The last post convered building a Gaming oriented desktop for 30K. This post bumps up that budget by another 10K. Lets see what that extra money brings to the table.
1. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - Rs.8,800
2. Motherboard: Gigabyte Intel G31-ES3G - Rs.3,550
3. Video Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon 4870 - Rs.8,800
4. Memory: 4 GB DDR2 - Rs.2,400
5. Hard Drive: 500 GB Sata - Rs.2,700
6. Case: Cooler Master Elite 355 - Rs.2,150
7. SMPS: Zebronics 500W Platinum - Rs.1,850
8. Optical Drive: Sony DVD-RW SATA - Rs.1,100
9. Keyboard+Mouse: Logitech Black - Rs.700
10. Monitor : Samsung 2033 SW - Rs.7,500
11. Speakers : Creative SBS 5.1 - Rs.2,800
Grand Total : Rs.42,350
As you can see, I have crossed the 40K limit by 2.3K. The alternatives were to buy a cheaper CPU that would surely bottleneck the ATI 4870 or buy a cheaper GPU. The best GPU in terms of performance below the 4870 is another ATI card the 4850. The price difference is about 2K but the performance differnece is about 40%. No Processor bottleneck is going to reduce that much of a gap. If you do wish to remain below the 40K mark, you can use the E7400 used in the previous build along with a good CPU cooler. BUt as it stands the combo of a E8400 and ATI 4870 is great.
This is a system that has parts that can all be overclocked very nicely. This made it important to buy a Motherboard capable of handling overclocks. A good feature of the Gigabyte board is a redundant bios just in case you scramble the original one.
There is a major upgrade to the chassis and SMPS. The CM elite 355 is spacious and has ample circulation. The ATI 4870 needs two 6-pin power connectors and so it's best to play safe and hence the dedicated 500W SMPS. The rest of the system remains the same as our previous build. Some people would be upset to not have a full HD monitor at the 40K mark. Another 2.5 should upgrade you to the Samsung 2233SW.
So how does this system perform ? Well the GPU is pretty damn awesome. The 4870 can run every game at max settings @1600x900 at 60+ fps provided you ditch the anti aliasing. With this setup you have pretty much bettered every gaming console out there. This is also the last price point where you would have option of buying an additional netbook for mobility. Both of these machines put together would total about 60K. That is perhaps the maximum amount of money you should spend on computers while in college. Next up is part 3 where I push the budget to 50K. AMD fanboys might want to read that one.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Revisiting the Desktop: Part 1 - 30K
Almost 3 months ago I wrote a post on how much better you could spend your money on a desktop rather than a laptop. Well, if you that was good, wait till you see whats happened to the markets in these 3 months. I will be writing multiple posts on buying desktops at various price points. 30K, 40K, 50K, 60K and finally 70K. These desktops are meant for two things: Gaming and watching movies, coz that's pretty much what we do in IIIT :) Today's post is about building a gaming rig for 30k. Here is what we put in.
1. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @2.8GHz - Rs.5,675
2. Motherboard: Asus G31-PK5PL-CM - Rs.2,525
3. Graphics: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Rs.4,300
4. Memory: Kingston 2GB 800MHz DDR2 - Rs.1,850
5. Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB - Rs.2,700
6. Case + SMPS: Zebronics 400W - Rs.1,500
7.Optical Drive: Sony DVD-RW - Rs.1,100
8.Keyboard+Mouse: Logitech USB KB+Optical Mouse - Rs.700
9.Monitor: Samsung 2033 SW - Rs.7,500
10.Speakers: Creative SBS 5.1 - Rs.2,800
Grand Total : Rs.30,600
In some ways building a PC like this is the hardest thing to do. Most components have to be entry level yet at the same time they shouldn't introduce bottlenecks anywhere into the setup. Lets have a look at some of the components chosen. The processor is a mid range dual core processor. At this price range there isn't much more any processor can get significantly get out of any of the other components. The motherboard is a very bare-bones platform. At this price range motherboards aren't expected to have great overclocking potential or anything. The Asus board has decent expansion options as well as good integrated 8 channel sound.
