Does cache & interface (3 or 6 Gb/s) makes any difference?

[himagarwal]

I have recently purchased following components for office use. I hope the system is good enough for normal daily usage with some graphic works sometimes.

Processor: AMD A10-7850K Kaveri 4.0 GHz Socket FM2+ 95W Desktop Processor AMD Radeon R7 Series AD785KXBJABOX
Motherboard: Asus AMD A88XM-A
Memory: Kingston FURY Memory - 8GB Module - DDR3 1866MHz CL10 DIMM

I am now in dilemma on which hard disk should I go for as I don't want it to get expensive but also want to get best performance out of it with the components that i ordered.

Question: I have ordered "Western Digital's WD3200AAJS" which has 8MB cache + 3Gb/s SATA Interface. But, now I am looking at "Western Digital's WD10EZEX" which has 64MB cache + 6Gb/s SATA Interface? Does "WD10EZEX" will make a noticeable change if it is replaced with the other one?

I will appreciate knowledgeable comments on this.

 

[Eximo]

An odd choice for an office PC. That is a high and AMD APU but still doesn't compete well with anything from Intel, even on graphics any longer. Bus speed isn't critical to mechanical drives, even the fastest manage only about 120MB/s. SATA II can handle 200MB/s, SATA III roughly 550MB/s.

Yes, 64mb cache will help the drive pre-load and handle incoming and outgoing data. Size alone is better 1TB is pretty common. That 320GB drive is going to be an older drive that has been sitting in a warehouse for several years.

If you haven't yet purchased the other components, I recommend an i3-6100 from Intel for office use. Faster single core performance, two cores with hyperthreading, and onboard graphics roughly equivalent to a GT730 or R7-240. All that and it uses about 1/3 the power.

If you only need a few hundred GB, look into a 240-256GB SSD. Samsung 850 Evo is a good choice, just under $100, about 5 times as fast as a hard drive.

 

[himagarwal]

Thank you @Eximo for your help. The office use would include microsoft office, extensive online browsing (sites with flash etc. that are pretty much heavy), little photoshop/dreamweaver and other softwares.

The budget is around $500 including everything i.e. monitor and all. I was looking for something good so in research came to know that AMD A-10 was a high end series so thought it would be better from the Intel i3/i5, so went through it. I thought i3 is pretty old now and i5 was little out of budget and i7 was beyound the budget.

I have already ordered it but canceled the ASUS motherboard and 320GB HDD before shipment as I don't know if I can return them back. Let's see!

My main concern is "speed" without lagging when like 30 to 50 chrome browsers (multi-tasking) are opened at once.

 

[Eximo]

They have been making i3s for 7 or so years. i3-6100 would represent the latest Intel architecture which came out late last year and is the sixth generation. (14nm) The atom/celeron/pentium/i3/i5/i7 are just marketing names. They give you a feel for what you are buying (bigger number equals better)

AMD's FM2+ chips use an older process (28nm) and were first introduced in 2012. They have made minor architectural improvements since, but nothing drastic. FM2+ and AM3+ sockets have been abandoned for the upcoming AM4 socket chips that will be on a new process and should compete fairly well with Intel's lower lineup. When they were new, the graphics was the APUs big selling point, but Intel has nearly tripled the size of their onboard GPU at this point and made that comparison not as critical.

Intel CPU cores are so small now they offer 22 core chips without graphics that are roughly the same size as the quad cores with graphics.

30-50 chrome windows is quite a lot, but nothing your average computer can't handle with enough memory.

Here is an option, slightly overbudget if you are looking for a monitor. It is the slightly older 4th gen i3 (but they pretty much only made 5th gen available in laptops)

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-3847-desktop/pd?oc=fdcwrp207hw10&model_id=inspiron-3847-desktop

 

[himagarwal]

Hi Eximo,

Thank you for your reply again. Super appreciated!

I would definitely like to go with i3-6100 (6th generation) as suggested by you. Now, I am trying to compile the other parts.

I was looking for something like this --> http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zqDRdC but as I am from India, I have to check motherboard (I am looking for slim/mini cabinet so looking for microATX board) which is good at amazon.in Can you suggest some. I would like to go with 8GB DDR4-2133 RAM (for 30-40 chrome tabs in single window) & 120GB SSD (I don't need much of storage space). What do you think?

