P4 and dual monitors

[gnome]

Quote from richtrader:


It may seem like a waste today, but wait until the next version of Office, or Windows, or whatever comes out. Then the memory may be fully utilized. There's nothing worse than slow performance due to excessive paging to the hard drive. Think about when machines had 4MB of ram and 16MB seemed like a waste.

That's true, but back then there wasn't such an easy way to see how much of the total memory was being used. Besides if you really don't need it now, you can always add it later... perhaps at a lower cost even...

Best 1st Shot on the memory, I'd say, is 1 stick of 512. That's probably enough for now and leaves open another slot (in 2 slotters) for another 512. On a 4 slotter, could you start with 1 X 256, or would you have to do those in pairs??.

 

[richtrader]

Quote from gnome:

That's true, but back then there wasn't such an easy way to see how much of the total memory was being used. Besides if you really don't need it now, you can always add it later... perhaps at a lower cost even...

Best 1st Shot on the memory, I'd say, is 1 stick of 512. That's probably enough for now and leaves open another slot (in 2 slotters) for another 512.

Okay, I agree. I tend to buy as much memory as I can afford since I use Microsoft Development tools and databases, which tend to be memory hogs. I have to remember that the general population will not be running such things.

 

[canyonman00]

Quote from gnome:

That's true, but back then there wasn't such an easy way to see how much of the total memory was being used. Besides if you really don't need it now, you can always add it later... perhaps at a lower cost even...

Best 1st Shot on the memory, I'd say, is 1 stick of 512. That's probably enough for now and leaves open another slot (in 2 slotters) for another 512.

As a tech, I'd recommend one 512 stick with an eye towards cheaper expansions in the future. This will be plenty to cover your needs now. Time should only make your upgrade cheaper. The only thing you want to make sure of is that your motherboard will allow massive upgrading of the RAM.

Try to make sure you can at least go to the 1.0gig level. Personally, I'd look to at least 1.5gig. There are boards out there that allow more also so make sure that your case can accomodate, for the future.

 

[stokhack]

Hey all, thanx for all the input.
So in summary better to go with Xeon 2.0 processor with 512MB
RAM, other is Xeon 2.4 processor with 256MB RAm for same price;
Windows 2000 for OS instead of Windows XP;
two ATI Radeon VE cards for future expansion to four monitors;
comes with 40GIG harddrive, and CD 48X RW, no sound or monitors for $1365...
Seems like an ok deal to me, and get free shipping if I order by tomorrow. Gotta be better than my IBM Athlon 600 with 98 SE.
Any further tweaks before I send it in?

 

[stokhack]

Still considering adding the extra RAM,


1GB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,ECC (2 DIMMS) [add $291.00]
1GB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,ECC (4 DIMMS) [add $240.00]

Whats the difference?? is one using 512 sticks and the other 256 sticks, does that effect performance?

 

[rtstrading]

you can get a new Matrox G200 video card w/cables on ebay for about $150-$200 (list is $700) which is a quad board (four monitors)! And just one PCI slot taken.

 

[gnome]

Quote from stokhack:

Hey all, thanx for all the input.
So in summary better to go with Xeon 2.0 processor with 512MB
RAM, other is Xeon 2.4 processor with 256MB RAm for same price;
Windows 2000 for OS instead of Windows XP;
two ATI Radeon VE cards for future expansion to four monitors;
comes with 40GIG harddrive, and CD 48X RW, no sound or monitors for $1365...
Seems like an ok deal to me, and get free shipping if I order by tomorrow. Gotta be better than my IBM Athlon 600 with 98 SE.
Any further tweaks before I send it in?

No, No, NO.... I think.
I've was told by ATI Tech that that 2 ATI VE cards (for 4 monitors) will not work. That was a year ago. Maybe it's changed, but you should verify first.

Processor speed is not critical in trading (maybe big-time number crunching??). Why Xeon vs P4??

If the MB max is 1G, it won't make any difference whether you're using 256s or 512s

I've seen the big retail chains advertising DDR memory for about 1/2 what Dell charges (after rebate)... Crucial and PNY brands. I've used both and they're fine. Maybe just get 512 now and look for one of those sales to increase your ram later?

 

[gnome]

Quote from Ken_DTU:

gnome, interesting - hey what m/b and vid cards are you using? curious.. I want to get a p4 m/b running w/4+ cards would be great.. it's the intel 850e chipset on some p4 boards that apparently has a hard time w/multiple agp + pci cards..

the matrox parhelia works fine on my intel p/4 m/b for 3 monitors.. fwiw..


thx,

ken

Got a quick reply from Dell Support... "Intel MB, Model 845, with DDR Support". Sounds a little incomplete, but that's what they said.

Maybe the answer is to get a nice Intel 845 MB with 6 PCI slots and go from there?

BTW... My chart package is MetaStock Pro from Equis. Their tech advised that I use "Intel all the way"... MB, CPU, Chipset... for maximum reliability. I've had 2 such machines. Both have been trouble free and reliable on these parameters.

 

[nitro]

If you do end up getting a dual Xeon board, be VERY careful to get _ONLY_ RAM that the vendor recommends - you will save yourself a ton of headaches.

nitro

 

[richtrader]

Quote from gnome:

I've seen the big retail chains advertising DDR memory for about 1/2 what Dell charges (after rebate)... Crucial and PNY brands. I've used both and they're fine. Maybe just get 512 now and look for one of those sales to increase your ram later?

Hi again... Dell has conveniently made it so that most of these third party memory brands will not work with the proprietary "notch" they require on the side of the dimm/simm/whatever it's called these days.