Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
DIMMs would have busted our budget. We plan to run Linux, which will be
happy with 2 GB, but if we planned to run Windows 7 we'd try very hard to
come up with an extra $40 or so to expand the memory to 4 GB.
Family Matters
We actually ended up installing 4
GB of memory in this system. Just as
we were about to build the system,
Barbara's sister, Frances, called
to say her desktop PC was having
problems. We originally thought it
would require only a power supply
replacement, but when we popped
the lid we realized that the system
was four years old. That's getting
perilously close to the design life of a
PC, so we decided to turn our budget
system into a new system for Frances.
Chances are she'll use the new
system for another four years, so we
decided it made sense to install 4 GB
of memory and be done with it.
Which brings up another issue. The ASRock K10N78M-Pro motherboard sup-
ports dual-channel memory operation but has only two DIMM slots. For best
memory performance, both of those slots need to be occupied, but of course
that leaves no free slots for future upgrades. If we were installing 4 GB of mem-
ory there wouldn't be any real decision, as one 4 GB DIMM costs more than
twice as much as two 2 GB DIMMs. But installing only 2 GB of memory gives us
the option of installing just one 2 GB DIMM (about $50 when we were ordering
parts) and thereby sacrificing some memory performance, or installing two
1 GB DIMMs (about $25 each) and thereby giving up a free memory slot for
future expansion. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
VideoAdapter
Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 8200
The NVIDIA GeForce 8200 video integrated on the ASRock motherboard pro-
vides excellent 2D display quality and reasonably good 3D performance for
casual gaming and similar tasks. The ASRock motherboard includes a PCI Ex-
press x16 video adapter slot, so if necessary we can upgrade the video down
the road by installing an inexpensive PCIe video adapter. We don't expect that
to be necessary, but if we decide we need more video horsepower than the
GeForce 8200 provides, even a $30 standalone video adapter is likely to be
more than sufficient.
If we were attempting to cut costs to the bone, we might have chosen a low-
capacity hard drive. But when we bought our components, 80 GB drives were
selling for $30, versus $45 for the 500 GB Seagate. We decided it made sense
to spend the extra $15 to jump from 80 GB to 500 GB. That additional cost is
significant for a system with a base budget of $350, but the extra $15 buys us
more than six times as much disk space. Even on a budget system, we'd soon
be cramped with only 80 GB of disk space.
We've been using Seagate hard drives almost exclusively for many years and
have always found them to be fast, quiet, cool-running, reliable, and competi-
tively priced. (Our contacts at data recovery firms also run Seagate drives in
their personal systems, which we think speaks volumes.) If for some reason
you prefer another brand, Samsung and Western Digital would be our second
choices.
