Building a computer

[Pop]

Motherboard was DOA. Should have checked the forums first, because from the sound of it people are getting 2 or 3 dead mobos in a row. Should've gotten the MSI.

[CoM_Solaufein]

I usually hear good reviews about EVGA products. The problem with electronics is getting something DOA, which was one of my concerns when I recently built my new computer.

[Pop]

Yeah, Newegg had something like 92% 4-star and above for the motherboard. And had I checked the EVGA forums beforehand I probably would've dismissed the reports anyway. It's just that now that I have a DOA board it seems a little alarming how widespread it is, and how replacements aren't guaranteed to smooth things out by any means. But like you say, it comes with the territory. The low price is frankly worth it, I think. Newegg's got a pretty good reputation when it comes to dealing with DOA products.

 

Though next time, if I have the cash I might just pay Dell to build a computer for me. They'll make sure it works, at least. There's a lot of work that goes into building a computer that makes it so aggravating when it doesn't come together. It's even more aggravating to think that I might have to do all that two or three more times before it works.

Edited March 30, 2008 by Pop

[Walsingham]

I didn't know it could vary that much (or even vary at all). I'm using vista 32-bit, so I guess that could make a difference as well.

originally, neither did i and i had read reports of 3.5 GB so i was hoping. that said, the "3.5 GB" might have been actually "3.5 billion bytes" which is closer to 3.2 GB in reality. once i installed, and got everything going, i was a bit disappointed. there is a big improvement over 2 GB either way. once i go to a 64-bit OS that won't be an issue and i'll likely upgrade to 8 GB as well.

 

from a game standpoint going to 8 GB won't be a big deal, but from a MATLAB standpoint, it will be huge. i have to play a lot of tricks to get simulations to run properly because each vector requires contiguous memory space. when vectors are double-precision, complex (i.e. 128 bits per element) with several million elements and a dozen or so vectors/matrices, even at 4 GB i have a hard time finding contiguous memory blocks that large.

 

taks

My attitude to MATLAB s much the same as that of those chimps in that film towards the atomic bomb.

[WITHTEETH]

Yeah, Newegg had something like 92% 4-star and above for the motherboard. And had I checked the EVGA forums beforehand I probably would've dismissed the reports anyway. It's just that now that I have a DOA board it seems a little alarming how widespread it is, and how replacements aren't guaranteed to smooth things out by any means. But like you say, it comes with the territory. The low price is frankly worth it, I think. Newegg's got a pretty good reputation when it comes to dealing with DOA products.

 

Though next time, if I have the cash I might just pay Dell to build a computer for me. They'll make sure it works, at least. There's a lot of work that goes into building a computer that makes it so aggravating when it doesn't come together. It's even more aggravating to think that I might have to do all that two or three more times before it works.

For all the things to go wrong too its the hardest peice of hardware to return after installing everything! That blows, sorry to hear that man.

[Azure79]

Motherboard was DOA. Should have checked the forums first, because from the sound of it people are getting 2 or 3 dead mobos in a row. Should've gotten the MSI.

 

Sorry to hear that. I bought the same Motherboard and just finished putting everything together and everything booted up fine.

 

Hope you get a good working one soon.

[taks]

Sometimes limitations like that enforce you to be a better programmer.

yes, normally, but MATLAB is not really "programming" in the same sense as writing C-code, it is an interpreted language (not unlike basic). i.e. lessons learned from making MATLAB more efficient only really benefit future MATLAB programming efforts.

 

I never had troubles with memory so far, but I never did program any simulations...

MATLAB is unique in this respect. you have no control over where it puts your data. if you're writing C-code, you malloc() the memory first, so there are never any issues. if you don't have enough memory, you simply don't get to malloc() the data. MATLAB is slaved to the OS which controls memory, so even when you have large amounts of memory left, it may be fragmented to the point you can't use it properly.

 

It's good to hear that >2GB really do make a difference in vista, this will affect my plannings for a new computer.

tons, actually. my laptop was a dog at 1 GB.

 

taks

[Pop]

Shipped off the mobo yesterday. Hopefully I can get a replacement back and working by next Friday.