Off Topic: Results of Building New computer Part 2

[Mike Johnson <mqsymth@xxxxxxxxx>]

My AMD 900MH computer broke down.  It's cheap power
supply shorted out and blew out the motherboard and
hard drive.  Lucky I made the exact copy of the drive
on the 2100+ computer.  I did not want to go through
the Newegg build your own thing again so I ordered a
barebones from a local here in Chicago, Century
Computers (847) 891-1760. I wanted them to put it
together and test it so I wouldn't have to deal with
another dead on arrival motherboard

I ordered:
Midsize atx case
AMD XP 1900+ with fan
256meg pc133 sdram
ECS k7Sem SIS Chipset motherboard with onboard Lan and
onboard video.
Cost = $319 + Tax

When I received it 3days later, I added  256meg pc133
memory module from the old computer that thankfully
didn't get fried with it's motherboard.

I then went over to CDW and picked up an Antec 350W
PP352X power supply for $52. Seeing how a cheap power
supply could fry your computer, I wanted the best.  I
swapped the Antec into the AMD 2100+ computer I just
built and used the excellent Inwin power supply in the
AMD 1900+.

I went to Best Buy and purchased a 40meg Maxtor
7200rpm drive and an Antec case cooling fan.

I put the 1900+ together and used Drive Image 2002 to
make an exact copy of the 2100+ Hard Drive.

Now for the comparisons.

The 2100 computer has one of the best boards: a Soltek
SL-75DRV5, AMD XP 2100+ processor and Corsair 512M
DDRAM PC-2700H.

The 1900 computer has a cheap ECS board, AMD XP 1900+
Processor, and 512M of pc133 SDRAM.

Using TradeStation 2000i, I ran the exact same system
optimization run on each computer.

The 1900 finished in 21min 58sec = 1318 sec.
The 2100 finished in 19min 20sec = 1160 sec.

Thus, the 1900 ran 13% slower than the 2100 or the
2100 is 13% faster than the 1900.

Using todays Newegg prices (which is $70 cheaper than
when I purchased from Newegg on May 7th):

The 2100 cpu+memory(512)+motherboard+Lan+Video cards
(197+160+87+15+46)=$545

The 1900 cpu+memory(512)+motherboard(MB includes Lan &
Video
(135+130+58)=$323

Is the $222 extra for a better board, cpu & memory
worth a 13% increase in speed?

I don't think so because in a year the 2100 will be
slow in comparison to next year's processor and the
$222 could be used to upgrade.

Mike.