7 Replies Latest reply: Jan 12, 2009 12:01 PM by Semaphoric RSS

    Best for PS, quad core?

    lister_uk Community Member
      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
      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 ([I]noisy as hell though![/I])
      16GB, 667MHz, ECC Memory (8x2GB)
      CS4 Master collection - educational


      I'm pretty clueless about Processors and Graphics cards etc, (I just picked the one I could afford)so 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.
        • 1. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
          John Joslin Community Member
          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!
          • 2. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
            Farrellart Community Member
            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.
            • 3. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
              lister_uk Community Member
              There's an option for ...

              16GB DDR2 667 Quad Channel FBD Memory is that any better?
              • 4. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
                Community Member
                The original spec you posted will probably 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.

                Also I have 4 x 4GB FB 667 5300 memory and have installed 8 x 2GB FB 533 4200 memory and that configuration also works in quad channel mode, but in that configuration the latency of the CL4 chips drops to CL5 to match the latency of the slower chip.

                FB memory is more expensive, less error prone but slower.

                You would be better off with 4 x 4GB rather than 8 x 2GB.

                I hope that makes sense.
                • 5. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
                  lister_uk Community Member
                  Make sense? Not as such, at least not to me.
                  • 6. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
                    Community Member
                    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.

                    Check out:

                    http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ws690/en/ug/memory.htm#wp1055107

                    Also, compare online prices for memory since you can save a yourself a bunch. It is extremely easy to install yourself.
                    • 7. Re: Best for PS, quad core?
                      Semaphoric Community Member
                      My FireGL works fine with CS4.