The two new chips are the :

• Quad-core I7-3820 at today’s price of R2838 + VAT (less than the I7-2600K), and the
• Hex Core I7-3930K at today’s price of R5633 + VAT

Obviously they are “bigger” and “better” than the original Sandybridge range, but what does it mean to you?

Simply put, the main real practical advantages are:

• More raw CPU power – the I7-3820 is actually cheaper and more powerful than the I7-2600K.
• The sandybridge-e chip design together with the appropriate motherboard allows a more efficient access to the RAM = one less bottleneck = faster throughput.
• The supporting motherboards are able to pack 8 slots for memory. This means that it is now realistically possible to have 8x 4GB RAM modules giving a practical (and affordable) amount of RAM of 32Gb.
• If your application needs as many cores as possible, the Hex core I7-3930K becomes very interesting indeed. If you can only use 4 cores or less, then your pocket would be better off with the I7-3820

For Photoshop artists, photographers and 2D AutoCAD users, these CPUs are overkill unless you are creating huge drawings. But for those doing lots of 3D-rendering, animations, video editing and 3D Design using Revit, AutoCAD, Inventor, Solidworks or some such high-end activity, this is the platform to go for.
If you are an avid high-end gamer these chips are absolute Nirvana!

I have updated the prices of all the built-up Pcs, (Click here) but prices on the individual components are currently changing too rapidly to be updated very often. If you need to know price and availability of components, just give me a call on 021 558 7076 and I’ll give you today’s price and stock availability.

If you are doing a complete new re-install of Windows, then you are good to go.

However, if the contents of your existing mechanical hard drive are to be transferred to the SSD (because you want the Solid state drive to be the boot drive and reap the most speed rewards), then it gets a bit more complicated.

First of all, you need to establish that the actual used space on your mechanical drive is less than the total capacity of  the new SSD. If not, then you will have to copy off (backup) some of the stuff from your mechanical hard drive somewhere else (like a removable backup hard drive) until the actual used stuff on the old mechanical drive takes up less space than the capacity of the new Solid State Drive.

Once that is done, then you use cloning software (like Acronis or Norton Ghost) to make a mirror image of your old Mechanical drive into the SSD. Once that is done, you remove the old mechanical drive and boot up with the new solid state drive. Most people then format the old drive (wiping it clean) and put it back into the machine as a second data hard drive and restore the data that was backed up in the preparatory step above. That’s it!

If this all sounds a bit too complicated, there is an easier option. When you purchase the SSD, I will perform the above procedure for you – migrating the operating system and transferring the data for you for a very special discounted labour price (Because you purchased the drive from me.) I’ll quote you, but to give you an idea, depending on how much data has to be backed up and restored and any other procedures that you need done, it will probably cost you somewhere between R250 and R750 labour charge.

For my latest prices of SSD’s, click here

If you’d like to subscribe to my irregular newsletter which contains information like this blog post, then please subscribe by entering your name and e-mail address in the panel on the right.

Let’s first get the real facts:

• Solid state drives (the acronym is SSD) are expensive when compared to the standard Mechanical Hard drive (the acronym is HDD). On average, 1GB of SSD storge will cost you about R20. (July 2011 prices)
  Whereas 1GB of mechanical Hard drive storage is running at about 80c. (July 2011 prices)
  That’s 25 times more expensive! (Click here for current prices)
  
• Solid State drives have faster Read and Write speeds.
  The SSDs using the latest technology and running on new technology motherboards (SATA6G) can produce measured read and write speeds of over 500Mb/sec (That’s Megabit/sec, not Megabyte/sec).
  Whereas HDD’s using this same latest technology can produce measured read and write speeds of 100-120Mb/sec
  So, in the laboratory, the SSD is 5 times as fast
• Solid State Hard drives are solid state – i.e., They have no moving parts, no spinning platters and are impervious to shock. Therefore, SSD’s are inherently more reliable.
• The Mechanical Hard drive has a theoretical maximum number of writes which far exceeds that of Solid State Drives. However, this is not really a factor unless you intend to use an SSD for continuous 24/7/365 operations for years (like video surveillance). Otherwise, with the technology built into Windows 7 (The trim function) the SSD will be obsolete long before it fails.

