My Quest for the Perfect Computer
Ordinarily, I would have posted this to my personal weblog, Random Fate, but it is currently down because of some issues related to WordPress and how it needs to be properly configured to not overwhelm system resources with the host computer. Unfortunately, I’m not enough of a guru to tell my hosting service how to fix the issue.
For almost two decades, I’ve been searching for the perfect computer. I use both Macintosh and PC programs, and I multitask like mad, frequently overwhelming the CPU of whatever computer I am using when it gets to be more than one or two years old, regardless of how state-of-the-art it was when I bought the computer. I now have a four-year-old PC desktop that has a powerful video card yet I’ve overwhelmed the CPU with how I operate, with Yahoo widgets keeping me apprised of weather, time, and system status along with an RSS reader running a news ticker (at times, but not reliably). Through “improvements” in Windows XP, most notably in the area of security, my 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU is overwhelmed by my attempts to web browse and play iTunes at the same time, despite the advertisements featuring the Blue Man Group implying semi-infinite processing power.
Back in 1995 I thought I might have found the perfect computer in the Macintosh 6100/66 (PC) computer, which had both the standard (at the time) Mac PowerPC CPU along with a separate plug in card that had a near-state-of-the-art (again for the time) Intel 80486DX2 CPU to run PC/MS-DOS programs. One could argue that it was among the first dual CPU desktop computers, except that the two CPUs were completely independent, each running a separate OS. I still have that computer, although it hasn’t been turned on for years. I hope to fire it up soon, even if so I can simply play some old PC games that will not run on any of my Windows XP machines.
Now, I’m being tempted by the dual-core Macintosh computers that can run both Mac OS X and Windows XP (through either Boot Camp, the unsupported Apple implementation of a dual-boot system or by running a virtual machine using Parallels). A dual-core system, or even better, a desktop with two dual-core CPUs, might finally be able to perform the multitasking that I demand of my machines.
It’s strange how our expectations change over time as capabilities increase.
technology
13 Responses to “My Quest for the Perfect Computer”
“I now have a four-year-old PC desktop that has a powerful video card yet I’ve overwhelmed the CPU with how I operate, with Yahoo widgets keeping me apprised of weather, time, and system status along with an RSS reader running a news ticker (at times, but not reliably). Through “improvementsâ€? in Windows XP, most notably in the area of security, my 2.4GHz Pentium 4 CPU is overwhelmed by my attempts to web browse and play iTunes at the same time, despite the advertisements featuring the Blue Man Group implying semi-infinite processing power.”
Hmm, Jack, you already have a good idea, thinking about a dual core CPU, but would you pls give more details on how you discovered that processing power is the bottle neck? Very often a combination of not enough RAM, plus a slow harddisk is more of a problem. On Windows systems, the OS will always swap unused parts of programs to the pagefile on the harddisk, even if there’s enough RAM left (don’t ask me why MS does that, I really dunno). So, a slow harddisk will always be a bottleneck for memory performance. Since multitasking implies that the CPU accesses different parts of the RAM in short sequence, every time part of the program needs to be loaded from disk, the system ‘stutters’. Of course, the problem gets much worse when you don’t have enough memory. Then you’ll notice a very high decrease of performance. And if your HD is almost full (and/or the pagefile being very fragmented), the system comes to a near standstill. Another point is, currently all systems use DDR2 standard memory, but it’s important to have two mudules
However, the graphics card has really nothing with this, I wonder why you mentioned it? Graphics become more important with new Vista, with it’s realtime 3D desktop, but I wouldn’t recommend you using that. An OS which needs a 1.8 Ghz CPU just to run the desktop, before you started any program, doesn’t seem to be the right choice for multitasking addicts like you.
Regarding sound, add-on cards (from Creative and other brands, not the el cheapo nonames) use their own chip for hardware accleration, instead of parasiting from the CPU, as most build-in options do. This amounts to only about a few percent of processor time saved, but if you have lots of dough…
Generally, no matter if you buy a Mac or a Windows XP PC (and if costs aren’t the main factor), I would suggest putting OS plus programs, and the data, on different harddisks. Use a very high speed HD for the system (for instance a Western Digital ‘Raptor’, or the Seagate 10k rpm series), put the pagefile on a seperate partition to avoid fragmentation, and a high capacity HD for data (your iTunes songs, Movies, etc). Also, max out the RAM up to the limits of the mainboard. Even if you think of switching to Vista later, you don’t need a high end graphics card, a normal one that supports DirectX 10 will be good enough (as long as you’re not a 3D-game player).
As for the CPU, it really depends on how much you’re willing to pay for it. Both AMD and Intel offer dual core CPUs at reasonable prices, generally you get the performance you paid for (imho AMD still has a slight advantage at the power/price ratio). Care for a good cooling solution, water cooled systems aren’t so expensive nowadays. Modern CPUs will reduce their clock speed when they are overheating, and modern PCs emit lots of heat. It has been reported this has been a problemunder certain circumstances (high summer temperatures, cheap coolers, many additional components in the system, etc). And check the chipset of the mainboard: For Intel processors, boards with Intel or Nvidia chips are best, for AMD, it’s Nvidia again and ATI/AMD (sry, VIA, but I don’t trust you anymore since the awful PCI problems).
