One Chip -> 205 million transistors !!!

[lineup]

I am exploring today's computer components. For an eventual PC upgrade.

The heart in a PC motherboard is the CHIPSET.
Controls all other parts and make them work together.
AMD is not only making good CPU processors, like Athlon. They make Chipsets, too.
Latest chipsets from AMD are for example 790G and 780G.
These incorporates Radeon graphic drivers as well.

780G was launched soon 1 year ago.
It is very powerful and now popular in motherboards we can buy
Here is told that this IC holds ...... 205 million transistors.

And I find an amplifier overly complicated if has more than 20 transistors ....

AMD launches 780G
Written by Fuad Abazovic Wednesday, 05 March 2008 19:37

AMD has just launched the 780G chipset and it looks to be the fastest IGP ever to be launched. The new chipset supports Hybrid Graphics and can end up up to three times faster than Intel's G35.
----
Eisler also said that this is AMD’s and world’s first 55nm chipset, and the chipset as we reported before has a Radeon 3450 generation card inside. All this is done in 205 million transistors.
.

[wakibaki]

20... 200,000,000. What's the difference? You just move the decimal point.

What are you upgrading from, Lineup? What are you thinking of getting?

It's hard to make sense of PC performance now, there are so many factors. I got fed up with upgrades, every time I upgraded Bill would make the software slower.

I like to build a slightly better than middle-of the road computer and just try to stick with existing programs and winxp. I sometimes run 2 disks in RAID 0 to get a faster disk since they got cheaper. I don't dig too deep into the performance reviews.

I guess it's a kind of low-effort good-value-for-money approach.

My wife says I'm a lazy cheapskate.

w

[ostripper]

In 7 years I have had 7 amd's, while they are good from
a economy standpoint, 3 have been unpredictably unstable
from the beginning, 2 became obsolete and could not be
upgraded , the other 2 blew up.

I have owned 4 intel's(pentium 4 , core 2 tech) and still
own them. 2 are my kid's (p4's) , upgraded memory , better video
for games , etc. the other 2 are core 2 systems and are 2 1/2
years old 24/7 use.. could put quad cores in them
and get another 3-4 years ..

Chipsets like you posted are good for dell's and general use
(3 years , throw it away , buy a new one) Onboard video
chipsets get hotter , have more errata , limited overclocking ability
, shorter life..

For audio/internet/LT... get a good power supply (500watts)plus:
MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2E16813128347R

Solid capacitors any [DS] gigabyte is all solid
...10 years + sold 20 of these ..no returns

Cheap Core 2:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116075

or more expensive one if you do video editing..

Good DDR2 800 memory (2 sticks), a real Nvidia PCI-E video
card,250 gig SATA hard drive... Find a good case or use your old one if compatable and for $200-250 USD ,you have a 5 year computer that will do anything..
Add a fancy M-audio or X-fi sound card and it will sound supurb.

Sorry to hear about loss in family, lineup..
OS

[lineup]

Originally posted by wakibaki

What are you upgrading from, Lineup?

What are you thinking of getting?

It's hard to make sense of PC performance now, there are so many factors. I got fed up with upgrades, every time I upgraded Bill would make the software slower.
----

I sometimes run 2 disks in RAID 0 to get a faster disk since they got cheaper.

I don't dig too deep into the performance reviews.
I guess it's a kind of low-effort good-value-for-money approach.
My wife says I'm a lazy cheapskate.

first, ostripper
I have always been an AMD Athlon man. This does not say they are better choice.
It is more like a personal taste thing. Same goes often in Amplifiers!
You like some. For some strange reason .. or no reason at all
----


wakibaki
I think we have some common thinkings, on PC stuffs.

I have already 3 working computers.
A) One older Athlon with 250GB IDE Drive. Legend mainboard in MidiTower without SATA support.
Use Linux here as I picked this one together from components I had. (No OEM Windows)

B) See Attachment!
My sister had given one ACER TravelMate 800 portable to my mother.
I did get this Computer now that she can not use it no more (Dead & Cold)
Surprisingly to me, it works very well. I have even used it for internet, while my regular PC had a problem.
Battery pack is long time gone. But no big problem as Mains AC is everywhere.