A Practical Real-World Test – SSD vs HDD

I decided to spend a few days ignoring all the Internet hoopla and make my own practical tests on my own equipment using the software that I use every day. I installed a new Windows OS onto a brand new Western Digital SATA6G HDD, and installed various major software packages. Once I had tested everything, I cloned an exact image onto the SSD so that the same settings for each software package was identical. While Windows itself would probably alter its configuration slightly when it detected a solid state drive, that change would be an integral part of the test.

Once testing began, I connected the HDD to the motherboard using a SATA cable into a SATA6G port. Once a test was run, I removed the HDD and replaced it with the SSD using the exact same cable into the same SATA6G port. I then cold booted the machine twice to allow any changes in the BIOS to complete, and then performed the exact same same test. Then the cycle began again – I removed the SSD and replaced it with the HDD, cold-started twice and conducted a different test… and so on. Each test was conducted 6 times and the average of all the times was calculated and published here.

The results are interesting:

Windows 7 Experience Index

The first and easy test was simply the results of the Windows Experience index. This was the only test which was done only once for the HDD and then for the SSD:

The results were as follows:

Windows Experience Index - Machine fitted with a Mechanical Hard drive. Click image to enlarge

Windows Experience Index - Machine fitted with a Solid State drive. Click image to enlarge.

The Processor, RAM, Graphics and Gaming Graphics figures remained the same as is to be expected. The primary hard disk rating shot up from the slowest subscore of 5.9 up to the maximum of 7.9

Since the performance info tool only measures up to 7.9, one doesn’t know how much higher this would have actually risen to.

Big thumbs up for the SSD !

Windows Boot Tests

Cold Boot

Here we need to acknowledge that neither SSD nor HDD will have any effect on the BIOS loading speed but only the total time could be taken until Windows had completely booted up, the start melody had played and the cursor had stabilized. On my machine, The BIOS loads particularly slowly so I would estimate that at least 25s was constant on both tests before windows even bagan to load.

Results:
HDD: 70s
SSD: 41s

Restart and Warm Boot

Then after running a few programs, I measured the time taken for a restart – i.e., the time taken when the restart button was clicked – computer shuts down – warm boots – loads Windows.

Results:
HDD: 77s
SSD: 53s

Software Load Tests

Load AutoCAD Mechanical 2012 up to when the Exchange window pops up.

Results:
HDD: 49s
SSD: 14s

Load 3D Studio Max 2012 up to when the welcome window pops up.

Results:
HDD: 50s
SSD: 15s

Load Photoshop CS5

Results:
HDD: 11s
SSD: 4s

Load lightroom and a large catalogue which was resident on a server. (Yes, it can be done!)

Results:
HDD: 13s
SSD: 10s

Software Running Tests

Most operations – Rending, Regenerating, and complex calculating:

No appreciable difference

Machine Response

This test is perhaps the most important and is purely subjective. I call it the look and feel of the machine. Its that hesitation or lack thereof, its that snappiness.

My opinion:

A lot more snappy! Makes the day to day operations just that little bit less exhausting.

Overall conclusion:

Yes, despite SSD’s being much more expensive, your time and your exhaustion is more important. They are worth the money, but only for storing Windows, program files, and a virtual swap disk. The solution is to buy a small (120GB) SSD and have a fast HDD as a secondary data drive. Unless you are a gamer with huge games, or someone who has a huge number of installed programs, it is unlikely that you will need a larger SSD than 120GB.

On older equipment using motherboards not fitted with SATA6G, the speed gains will be appreciable but not quite so impressive.

In contrast to Windows 7, Windows XP does not support the trim command so you need to use a third-party driver. The best is the “Intel SSD toolbox” and of course choose an Intel SSD.

It’s easy just to throw parts together… but do they work optimally together?

There is a picture showing you exactly what is going into the chassis, together with a detailed description.

Each computer consists of the chassis, mouse and keyboard. At the bottom of each page is a small recommended selection of Screen Monitors and software to choose from. If you see a machine that looks just about right, fill out the form and I’ll get back to you to discuss any modifications and how this can be on your desk shortly.

Click on the model name for more details and prices:

The “Zephyr” is an inexpensive budget computer suitable school work, a home office and Internet browsing.

The “Sirocco” is a beefier office-grade superbly reliable machine for general use.

The “Whirlwind” is a relatively inexpensive gaming computer for playing modern games and watching videos, while keeping costs tightly under control. This is also a great machine for Photographers using Photoshop and Lightroom.

