New Computer: Which Upgrades Are Worthwhile?

[waffle]

You are correct: having two processors won't speed up pokertracker because it is not multithreaded. However, it will make your computer 'smoother'. While Pokertracker is doing a large import or a huge notes export, your computer will be more responsive while you do other things, as it can offload the non-intensive tasks to the other processor.

[Timer]

[ QUOTE ]
1) Upgrade from 1GB of RAM to 2GB of RAM. $375. I have been told by quite a few people that "Nothing out there uses up more than 1GB of RAM", but I'm not sure if they took into account 20 "nothings" together eating up 1GB of RAM. I can always upgrade later, but I'd rather get it now if I'll need it to run 20+ tables.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have a different kind of question. As far as I'm concerned no living human can efficiently play 20 tables of poker at a time. I do four right now, while I'm surfing the web, watching TV, etc., so I feel I could do eight without too much problem--but 20? I have serious doubts.

Care to elaborate?

[Nfinity]

I think he wants a computer that would be able to do so, should he feel up to the challenge.

[Malificent]

I have to echo the majority here:

The only I would probably spend the money upgrading would be the video card because you do some gaming and you're playing the graphics intensive FPS games. The RAM can wait - you may end up upgrading, but everyone is right - RAM is ridiculously easy to add. Even your grandmother could do it.

[jmgurgeh]

DDR 333 is what they've got for RAM? That surprises me greatly. You might not need to add more than 1GB, but you would certainly want it to be the fastest RAM your motherboard can handle.

I can't speak to the striping performance issue from experience, but I can from reading up on it. Quoth Anandtech:

"If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it
out for you: there is no place, and no need for a
RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world
performance increases are negligible at best and the
reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the
mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth
it on the desktop."
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/sho...=2101&p=11

[hate]

Perhaps with regular desktop use I'd agree, but anybody who does a lot of dvd and TV show ripping like I do, I've found a more than adequate use of a good hardware raid5 card. I personally don't like striping all that much because of the reliability issues.

[Terry]

I've never heard of Digital Tigers.

The website really tells nothing about the system they are selling -- except that it uses slow RAM -- which motherboard, what brand graphics card, what kind of drives, etc ???

It's your money ... but I wouldn't go near that thing.

The deal from newegg in your other thread still looks ideal to me. It is a known and trusted source, and all the components are absolutely top of line, exactly what I would buy.

[Brian]

Despite the warnings of the 2+2 computer gurus, I went ahead and ordered with DigitalTigers. Over the past few days, I've heard a flurry of computer advice from friends, family, and 2+2, and much of it has been conflicting, confusing, and stressful. I looked into customizing a Dell Dimension/XPS, and it came out to be about the same as the Digital Tigers system, but with 1 Intel P4 with HT Technology instead of 2 Xeons. I'm not sure which would be better, but ultimately I couldn't go with Dell because they told me I'd have to install the extra 2 video cards for myself. If I wanted to put stuff in the box myself, I'd learn how to build my own computer. [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

AlienWare said that they wouldn't customize a computer that had support for 6 monitors, and when I called Falcon-NW, the manager there actually recommended Digital Tigers for what I am going to be doing (I didn't even mention the name to him), though he said they could build me something that would work just fine for around 6.5k.

In the end, this little line from Digital Tigers helped to ease my mind over their bad RAM and GeForce 6600GT:

"Target users:

Business users with demanding multi-tasking, multi-screen requirements. Especially suited to financial traders and others who run multiple simultaneous applications, which operate more fluidly across multiple CPUs."

As well as:

"Dual Xeon processors offer a much-improved experience for all users of multi-screen workstations, which by their nature are constantly multi-tasking applications. Dual processors offer especially critical performance benefits for financial traders, who run multiple applications crunching live financial data in real time."

Probably just a sales pitch, but I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. I'm sure as astroglide said, the whole thing is a rip-off soup to nuts, but it's hard to put a price on the peace of mind I have now.

To Timer: You're welcome to come over and watch me play 20+ tables once I get my computer up and running. I'll be sure to post screenshots here as well and keep you guys updated on my DigitalTigers experience.

Thanks very much to you all for your advice throughout my threads,

-Brian

[Timer]

[ QUOTE ]
To Timer: You're welcome to come over and watch me play 20+ tables once I get my computer up and running. I'll be sure to post screenshots here as well and keep you guys updated on my DigitalTigers experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

Posting a screenshoot doesn't really prove that you can efficiently play 20 tables. But maybe you can. I have no way of knowing, but I just don't see how it can be done without making numerous errors, timing out, and keeping up with the street by street action when you're involved in a pot. That being said, more power to you if you can do this successfully. My hat is off to you. It's just that I have my doubts about it being feasible.

I used to have three 21" monitors and I've played as many as eight games, but I fell behind--I timed out a lot and it was just too much. I didn't do it for very long, but I think I could handle it better now without too much problem--but I wouldn't want to do any more than that. I did OK playing five and six games. Four is not a problem. I only have one 21" monitor right now,and a smaller 15". I just don't want to play five or six games with this setup.

The biggest pain in the ass is getting in and out of games, changing games, getting in new games, etc. Screens are popping up all over the place. I just don't see how you can keep track of everything with 20 + games going and still play winning poker.

But what do I know? Maybe your great at it.

I will say this:

If you can do this as well as I suspect, then maybe you should consider the stock market--or futures trading. In fact, I think a lot of poker players should consider this. It pays a hell of a lot better than poker.

[Trix]

Make sure you get some low noise cooling stuff, thats my only advice I guess.