Blog 6: Performance Tests + Prepping for Future Weeks
James P -
Hello Everyone! Welcome back to another blog. Last week, I ended up actually building all the computers I got the parts for, as well as got a headstart on my manual as I built the computers. Now, I’ve got 3 working computers all at different costs and different performance. So, the plan for this week was to actually performance test these PCs to see which ones are the most powerful as well as the most affordable
The first thing I did was establish which parts I actually wanted to test. For this, I decided to only test 3 parts: The GPU, CPU, and (somewhat) RAM. Each of these play a key role in the actual performance of the PC, so I found that I only wanted to test these. To actually do the performance tests, I did it like this: with my eBay PC case, I constructed each PC within it. Since the case doesn’t actually affect performance, it shouldn’t make any difference. Then, I downloaded the UserBenchmark application on my storage drive. This application pushes my components to their limit in order to note down what it can handle. So, for each CPU and GPU, I tested it on this application and noted down their performances. Then, I would switch out each CPU and GPU so I have the benchmarks for each of them. Then, since RAM, is generally very similar, all I did for that was note down how many GBs they are worth and their generation (DDR – DDR4) with a higher generation typically meaning a more modern and better RAM. I also noted the prices for each of these PCs, the data for all this is below, the specific numbers don’t really matter, the only thing that matters is that 0 is the lowest and a higher number means better performance:
The $0 PC: $0 |
CPU – i3 – 8100 > 670.7
GPU – AMD Radeon RX 6800 > 1144
RAM – 2x XPG DDR4 8gb
(For the Linus PC I gave it the 770 and the eBay the Tesla)
The Linus PC: $90.39 |
CPU – i5 – 6600 > 642.2
GPU – GeForce GTX 770 > 272.8
RAM – DDr4 4gb
The eBay PC: $143.29 |
CPU – i5 – 3470 > 599.45
GPU – Tesla M40 Accelerator > 489.12
RAM – 2x DDR4 8gb
A really interesting thing to note is that the $0 PC actually had some of the best performances of all the three PCs. One explanation for this is just the variety of parts I had the opportunity of choosing from. The selection I could choose from for the $0 PC included some very expensive builds while for both of the bought PCs, I had to generally stay at a lower price from people selling for a profit, decreasing my opportunity for powerful components.
The rest of this week was spent preparing for the rest of my weeks for this project. I looked into how to create an app on the Google Play Store, as well as how to code my own sample app. I plan on using this knowledge in the future when I build my fully completed app. I also did some research into how AIs work and what it would take to build my own AI or build an AI based on an already existing model. I’m unsure which of those options I want to do yet since it depends on how much time I have. If I have a lot of extra time in these upcoming weeks, I will probably try to train something rudimentary myself, otherwise I can upgrade an already existing chatbot.
By the end of this week, I wrapped up the computer building part of this project. I completed the 3 computers as well as figured out how powerful each one is. I also got started on some of the stuff I will need to have for future weeks. This week marks the end of the “computer-building” portion of my project. Of course, I will still be building computers, though I will likely not be making any more new computers. My future weeks will be more focused on tools to help actually build these PCs. So, stay tuned for these future weeks as I focus more on the online aspects of computer building.
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