Chipset for design computer

[alister]

minimum spec for the laptop chipset is listed as t7700.....would a p8600 be ok?...both are 2.4


I've been bouncing around google and the internet and can't make sense of any of it

[ssflyer]

Alister,

You didn't mention what you will be designing with - something like Aspire and CAD programs, or do you mean that this is just going to run the ShopBot?

The p9600 will be fine. It has a faster FSB, at 1066MHz, vs 800MHz for the t7700. The t7700 does have a larger L2 cache - 4MB vs 3MB for the p8600. If it matters, the p8600 is also a newer (read smaller) technology, which means it uses less power, so if you are running on battery, you should get better run times.

The bottom line is that any modern CPU will handle both just fine. If you are doing much 3D rendering, more RAM and a fast graphics card will help more than a different processor.

Hope this helps some,
Ron

[bill_lumley]

I got what I thought was a high end PC with gobs of memory and I still think the program is a bit slow ... but I was told yesterday by the folks at E-cabinets that help is on the way with a new version. It is in Beta test now and will support Windows 7 and Vista and apparently is faster because they removed a large piece of function that is not used anymore or at least very little .

[ssflyer]

My bad - I was in the wrong forum, or I would have known you were talking about eCabinets. I actually run it on my 2 year old home built, with a core duo 6600 and 4GB Ram, running XP Pro. It runs fine on this, but I attribute that to a higher end graphics processor more than the CPU...

[thewoodcrafter]

From what I read, the video card and RAM are the important things.

I am looking for a new laptop now.
I have shopped on the HP site and Dell.
RAM seems to be expensive. It is around $400 to upgrade from 4GB to 8GB. I thought RAM was cheap these days. The video cards with 1GB are about a $125 upgrade.
Remember Vista eats RAM.

[woodworx]

The new beta version runs 10x smoother on my computer. I love it!

[thewoodcrafter]

Justin,

I have not even downloaded Ver6Beta.
Been too busy to work through the bugs.

Do you happen to have 64bit Vista?

I new laptop will most likely be 64bit Vista.
It costed about $125 to downgrade to XP.
I need to use that money for RAM.

[knight_toolworks]

you won't need as much ram with window 7. 3 gigs is plenty for running vcarve and firefox thunderbird and such all at the same time.

[kerry_fullington]

Steve,

eCabinets is a 32 bit process and can address 2gig of RAM so depending how much your operating system is using 3 gig could get eaten up pretty fast. (if you are running some 64 bit processes they will require even more ram) XP needs 1 gig and I think they recommend 2 for Vista. I don't know what Windows 7 needs.
My experience with eCabinets is don't skimp on the ram. I can also recommends faster buss speeds, faster processor, faster hard drive, faster graphics card etc. to improve eCabinets performance.
There are many threads on the eCabinets forum about computer specs.
Your Virtual Memory settings are also very important to improve performance of eCabinets. Here is a link http://www.ecabworld.com/Media/Other/Setting%20Virtual%20Memory.pdf
to a .pdf download discussing these settings. Don't let Windows decide how much Virtual Memory you need, set this yourself, it can make a big difference in performance.
If I were buying a computer for eCabinets now I would use the Recommended System (not the minimum requirements) as the baseline and upgrade from there.
Remember this is all just my opinion.
Kerry

[pappybaynes]

Unless you are running a 64 bit program...it will only see a max of 4gb of ram. (Windows 7 max is 192GB!) I bought a refurbished Dell work station with Xeon processor and a high-end graphics card with 2 SCSI drives, XP64 with 8 gb of ram and an external hard drive for backup...seatbelt is required!

[thewoodcrafter]

I have heard about the refurbished computers.
Where do I find them?

[billp]

Roger,
I've always bought refurbed Dells , and had great luck with them. Same warranty as new...You just have to know what you want as they are all pre-configured.
http://www.dell.com/outlet

[Gary Campbell]

Roger...
There are hundreds on eBay. Mostly Dell & HP workstations. Most have the FX3xxx vid card. Price on them is usually half the cost of the video card alone.
Gary

[porscheman]

The last 3 PCs that I purchased were found on eBay and I've learned some interesting things about that avenue during that time:

1) If you have your heart set on buying a brand new computer (not refurbished and not used), then there are still sellers on eBay that might save you 20-40 percent. What these eBay sellers have learned, just like the large corporation that I used to work for, is that if you call Dell and order 10 or more of the identically configured machine, Dell will drop the per-machine price considerably. Thus, these eBay sellers pick machines configurations at various price/performance levels, order them, and then resell them on eBay. What I found very interesting is that Dell has provided a very easy-to-use mechanism to transfer the original Dell-supported in-home warranty to the subsequent owner. Within 3 weeks of buying the machine on eBay, I received notice directly from Dell (not the seller) that the 3-year warranty was officially in my name - very slick.... The workstation that I use for eCabs design was purchased through this channel and I saved over $900 versus buying the identical machine directly from Dell in a quantity of 1. And finally, though eCabs does demand plenty of "horsepower", those CPU/memory/graphics requirements are by no means unique in the high-end workstation world, and thus you can find pre-configured machines on eBay that will meet (or exceed) your needs via this approach.

2) In the past 18 months or so, as the economy has been tanking, hundreds of businesses that elect to lease their computing networks from PC-leasing companies have let those leases expire and returned them to leasing companies. As a result, and as Gary points out, you can find amazing numbers of well-configured PCs on eBay for 20-40 cents on the dollar (compared to buying new). I wanted an upgraded PC to connect to my Bot when I started running the Link, and paid $95 for a lease-return machine that would have cost $700 new from Dell. My Dad recently wanted to upgrade his desktop PC and we took the same route, paying $100 (including shipping) for a similar machine. To protect the previous owners, these leasing companies typically wipe the hard drive and ship the machine with a fresh install of Windows XP. You can also add extra memory and hard drive capacity via eBay at very low cost.

3) Finally, while I am not normally a fan of any 3rd party extended warranty plans, I have purchased a 2 year on-site warranty from SquareTrade on the two lease-return PCs simply because they each cost less than $20 each. Not a high cost for helping cover any hardware problems on a PC platform that I haven't owned since day one...

As usual, buyer beware, but I've had only good luck with this approach for nearly 3 years now.

John

[blackhawk]

John - Have you always worked with one or two particular sellers on Ebay that you trust? If so, would you share the seller's name with us? Thanks

[pappybaynes]

Roger,
Check out http://www.chrosmack.com/. Great people to deal with and the price was very reasonable.
Dick

[thewoodcrafter]

Guys,
All excellent ideas.
Thanks for the help.

[porscheman]

Brad,

I've used different eBay sellers in each case - not by design, but because I had different requirements in each case (new vs used). In general, I just evaluate the potential sellers based on their feedback percentage (obviously), amount of feedback, and by reviewing the types of items previously sold, which can be seen in their feedback report. I'm usually looking for a seller who focuses on PC stuff, as opposed to a "flea market" seller who offers PCs, toasters, baseball cards, .... :-)

And finally, I only use sellers who accept PayPal (most do) since the PP buyer protection mechanism guarantees that I'm not going to endure a lot of hassle if I happen to buy a PC that is DOA or a lemon.

Hope this helps - sorry if all comments were blatantly obvious. Regards.

John