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NOTES ► First, I'd like to point out that multicore processors are an incredibly stupid idea. I had put off buying new components for years, specifically because of the ridiculous and counterproductive fixation with multicore that has plagued the processor industry since Intel's addlebrained marketing department cooked it up. Admittedly this shameless gimmick was the only thing that saved them from being totally plowed under by AMD's X64 juggernaut.
Anyone with half a lick of sense knows that parallel processing, i.e. MIMD is the only direction that the processor industry has left to go after the intrinsic physical limitations of silicon have been reached. And yet, these boring idiots continue to hang onto the idea, tooth and nail. As if there was some value in a processor architecture that human beings can't even efficiently program for! For anyone who wants a preview of what processors of the future will look like, might I kindly direct you to Louis Savain's most excellent blog on the subject. In the meantime we're all left with the unfortunate mediocrity of multicore fanaticism. Unlike my last computer, I decided not to repeat the mistake of building a relatively high-end system with the exception of the CPU. Components are dirt cheap right now, so there's no excuse to skimp in any department. As you can see from my picks, I went all out (at least within reason). As for the components that are not listed, they will be cannibalized from my old computer, which actually has a fairly new video card. This will be my first system built using the nascent SSD (solid state disk) technology. I am very excited about this, because I have long been a strong opponent to "spinning disk" technology. SSD isn't exactly holographic crystals, but at least it's a step in the right direction. I will be sure to review the performance. I'm sure you noticed that the drive is only 64GB, yes, this is quite small by today's standards. This was a calculated move on my part. Vista only needs 40GB total and 15GB for the OS, so I plan on using the SSD exclusively for the operating system. All additional storage will utilize conventional disk drives. |