New computer

[namliam]

I have been thinking about getting a new computer lately, but for the last year or so I have not been following the hard ware developments.

Is there anyone who can give me some idea of what is what on the basis of value for money.

i.e. I want the fastest processor, but that will cost $1.000 (just putting amounts down so you get the idea).
The second fastest processor costs 600
The third is $100
The forth is $90

I would think the third processor is the best bang for the buck...
Same goes for all other components and besides the money thing, what other things do I need to consider in configuring a new computer?

The goal is to have a mean machine with which I can do some heavy computing as well as play a game or two on... but the games do not need to be the most extreem ones... Just "regular average games"

 

[GaryPanic]

if you check out the gadget show (a uk show)
where one of the presenters went through this process -
either off the shelf pc's or build your own

he built his own - and it was by far the better machine

no matter what you buy 5 mins later - it will be out of date/spec

 

[Minkey]

Buy the fastest you can afford as GaryPanic mentioned it will be out of date straight away anyway .

Building your own can be a bit of a mine field as you have to ensure that all the components will work together but just as important is that the you get the right components.

For example if you go for a motherboard that supports up to say an AMD 3000+ CPU and if you buy an AMD 3000+ you don't have any room to upgrade without changing the motherboard. So you might want to overspec on the motherboard but then again you need to be aware of AMD's product time line as new chip might (actually probably) not be supported say an AMD 64bit FX chip wont be supported by an older motherboard that supports the pervious version (64bit x2).

If your not too bothered about upgrading bit by bit (which is more economical in the long run) I would go for the fastest combination of CPU, RAM, Motherboard, GPU you can afford.

BTW what's your budget I (or other people) might be able to make some recommendations.

 

[Ron_dK]

I have been thinking about getting a new computer lately, but for the last year or so I have not been following the hard ware developments.

Is there anyone who can give me some idea of what is what on the basis of value for money.

Hi Namliam,
You might check the March edition of c't ( magazine voor comp techniek).
There is a good story about configuring a PC with today's top components for the lowest price. It seems that an AMD dual core ( Athlon 64 X2) goes for some €1030 and a similar Intel ( Core 2 duo) for approx. € 1150.

PM me if you want some more details or buy the magazine. Echt een aanrader !

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Talk about a mine field!

Buying a new computer is an exercise in applying Moore's Law (double computer power every 18 months) to maximize return on investment.

Here's the way I see it. You could build your own. Unless you do this for a living and have blown up a couple of boards in the past (so that you have learned to be more careful...), there is peril of all sorts.

Basically, building your own means doing a LOT of research on the speeds of each chipset you buy, for the disk adapter, memory adapter, PCI card, CPU itself, USB and other peripherals. They have to be bussed together and a slow device on the buss kills your response at a fairly low level.

Buying a pre-configured system, though perhaps more expensive, gives you a warranty that you can use to kvetch at the engineers for a little while until you get satisfaction that your setup is working right. (Rolling your own? YOU are the service staff, hope you have a good source of parts.)

OK, there ARE folks out there who can do this. I can, with help from my step-daughter. (She went through US Air Force electronics tech school and knows when I'm about to make a TOTAL idiot out of myself.) Those of you who have the required skills know who you are. 'nuff said.

My best results have been to buy a slightly overconfigured pre-configured system from a bulk discounter. I'll name names only 'cause I had a good experience. I went to one of the major USA volume discount stores from the Walton family. You figure it out. Anyway, they had off-the-shelf HP Pavilion systems. A bit more expensive than your targets, but I'm leading up to something here...

Got myself a P4 dual-core Pentium, 1/2 Gb RAM, 160 Gb SATA hard drive 7200 RPM and a large on-board cache. It also has a camera-memory card reader, twin DVD/CD readers (and one is also a writer), seven USB connections, one 1394 connector, serial port, parallel port, 100 Mbit ethernet port, phone modem, floppy drive, audio in/out stuff, and a built in NVidia GeForce card. The twin CPUs run at 2.8 GHz each. Three years ago, give or take a few months, I got that system - AND a 17 inch flat-panel display - for $1600 USA before tax. Self-contained. OK, sounds like I'm bragging. The point is that this beast had room for me to work on a couple of upgrades, gave me more than enough other features, and (counting my time) was still cheaper than I could have paid for rolling my own at the equivalent configuration. Found it because I didn't categorically reject the idea of buying a computer from one of the infamous deep discounter stores. All they do is prove the power of buying in huge bulk.

