The usual distinction among PC’s is the CPU. It becomes a most fundamental specification or decription that overshadows the other parts. It is, afterall, central.
The motherboard’s importance becomes somehow underrated even though from a software point, the motherboard is the PC. It’s actually also called a mainboard. Replace the motherboard and Windows (software and licensing) treats it as a different PC. People don’t usually distinguish between motherboards as the PC’s performance is less dependent on this. As long as it can make the CPU and the other chosen parts, it’s already at least good enough.
RAM also has a similar case, with no obvious performance differences between frequency specifications. Performance varies, though, when you change the amount RAM and that is where overall system performance.
| | Work PC | Home PC |
| | Intel Core i7 system | Intel Core i5 system |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-2600K | Intel Core i5-2500K |
| MB | MSI P67-C45 | Asus P8P67 LE |
| RAM | 4x 4GB Kingston DDR3-1333 | 8GB (2x4GB kit) G-Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1333 |
Central Processing Unit
Despite being an i7 and an i5, my work and home PC’s have very close CPU specs. The i7 work pc has a clock speed 100MHz faster, more L3 cache by 2MB, and hyperthreading. In gaming and regular home use (facebook, twitter, email, skype, techblogging, etc.), i don’t think getting hyperthreading would make a difference in the experience. For an additional 4,000 to 5,000, i don’t think that would have been worth it.
The additional threads from hyperthreading do count when it comes to computations. My work can involve a lot of spreadsheet computations in Excel. I’ve made some workbooks that pushed the CPU utilization to almost 100% on all threads. The additional threads are utilized and aren’t merely untapped resources. The additional cost is worth it.
I criticise one particular software, though, in this regard—STAAD.Pro. STAAD doesn’t use more than one thread. If i’m not mistaken, this is because STAAD keeps most of the old code and has not yet been optimized for multi-threading. STAAD has a good legacy so I really hope to see improvements in this aspect. STAAD’s main competitor, SAP2000 along with ETABS and SAFE, do utilize multiple threads.
I monitor CPU load using a Windows 7 Gadget, CPU Meter. http://addgadgets.com/all_cpu_meter/
Motherboard and Chipset
Both PC’s have Intel P67 so there isn’t much difference in performance. Both have USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps. My work PC does have some additional USB ports and i think MSI classifies it as a high end model. My home PC is a bit less top of the line given its LE suffix. Nevertheless, for what matters—which is the chipset—i see no difference.
For both, I opted for the P67 chipsets on full ATX boards over H67 chipsets on micro-ATX boards. I didn’t need / want Intel’s integrated graphics enabled by the
I would have gone for the Z68 chipset for my home PC but the more premium chip and board’s more premium price would have still given similar performance. The ability to use the integrated graphics in case my videocard gave up would justify the additional cost. But i don’t really consider the idea of my precious videocard going goodbye. Worst case, though, i’d display the HD 6950, install the HD 5670 from my [father’s] AMD Athlon X3 PC and let that run on the integrated HD 4250.
Random Access Memory
The work PC has twice the RAM as the home PC and are specified similarly, DDR3-1333. It just so happened, my home PC’s ram costs more as i opted for flashy gaming RAM with heatsinks and are “guaranteed” to be a matching pair.
The premium RAM in my home PC does not really do much more than regular 8GB of RAM does. Along with the other parts, it’s on standby for overclocking should I choose to. With the same reasoning as with the CPU, i don’t think RAM more than 8GB would do much more for regular home use. For those calculations, though, especially in Excel, the additional amount of RAM on my work PC really does wonders.
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