Laptop Store

[Mr Keshy]

Haha, to be perfectly honest, I think Xeon CPUs are a big, big waste of money. I'm surprised you swapped your i7 930 for an X5560 though, considering they are essentially the same CPU inside, but the Xeon just has extra server features, such as support for ECC RAM...etc. which are of no use to you anyways.

If I were in your situation, I would have bought a dual CPU board and chucked the two X5560s on and see how they perform, that would actually be jizz-worthy, but oh well, you can't now, so oh well

To be honest, I don't think the E5504 is THAT bad, like it's the same Nehalem microarchitecture as the rest of the i7s and Xeons in that range, it's just a cut down, low GHz, low cache version, so you'll get extra zip with an i7 920/930 (which is the same CPU, except the 920 multiplier is set one step lower) but it won't be as much extra zip as you're thinking I'll assure you that.

But anyway, I think you're a little unlucky to be stuck on the LGA1366 platform, as much as I like it (things such as triple channel RAM is nice), I think it's really a server platform and hence it really limits your options in terms of CPUs. The LGA1155 platform is probably the better one to be on, but even now, if you get an i7 920 or 930, you'd still be 3 generations behind (4 generations when Haswell comes out next year) - so really, you'll be running a CPU that's 4 years old.

I reckon, if I were in your position, I'd just spend around $300 to get an i7 3820, considering it's probably more economical to stick with the LGA1366 platform for now.

You see, I'm on LGA1155 (Sandy Bridge at the moment) - so upgrade paths are a lot simpler.

To be honest, get an SSD, you can get a 120GB SSD for $99 - it'll be a good $99

Got all of em except for the 930 for free haha

I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.

[paulsterio]

EDIT: also are you upgrading your PC just for the sake of upgrading it? You shouldn't really be changing CPU's/GPU's until you find a game you can't play anymore or you start using it for some serious shit (which you probably won't). If you're spending that much money on just changing CPU's for the sake of moving to the next level you have too much money to waste lol.

Not necessarily, it's actually quite economical to stick to a solid upgrade cycle, you'll actually find that in the end, you're spending the same amount as a complete upgrade every 4 years, for example, but you will, on average have a better system. For example, I bought my computer in April 2011, these were its original specs:

- i5 2310 (2.9 GHz, quad-core, LGA1155)
- GB H55M-D2-B3
- 8GB RAM
- 2TB 7200RPM HDD
- 23" LED LCD Monitor
- All the other usual stuff like optical drives...etc. (non-important stuff)

I usually like to upgrade my computers every 4 years, but this time, I thought I'd try something different and plan out a structured upgrade cycle, where every 6 months, I'll make a modification/upgrade to the system, with a major upgrade every 2 years. This is how it's panned out:

April 2011 - start
October 2011 - added extra 23" monitor
April 2012 - added 120GB SSD, added UPS
October 2012 - added GT630 GPU + upgraded 23" monitor to 27"

My next upgrade will be a sound card upgrade, and my next upgrade after that will, hopefully be a motherboard upgrade, with a RAM upgrade to 12GB and a processor upgrade coming after that. I'm not a gamer, so GPU isn't important to me and as long as it can drive my monitors smoothly, I'm happy. When I've amassed enough spare parts, I'll probably just put together a small server or 24/7 torrenting machine, which is something I've been holding out on for a while.

Anyways, that's just my opinion, of course, you can stick to a "major upgrade every 4 years" cycle if that suits you more, but I generally like making minor upgrades every now and then and I like being able to sort of solve my little problems every 6 months!

I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.

Hmm, I've always thought the GPU is what bottlenecks at high resolutions, what's your GPU anyways? But yeah, if you invest in a good quality platform, it should last you at least 6 years. Like my old i7 860 (LGA1156) system is still going strong and that's from back in 2009! I've given it to my dad now, but it'll easily last another 2 years, I reckon, after which an i7 880 or 875K should bring it up to date (they're the best LGA1156 CPUs), but that should extend it for at least another few, so 6 years is possible, given how slowly the CPU market is moving.