You don’t have to care for all this, except the additonal high speed disk and the maximum RAM, if you chose a Mac system, those seem to consist of well grouped components. Regarding Windows systems, I recommend you chose a supplier that assembles a system according to your needs, giving you the choice on disk, RAM, mainboard and the OS (many bundled systems come with lousy boards, slow HDs and not enough RAM imho, not to speak of that they’ll increasingly force you to use Vista).
Well, I hope I could add something here that you didn’t already know. Have fun with shopping!
“Another point is, currently all systems use DDR2 standard memory, but it’s important to have two mudules”
Oops, there’s something missing here. correction:
Another point is, currently all systems use DDR2 standard memory, but it’s important to have two or four modules, so you can run the system in the faster ‘dual channel mode’. Pls don’t use ‘noname’ modules, occasional memory problems are really nasty and cost you more nerves than the money you saved. And when the next cycle of computer innovations start in two or three years, you may have problems in getting a replacement for a defective RAM. Of course, the memory chips should have the proper timing for the CPU and the mainboard, this should go without saying, but you still may ask the vendor.
“I hope to fire it up soon, even if so I can simply play some old PC games that will not run on any of my Windows XP machines.”
Hmm, have you tried ‘DosBox‘?
*dusts off the Tandy 1000EX w/ an 8MHz Intel 8088 Processor, 256k of RAM, and no hard drive w/ a 360k 5.25 Inch Floppy Drive*
Maybe Web users need to ‘vote’ and demand that blogging sites cut back on some of the junk. When people want to express(writr or type) their opinions more text and less widgets is the answer. I use an older computer(MS Win98) and the junk locks up at many sites. Recently switched to Mozilla, will look into script to block some of this junk someday. The irony is web pages are text based, yet PURE text is dying.
“Maybe Web users need to ‘vote’ and demand that blogging sites cut back on some of the junk.”
Good point, Rudi! If you check the source code of any blog’s main page, you’ll find an abundance of ads, counters, statistical tools etc. embedded. Every single one of the outside references has to be called up for the page to load properly. If there’s only a single reference, that won’t give a response in resonable time, for instance an ad server that’s overloaded, the user faces problems. I already wondered if there’s no way to build HTML page so that the content loads first, and the embedded stuff only when it’s delivered in a short time frame. There still much to be improved in the www of the 21st century, imho.
DOSBOX RULZ!!!!!!
Gray beat me to it but memory matters more than most people think. How much memory does your PC have? Also if money is no object, and/or you know how to put the pieces together. The best/fastest PC one can build as far as I know. Is a dual processor dual core MB, with the Highest FSB speed you can find(I hear they’re comming out with a Quad core processor sometime), with as much DDR2 as you can stuff into it, Battery backed hardware Raid 0 with at least four 10,000 rpm SATA disks, PCIe SLIed video cards(note SLI is not that widely supported in things other than video games, YET), a decent Sound card, and someway to cool that beast down. I think thats it.
Also something you might consider, iTunes does seem to play well with others (Programs) on a PC anyway.
Gray,
. Maybe TMV and its administrator can be at the forefront.
What about a check box that loads only the image for the junk. Even a ‘mouse over’ ties up my old PC. If I really want the junk a double click works fine. But then everyone will ignore PJ and etc
You must remember that computer programs continue to evolve while the computer itself does not. At least the computer you have had sitting on your desk for the last 2 years does not evolve. In addition Windows patches their system with patch after patch which junks up the registry and turns any computer to mush.
Another solution is to convert that older pentium 4 to Linux and watch it scream along and browse the internet with a renewed vigor. I have 5 computers in this home office and each one of them are dual booted with Linux that is able to play Itunes as well as use crossover windows programs that take up half the computing power that XP does.
In addition Linux does not patch their system but what they do is come out with a completely updated and rewritten kernel which is not filled with program slowing patchwork.
Just a thought.
Upinsmoke,
What distribution do you use? I’ve been thinking about using linux on a extra PC I have. I tried Debian but I couldn’t get the video to work. I’ve heard good things about Fedora.
Even if you don’t do gaming it sounds like the system you need is similar to what the high end gaming rigs are coming with now, which is the new Intel quad core chip and 2 gig of RAM. While you’re at it you’d want to make certain that you have one of the SATA hard drives with a 16 MB cache. Enough jargon for you? But it’s how to wring the most performance from a system.
Ryan S.
I use Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xandro 4.0, Suse 10.2 and Sante Fe.
For the true beginner to Linux I would go with Xandros 4.0. You can buy the distro for around 50 bucks and put the disk in the cd and it pretty much does the rest…….Just defrag your hard drive if you want to dual boot.
If you want to take over the hard drive it will do that for you as well and wipe out the existing OS.
Sorry for the delay was sick with the 24 hour virus about 30 mintues after I posted my above post.