[plug] [OT] pc builting confusion

[Cameron Patrick]

Craig Ringer wrote:

> Socket 939 is the new socket for Opteron and Athlon 64.

Nuh-uh, it's S940 for Opterons.  FWIW going for a dual opteron system
will cost ~$800-$1200 more than a plain Athlon 64 one.  (I've also
been looking at buying a new 64-bit machine and decided that I can
wait for a while yet.)

> I'd say it's much of a muchness. That said, the Athlon 64 CPUs aren't
> actually all that much more expensive when you consider the total system
> price - and if your friend is thinking in the long term, they should be
> prepared to spend a little more now to get a system that'll last better.
> 
> That probably applies to things like fast RAM support, SATA, etc too.

It's very easy for those bits and pieces to add up, but...  SATA
drives are no more expensive than PATA these days, and most
motherboards these days support it (even socket A ones).  Likewise
pretty much everything these days will support DDR400.  So you get
those particular extras more or less "for free".

Buying plenty of RAM and disc is always worth it, and so is going for
components which don't, well, suck.  The precise values of "plenty"
and "not suck" will of course vary from person to person.  (e.g. for
Brad Campbell, 6 terabytes is only just enough :P)

Cameron.