C) My regular PC from October 2005. Works very well and I am happy with it.
Was a special order to my local shop. I talked with them and I decided what components I wanted and they put it together.
- MSI Socket 754 board (MSI K8NM)
- CPU AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8 GHz)
- 2048 MB DDRAM PC3200. Can only take 2 GB
- ATI Radeon 9550, passive no-fan cooling
- MS Windows XP Home
- 17" ACER LCD Monitor
- Firewire400/800 and supports 2 SATA drives + 2 IDE drives

I have one Freecom DataTank 1TB (2x500GB sata) external drive
which can use USB2.0 or Firewire800 plugin. I use Firewire800.

Now I use one Samsung 500 GB for my Win XP Home.
I have several SAMSUNG Spinpoint drives.
I have another 500GB and two 160GB SATA. And two 40GB IDE. All Samsung.

I oftgen pluin and change the extra SATA drive.
And I do some LINUX installations. I have tested the almost all major Linux distros:
MEPIS, Debian, openSuse, Knoppix, Slackware, Ubuntuu, Kubutuu and others.
Right now I think the latest Debian DVD-iso is my favourite Linux.
But openSuse is not bad!
-----------------


What I might be getting?
-----------------------------------

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+/6000+. Socket AM2
- MicroATX. For example MicroStar MSI K9A2GM-FIH mother board with 780G chipset.
Supports even HDMI output.
- Kingston 4 GB PC8500 DDR2
- Two Samsung 250 GB working in Raid 0. =Better speed
- Monitor Benq E2200HD. 22" WIDE with HDMI. Very good price!
- Firewire is a must!
- Windows Vista ... is a No No NO!

As you say,
Cheap HardDrives with SATA Raid support can for a low cost improve speed further.
Especially when working with very large files. Like VIDEO.

[ostripper]

My sister had given one ACER TravelMate 800 portable

betcha that one will outlast all the amd's even the new one..
kidding..

Son's p4 (1.6G) is 11 years old... I liked my big AMD 64 3200+
(4 1/2 years) until it burned out last week , so I am not a
AMD hater. AMD has too many socket changes (939 , 940, am2,
am2+ , and am3) all in 4 years. Intel just socket 775..easy.

Just notice more errata/failure in the long term (5years+)
with the amd's. But AMD , by being Intels only competition,
keeps all this tech affordable.. GO AMD..

BTW gigabyte and MSI are the only brands I would deal with
good stuff.. NO veeesta for me as well..

OS

[lineup]

I agree OSTRIPPER.
Their is a some madness making a new Socket every year.
I do not think it is mainly an issue of cpu requirements and more pins.

I think it is much a selling strategy.
.. people should not be able to use their motherboards for newer CPUs.
And when you buy a new motherboard, you will upgrade most everything = more sells!

If we could only exchange those CPU, Chipset and whatever stuf
and plug it into same old motherboard, then the PC business would not make as much money.

Of course this is also very much a Microsoft Strategy, as well.
There has to be a new Windows OS .. at least every 3 years.
So everybody has to buy some more, some new ( called 'upgrade'.. but in the case of VISTA turned out a downgrade! )

Windows have had several real questionable releases in the past.
Windows ME, Millenium ...
Riding on the wave of a new Millenium year 2000, they were too quick to put out that one.
I have had one Windows ME computer. It was nothing but Crash after Crash daily!

[ostripper]

.. people should not be able to use their motherboards for newer CPUs

That is my problem with AMD.. I have a perfectly good athlon
64 3200+ (socket 939) and I can't find a motherboard for it.

But my 2 1/2 year old core 2 board can take the new quad core.
So my conclusion is that the intels are upgradable for a much
longer time than the amd's.

as far as the OS's ,vista is a joke , I have the new win7 , it
is like vista but uses less memory, a little faster than vista,
but still no REAL compelling new features.
Ubuntu on one of my P4's still surfs faster with 1/4 the memory use. SO ,
why would I pay 2-300 dollars for something I won't use. A stripped XP is what I use on the main PC..1/4 gig
memory with everthing running.
OS

[janneman]

Sorry for OT, but what's a stripped XP? What/how can you strip off?

Jan Didden

[xaudiox]

you can used Nlite to stripped windows xp.

[Juergen Knoop]

or you could visite Shane Brooks site:
http://www.litepc.com/
His 98lite was marvellous!
regards