The “Tornado” is a professional CAD and 3D-modelling computer (Suitable for AutoCAD, 3D-Studio MAX, Maya, Pro Engineer, Solidworks, Revit, Inventor and a host of other Modelling Packages. It is fitted with nVidia Quadro workstation graphics.

The “Thunderbolt” is designed for serious video editing and High-end professional 3D-Modelling. It is fitted with nVidia Quadro workstation graphics.

The “Hurricane” is the ultimate gaming rig. This is currently the fastest PC for gaming that can be bought. If you can afford it, it’s awesome!

Here’s something a little different. It’s an instructional video about how a computer hard drive actually works. It’s a bit complicated at times – you get to see whats actually inside the shock-proof housing, but it’s absolutely fascinating. The video was created by “Engineer Guy”, Bill Hammack.

If you have a few minutes, Click Here to watch it on YouTube.

In the above video Bill Hammack, the guy behind the Engineer Guy videos, tears down a hard drive. Not only do you get to see what’s going on inside the hard drive but the accompanying graphics and narration give a great introduction to the concept of magnetic hard drives.

The computer dealer, on the other hand, is faced with numerous problems when it comes to publishing computer component prices.

First, please understand, in the computer business, the prices change every few days. Sometimes up, sometimes down. The scary thing is that prices can jump as much as 10 to 15% overnight with no warning! A couple of weeks ago a customer accepted my quote on two large monitors that I had sent him that very afternoon by e-mailing me his acceptance together with his proof of payment. I ordered the monitors from the wholesaler the next morning, only to find the price of the monitors had risen 13% !
I quoted, he accepted and paid immediately. Who takes the loss? Well, I couldn’t exactly go back to the customer and ask him for more, now could I?

The other problem is one of stock and obsolescence. Computer components are an endangered species. They become obsolete so quickly it is positively frightening. So a quoted component is not always available. Sometimes there has been a run on that particular component and I cannot get new stocks for a while, or sometimes it just runs out of stock and the national distributor says: “Sorry, no more – it’s been replaced with this one instead. Too bad, so sad!”.

To update all the prices on the web site in real-time, produces insurmountable problems.  To keep prices up to date (sort of) on the web site while busy supplying the stuff and supporting the customer becomes a very difficult task for a small business like mine. If I employ someone to watch the prices, and constantly update the site, my overheads rise and consequently so must my prices. I don’t want to grow into a huge business where I spend most of my time managing staff instead of constructing cool little machines for you, my customers.

So what do I do?

Simple. On the top of each page that has actual prices on it, there is a date quoted. These were the prices on that date. On that date I had stock or I could get my hands on some within 24 hours. If that date is not today’s date, then at least you have an approximate cost and an indication that it was available on that date.

If you are interested in a hard drive or an SSD or a fully built-up machine, just e-mail me and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Fair enough?

The Physical Architecture
There are 3 main physical sizes of hard drives:

• 2½” – usually found in Laptops
• 3½” – usually found in Desktop machines and Workstations
• 1,8” – usually found in digital media players

Then there is the age factor (whether laptop or desktop):

• Older hard drives use a 40-pin ribbon cable to connect the hard drive to the computer. This is called an IDE connection. (In this case, the correct computer term for “connection” is “interface”)
• Newer hard drives use a 4-wire connector called SATA (or Serial ATA). The newer ones use an enhanced version of SATA called SATA-2 and the very latest use SATA-3G. All SATA hard drives look physically identical, however.
• Hybrid Hard drives are also beginning to appear, which have a certain amount of very fast Solid State memory built in to the electronics board which controls the mechanical drive.

The Storage Architecture:
Inside the Hard drive there will be a number of platters, which spin at either 5000RPM or 7200 RPM or even 10000 RPM. Each platter will have a read/write head to get the data from the platter. It works a bit like the old vinyl record player. The size of the hard drive usually refers to the amount of data it can store, not it’s physical dimensions.

• The smallest hard drives available new today are 250GB in size
• The largest hard drives are 3TB in size (3000GB)

Performance:
There are 3 grades of speed:

• “Green” speed – the drive varies its platter speed between 5000 and 7200 RPM according to energy saving priorities.
• “Production” speed. – Normally standard 7200RPM drives
• “Performance” speed – These are the very fast 10000 RPM Western Digital “Raptor” drives which are often used in a RAID-0 configuration for stunning performance.