[Mr Keshy]

EDIT: also are you upgrading your PC just for the sake of upgrading it? You shouldn't really be changing CPU's/GPU's until you find a game you can't play anymore or you start using it for some serious shit (which you probably won't). If you're spending that much money on just changing CPU's for the sake of moving to the next level you have too much money to waste lol.

Not necessarily, it's actually quite economical to stick to a solid upgrade cycle, you'll actually find that in the end, you're spending the same amount as a complete upgrade every 4 years, for example, but you will, on average have a better system. For example, I bought my computer in April 2011, these were its original specs:

- i5 2310 (2.9 GHz, quad-core, LGA1155)
- GB H55M-D2-B3
- 8GB RAM
- 2TB 7200RPM HDD
- 23" LED LCD Monitor
- All the other usual stuff like optical drives...etc. (non-important stuff)

I usually like to upgrade my computers every 4 years, but this time, I thought I'd try something different and plan out a structured upgrade cycle, where every 6 months, I'll make a modification/upgrade to the system, with a major upgrade every 2 years. This is how it's panned out:

April 2011 - start
October 2011 - added extra 23" monitor
April 2012 - added 120GB SSD, added UPS
October 2012 - added GT630 GPU + upgraded 23" monitor to 27"

My next upgrade will be a sound card upgrade, and my next upgrade after that will, hopefully be a motherboard upgrade, with a RAM upgrade to 12GB and a processor upgrade coming after that. I'm not a gamer, so GPU isn't important to me and as long as it can drive my monitors smoothly, I'm happy. When I've amassed enough spare parts, I'll probably just put together a small server or 24/7 torrenting machine, which is something I've been holding out on for a while.

Anyways, that's just my opinion, of course, you can stick to a "major upgrade every 4 years" cycle if that suits you more, but I generally like making minor upgrades every now and then and I like being able to sort of solve my little problems every 6 months!

I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.

Hmm, I've always thought the GPU is what bottlenecks at high resolutions, what's your GPU anyways? But yeah, if you invest in a good quality platform, it should last you at least 6 years. Like my old i7 860 (LGA1156) system is still going strong and that's from back in 2009! I've given it to my dad now, but it'll easily last another 2 years, I reckon, after which an i7 880 or 875K should bring it up to date (they're the best LGA1156 CPUs), but that should extend it for at least another few, so 6 years is possible, given how slowly the CPU market is moving.

I'm running a single GTX 465 at the moment, I'm scurrying for a second in the used market. I'm definitely going red next time because you can use cards in the same series in CrossFire unlike SLI.

[paulsterio]

Ahh, it would probably most definitely be your CPU then, but yeah, that's one of the benefits of CrossFire, using unlike cards, I still don't understand why SLI doesn't allow that.

One argument for SLI, however, is that you generally get a greater improvement with an added second card compared to CrossFire.

[Mr Keshy]

Ahh, it would probably most definitely be your CPU then, but yeah, that's one of the benefits of CrossFire, using unlike cards, I still don't understand why SLI doesn't allow that.

One argument for SLI, however, is that you generally get a greater improvement with an added second card compared to CrossFire.

Yeah I have heard that scaling works better with SLI.

With regards to why, I really have no clue. But do both systems work in the same way in that each card renders alternating frames? But if SLI worked this way, I could understand this because each frame would need the same computing power to work.

[paulsterio]

Yeah, scaling does work better with SLI, I've seen benchmarks from Anandtech and elsewhere which show that. But anyways, umm, in terms of how the cards actually work together - well it's something like this.

The CPU will, first of all, tell the GPU what to draw (render), so the mathematical calculations will be calculated by the CPU, then sent to a GPU which will take that data and convert it into a frame.