The choice of GPU is rather straightforward. The competition is blown away by the ATI 4670. The nearest competition from Nvidia costs a good 2K extra. An additional thing working in favor of the ATI 4670 is it's amazingly low power requirement. It doesn't need any external connectors! Just the PCIe interface power suffices. As the card doesn't need any connectors any decent power supply would do. Zebronics offers a decent combo of a cabinet and a 400W PSU.
Choosing a monitor was a tough tough call.There were lots of good deals from LG, Viewsonic and Acer, but in the end getting a 21.5" LCD with a max resolution of 1600x900 for 7.5K is a great deal. The Samsung 2033SW is a steal at such a price.
The rest of the components are very basic. A 500GB HDD from Seagate, 2Gigs of RAM from Kingston, a DVD writer from Sony, and a basic multimedia keyboard and optical mouse combo from Logitech. An entry level 5.1 speaker system from creative completes the list.
To give you in idea of how such a system performs, I benchmarked some games on my lab machine. This system runs a E7200@2.4 GHz, an Asus G31 board, a powercolor ATI 4670, 1 Gig of ram and a 160GB HDD. Surprisingly a 285W PSU seems to drive the system quite well. The monitor has a max resolution of 1440x900. Essentially it's very close to the machine we built with but with slightly lower specs on each component. This is system can handle any modern game at max settings @1440x900(Crysis included) at 45+ frames/second if you turn off Anti Aliasing, Volumetric effects and Specular occlusion. This things are hardly noticeable but can cut your FPS down to half!! Our 30K system is likely to perform 10~15% better due to a better CPU and loading times would be better due to some more RAM.
So there you have it. A 30K desktop that would perhaps smoke any laptop. If you had a budget of 50K, you could spend 30K on such a desktop and buy a netbook like Dell Inspiron Mini-10 for 18K for the sake of the Oh so hyped "Mobility". Coming up in a day or two is Part-2 where I increase the budget from 30K to 40K.
1. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 @2.8GHz - Rs.5,675
2. Motherboard: Asus G31-PK5PL-CM - Rs.2,525
3. Graphics: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Rs.4,300
4. Memory: Kingston 2GB 800MHz DDR2 - Rs.1,850
5. Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB - Rs.2,700
6. Case + SMPS: Zebronics 400W - Rs.1,500
7.Optical Drive: Sony DVD-RW - Rs.1,100
8.Keyboard+Mouse: Logitech USB KB+Optical Mouse - Rs.700
9.Monitor: Samsung 2033 SW - Rs.7,500
10.Speakers: Creative SBS 5.1 - Rs.2,800
Grand Total : Rs.30,600
In some ways building a PC like this is the hardest thing to do. Most components have to be entry level yet at the same time they shouldn't introduce bottlenecks anywhere into the setup. Lets have a look at some of the components chosen. The processor is a mid range dual core processor. At this price range there isn't much more any processor can get significantly get out of any of the other components. The motherboard is a very bare-bones platform. At this price range motherboards aren't expected to have great overclocking potential or anything. The Asus board has decent expansion options as well as good integrated 8 channel sound.
The choice of GPU is rather straightforward. The competition is blown away by the ATI 4670. The nearest competition from Nvidia costs a good 2K extra. An additional thing working in favor of the ATI 4670 is it's amazingly low power requirement. It doesn't need any external connectors! Just the PCIe interface power suffices. As the card doesn't need any connectors any decent power supply would do. Zebronics offers a decent combo of a cabinet and a 400W PSU.
Choosing a monitor was a tough tough call.There were lots of good deals from LG, Viewsonic and Acer, but in the end getting a 21.5" LCD with a max resolution of 1600x900 for 7.5K is a great deal. The Samsung 2033SW is a steal at such a price.
