The "Why wait for Dual Core" rig

WELCOME BACK to our Daily Buys. Today, we'll have a look at one special BIY (Build it Yourself) rig from America which should keep people more than happy. Shipping, Insurance, Packaging and Operating system, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, floppy disk drive are not included. From past experience, I know that mentioning the name of some resellers might offend some people but you are encourage to look for alternative sources.

Dual Cores brings forward in the limelight the concept of Multi Processing; where 1+1 ~2. Without having to fork out too much, here is how you can build a cheap yet performing dual processor rig.

Asus PC-DL Deluxe Pentium4 Xeon board @ $186.98, i875P chipset, supports 533MHz FSB, good overclocking, four PC2700-compatible DDR channel, Promise SATA Controller, two Firewire ports, five PCI and one AGP pro slot. GBLan port and lots more.

Two Intel Pentium 4 Xeon 2.66GHz @ $364 for both, 533Mhz FSB, SL6GF, 1.5V core voltage, Core C1 stepping and 512KB cache. Should overclock fairly well. Check whether it is HT enabled.

ePower Topower 450W Dual Xeon Power supply for $65. "Topower Computer proudly present the new sliding socket power supply. This new sliding sockets is a unique 20 pin + 4 pin ATX connector along with a pair of 4 pin + 4 pin ATX12V power connector. The new sliding socket series power supply can accommodate with many motherboards. The benefits of sliding socket power supply list are High +12V support, no conversion cable, no voltage drop, peak load of 550V"

The Chenbro server case CK800B for $65. A Huge casing with top fan, lockable door, nine drive bays and four plastic stands. On top of that you get Firewire ports and it is black in colour.

Two Spire SPX33BO RackSper IV Copper base Heat Sinks @ $18 for both. Dimensions Heat sink : 89×78×47 mm (l × w × h), 12VDC Fan : 70×70×15 mm. Bearing Ball bearing. Rated speed 3700 RPM +/-10%, Rated power 3.0 W, Noise level 29.7 dBA, Air flow 28.0 CFM at 3700 RPM, Current 0.25 A, Life hours Ball: 50.000, Features Copper base insert, Fan guard, Connector 3-Pin mainboard, Thermal type White grease pre-applied.

OCZ 1GB Kit from Newegg for $81.93. "OCZ Value Series PC-3200 DDR is designed to offer mainstream users excellent performance and quality at a lower price point. The 400 MHz PC-3200 Value series runs at 3-4-4-8 timings and is built with Ultra-Low Noise (ULN) PCB construction. OCZ PC-3200 products are 100% hand-tested to ensure compliance with stringent quality standards. In addition, every Dual Channel Kit from OCZ is hand tested as a matched pair across a wide variety of motherboards to ensure flawless performance on most motherboards."

Two RAID-0 MDT SATA 80GB 7200RPM hard disks at $94 for both. "MDT reassembles hard drives using components outsourced from major brand hard drive manufactures ie. WD, Maxtor and Seagate. By stamping on the OEM brand MDT they are able to pass on a substantial savings of 35-40% to equivalent brand name manufacturers. We are committed to the excellent quality of MDT's hard drives and offer a 1 year limited replacement warranty. This 80GB HDD has 8MB cache and SATA150 interface."

Megaspeed ATI Radeon 9700 Pro - never heard of them. On sale at TargetPC for $111. Boxed version, Radeon 9700Pro version, DVI and Svideo, 128MB 256-bit DDR memory. Complete with games, adaptors, power cables. An all time favorite.

Grand total for a RAID-0 Dual Xeon 2.66GHz, 1GB memory, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro RIG $987. Can you best it? Drop me a line. µ