Bargain Hardware Thread

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by Ken_g6

Also note that you're not going to get much crunching done with an 8400GS. In PPSieve it's worth about one slow AMD core. A $55 9500GT is about 5 times faster; though it's still slower than one C2Q. If you want to do any trial factoring, I'd get a GT240 with GDDR5, which is about 3 times again as fast as the 9500GT!

??? I was only buying a video card because Gigabyte MotherBoards don't have them built in. It never occured to me that I could use it for real work???

[Ken_g6]

CUDALucas would seem out of your price range (requiring Compute Capability 1.3 or higher); but you can definitely sieve and probably trial factor!

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by sdbardwick

PSU is suspect; I wouldn't put any CoolMax PSU in a computer I care about.
It would be hard to get that system to draw over 230 Watts (even OC'd), so I'd probably get a PSU in the 430W-500W range. Any Corsair (except CX430), any Antec (except Basiq series), or any Seasonic (S12xx, M12 or X series) would be a vast improvement. If the budget is fixed, I'd get a cheaper CPU HSF and apply the savings towards the PSU.

Here's a review of a 500W CoolMax PSU.

So my old 300W might be fine?

[lavalamp]

It depends how old it is.

To work with the motherboard you picked out it'll need a 24 pin ATX connector, AND a 4 pin EPS12V connector for the motherboard. Older power supplies may only have a 20 pin and 4 pin connector, this won't cut it on modern boards. Certain motherboards need 24 pin and 8 pin connectors, and some even need 24 pin, 8 pin and 4 pin connectors.

The GT240 card you linked to does not need any additional power connections, however some cards need a 6 pin or 8 pin (or both) PCIe connectors, so if you decide to go for a more powerful card that needs extra juice, remember that your PSU will need to have the approriate connections to supply it.

300 W is a little on the weak side anyway. PSUs get the best efficiency when the load is about half of what they can supply, it's a sort of sweet spot. So even if you think the system will only draw about 250 watts, it still might be better to get a 500 W PSU.

For extra efficiency you can get an 80 plus certified PSU, where 80 plus refers to the efficiency. As well as the standard 80 plus certification, there are four additional levels, bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Since PSU efficiency has steadily risen, the top level actually requires PSUs to be over 90% efficient in almost all circumstances.

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by Ken_g6

CUDALucas would seem out of your price range (requiring Compute Capability 1.3 or higher); but you can definitely sieve and probably trial factor!

Price is a concern but NOT a deal breaker. If I add $30 or so for the card you recommended do i then need to download mkfact and run it independent of Prime95 or is it somehow integrated?

Amd how much factoring could the GT240 do compared to, for example, a core of the i5-760?

Thanks

[petrw1]

MB:  GIGABYTE GA-H55M-UD2H LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard $104.99  
CPU: Intel Core i5-760 Lynnfield 2.8GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor $209.99  
OS:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM $99.99  
HD:  SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $109.99  
Vid: GIGABYTE GV-N84S-512I GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card  $33.49  
----   OR ----
Vid: GIGABYTE GV-N240D5-512I GeForce GT 240 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card $77.99  
PS:  CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply $61.99  
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ $70.99  
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler  $79.99

Anything else I need to know?
Did I interpret your recommendations correctly?
Thanks again

[petrw1]

GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard $109.99

[Ken_g6]

Originally Posted by petrw1

Price is a concern but NOT a deal breaker. If I add $30 or so for the card you recommended do i then need to download mkfact and run it independent of Prime95 or is it somehow integrated?

It's a program you'd need to download and run separately.

Originally Posted by petrw1

Amd how much factoring could the GT240 do compared to, for example, a core of the i5-760?

I honestly don't know for sure. With my apps, PPSieve/TPSieve, it would do as much as about 6 cores of the i5 760, I think. I'm not even familiar with Mersenne trial division on the CPU; but based on benchmarks in that thread I'd guess mfaktc would get 14-21 M/s, whatever that means. Also note that it would use a significant portion of one CPU core to do that.

Originally Posted by petrw1

GIGABYTE GA-H55N-USB3 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard $109.99

Oh, my, that's a tiny board! Do you need a low-profile, single-slot card to fit in your case?

[petrw1]

Originally Posted by Ken_g6

I honestly don't know for sure. With my apps, PPSieve/TPSieve, it would do as much as about 6 cores of the i5 760, I think. I'm not even familiar with Mersenne trial division on the CPU; but based on benchmarks in that thread I'd guess mfaktc would get 14-21 M/s, whatever that means. Also note that it would use a significant portion of one CPU core to do that.

Yes, I've seen almost unbelievable thruput from others in that thread. I guess if I had to give up one Core to drive the GPU to output equivalent to 6 cores then it's not a bad trade.

Does the Video Card I have listed look like it is capable of similar thruput?

Oh, my, that's a tiny board! Do you need a low-profile, single-slot card to fit in your case?

No, I was just trying to find one that is NOT too expensive and has a good rating. I didn't realize it would be a tiny board. I'll look again for one that doesn't say Mini or Micro

Thanks

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by petrw1

No, I was just trying to find one that is NOT too expensive and has a good rating. I didn't realize it would be a tiny board. I'll look again for one that doesn't say Mini or Micro

From what I've observed, it's often hard to find a cheap full-ATX board; in many cases a Micro ATX will be fine, though Mini ITX will probably be rather restricting. The main difference is in the number of expansion slots. A typical ATX mobo will have 3 or 4 PCI slots, 1 PCIe x1, and 1 PCIe x16. Micro ATX usually has 2 or 3 PCI, 1 PCIe x1, and 1 PCIe x16. Mini ITX is, of course, even tinier, often with only one expansion slot (in the case of the one you posted earlier, PCIe x16).

The Micro ATX you had previously selected has a slightly nontraditional selection of expansion slots: 2 PCI and 2 PCIe x16 (though one of the PCIe's is slower than the other). This is actually a little better than the typical Micro ATX arrangement, since an x16 slot can be used with x1 cards if you so choose. If you're not planning to put too many expansion cards in, and aren't planning to have a huge GPU (the big ones like the GTX 460 take up the space of 2 slots; but the ones you're looking at should fit in 1 space), a Micro ATX may be a good buy if the price is right.

[Batalov]

Tiny. Hard to cool it well in that tiny spot.
What's wrong with a GA-H55-USB3 (and 4 memory slots, better spacing around the CPU and other goodies)?