The rest of the components are very basic. A 500GB HDD from Seagate, 2Gigs of RAM from Kingston, a DVD writer from Sony, and a basic multimedia keyboard and optical mouse combo from Logitech. An entry level 5.1 speaker system from creative completes the list.
To give you in idea of how such a system performs, I benchmarked some games on my lab machine. This system runs a E7200@2.4 GHz, an Asus G31 board, a powercolor ATI 4670, 1 Gig of ram and a 160GB HDD. Surprisingly a 285W PSU seems to drive the system quite well. The monitor has a max resolution of 1440x900. Essentially it's very close to the machine we built with but with slightly lower specs on each component. This is system can handle any modern game at max settings @1440x900(Crysis included) at 45+ frames/second if you turn off Anti Aliasing, Volumetric effects and Specular occlusion. This things are hardly noticeable but can cut your FPS down to half!! Our 30K system is likely to perform 10~15% better due to a better CPU and loading times would be better due to some more RAM.
So there you have it. A 30K desktop that would perhaps smoke any laptop. If you had a budget of 50K, you could spend 30K on such a desktop and buy a netbook like Dell Inspiron Mini-10 for 18K for the sake of the Oh so hyped "Mobility". Coming up in a day or two is Part-2 where I increase the budget from 30K to 40K.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
The Best Modern Strike Force
After Real Madrid beat ManUre 3-1 at the Bernabeu, Sir Alex Ferguson said the the Madrid might have all the big
galacticos, but Raul is the true jewel in the crown. That was a team that consisted of Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Casillias and more. I think that was the last time the King of Spain was really considered a real threat. True he might have started scoring again (22 and 26 in the last two seasons) but he can no longer lead the line. The years have not been kind to him either. Amazingly the teams he has been used to playing for have found exquisite strikers and it's anybody's guess how long he is going to last.
I first remember reading about Raul before the 1998 world cup. A special edition of the statesman had describe Raul as a brilliant but playboy-ish player. Two Champ
ions league finals later I was convinced of the brilliant part. In fact my admiration for Raul and his fellow Madrid strike partner, was the primary reason for my support for Spain at all major tournaments.
Raul's strike partner was Fernando Morientes. Most people new to football will perhaps always remember Morientes for his poor spell at Liverpool. But for years prior to his disastrous spell at Anfield, Morientes was a striker of undoubted quality, who at times outshone even the great Raul in terms of pure goal scoring statistics. Ironically his greatest influence was while he was on loan at Monaco and virtually single handedly dumped Madrid out of the champions league scoring in both the home and away ties. I still remember watching him score what looked like a consolation goal after Madrid went 3-0 up. It was perhaps the only time the Bernabeu crowd applauded somebody for scoring against Madrid. What has happened to his career
afterward is a pity. But he along with Raul will remain one of the great European strikers.
When in their prime this was perhaps the most potent strike force I have ever seen. People may rave about Villa/Torres or Cole/Yorke or Ronaldo/Rivaldo or whatever. For the 5 years that they were the first choice strike pair for Madrid they scored 28,52,46,41 and 47 goals between them. In those 5 seasons Madrid won 3 La Liga titles, 3 Champions Leagues, 3 Spanish Super cups, A UEFA Super Cup and 2 World Club Championships. I don't think there has been a better strike force in the Modern Game. And it is perhaps more than a coincidence that Madrid were no longer the threat they were once considered after the demise of this partnership. True Ronaldo was eventually signed from Inter, but he never formed the kind of partnership with Raul that Morientes had.
