Thoughts on a new build for a friend 4570

[Markfw]

So I have a friend who wanted an upgrade for office use from an Athlon 245 dual-core and an 80 gig drive to something that is in this decade. So I got her a 4570 Haswell, 8 gig ram, TX3 cooler, Seagate one TB drive, and a cheap DVD burner, with a CS430 Corsair PSU. So here are my thoughts (business computer)

1) It is FAST, installed Win7 in about 10 minutes, Oracle 10 runtime (218 meg) in one minute (not positive on that, might have blinked).

2) QUIET

3) 30 watt idle, 82 watt full load all cores from the wall ! The complete box !

The box was about $500, and with win 64 7 pro, and Office 2010 professional (the biggie at $370), it was about $1k total, but DAMN, fast and low power with work professional software for 1k.

I am impressed (hardware mostly)

EDIT, yes, might have been able to beat the price on a pre-built, but not with that hardware that will last at least 10 years....

 

[CHADBOGA]

I can't see the point of getting an Intel Quad that isn't a "K" variant.

One can do a mild overclock to 4.0Ghz for the risk adverse.

 

[Ieat]

No ssd?

 

[Yuriman]

I can't see the point of getting an Intel Quad that isn't a "K" variant.

One can do a mild overclock to 4.0Ghz for the risk adverse.

I recently built a system for my young cousin with a B85 chipset (saved $50) and non-K i5 (saved $35). He's not likely to be overclocking at 14, that $85 went toward the video card.

 

[Markfw]

I can't see the point of getting an Intel Quad that isn't a "K" variant.

One can do a mild overclock to 4.0Ghz for the risk adverse.

I did say this was a business build, yes ? A quad core is almost overkill for this anyway, but when you crunch as much as these MBA's do, sometimes its needed.

 

[NTMBK]

If she had survived on an 80GB hard drive in her old machine, I would have said that she would be a perfect candidate for an SSD. (And office documents don't tend to take up gigs of space like games and pirated movies do!) I would have gone for a cheaper i3 or A10, and put the money towards a 256GB SSD.

But it sounds like a sweet little machine, anyway. Excellent upgrade!

 

[frozentundra123456]

Sounds like a very nice machine. I guess I should not comment since I have never used one, but I have an off the shelf i5, and I don't really feel the need for an ssd. Any program I need opens almost instantly, although I admit I don't do any kind of work that involves a lot of file transfers. But the machine feels plenty fast to me without an ssd.

 

[Gikaseixas]

For business purposes i think it's a well balanced machine but an i5 4430 and a SSD would do it too for the same amount of money.

 

[zir_blazer]

I can't see the point of getting an Intel Quad that isn't a "K" variant.

One can do a mild overclock to 4.0Ghz for the risk adverse.

Enthusiasts wrongly assumes that everyone overclocks.

First, K series Processors are around 20 or 30 U$D more expensive than the regular conterparts. Second, they lose four features (VT-d, vPro, TXT and TSX) in exchange for that Unlocked Multiplier - you possibily will not use either, but still, it has something the other doesn't. Third, Haswell runs very hot (Heck, I saw my Haswell Xeon in throttling status already) unless you use a non-retail heatsink, which for someone that does not overclock may as well be overkill and requires more budget.

 

[ehume]

Sounds like a very nice machine. I guess I should not comment since I have never used one, but I have an off the shelf i5, and I don't really feel the need for an ssd. Any program I need opens almost instantly, although I admit I don't do any kind of work that involves a lot of file transfers. But the machine feels plenty fast to me without an ssd.

You really must try out a rig with an SSD. I consider going from spinning disks to ssd to be like going from dial-up to cable. You may not agree, but you should at least do some work on an SSD rig to feel the difference so you will know.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Sounds like a very nice machine. I guess I should not comment since I have never used one, but I have an off the shelf i5, and I don't really feel the need for an ssd. Any program I need opens almost instantly, although I admit I don't do any kind of work that involves a lot of file transfers. But the machine feels plenty fast to me without an ssd.

You really need to try an SSD. Then you wouldnt write what you do :biggrin:

 

[ShintaiDK]

I can't see the point of getting an Intel Quad that isn't a "K" variant.

One can do a mild overclock to 4.0Ghz for the risk adverse.

I bought one because I have no intention of overclocking. Even tho I got a Z87 board. But the board is abit of a luxuory thing.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I did say this was a business build, yes ? A quad core is almost overkill for this anyway, but when you crunch as much as these MBA's do, sometimes its needed.

The only thing it could use is the SSD. Else its an amazing build you can put into a tiny case.

 

[Markfw]

The only thing it could use is the SSD. Else its an amazing build you can put into a tiny case.

