Battleangel | Personal

Unfortunately this setup has been falling behind and will need an upgrade. It is unfortunate because I can’t yet move current generation hardware from Workstation 1 (WS1) as I usually do. I’m quite pleased with the Q6600 setup I’ve got here and the only two upgrade paths would be an Intel I5 750 (Quad) or an AMD 1055T (Hexa). Both impressive certainly, but not a night and day difference from my current setup. Especially with drastically different architectures coming Q1 next year that will include, among other things, hardware accelerated AES encryption.

Also, moving this hardware would require buying a new graphic card for WS2. Buying new budget components for the WS2 on the other hand would not only be cheaper, but would also allow for buying a 785G main board with integrated graphics. No impressive graphic solution to be sure, but essentially free. Not to mention that such a setup would be A LOT more power efficient, and have higher per core clock speed, compared to my old 65nm quad core. I mean, still after several years there is absolutely no reason for the casual desktop user to go beyond two physical cores. Unless you’re gaming or encoding video or some such it’s just a waste of energy. Certainly nothing to aspire to on a budget system.

• 785G main board with integrated ATI 4200, mATX most likely.
• AMD Athlon II X2 250 (with the boxed fan for the time being).
• 2 or 4 GB DDR3. 1333 MHz or older 1066 MHz if available. Memory frequency seems to matter very little (X-bit labs) so on a budget system there is no point in going all out.
• Samsung F3 1TB. Cheap and fast.
• Possibly new PSU. I know I replaced the original PSU on WS2 because it fried. Can’t imagine the replacement was very high quality.

It’s the smartest upgrade I’ve been able to come up with thus far. WS2 also requires a new monitor, Dell 2209WA most likely, so I might replace my 19” Mitsubishi CRT with the 19” Philips CRT from that setup. For the short term that will solve the problem of my ageing monitor, and it will allow me to get first hand experience from a TFT screen in a setup without any gaming inclinations. I still don’t know if I will have to forego TFTs altogether and hold out for some future tech.

On a side note though, if you were to buy a new TFT today, the market is as difficult as it was six months ago. The 16:10 e-IPS Dell 2209WA is still the best choice. 1680 x 1050 is still the ideal resolution. Going for 1920 x 1080, especially on a 21-23 inch display (as Dell moronically did on their two replacement monitors, the U2311H and U2211H) is useless. Meanwhile, 1920 x 1200 monitors are increasingly scarce. Right now I’m a little concerned that the 2209WA will be discontinued though. I can certainly see the writing on the wall.