buying a new hardware question

[Uri Blass]

My boss is going to buy a computer that I am going to use for chess.
I do not deal with the technical details.

I got the following details and my question is if you think that I can get a better deal and if I need to buy windows 64 seperately.

Another question is if there is a better deal that it is possible to get for a price that is not higher(one idea is buying 2 computers with 4 cores instead of 1).

If I understand correctly 2 quad means 8 cores and the question is if Q9300 is important here(I think that it may be better to have Q6600 and windows 64 and not Q9300 and windows 32-bit if I can get both for the same price).

I translated most of the details that I have to english
The price is 4299 shekels that is near 1200$




Pevilion desktop
producer:HP
a6533

Intel@G33 Express
Realtek ALC262 High Definition Codec
Intel@core TM2 Quad processor Q9300
2.5Ghz
2*2MB L2 cache

4096 MB (4*1024 Mbytes) memory
speed of memory:667 Mhz
0/4 available memory slots
4 GB maximal memory
9.6 kilogram
DVD Multi Burner

graphical card:MVIDIA@Geforce TM 9600 GS
USB:6xUSB2.0
RJ-45*1
FireWire*2
VGA*1
MIC*1
USB2.0*4
USB2.0Front *2
Audio In *1
Audio Out*1

operation system:Windows Vista Home Premium(Eng)

technical details:
Convertible Minitower
additions:wireless keyboard+optical wireless mouse

[plattyaj]

Windows 32 bit can't use 4 GB but at least it would be ready for a 64 bit OS. Having run with 64 bit Vista for a month now on my new laptop I'm ready to say it works pretty well. Still hate UAC though

Andy.

[jdart]

That's quite a reasonable machine and should perform well. Faster is always better, though. The Q9300 is not as fast and also does not have as much cache as other processors such as the Q9450. Also most machines with this CPU and mb are using 800Mhz memory, not 667.

--Jon

[Marc Lacrosse]

That's quite a reasonable machine and should perform well. Faster is always better, though.
--Jon

Sure.

Another point that you should take into account is that most (if not all) HP PCs and workstations come with a specially designed BIOS forbidding any attempt at the slightest overclocking.

But this still seems to be a good value-for-money offer.

Marc

[Uri Blass]

That's quite a reasonable machine and should perform well. Faster is always better, though.
--Jon

Sure.

Another point that you should take into account is that most (if not all) HP PCs and workstations come with a specially designed BIOS forbidding any attempt at the slightest overclocking.

But this still seems to be a good value-for-money offer.

Marc

I already got the machine to use for chess and I doubt if it is using 8 cores

I am happy with the speed but
looking at the task manager I see only 4 processes of rybka3.

Maybe I misunderstood the words
"Intel@core TM2 Quad processor Q9300."

I was not sure if it is 8 cores or 4 cores and from the fact that nobody corrected me to say it is only 4 cores and nobody told me that it may be better to get simple Q6600 with windows64 I got the impression that it is 8 cores.

Not that it is not my money so I did not ask for more details after
people here said that it is a good price.

Uri

[kgburcham]

I am happy with the speed but
looking at the task manager I see only 4 processes of rybka3.

Maybe I misunderstood the words
"Intel@core TM2 Quad processor Q9300."
Uri

Uri,
TM stands for TradeMark. It is actually written as;
Core 2 DUO or
Core 2 Quad.
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor.
Yes you have a single socket Motherboard with 4 core processor. Very good machine and excellent for Chess. Should be fun for you.
Now run one or two of your favorite test positions and post results.

[trojanfoe]

Windows 32 bit can't use 4 GB but at least it would be ready for a 64 bit OS. Having run with 64 bit Vista for a month now on my new laptop I'm ready to say it works pretty well. Still hate UAC though

Andy.

I agree - I think Vista x64 is excellent, especially for chess engines. I have been playing video games, programming and doing every other normal activity without problem. Maybe I have been fortunate with my devices (i.e. having good 64-bit drivers).

I'm not keen on UAC either, but it's like the UNIX/Linux 'sudo' command which I find acceptable but just as annoying at times. If you don't like UAC you can disable it, but I'm not sure it would be advisible.

Cheers,
Andy

[M ANSARI]

I bought a copy of Vista Ultimate_64bit but haven't installed it yet. The problem with Vista is that you are bugged to death about revalidating anytime you make a hardware change. I change hardware items very often and that it is a real pain. With Win XP_64bit I can have one image which I can quickly copy to a new hard disk and have everything running within 15 minutes. This is why I have yet to make the plunge to Vista Ultimate 64bit even though on many machines I have Vista 32bit and Win_XP64bit running as a dual boot and could obviously benefit from a single OS installation.

[ernest]

With Win XP_64bit I can have one image...

Hi Majd,
what tool do you use for creating that image?

[frankp]

[/quote]
[big snip]
I agree - I think Vista x64 is excellent

Cheers,
Andy[/quote]

I can imagine that Vista is necessary (evil) for some chess engines, but am surprised to see it described as excellent........

I had 32bit Vista on a laptop bought from a shop. While not a MicroSh*t fan it was bad even by their standards.