Putting together the “Ultimate” PC

This weekend, I decided to "evaluate" all my PC's on my home network. My main Desktop PC wasn't performing like I wanted it to and was running a combination of new and old hardware. I had a Test / Work PC running a combination of new and old hardware as well. My Test / Work PC was also running x64 which was something I wanted to move to on my main Desktop PC for quite some time now (I like being on the "bleeding edge"). So I decided to take the best parts of my main Desktop PC and my Test / Work PC and combine them together to create the "Ultimate" Desktop PC for myself. I was pretty satisfied with the results.

Here are the specs of what I ended up with:

I am also now officially running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 which can now take full advantage of running with 4GB of RAM. And in case I want more RAM, my PC is ready to "bring it on". I've heard some amazing stories with the power of x64 from my friend (and Featured Community) Carlos Echenique from PlanetAMD6 and am happy to join the x64 "club".

Windows Vista ships with a great way for users to tell just how "good" their PC is - called the Windows Experience Index. Nick actually did an in-depth blog post on the Windows Experience Index which is worth taking a look at if you haven't already. Here is the Windows Experience Index for my new Desktop PC I built this weekend:

Based on this score, you can see where I would need to improve my PC to boost my Windows Experience Index score up. If I replaced my current AMD processor with a higher end model, I could easily make this PC have a Windows Experience Index a 5.6 or higher.

I really had fun putting the new PC together this weekend and now have a fantastically "Ultimate" Windows Vista PC.

I've also put together a new page on the Windows Experience Blog for all the hardware I use. This page details all the PCs I use, my printer, my mobile PC's and everything else. If you're interested in knowing just exactly what I've got set up, check it out.

What do you think of my new PC? What do you think it needs to be even better? I'd love to hear from you on adding to this Ultimate PC. And if you've got an Ultimate PC of your own - let me know the specs!

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Comments

  1. sboots
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 4:38AM  

    Sounds like a good project with good results, Brandon.

    What are your thoughts on the "ultimate" laptop (light and thin, not desktop replacement) for Vista? What about the MacBook and MacBook Pro stories?

    -steve

  2. Parm
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 6:14AM  

    Brandon, I'm using a BlackGold Dual Tuner which originally wouldn't work with an x64 OS using 4GBs of Ram. Blackgold were kind enough to offer me a set of newer drivers though which have done the trick. Though the PC I've built is a Media Center PC, it's also my day to day PC so in essence it's a EDUHTSPC (Every day use home theatre styled PC!).

    I find Media Center to be a great app and use it in the evenings but it can be quite problematic. Though the potential is there, I'm not sure it's ready for the mainstream yet. Finding a tuner that works on an x64 system can prove to be hard work and now that I have one, I often suffer from stuttering TV which I can't for the life of me seem to work out.

    Other x64 problems I've encountered:

    Microsoft Lifecam wouldn't work, though the new drivers seem to have helped. I've only had one lockup since.

    Microsoft Silverlight sidebar gadgets won't work as Silverlight doesn't support x64.

    Incidently, the new release of Windows Live Suite does now work on x64 so I'm now using that without a problem: http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=10311

    As a side note, it'd be great to be able to subscribe to comments on this blog.

  3. Parm
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 6:18AM  

    As a side side note, I've just seen the link to subscribe up at the top! Used to the subscribe link being at the bottom :)

  4. tino
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 7:05AM  

    Is 5.9 the highest possible Windows Experience Index?

  5. T Man
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 9:09AM  

    Seems like a pretty good set up.  I'm at 5.3 on my primary desktop, slowed down by my video card (7900GS with a 5.3 gaming graphics score) and slower hard drive.

    If anything, I'd go for the new nVidia 8800GT.  Great card, at a great price.

  6. Titan602
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 10:51AM  

    When you log on, do you have to wait ages for your PC to completely load or is it instant?

  7. Xepol
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 1:27PM  

    5.0 score?  Hardly ulitmate...  I can buy cheap box sets with higher scores.

    Now show us how to build a box that gets top scores across the board, then you can call it ultimate.

  8. Bryan
    Posted on: November 06, 2007 at 2:40PM  

    I am running Vista Ultimate x64 and have a DViCO HDTV5Express TV Tuner. I built the machine in February when Vista came out and (at the time) the DViCO was advertised as the only tuner card that would support digital HDTV in Vista x64. Media Center had some funky requirements for this functionality so I used DViCO's supplied player.

    Then I found out that you can watch full episodes of just about any show online for free so I cancelled my tv subscription. :)

  9. StophVista
    Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 12:01AM  

    AMD's processors were FAR FAR better than Intel's up until the Core 2 Duo which is better, but there still isn't that much of a gap between them. I have looked at a bunch of bench marks online and they are unreallistically one sided one way or the other, usually they don't use identical systems or settings and say that they are similar. I went with an AMD 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ and I might upgrade to the 6000+ which I have at work. I work at a cable studio and do lots of video editing (we had gotten a mac too, but it was slow, hard to get used to, and everything had to be rendered. I love PCs so much more!)

  10. keh
    Posted on: November 07, 2007 at 11:03AM  

    Yeah, I definitely would have went with Intel... I used to be solidly in the AMD camp, but they have really lagged behind in the current generation.

    with the e6850 i get a rating 0f 5.7

    my 4gb of ram (only running at 800) is rated at 5.9

    My ATI x1900 is rated at 5.9 for graphics and 5.8 for gaming.

    My WD Raptor system drive also gets a 5.9

    Overall performance is a 5.7 - That's running Vista 64

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Trackbacks

  1. Posted by: Brandon LeBlanc - A Self-Proclaimed Windows Geek » Blog Archive » My New Desktop PC and What I Use on November 06, 2007 at 2:07AM
  2. Posted by: The Windows Experience Blog on December 03, 2007 at 6:27AM

    This weekend I completed the roll-out of my new HP MediaSmart Server running Windows Home Server. I ordered

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