Desktop builders - what would you do differently next time?

[K. Eng]

My Athlon box is now in its 22nd month of service (out of an expected 36 month deployment cycle) so I've had a lot of time to reflect on what I will do for my next system build. Here is what I will do next time:

- Higher efficiency power supply. The Antec SmartPower in my box is as far as I can tell, a very proven and reliable design. However, its efficiency rating is something like 72%, which I think means it looses 28% of the energy in the AC it takes in and converts to DC. 72% is not very good by today's standards, where power supplies can be 85% efficient or better.

- Higher efficiency processor. The Athlon processor in my box is a 1.83 GHz Barton core. It does not have the ability to scale up and down in frequency and voltage. Thus, when it idles, it wastes a lot of power. Since it serves as a file server most of the time, I downclocked it to 1.47 GHz on a 266 MHz FSB. Luckily, both Intel and AMD are planning to put high efficiency desktop products on the market. I'm thinking that an Intel Core E6400 (Conroe) might be a good choice.

- 120mm vent and fan. My current Antec SX630II has an 80mm vent and fan, and it is a bit noisier than I like. A larger, slower spinning 120mm fan would probably be better.

- Better dust filters. The filter on my SX630II requires me to remove the front bezel to clean the filter. This is a pain. I've seen that newer cases like the Antec P150 have side-removable filters.

- Heatsink/Fan. I opted for a Dynatron aluminum microfin CPU cooler. It is a small HS/Fan that has 80 fins (2x as many as the stock AMD cooler) and a 60mm 4700RPM fan. This fan does outperform the stock AMD cooler , but it is noisier. As the fan's fins are also spaced closely together, they are more prone to being clogged with dust. Next time, I think I will go for a copper, 80mm fan with regular fins. This should be quieter and easier to clean.

So basically, I am going for (1) higher energy efficiency (2) lower noise levels (3) easier maintenance.

[BillMorrow]

add in a raid 1 at the least..

[GomJabbar]

add in a raid 1 at the least..

I fully concur. That's what I have in my desktop rig.

You might want to consider the route I took a couple of years ago. I have built my own PC's in the past, but it seemed more economical and much better warranty wise to buy a complete system from a PC dealer. I had been reading Maximum PC, which gave me some leads, and has very good info on the latest technology. (This probably is not necessary in your case, as I see you are always keeping us up-to-date with processor technology.) In addition to knowing pretty much what I wanted hardware wise, I saw some reviews of PC's that I liked. I checked the PC seller's reputation on resellerratings.com and with the BBB. In the end I went with IBUYPOWER Computer. I especially liked IBUYPOWER because they let me configure the computer I really wanted with very few compromises. When you look at the link below, you will see what I mean. They sell both Intel and Athlon rigs.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/conf ... px?mid=154

[K. Eng]

That is true. When I had a Dell desktop, if anything went wrong, I only had to call Dell to get a replacement part. Luckily I only had to do this with some speakers that started buzzing.

With my current machine, I have lots of different component manufacturers to deal with. Some of them are slow to send out replacement parts. One of my Western Digital HDDs started making an awful noise and it took them 2 weeks to get me a replacement That was not fun for my ears.

You might want to consider the route I took a couple of years ago. I have built my own PC's in the past, but it seemed more economical and much better warranty wise to buy a complete system from a PC dealer.

I will certainly consider RAID1... I haven't considered it necessary before because all my data can be backed up onto USB drives, and my music files are backed up on both my iPod and my ThinkPad. But as the amount of data I accumulate increases, RAID1 is probably a better option, and will save me the inconvenience of reinstalling windows if a disk fails.