|
Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 10:03 ET by Alexander Kolb
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Fantastic! And the 2.93GHz I was looking at was a duel core, so I'd assume it'd run faster than that?
Alexander KolbCaptain, A320
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DVA7373
Captain, B757-200
OLP
Joined on May 31 2009
"Howdy" Southeastern United States
72 legs, 187.6 hours
32 legs,
85.4 hours online 67 legs,
153.2 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.1 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 10:04 ET by Nicholas Taylor
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Definitely!
Nicholas TaylorCaptain, B757-200
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DVA5544
Captain, A320
Joined on February 07 2008
"I'm at a 15° chin-up attitude." Spiez, Bern Schweiz
34 legs, 58.3 hours
24 legs,
34.9 hours ACARS
|
Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 10:05 ET by Alexander Kolb
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Wonderful
Alexander KolbCaptain, A320
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DVA5544
Captain, A320
Joined on February 07 2008
"I'm at a 15° chin-up attitude." Spiez, Bern Schweiz
34 legs, 58.3 hours
24 legs,
34.9 hours ACARS
|
Posted onPost created on
October 25 2009 10:51 ET by Alexander Kolb
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Here's what I'm looking to buy now:
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-750 processor [2.66GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
• 6GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
• FREE UPGRADE! 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB
• 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]
• HP 2509m 25-inch Diagonal 16:9 Full HD Widescreen Monitor
• LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
• Wireless-N LAN card
• 15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audio
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
• HP USB 2.0 stereo speakers
Alexander KolbCaptain, A320
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DVA1603
Captain, B727-200
Joined on April 02 2004
Double Century Club
Albany, GA USA
266 legs, 399.1 hours
85 legs,
131.0 hours online 93 legs,
129.4 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.4 hours event
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Posted onPost created on
October 27 2009 13:24 ET by Michael Wilson
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I have not gotten my hands dirty with a Core i5/i7 yet, but I will say this:
When AMD started using an on-die memory controller, I started seeing something that cannot really be measured with benchmarks. The overall fluidity of games and the system itself was better on a rig with an Athlon64 than its competitive equivalent. They could go back and forth in benchmarks, but that remained the case in my personal experience until well into the Core 2's life. I attributed most of that to AMD's use of an on-die memory controller, since the AMD rigs were generally performing better to me on slower memory than their Intel counterparts. Core i5/i7 mark Intel's transition to on-die memory controllers. I am not ready to jump on their bus yet, since I'm happy with my Phenom II, but my next upgrade will probably be an i7 (or its successor). In some cases (namely the same model), clock speed is important. When comparing a Core i5/i7 to a Core 2, it is not as important as the architecture and platform evolutions that i5/i7 bring.
That said, is building your own PC an option (either yourself or via a friend)? That GT 220 is something you will likely end up wanting to replace. Another way of putting it is: it's not a video card you would consider if you were building your own. I'm not knocking HP, since I have bought plenty of HP workstations in my career and like them.
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DVA7373
Captain, B757-200
OLP
Joined on May 31 2009
"Howdy" Southeastern United States
72 legs, 187.6 hours
32 legs,
85.4 hours online 67 legs,
153.2 hours ACARS 2 legs,
3.1 hours event
|
Posted onPost created on
October 27 2009 15:09 ET by Nicholas Taylor
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• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-750 processor [2.66GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
• 6GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM [3 DIMMs]
• FREE UPGRADE! 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive from 500GB
• 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 [DVI, HDMI, VGA]
• HP 2509m 25-inch Diagonal 16:9 Full HD Widescreen Monitor
• LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
• Wireless-N LAN card
• 15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audio
• No TV Tuner w/remote control
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio
• HP USB 2.0 stereo speakers
Looks like a good choice, could have gone with the i7 and anything besides the GT 220, but at least you got the 1GB version.
Nicholas TaylorCaptain, B757-200
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