My last pc upgrade or if you would want to call it that was my MSI Wind. Looking back, spending SGD854 on it is abit of an overvalued buy.
It didn’t work so well and although it serve the objective of a portable netbook that you can bring it wherever you wanna go it doesn’t do alot of heavy work.
My desktop PC have been with me for 3-4 years. Its a so call free desktop Pentium 4 HT that i got as part of signing up for a Starhub deal. It serves what I need to do which is:
- Little Gaming
- Web Surfing
- Blogging
- Social Interaction with Friends
- Programming and Design
Its greatest flaw i realise is in the power consumption. Comparing the pentium 4 to what we had today with multi-core processor it definitely is weak. But i have never thought that today’s more powerful processor pc actually consume less power!
It turns out that the Pentium 4 CPU i have been using is one of the worst designs that Intel US engineers have came up with and if not for their Isreal or India’s designer’s great multi-core product they would have lag badly against AMD.
This old build actually consumes on average 138 Watt of electricity. And it is likely the CPU itself takes up like 100 Watt!
The Rig that I built for myself is as follows:
- AMD Athlon 2 X3 2.9 GHz w BioStar Budget mainboard – SGD233. The good thing about this X3 425 triple core is that it is suppose to consume less power (45 Watt). Since you see the things i normally use it for, I think having 3 cores is a mass overkill.
- 2GB of RAM – SGD80. Ram prices are up. I just buy what i need.
- 500GB Hard drive – SGD74. Alot of you guys would say i should go for 1 Terabyte. That would cost more than 100 which is not what i am aiming for.
- Silverstone MATX Chasis – SGD109. Abit of an expensive buy for a budget PC but this MATX is really sleek and I want an MATX cause i never had one and want to try it so that i can put it on my desk and it wont look out of place
- Vantag ION2 460 Watt Power supply – Old. I decide to reuse this one. I research up abit and i think i chosen a relatively ok power supply which should enable this rig to function well.
A total of SGD496 was spent on this one. Configuration and installation was a pain but finally i got to see the end result.
Its definitely faster than my netbook. And on normal web surfing my Average Power Utilization was 60 WATT with CPU Temperature around 34 degrees.
When watching movie, it gets jack up 5 Watt. But i like it. Definitely good to cut power consumption by half.
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AK71
Monday 3rd of May 2010
Hi Drizzt,
Thanks for taking the time to explain all these IT stuff to me. I appreciate it. :)
Drizzt
Tuesday 4th of May 2010
no probs.
AK71
Monday 3rd of May 2010
Hi Drizzt,
Lego, I am familiar with. hehe.. They are quite safe. Nothing to do with electricity. I better leave PC building to engineers like yourself. ;)
I don't have any problems with the Sony yet so far. It is still pretty new, I guess. Your vote of confidence in the machine means a lot to a non IT guy like me. Also, thanks for the tips on power consumption. I will try to scroll up and down less. ;)
I checked up on AJAX Script. It says Java or something. I don't quite understand. So, if I run charting software a lot, that increases consumption? Thanks for explaining to me. :)
Drizzt
Monday 3rd of May 2010
Hi AK71, AJAX is a far too technical term, sorry about it.
as a general rule of thumb you have those websites where you fill in a form and they get the information for you in the same page. Those are heavy on AJAX probably.
as a general rule as long as there is alot of movement or rendering its consuming more electricity. but dun let that stop you . its a sony. you should enjoy it.
JerrickNg
Sunday 2nd of May 2010
Hi, My com is also another dinosaur at 5yrs old pentium 4 too. Building your DIY PC pros is that you are able to choose your own parts, however note that each part comes from a diff manufacturer and for warranty you have to go to diff places. You can post at HWZforum to ask for advise those ppl there are pros.
Another cheap alternative I found is Dell. Comparatively its very cheap.
Also trying to built one PC. Cheers =)
Drizzt
Monday 3rd of May 2010
Hi Jerrick, good luck with yours. Yes i do know about warranty issues but that is the price to pay for budget. Any way my biggest risk remains the mainboard with 1 year warranty.
Am used to this lifestyle of servicing boards. I always have my MSI Wind to fall back on.
AK71
Sunday 2nd of May 2010
Wow! You built your own PC! I am impressed. Are you an engineer by training? I spent more than $2k on my Sony Lifestyle PC last year. If I know how to build my own PC, I could save a lot of money like you did! Wow (again)!
I got tired of using a notebook and decided to go back to a PC but I like the space saving notebook. So, this Sony fits the bill. I don't know what's the consumption like. It is an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E7400. Do you know?
You're a smart guy. :)
Drizzt
Monday 3rd of May 2010
Hi AK71, yes i am an engineer by training but like what Jerrick Says you don't have to be one to know how to build it. Nowadays its abit like playing with Lego.
Your Sony Lifestyle PC should be state of the art but there is always a premium for Sony's product. Good build quality though i seldom have problems with them.
I initially wanted a notebook but just couldn't find the budget to squeeze in for one. An Intel Core 2 Duo should be pretty efficient. Much better than that stupid Pentium 4. At my office's Core 2 Duo or Duo Core, they can reach 60 WATTs - 70 WATTs for desktops on idle, which is pretty much ok.
One thing is that how much power your comp consumes also depends on the usage. Web surfing and bloggin is pretty light. But if you surf alot of sites with AJAX scripts watch the power shoot up 20 WATT like that. Just keep scroll up and down fast can increase the power usage!!