P4 3.6 GHz Extreme

[benschechter]

I work with large Access databases (1-1.5 million records) and multiple widow applications of Excel, Word, and PaperPort. The last game I regularly played was Space Invaders. Queries sometimes take several minutes and I occasionally have to close programs to free up memory.

I am thinking of the Pentium 4 Extreme (3.46 GHz), MSI Neo Platinum 925X motherboard, 4 Gigs of DDR-2 RAM, and High speed SATA mirrored hard drives. However, after reading numerous reviews, I am confused over whether to wait for the updated motherboard (1 GHz Bus) or go with an AMD high end set up. Also whether these leading edge components are not significantly better than more mid range components.

I would appreciate your thoughts.

[skuzgib]

I think an uber high end rig is overkill for your uses (4 gigs of RAM just silly!), but if you really want to TBH I would go A64 - the P4EE is a total waste of money - A64's can do most things better (apart from encoding). For the less than the same price as the P4 same price you could get the FX-55 (the top of the range A64) and whatever board suits your requirments. Couple it with two WD 74gig raptors in a RAID1 array and whatever RAM you like; and you have a extremely fast PC .

A more sane approach would be an A64 3500+ (less than half the price!) and whichever board suits your needs, 2 gigs of RAM (even that's a lot) and keep the two raptors. It would still be very fast, and pocket the rest of the money and spend it something nice like a big monitor

[RDL]

Well, if your company pays, then for this job get the 3.46 EE with one of the new 1066MHZ FSB, such as the Asus P5AD2-E Premium (or even the Abit Fatal1ty AA8XE)

Couple with that with 4gbs of PC 5400 RAM, a couple of Raptor drives or SCSI's and you're sorted.

There are a few 1gb mobos out there.

[RDL]

I think an uber high end rig is overkill for your uses (4 gigs of RAM just silly!), but if you really want to TBH I would go A64 - the P4EE is a total waste of money - A64's can do most things better (apart from encoding). For the less than the same price as the P4 same price you could get the FX-55 (the top of the range A64) and whatever board suits your requirments. Couple it with two WD 74gig raptors in a RAID1 array and whatever RAM you like; and you have a extremely fast PC .

A more sane approach would be an A64 3500+ (less than half the price!) and whichever board suits your needs, 2 gigs of RAM (even that's a lot) and keep the two raptors. It would still be very fast, and pocket the rest of the money and spend it something nice like a big monitor

This guy doesn't need a big monitor, he doesn't need a gaming machine, he needs a work rig. There's no point in skimping.

[skuzgib]

I was speccing a work machine!?
And even for work a big monitor helps - not just gaming

[Feck]

If your doing a lot of database work, why not consider a dual Opteron setup?

[RDL]

I work with large Access databases (1-1.5 million records) and multiple widow applications of Excel, Word, and PaperPort. The last game I regularly played was Space Invaders. Queries sometimes take several minutes and I occasionally have to close programs to free up memory.

Come on, that sounds like a work machine to me

[speedy_s]

Dual opteron, with 2gig mem, 2 x wd raptors is the best setup you could have. have a look here, the opertorn canes the intel xeon in a databse test.
http://www.anandtech.com/IT/showdoc.aspx?i=2205