HELP! advice on the best computer available

[tyler1983]

This may sound stupid, but a guy in my area has offered me $1000 if my computer can beat his. He owns a very successfull computer business, so he thinks he can't be beat. If any of you have ever been to Utah you probably know who he is. His name is Super Dell and he owns Totally Awesome computers. This guy makes the most annoying commercials that I've ever seen and beating him would be quite the satisfaction. Plus I need a new computer. I asked what he meant by "beat" his computer and he replied that I need to exceed his benchmarks when we test the two computers. I'm willing to spend quite a bit of money just to beat this guy, so any ideas would be great. One other factor of the deal is that my computer can't be overclocked. Here's what he's using. I don't think it would be too hard to beat him, but you guys know a lot more than I do.

· ASUS P4T533-C Motherboard AGP4X / 533 MHz bus
· 3.06 GigaHertz Intel Pentium 4 Processor (Socket 478)
· 512MB RDRAM (PC1066) 2GB Max
· Dual 80GB Western Digital 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/100 Hardrive w/Promise FastTrak 133 Tx2000 RAID
· Toshiba 16X/40X CD/DVD-ROM Drive w/DVD Software
· Lite-On 52X24X52 CDRW Drive w/Nero Burning Software
· 128MB DDR SDRAM ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP 8X Video Card
· Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card
· Intel Pro 100 Network card
· USB Version 2.0 Onboard
· 56K US Robotics V.90 Data/Fax Modem
You can see the computer on his website at:

http://www.totallyawesome.com/systems_insanep4.htm

Thanks for any help.
Tyler

 

[Scout]

Hummm... that's an awful lot of work to go to for a thousand bucks! You need to know exactly what he means by "beating" his benchmarks. You could put together one of the new dual DDR systems with the 800 MHz. FSB and beat some of his marks, but his rig will probably win in others. If you have to beat ALL his benchmarks, then you can't win. If the contest is based on winning the MOST benchmarks, you probably can.

Scout
700 Mflops in SETI!

 

[hodi]

I could beat the 56K

--- signature to long ;( ---

 

[Prof133]

You could easily beat him with this core group of components:

Canterwood chipset Motherboard with SATA RAID
(2) Western Digital Raptor SATA drives in RAID 0
Intel 3.0GHz w/ 800MHz FSB Processor
*Two* Corsair XMS PC3200+ memory modules
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro

 

[LtBlue14]

what about a DVD burner? he didn't include that
you'd beat him in a speed benchmark for DVD burning =)
if you could wait a few weeks, get a 3ghz 800mhz fsb pentium 4 with the canterwood chipset, and probably the Abit board.
oh, and with that setup, get 2x512MB OCZ PC3500 EL sticks of ram
hmm and for the hard drives...how about a 10k rpm seagate or something, you'll need a PCI scsi card
actually get 2 of them and RAID 0 them
and of course, a Radeon 9800PRO
but hey watch out, you'll beat him in all the gaming benchmarks with a system like that, but if he pulls out professional benchmarks like 3D Studio Max, and is using something like a QuadroFX or FireGL, he'll beat you in that one benchmark

<A HREF="http://www.planettribes.com/allyourbase/ayb2.swf" target="_new">411 UR 84$E R 8E10NG 2 U$</A>

 

[stealth_blade]

well, if you have to buy it now, run a either a canterwood chipset, or you could try a sis 655 both with dual ddr 3200, get at gig of ram it'll be worth it

also, use corsairs twin mos ram, its the best stuff around bar none, its been thourougly tested and garunteed to work in dual channel at the fastest cas settings

if you could overclock i wouldve recomended AMD, but you cant, to bad

be very careful with your mobo though, a lot of manufacturers up the FSB settings by a few mhz, which translates into a faster, overclocked machine, depending on how picky he is, you might lose by default with this

"Going to war without France is like going hunting without an accordion."
- Gen. (Ret) Norman Schwartzkopf

 

[coolsquirtle]