galacticos, but Raul is the true jewel in the crown. That was a team that consisted of Zidane, Figo, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Casillias and more. I think that was the last time the King of Spain was really considered a real threat. True he might have started scoring again (22 and 26 in the last two seasons) but he can no longer lead the line. The years have not been kind to him either. Amazingly the teams he has been used to playing for have found exquisite strikers and it's anybody's guess how long he is going to last.I first remember reading about Raul before the 1998 world cup. A special edition of the statesman had describe Raul as a brilliant but playboy-ish player. Two Champ
ions league finals later I was convinced of the brilliant part. In fact my admiration for Raul and his fellow Madrid strike partner, was the primary reason for my support for Spain at all major tournaments.Raul's strike partner was Fernando Morientes. Most people new to football will perhaps always remember Morientes for his poor spell at Liverpool. But for years prior to his disastrous spell at Anfield, Morientes was a striker of undoubted quality, who at times outshone even the great Raul in terms of pure goal scoring statistics. Ironically his greatest influence was while he was on loan at Monaco and virtually single handedly dumped Madrid out of the champions league scoring in both the home and away ties. I still remember watching him score what looked like a consolation goal after Madrid went 3-0 up. It was perhaps the only time the Bernabeu crowd applauded somebody for scoring against Madrid. What has happened to his career
afterward is a pity. But he along with Raul will remain one of the great European strikers.When in their prime this was perhaps the most potent strike force I have ever seen. People may rave about Villa/Torres or Cole/Yorke or Ronaldo/Rivaldo or whatever. For the 5 years that they were the first choice strike pair for Madrid they scored 28,52,46,41 and 47 goals between them. In those 5 seasons Madrid won 3 La Liga titles, 3 Champions Leagues, 3 Spanish Super cups, A UEFA Super Cup and 2 World Club Championships. I don't think there has been a better strike force in the Modern Game. And it is perhaps more than a coincidence that Madrid were no longer the threat they were once considered after the demise of this partnership. True Ronaldo was eventually signed from Inter, but he never formed the kind of partnership with Raul that Morientes had.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Where is the Science in Computer Science??
I ask this question because Raina writes in her blog about people telling her that science has lost a "devout follower" when she joined IIIT. I wonder why people call us computer scientists. Elecrtical engineers are never call Electrical Scientists or neither are mechanical engineers. So what then have we Computer Scientists done to deserve this honor.
Kannan Srinathan once told me that it is the study of "Theory" that primarily gives computing the status of a science. No other discipline apart from perhaps Mathematics carries notions like "impossibility proofs". No discipline can give you unique insights on what can and cannot be determined(or rather computed) the way the theory of computation does. Theoreticians have given the world amazing results that have even bamboozled the best of mathematicians. It is this power to tell people what they can and cannot do (read as compute) is what is responsible for the word science and computers being spoken in the same breath.
No post of mine is complete unless I wind somebody up. So in the context of what is said above, does it mean that people engaged in pursuing improvements in other areas of computing are not doing science but merely engineering ?
PS. I heard about a rather interesting quote from Churchill. "The best argument against democracy is spending 5 minutes with the average voter".
Kannan Srinathan once told me that it is the study of "Theory" that primarily gives computing the status of a science. No other discipline apart from perhaps Mathematics carries notions like "impossibility proofs". No discipline can give you unique insights on what can and cannot be determined(or rather computed) the way the theory of computation does. Theoreticians have given the world amazing results that have even bamboozled the best of mathematicians. It is this power to tell people what they can and cannot do (read as compute) is what is responsible for the word science and computers being spoken in the same breath.
No post of mine is complete unless I wind somebody up. So in the context of what is said above, does it mean that people engaged in pursuing improvements in other areas of computing are not doing science but merely engineering ?
PS. I heard about a rather interesting quote from Churchill. "The best argument against democracy is spending 5 minutes with the average voter".
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Breaking news : Rakhi Sawant is squatting on my TV Screen
Right now I'm staring at a TV where the only thing occupying the news in a country ravaged by poverty, hunger, terrorism and a host of other problems, is Rakhi Sawant. You know other countries have reality TV too, but nobody is nuts like this. You would never see stuff like this on CNN or NBC or even Fox. This is one of those "WTF is the director of news" moments. I'm disgusted and I want my cable TV money back :((
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