[PLUG] Do I want a quad-core Core-2 system?

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Fri Nov 20 07:27:44 UTC 2009


On Thu, 19 Nov 2009, Eric House wrote:
> Ok, so let's say I wanted to build my own system (for the first time in
> my life).  Where to go in Portland?

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 05:16:14PM -0800, Tony Rick wrote:
> I second the ENU suggestion.  On the other hand, Keith went through an
> exercise to build a small, low power, quiet machine recently, although it
> may have been targeted at something less than general purpose.  He had
> several posts about it, probably available in the archives (???) or
> digests.  Better yet, Keith, can you chime in here?

I am running a fairly old distro (an RHEL5 clone) with an older
kernel, and I wanted a DVI video motherboard to digitally drive
an LCD.  That turned out to be fairly difficult - I first bought
a nice little Intel motherboard, locally, but it turned out that
there was no way to get drivers that worked with the new Intel
chipset, my 1400x1050 display, and that older kernel.  Yikes!  

I ended up buying a Gigabyte motherboard from Newegg, with an 
nVidia chipset.  That did work.  I think I still have the Intel
motherboard, and for most distros and screen sizes it ought to
work fine.

To save power and reduce noise I did not go to a quad core.  I
am using a 2.93GHz E7500 Intel Core 2 Duo CPU.  I have a much
more powerful machine with an nVidia 8800GTS card that supports
CUDA programming, which I will use for some supercomputer style
number crunching Real Soon Now.  Mostly that is turned off.

I also got very finicky about the case.  I had bought a Antec
Sonata superquiet case for another system, and wanted more for
my office.  Antec stopped making them, I guess gamers don't 
care about case noise anyway.  I ended up getting some of the
last cases available transferred from Fry's in Sacramento.

I did all the power savings partly because it is The Right Thing,
but mostly because lower power means slower fans and more quiet.
And I really, really want a quiet office.  Which I have, the
new cases (one on my desktop machine, one on my compute server)
are quiet, and the motherboard is quiet.   Both machines have
extra large CPU fans, selected for low DB at the low setting.
Now the loudest thing in my office is the sound of paper moving
in my printer.  

I like the people at ENU, but they are mostly an ASUS shop and
gamer-oriented.  I have heard unsubstantiated rumors that the
newest ASUS mobos use chipsets that are not Linux friendly
(I would love to learn differently).   I tend to get stuff
from Newegg because of the wide selection and the customer
reviews - many Linux people share the details of their 
experiences.   

So - the bottom line is:  Don't buy too much compute power -
save power and money.  Use Big Slow Fans - look at the dB
ratings, some are much quieter than others.  Find a quiet case
with sound dampening panels in the side.  A high efficiency
quiet supply like the Antec Earthwatts series is nice, and
unless you are running a monster CPU, lots of hard drives,
or a gynormous video card, you can get by with 400 watts
of power supply (probably less).  Look desperately for a
sound dampened case - it makes a heck of a difference.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Finally, I suggest you prepare a bill of materials for your
new system and share it with this list.  After we argue about
what you should buy ( "200W Quad Core!"  "No, Atom!" ),
you can order the pieces and bring them to the next Linux
Clinic on December 20.  We can watch as you put it together
and help you avoid some of the goofier mistakes.   Perhaps
we can designate that day as the Christmas Clinic and all
have fun opening packages together.  
-----------------------------------------------------------

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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