I believe DELL will be expensive if I buy from them directly for here in India. A custom-made PC would be cheaper.

One more question: Is One 8GB DDR4-2133 RAM is better or Two 4GB DDR4-2133 RAM?

 

[Eximo]

2x4GB is slightly better, and offers a little redundancy (you can always remove a stick)

That motherboard is a fine choice if you want wifi. Probably cheaper to get a B150 board and a wifi expansion card though.

For office PCs the board doesn't really need to be that amazing. You general user is never going to tax the CPU to its full extent. Unless these computers are for development or heavy duty accounting, almost any board will do.

I would stick the major brands like ASUS, Gigabyte, ASRock, MSI.

 

[himagarwal]

Great, thank you for such a good information.

I am still confused with which motherboard I should go for. These are the ones that I have choosen - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6k8znQ and cabinet is this one - https://www.zebronics.com/products/cabinet-slim/allure-zeb-529b (I want a microATX cabinet to look nice in my office)

These are some B150 chipset motherboards that I selected for comparison along with H110 chipset --> Should I go for any of these --> http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/gigabyte-motherboard-gab150md3h,msi-motherboard-b150mbazooka,msi-motherboard-b150mmortar,msi-motherboard-h110mprovd/

As H110 is much cheaper, can I go with it? Will any other B150 chipset motherboard will make much difference? Also, I hope I don't need a graphic card, otherwise cost would rise :-(

One more question which answer I was not able to find online.

As motherboard will have HDMI slot and I wanted to get a monitor with HDMI slot too, so that it can work together. Will having a connection to monitor's HDMI port from motherboard's HDMI port make any difference in image/picture quality. If not then I will go without HDMI monitor slot as its much cheaper.

P.S.: Got a quote from Dell, its almost double (around 1.8x) if I assemble myself. As I have a small office with limited budget I will go with custom-made. And, tons of thanks in helping me to build a good budgeted PC for my office.

 

[sam1275tom]

Do you guys seriously want the bugged skylake CPU?

 

[Eximo]

Do you guys seriously want the bugged skylake CPU?

Can't have it all, you either buy what is available or don't buy at all.

I myself have a bugged chipset that has USB 3.0 issues with Windows 8-10.

 

[Eximo]

H110 is fine.

The Intel HD 530 graphics is on par with a GT730 or R7-240 discrete graphics card.

Digital video does not change quality between connectors. Only exceptions are very high bit depth monitors, high refresh rates, and very high resolutions. Otherwise HDMI and Display Port are interchangeable. DVI is a little older, but still capable up through 4K at 30hz.

 

[himagarwal]

Great, will go with H110.

What's with the bug... Is it this --> http://www.pcworld.com/article/3021023/hardware/how-to-test-your-pc-for-the-skylake-bug.html is it something I should be concerned about? I see there has been bug-fixes issued for motherboards via BIOS udpate. Isn't there a fix yet for the MSI H110M Motherboards as I couldn't find it.

 

[Eximo]

It may be included in the BIOS already actually. The article is a few months old. Hard to say, you could check with MSI.

Very unlikely for the average user to tax a CPU in the way that P95 with AVX does. For the normal user I doubt it will come up, but if you get unexpected behavior it is probably the culprit.

 

[himagarwal]

I posted at MSI forum at https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=270340.0 and it seems it's not a problem at all.

I have went ahead an purchased these --> http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6k8znQ

Let's see how things go!

Thank you Eximo!

 

[himagarwal]

One final question, I hope.

Which operating system would be ideal for my selection. Windows 7 or Windows 10. I want to run it in 64-bit to utilize maximum RAM.

 

[Eximo]

That comes down to your software. (Actually more or less what I do for a living)

If you feel confident you are using commercially available off the shelf products that will work with Windows 10, then there is no reason not to. Windows 7 only has support for 4 more years. Windows 10 should have support through 2025.

I would recommend Windows 10 Pro for most small business. Windows 10 'Home' doesn't allow for the control of Windows updates, and occasionally they do push out bad ones. If you going to be using other Microsoft products like Office, updates will also be sent to them and is usually where most problems with updates occur.