I have an SSD myself, and not quite as impressed as everyone else here (must be what I so) But with dependability and life span of an SDD not quite that great yet, I went with an HD. She has MANY peoples tax returns for years on this, and her last box was 5-6 years old, and I figure this one may go 10, so an SSD seemed risky.

And yes one of the reasons to upgrade was the 80 gig disk was getting full , and she was getting messages about it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

You really need to try an SSD. Then you wouldnt write what you do :biggrin:

Why dont you ship me your rig for a few months and I will??

Seriously, I would love to try a rig with an SSD, but all the machines at work are older than my personal PC, and none of them have SSDs. None my friends or family have SSD equipped machines either. If the hard drive fails on my personal PC, I probably will try to replace it with an SSD, but I cant imagine the benefits would be enough to upgrade as long as things are working well and I am satisfied with the performance.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I have an SSD myself, and not quite as impressed as everyone else here (must be what I so) But with dependability and life span of an SDD not quite that great yet, I went with an HD. She has MANY peoples tax returns for years on this, and her last box was 5-6 years old, and I figure this one may go 10, so an SSD seemed risky.

And yes one of the reasons to upgrade was the 80 gig disk was getting full , and she was getting messages about it.

You are much more knowledgable about computers than I am, so I am sure you have counselled her about this, but I certainly hope she is conscientious about backups, including one in the cloud or off-site.

 

[Markfw]

You are much more knowledgable about computers than I am, so I am sure you have counselled her about this, but I certainly hope she is conscientious about backups, including one in the cloud or off-site.

She is so old school. her backups are paper....The returns. And no I can't talk her into much of anything. I was lucky to get her to upgrade.

 

[ehume]

I have an SSD myself, and not quite as impressed as everyone else here (must be what I so) But with dependability and life span of an SDD not quite that great yet, I went with an HD. She has MANY peoples tax returns for years on this, and her last box was 5-6 years old, and I figure this one may go 10, so an SSD seemed risky.

And yes one of the reasons to upgrade was the 80 gig disk was getting full , and she was getting messages about it.

What many of us do is to have an OS disk with the OS and the installed apps, and a spinning-disk HD for files.

You can't transfer apps. You must reinstall them on your new rig. That means when you move, you can do the reinstalls on the SSD and even leave the files on the old HD. Of course in this case you'd hardly have wanted to do that. But still . . .

 

[ShintaiDK]

I have an SSD myself, and not quite as impressed as everyone else here (must be what I so) But with dependability and life span of an SDD not quite that great yet, I went with an HD. She has MANY peoples tax returns for years on this, and her last box was 5-6 years old, and I figure this one may go 10, so an SSD seemed risky.

And yes one of the reasons to upgrade was the 80 gig disk was getting full , and she was getting messages about it.

If you wanted lifespan and dependability, SSD was the way to go

 

[escrow4]

I'm running a 4770 non K with an H87 board in my gaming box and a 4770 non K with a Z87 board (the extra features/ports I wanted) in this work box. Can't complain. I don't OC anymore. It isn't exactly required.

 

[Techhog]

I have an SSD myself, and not quite as impressed as everyone else here (must be what I so) But with dependability and life span of an SDD not quite that great yet, I went with an HD. She has MANY peoples tax returns for years on this, and her last box was 5-6 years old, and I figure this one may go 10, so an SSD seemed risky.

And yes one of the reasons to upgrade was the 80 gig disk was getting full , and she was getting messages about it.

What? You're completely off-base! What on earth lead you to believe that SSDs are less dependable and don't last as long? It's the complete opposite!

 

[VirtualLarry]

What? You're completely off-base! What on earth lead you to believe that SSDs are less dependable and don't last as long? It's the complete opposite!

I think Mark is actually on the right track. I read an article that studied SSD deployments, and "infant mortality" (failure within the first year) was as high as 20%.

I would have installed a HDD for longevity too. (Except I might have gone with RAID-1, with a second HDD.)

 

[Markfw]

I think Mark is actually on the right track. I read an article that studied SSD deployments, and "infant mortality" (failure within the first year) was as high as 20%.

I would have installed a HDD for longevity too. (Except I might have gone with RAID-1, with a second HDD.)

Accoding to this article (and others), its really too early to tell.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-9.html

 

[NTMBK]

Accoding to this article (and others), its really too early to tell.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-9.html

Don't forget that that is from 2 years ago; technology has come on even further since those days.

 

[ehume]

Accoding to this article (and others), its really too early to tell.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-reliability-failure-rate,2923-9.html

Last time I looked, TweakTown was doing a usage test. While a usage test is not exactly a longevity test, it is as close as we get get right now.

But I haven't seen anything on it lately.