Local system builders? preferably North York or Thornhill

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 01:07:03AM -0400, Walter Dnes wrote:
>   Any custom system-builders in the North York / Thornhill area?
> 
>   As I mentioned in another thread, I may be having hardware problems
> with a machine.  This could be my excuse to get a real 64-bit system.
> My first reaction was to look at Dell's website.  The problem is, when
> you get to 8 gigabytes, they only offer 2 consumer systems.  And those
> are loaded with mandatory crud like a 23 or 24 inch monitor, and a
> super-duper ATI Radeon video card.  Paying extra is one thing; but I
> draw the line at cutting corners on the basics in order to get extra
> stuff I don't want/need.
> 
>   I'm looking at getting a machine with 8 gigs of RAM and integrated
> ethernet/GPU/sound and not much in the way of bells/whistles.  I already
> have a monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers, thank you.  Of course, linux
> compatability is required.  With the exception of the outsourced Poulsbo
> fiasco, Intel has been pretty good recently with linux compatability.
> I'd rather their integrated GPU than ATI or nVidia.
> 
>   Due to seizures years ago, I don't have a driver's licence.  I live
> near the corner of Dufferin+Steeles, so I can take either TTC or YRT
> buses.  That's the reason for my preference for North York or Thornhill,
> but I'd consider further away.  I have a neighbour in our condo building
> who'll occasionally drive me to out-of-the-way places, and I let his
> relatives use my empty parking spot when they visit him, but I don't
> want to impose too much.

Well canada computers has a store at rutherford and jane.  That's by
vaughn mills mall.  Lots of buses go there and it isn't that far from
you really.

As for intel video, well in general they work quite well (although never
very fast of course).  The new Core i3/i5 GMA HD GPU is only just starting
to work.  Apparently you need 2.6.33 or higher kernel (preferably 2.6.34)
and a very recent xorg update to get it to work.  It will probably be
great in a few months, but for now it's still getting the bugs worked out.
The Core i3-5xx and Core i5-6xx all have the integrated GPU to speed up
the performance of the onboard video when using H55, H57 or Q57 chipset
based motherboard.  The Core i5 adds AES instructions and turboboost.
Both are dual core with hyperthreading (so looks like 4 CPUs).
Some higher end Core i5 are quad core but don't have the GPU feature.
They are more intended for people using real graphics cards.

Older chipsets and cpu types of course have better and more stable
support, but putting 8GB on one of the older boards with onboard video
is often a problem.  Many were limited to 4GB.  I am sure some exist
though.

For example a modern system with onboard intel video could be:
Asus P7H55-M/CSM ($100)
Intel Core i3-530 ($125)
4x2GB DDR3 1333 ram ($220)
2x1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue (WD10EALS) (In my opinion anyone not
  using at least raid1 these days is mad.  Disks cost nothing compared to
  the time it takes to reinstall and recover from backups in case of disk
  failure) ($140)
Some optical drive ($30)
Some case you like ($varies a lot)
A very good powersupply.  400W should be plenty for the above.

You could do better by upping to a faster Core i3 or a Core i5-6xx model.
You could spend another $40 and up the disks to the Caviar Black's which
are a bit faster.  You could go to an Asus P7Q57-M DO/CSM ($135) which is
a higher end versin of the chipset with a couple more USB ports and some
remote management features (great for business users, maybe not relevant
to others, although some people are claiming the Q series chipsets are
much more robust than the other intel chipsets).

If you want real quad core then you would have to move to the higher
end Core i5-7xx model (which means the integrated GPU is gone and you
have to use a seperate video card), or for quad core with hyperthreading
(so essentially 8 cpus) you go to core i7-8xx but again loose the built
in video.  So for onboard intel video you have to use a Core i3 or
Core i5-6xx on modern intel chipsets.

You said you have monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers so those are free.

You can get the older LGA775 board (core 2 and such) for less money, but
if they have onboard video they always seem to have only two memory slots,
so to get 8GB ram you need 4GB DIMMs.  Those cost $200+ each, so about
$400 just for 8GB ram.  Might as well buy the newer system with modern
parts, DDR3 ram (so faster too) that costs a lot less to put 8GB ram in.
If you wanted 4GB ram and onboard intel video, the older design is
qutie a bit cheaper.  If you want more than 4GB, the new design is the
cheaper solution.  Or you go for a dedicated video card and then you
can find lots of choices with 4 memory slots.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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