I have given u two options this is a exact comparsion between his and this

one
Intel Pentium4 - 3.0-GHz @ 800Mhz
Asus P4C800-DLX, Socket 478, Intel i875P
CORSAIR TWIN-X Dual Channel Kit PC3200 1024MB (2x512 Pairs)
RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB AGP
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM 21600 kB/s 512K 95ms
Western Digital RAPTOR SATA 36GB 10000rpm
WESTERN DIGITAL WD2000JB 200.0GB 8MB
Thermaltake XASER III V2000A
Logitech Cordless Elite Duo PS/2+USB
3Com 3C905CX-TX-M Fast Etherlink 10/100 PCI Network adapter with Wake-On-LAN
Sony 19" Flat Panel LCD SDM-HS93/W
Logitech® Z-680

in anyways possible this system will out perform that friend's in anyway possible

or just in case you can always go dual operton or dual Xeon

 

[LancerEvolution7]

Yea, you have to tell us what benchmarks you want to beat him in. You can build a system that can beat him in most of the benches.

If you need it right now, start off with a dual processor system. That really helps speed up in certain benches. You also should make sure he is good for his word. If after you've spent $3000+ on a computer and he says, i was just kidding, you'll be even more angry.

 

[smitbret]

Used to live in Provo. When I moved there it was right around Christmas and his radio commercials are about the only thing I remember from my first three months there. Hated them at first, but they grew on me. From the people I talked to, they seem(ed) to have a pretty good product and they seem to be able to back up what they say. All I remember is how hooked he used to be on ASUS motherboards and IBM Hard Drives, every commercial was about how horrible Maxtors were. That was two years ago when MSI and Abit were killing Asus and IBM was selling the DeathStars. I'm sure he had to eat a few then. Things are cyclical, though and it it looks like he's gone to WD. Good luck. It was just fun to hear about something I was so familiar with.
-Brett

 

[FO_SHO]

You should probably send him an e-mail see EXACTLY what he tests, and get it in writing. It's not that hard to kill his system, just go with Dual Xeon proc's with SCSI RAID.... though it will be lots of $$$$, or find a friend who owns a server.. LOL

He says "If you can buy or build a system that will out perform one of our similar systems we will give you $1000!!"; does that mean you have to use "like" components??

 

[life18in]

The 800Mhz FSB P4 would be easily able to beat that inmost of the benchmarks.. Another option is getting a rig similar to his with 1GB memory, 9800Pro and a SATA HDD. That should be able to beat his system.
ASUS p4T533-C
1GB PC1066 RDRAM
ATI Radeon 9800Pro
Any good SATA drive
THose basic components should be able to compete with him.

 

[JimStapleton]

1) Do you have to exceed all or most benchmarks, and does he put more weight on some than others?

2) What benchmarks?

3) Do you have a price limit on putting together your comp?

Athlon XP 1600+, MSI K7T PRO2 RU (POS), 2x256 MB CRUCIAL PC2100 CL2.5 memory, Asus V6800 DDR Delux (GF 256) video card, 6.4GB+27GB WD HD, 40GB IBM HD (all 7200RPM). My computer is an acronym

 

[shadus]

Motherboard - ASUS P4C800 DELUXE
Processor - Intel Pentium 4 3.06 HT 800FSB
Ram 1 - 512MB 400MHZ CORSAIR CMX512-3200C2
Ram 2 - 512MB 400MHZ CORSAIR CMX512-3200C2
Hard Disk 1 - 36.7GB 10K RPM SATA 8MB CACHE
Hard Disk 2 - 36.7GB 10K RPM SATA 8MB CACHE
Video Card - ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Sound Card - Creative Audigy2 Platinum
Case - Thermaltake Xaser 3
Power Supply - Antec TRUE550 Power Supply

Stripe the drives, fill in the rest of the stuff with whatever he is using and you will beat him pretty much across the board... if you were allowed to overclock toss it all in a vapochill ~ You said you weren't allowed to overclock -- does that include the graphics card?