 

[himagarwal]

@Eximo,

I have got the parts earlier and it's running very good. Couldn't believe that i3 can be this good with Windows 10. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I have two PC from DELL. Vostro 270s with 2GB RAM & 3.00GHz processor. I formated the complete system and installed Windows 7 and it is still quite slow. I think I only have option to increase the RAM, what do you think? Should I add additional 4GB or 8GB RAM, will it make much difference with the current processor and configuration. I again, lol, don't want to invest much. Just want to add something cheap so that it increases the speed of doing work like browsing and working on office 2013.

For a glance here is the config.
http://s33.postimg.org/nq8jcmybz/pc_config_1.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/x6jnbag5r/pc_config_2.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/ngih9ifdb/pc_config_3.jpg

I even don't know if its DDR2, DDR3 or DDR4 and if it supports upto 10GB RAM and MHz of RAM. Can you please shade some light on it.

Thank you again!

 

[Eximo]

It will be DDR3 for the G2030. Yes 8GB is ideal and memory is very cheap right now. Should be able to pick up some 2x4GB kits for about $30 US. I would remove the old memory completely.

Looks like both Dell and Crucial list DDR3-1600 up to 16GB, with two slots, so pretty much any 1333-1600 2x4GB 1.5 volt kit should work.

Certainly the best way to speed up a computer. Processor could also be replaced, but finding a reliable used 2nd or 3rd gen chip would be a hassle. Likely too expensive if you can still get them new.

 

[himagarwal]

Thank you again, Eximo. You have really been a life saver in the PC World.

I am curious how did you come to know this. And, here the some mobile-clicks that I took.

http://s33.postimg.org/lccz33gnz/memory_info.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/kpn951yjj/CPU_back_info.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/ewmdvz1nj/mobo_info.jpg
http://s33.postimg.org/hai3s7k7z/mobo_info_2.jpg

I will remove the old 2GB RAM completely. The 2x4GB DDR3-1600 RAM Kit is still expensive here. So, I was looking to go with 1x8GB slot. It is very unlikely that I will ever increase more memory of this Dell PC in future. So, I am confused if I should go with 2x4GB or 1x8GB as 1x8GB is very much less expensive. Also in my country, I don't see RAM prices hitting the floor at the moment. ;-(

Do I have to keep my eyes open for "1.5 volt" while buying the RAM? Or, just any 8GB DDR3-1600 would work?

Buying a new processor would be expensive and I would rather not go with it for the moment. But, you have given a great idea of going with second-hand/used processor. Which 2nd/3rd generation processor will do? i3 or i5? And, if I have to be aware of certain configuration while ordering for the current DELL motherboard.

Thank you again for your precious time!

 

[Eximo]

More or less all right here on Tom's, though I have been building computers for at least 20 years. Before the internet really took off it was mostly reading through motherboard manuals in person at computer shops/shows. And experimenting with my limited hardware, essentially, I broke it a lot.

1x8GB should be fine.

The official standard for DDR3 is 1.5 volt. DDR3L is 1.35 volt and should also work. 1.65 volt was more for overclocking, and there was a lot of 1.65volt DDR3 1600 made when DDR3 first came out. At that time DDR3 1333 was the max supported speed.

DELL will have an officially supported list for the motherboard. Most likely it will only list 2nd gen processors. Should support everything up through an i7. There may be a BIOS update out there that will let it run 3rd gen processors.

 

[himagarwal]

Thanks Eximo again. Will go with 1x8GB DDR3 1600 (1.5 volt) RAM.

I have been using internet since '95 and used to do little stuffs with just plugin and unplugging. Nothing special but with the motherboards and drivers of '95 time it wasn't easy. I didn't go that long way as my brain would stop working.

Thank you for all your support. You are great and forum is also with good people like you.

 

[himagarwal]

I have removed the old 2GB RAM and added 1x8GB DDR 1600 RAM (1.5volt). Now, that I have one empty slot in mobo and one 2GB RAM without any use, I was thinking if it would be a good idea to add 2GB RAM in the empty slot in the mobo making it altogether 10GB RAM. I am using 64-bit OS. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Eximo]

You can try, no guarantee it will work. Won't have a significant impact unless your users regularly use over 8GB of memory.

 

[himagarwal]

thank you Eximo! I have setup 8 new i3-6100 PCs with your valuable comments. And changed two Old dell PCs RAM. Thank you for your inputs.