Best for PS, quad core?

S
Posted By
stevent
Jan 12, 2009
Views
337
Replies
7
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Closed
Any advice for someone clueless at hardware? I’m looking (now or very soon, purchase) a Dell Precision – this one to be precise:

Dell Precision < http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=& c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&kc=D4XT7402&l=en&oc=W11T702& amp;rbc=W11T702&s=bsd>
With the specs below:

Vista® Business x64
Intel Xeon E5440 with riser (2.83GHz,1333FSB,2x6MB,Quad Core ATI FireGL V7700
2 x 146G,(15,000rpm) SAS Hard Drives (one for a scratch drive) – I have an SCSI (SAS?) drive in work and it seems fast (noisy as hell though!)
16GB, 667MHz, ECC Memory (8x2GB)
CS4 Master collection – educational

I’m pretty clueless about processors (I just picked the one I could afford) Quad core, dual core, more than one processor? I have no clue.

Would the 15,000rpm SAS be better than 10,000 sata?

Any thoughts you’d care to throw my way would be appreciated.
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JJ
John Joslin
Jan 12, 2009
I have a similar spec but with a NVIDIA card. You just need to check the ATI card against the PS requirements for OpenGL. Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0.

SCSI is not the same as SATA!
CF
chris_farrell
Jan 12, 2009
You’ll probably be fine…but be aware that SOME not ALL Dells have power problems. My mate’s precision died after 5 months or so, upon researching why, we found thousands of people with the same problem.

Perhaps inquire about it if you decided to buy and maybe ask for a branded power supply….

……apart from that, it looks good…it could do with faster RAM, (800MHZ)but I’m not sure you can get ECC RAM at 800mhz from Dell.

Judging from memory it appears ATI has less issues with PS4 than nVidia. Maybe check that one out too.
S
stevent
Jan 12, 2009
There’s an option for …

16GB DDR2 667 Quad Channel FBD Memory is that any better?
JD
Jacqui_Dervan
Jan 12, 2009
The original spec you posted will run in quad channel mode if placed correctly, populating the first and second slot on each of your riser boards so long as the chips are the same. The capacity of the chips does not have to be the same though i.e. you can place 4 x 4GB in slot 1 on each riser board and 4 x 2GB chips in slot 2 on each riser board and the memory will be in quad channel, making a total of 24GB quad channel memory.

I hope that makes sense.
S
stevent
Jan 12, 2009
Make sense? Not as such, at least not to me.
JD
Jacqui_Dervan
Jan 12, 2009
Stevent

In order get memory placed in the Dell Precision to run in quad channel mode you should install memory in lots of four. It has a motherboard that utilizes the intel 5000 chipset or greater which basically means that if you install DDR2 memory in lots of four, it operates in quad channel mode as opposed to dual channel mode.

You need to be careful about the type of RAM you install as they can have different banks/rows. These do need to be identical. You can mix latency and you can also mix 667MHZ with 533MHZ memory though.

When the memory is installed correctly, the Quad channel operation is shown in the BIOS.
JR
John_R_Nielsen
Jan 12, 2009
My FireGL works fine with CS4.

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