Also of note, make sure you have an audigy2, it offloads more to the card than the original did. May want to pick up a good 10/100/1000 ethernet card do a benchmark to compare it with the onboard ethernet... keep whichever causes the least ammount of performance hit. If you want to go real expensive pick up some 15k rpm u320 scsi drives and a real good scsi card with raid 0 support...

Shadus

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Intel SE7501BR2 dual Xeon motherboard
(2x)Intel 3.06GHz Xeon CPUs
(2x)Corsair TwinX1024-3200LLPT memory module pairs
Intel SRCZCR SCSI RAID card
(5x)Seagate Cheetah X15 36GB 15000RPM U320 SCSI hard drives
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB AGP8X graphics card
Creative Labs Audigy2 PCI sound card
US Robotics 5610B v.92 Hardware Performance Pro Modem
HP DVD Writer DVD300i 4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW
Lite-On 16X DVD, 52X CD

Granted, the memory speed is a little overkill, but if you can't run the RAM at DDR333 to boost performance then you can certainly run it at insanely low timings compared to standard CAS2 DDR266. And the five SCSI drives are for a raid 5 array of course.

This system <i>will</i> cost a small fortune. You never did specify your price range though.

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

 

[jihiggs]

why raid 5? thats for performance and redundancy. if you striped all those drives it would be faster. but you have to have a scsi raid card. if you rely on the os to do that it will reduce performance. but anyway you do it, he would probly claim that your scsi drive system would outclass his computer. and he would be right.

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[slvr_phoenix]

why raid 5? thats for performance and redundancy. if you striped all those drives it would be faster.

Well, mostly I suggested RAID5 because of my conspiracy to get people to move away from RAID0 for something that is safer. Which would you rather have if you had any important data? Something recoverable or something that would cause you to lose every last shred of data on every single hard drive in the array? Heh heh. Call me nuts, but anyone who spends <i>that</i> much on a PC should really have a recoverable hard drive array in my opinion.

but you have to have a scsi raid card.

That's what the Intel SRCZCR SCSI RAID card is for. It supports RAIDs 0, 1, 4, 5, 10, and JBOD.

but anyway you do it, he would probly claim that your scsi drive system would outclass his computer. and he would be right.

Damn straight. And that's the point. Even SATA RAID0 with 10000RPM drives will still be bottlenecked by the PCI bus at some point. That's where the E7505 with SCSI RAID5 15000RPM will totally kick butt. Extreme seek time <i>and</i> nearly unbeatable bandwidth. SATA RAID has a long way to go before it becomes as useful for servers, and sadly a lot of that way is how the bus is set up between the north and south bridges.

<font color=blue><pre>I'm proud to be an American,
who served my country in the US Air Force,
to protect the rights of my fellow Americans,
to hold protests against others like me.</pre><p></font color=blue>

 

[xxsk8er101xx]

· ASUS P4T533-C Motherboard AGP4X / 533 MHz bus - mine has more features
· 3.06 GigaHertz Intel Pentium 4 Processor (Socket 478) - tied
· 512MB RDRAM (PC1066) 2GB Max - tied - i have ddr but *shrugs* - so he'll win in the stupid mem benchmark so what.
· Dual 80GB Western Digital 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/100 Hardrive w/Promise FastTrak 133 Tx2000 RAID - tied (although i get 67MB/s on my raid setup.
· Toshiba 16X/40X CD/DVD-ROM Drive w/DVD Software - it's advd who cares.
· Lite-On 52X24X52 CDRW Drive w/Nero Burning Software - i have a dvd burner so that just crushes whatever cd-burner he has.
· 128MB DDR SDRAM ATI Radeon 9700 Pro AGP 8X Video Card - i have the AIW version which has more features.
· Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card - i have the turtle beach which i beleive they both run similar
· Intel Pro 100 Network card - who cares
· USB Version 2.0 Onboard - i have 8 usb ports and 2 firewire ports.
· 56K US Robotics V.90 Data/Fax Modem - i have cable modem.

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welp, my computer is already better as far as features go anyway lol! It shouldn't be hard to beat his POS.

Women defines the word irrational!

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