SLI works similar to a dual core CPU, there are three methods which it can use:

- SFR (split frame rendering) - this method will split each frame into two parts, one GPU will render each part
- AFR (alternate frame rendering) - this method will have each GPU process alternate frames, so one GPU will take care of the odd and one will take care of the even
- SLI Antialiasing - this method will have one GPU dedicated to antialiasing and will improve picture quality, but not frame rate

I'm not sure how CrossFire works, but I'd say it's the same principle, SLI scales better probably due to a better architecture and more experience with dual GPU setups (nVidia have been doing SLI for quite a while now).

If you're intending to run a multi-GPU setup, you should be aware of issues such as micro stuttering, which will reduce the frame rate instead of increase, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering

[Mr Keshy]

Yeah, scaling does work better with SLI, I've seen benchmarks from Anandtech and elsewhere which show that. But anyways, umm, in terms of how the cards actually work together - well it's something like this.

The CPU will, first of all, tell the GPU what to draw (render), so the mathematical calculations will be calculated by the CPU, then sent to a GPU which will take that data and convert it into a frame.

SLI works similar to a dual core CPU, there are three methods which it can use:

- SFR (split frame rendering) - this method will split each frame into two parts, one GPU will render each part
- AFR (alternate frame rendering) - this method will have each GPU process alternate frames, so one GPU will take care of the odd and one will take care of the even
- SLI Antialiasing - this method will have one GPU dedicated to antialiasing and will improve picture quality, but not frame rate

I'm not sure how CrossFire works, but I'd say it's the same principle, SLI scales better probably due to a better architecture and more experience with dual GPU setups (nVidia have been doing SLI for quite a while now).

If you're intending to run a multi-GPU setup, you should be aware of issues such as micro stuttering, which will reduce the frame rate instead of increase, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering

Yeah I've heard of micro stuttering, does that exist on dual core cards?

[paulsterio]

Yep, it would, dual core cards are pretty much the same thing as SLI

[Cuddlekins]

Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx

Any opinions ? And criticisms?

[Mr Keshy]

Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx

Any opinions ? And criticisms?

Good ultrabook, but it looks like that site isn't australian. You may have to buy a new adapter (unless it's auto switching). And I've no idea what the deal is with warranty when you buy overseas.

I think Cnet complained about battery life and material quality. Various people complained about heat. I don't think it's much to worry about

[paulsterio]

Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx

Any opinions ? And criticisms?

Criticism - it's a Dell.

[paulsterio]

My recommendations:

http://flingshot.com.au/collections/computers/products/asus-ux31a-r5006h-coming-soon

http://flingshot.com.au/collections/computers/products/samsung-np900x3c-a03au

[Mr Keshy]

Criticism - it's a Dell.

It's not a mac, you can't hate Dells like that!

Either way, you'll find people with different experiences. I've had no issues at all with dell. Dad had a problem with his work laptop and they came to our house and replaced the hard drive. Easy stuff, but that's a business thing I believe (onsite service)

[paulsterio]

It's not a mac, you can't hate Dells like that!

Either way, you'll find people with different experiences. I've had no issues at all with dell. Dad had a problem with his work laptop and they came to our house and replaced the hard drive. Easy stuff, but that's a business thing I believe (onsite service)

I don't hate Macs to be honest. I hate/like a product based on its merits and Dell tends to have a bad reputation for reliability, plus the warranty are horrendous to deal with. Apple on the other hand, tend to have very good quality control, low DOA rates, and the Macbooks are solidly built. I might not like them, but I make recommendations based on quantifiable grounds.

Your dad's situation is different because, as you say, onsite support is a business thing.

[Mr Keshy]

I don't hate Macs to be honest. I hate/like a product based on its merits and Dell tends to have a bad reputation for reliability, plus the warranty are horrendous to deal with. Apple on the other hand, tend to have very good quality control, low DOA rates, and the Macbooks are solidly built. I might not like them, but I make recommendations based on quantifiable grounds.

Your dad's situation is different because, as you say, onsite support is a business thing.

Yeah, we bought an m1530 back in 07 and it had the notorious G86 chip in it (8600M GT). They had this problem where apparently, because of heat, the soldering on the socket or something would expand and essentially disconnect the gpu.

Still works today. Dell must've gotten a good batch