Reliability:
Although hard drives overall are very reliable (If they aren’t bashed around) and will become obsolete before they wear out, there are three levels of reliability:

• 3 years Guarantee – Cheap
• 5 years Guarantee – Cost a bit more
• 5 years Guarantee + 24Hour surveillance grade. – costs more still!

Logical issues:
Most computers are fitted with either one or two hard drives (A primary drive, which contains the operating system files and the program files, and a secondary drive which usually contains just data). Laptops usually only have one hard drive.
To upgrade a hard drive is easy if it is a secondary hard drive. You just back up the old one, pop in the new one, and spool the data back.
To upgrade a primary hard drive is not so easy because you either have to clone the drive onto the new one (this requires special software unless you are using Windows 7), or you have to back everything up and re-install Windows from scratch. Either way, this is a nerve-wracking business fraught with the danger of inadvertent data loss, so it’s best if you send the machine to me to do it professionally.
Many people want to upgrade their Laptop Hard drives into SSDs (Solid State Drives). That’s another story entirely, and worthy of a second blog post shortly.

Conclusion:
When upgrading your hard drive, talk to me first and let’s make the correct decisions together. It may not be as easy as it looks at first glance.

It works like this:

• We discuss your requirements by e-mail or over the phone.
• I get your stuff, and either I send it up to you in its original unopened boxes, or if it is a built-up computer or workstation, I assemble the machine.
• In the case of assembled equipment: after assembly, I test it, format it, configure it, optimize the BIOS settings, optimize the Windows settings (for your type of usage), and download the latest drivers and patches.
• Once I am happy with the machine, the courier is called and arrives at your place a day or two later.

If it is sent by road freight – size and dimensions usually determine prices. You decide whether the package is to be ensured, which the courier organizes.
The average built-up computer system including monitor usually costs around R200 – R250 for 2-day road-freight from Cape Town to Gauteng while insurance is calculated at about 1-2% of the value of the goods.
The system works quickly and well, and you get the peace of mind of dealing with someone like me who will make sure that the equipment that we agree upon is not only at a great price, but it’s the right thing for you, and it works properly because it has been assembled and configured correctly.

Here are a few rules of thumb specifically for video editing:

• Stick with Intel I7 CPUs
• Not less than 8GB RAM (which means 64-bit Windows not 32-bit)
• You can get away with a more affordable gaming graphics card but it should have 1Gb of video memory on it. For more serious video editing, the Quadro workstation card is going to be necessary (especially for HD stuff).
• You must have a separate hard drive for your video data files.

A note about RAID-0 striping
There is a technique whereby the speed of a mechanical hard drive can be increased by 20% to 40% by connecting them together in what is called a RAID-0 Striping configuration. This requires a special chip which is usually found on most higher-end motherboards.
This kind of configuration works very well with video editing because video files typically are stored in large contiguous files.
However, it works badly for the system drive which contains the programs and operating system.
So on a video editing machine, the system should have a single the boot/system drive (a fast hard drive or an SSD) and an array of 2 identical hard drives in a RAID-0 configuration.

If you have a Low budget:

• Use a Gaming Video Card
• I7 Intel CPU (I7 2600 or 2600K)
• 8GB RAM
• 3x SATA6G hard drives – (One for boot/system/programs and two for video data in a RAID-0 configuration)

If you have an Lower Midrange budget:

• Use a High-end Gaming Video Card
• I7 Intel CPU (I7 2600 or 2600K)
• 16GB RAM
• 3x SATA6G hard drives – (One for boot/system/programs and two for video data in a RAID-0 configuration)

If you have an Upper Midrange budget:

• Use a low-end Quadro Card Card (Nvidia Quadro Fx1800)
• I7 Intel CPU (I7 970)
• 12GB RAM
• 1x 256GB SSD (Solid state drive)
• 2x SATA6G hard drives – (for video data in a RAID-0 configuration)

If you have a High-end budget:

• Use a mid-range Quadro Card Card (Nvidia Quadro 4000)
• I7 Intel CPU (I7 970)
• 24GB RAM
• 1x 256GB or 512GB SSD (Solid state drive)
• 2x SATA6G hard drives – (for video data in a RAID-0 configuration)

With the introduction of the CS5 Suite (Photoshop, Premiere, Illustrator, InDesign etc.) Adobe has begun tapping into both the power of the CPU as well as the GPU with the new Adobe Mercury playback engine. This means that the power of the graphics card is also being harnessed for number crunching instead of just the CPU.