Now, I bought the top of the line (at the time) because I had the money to spend and wanted/needed to upgrade. (Wifey's computer four months later was similar except 3.2 GHz Pentium P4s, ATI RADEON card, 200 Gb disk, 21" flat panel - $1700 before taxes in nearly the same time frame.)

The point is that I looked at the pre-configured systems, realized I could get something better than I would have build on my own (in all likelihood), and it had a warranty. It was a well-known brand, using identifiable good parts. The price was low because the distributor bought in bulk at levels nobody else would touch except perhaps some governments.

So go to YOUR local discounter and see what they have in the way of preconfigured systems. You might find something that comes very close to what you really wanted at a price very close to what you were willing to pay. Look at the top of the line first and work down from there. You'll be blown away by what is on the shelves these days. I've been in the computer business 35 years and I still get blown away by some of the things I see in the bulk warehouses.

Who knows, you might just find your dream system at a really decent price. And wouldn't THAT be loverly?

 

[Ron_dK]

Hi Namliam,
You might check the March edition of c't ( magazine voor comp techniek).
There is a good story about configuring a PC with today's top components for the lowest price. It seems that an AMD dual core ( Athlon 64 X2) goes for some €1030 and a similar Intel ( Core 2 duo) for approx. € 1150.

PM me if you want some more details or buy the magazine. Echt een aanrader !

Just found the link :

http://www1.fnl.nl/ct/oude-nummers/nummer/toon/ct-nummer-200703/terug-naar/ct-magazine/

 

[namliam]

I bought (way back when) a P2 350 with the idea to upgrade that, we all know what happened they went to 450 and changed the MB
Then I bought a P3 somesort (dont recall exactly what my current pc is) and same thing happened. I am in the habbit of owning/working with a pc for a couple of years without bothering for small upgrades, other than maybe an extra few MBs of memory, a new video card or some added gigs of storage if needed.

So I dont much care for upgradebility...
Duo core, is that really all that? Have the early problems of 1 cpu standing idle while the other is working over time been cleared up?

How about "on board" graphics and sound things? I have allways disliked on board stuff. While on the subject of sound, I have no need for 25 speakers. 2 or 3 will do just fine.

I see quite a few PCs with shared video and PC mem. While IIRC that is something you dont want, you preferably want (seperate) memory directly on your video card right?

Intel > AMD? Or it used to be that way, I think I remember somewhere that changed... but what is the better CPU now a days?

 

[namliam]

So I been shopping and reading a bit... eventually came up with this...
AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory
320 GB Serial ATA hard drive (7.200 rpm) 8 MB DataBurst™-cache
256 MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro
Sound on board 7.1 high def audio
16 X DVD +/- RW Drive

It is a prebuild Dell pc at 517 euro (ex delivery), it does say anything about the MB.

What do you guys and galls? think about it... what would you change?
i.e. would it be smart to upgrade to 5200+ (+101 euro) or 5600+ (+137 euro)
Upgrade memory to 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory (+119)

Greets from Holland

 

[GaryPanic]

Stuff from dell - you get a mixed response

I personally have never had a problem with them

Others i know have had nightmares

I had 1 PC that blow and Dell come over within24hr looked at the PC - and straight away changed HD - no questions no problem service was good

others I have heard have had real nightmares
No matter what you buy next week it wil be out of date

There was a report out a couple of months ago that PC will have to change fundamentially around 2012 as they will be as fast as they can go with current technology and data storeage will be so larger that it will not be a hard drive of xxgb it will be something 10 to 1000 times the size and the problem will be data retrival speed

with the ability to "wired PC " with laser's processing speeds will be maxed out by 2012

I am of the mind - if it does the job in a time your happy with and its reliable - then buy it
don't try and keep up with the "Jones" - be happy with a decent PC and system

My view only on this .


G
I am working on a PC thats a couple of years old using XP and Office 2000 - and i am happy with this

g

 

[Ron_dK]

AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600
1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x512] Memory
320 GB Serial ATA hard drive (7.200 rpm) 8 MB DataBurst™-cache
256 MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro
Sound on board 7.1 high def audio
16 X DVD +/- RW Drive

It is a prebuild Dell pc at 517 euro (ex delivery), it does say anything about the MB.

What do you guys and galls? think about it... what would you change?
i.e. would it be smart to upgrade to 5200+ (+101 euro) or 5600+ (+137 euro)
Upgrade memory to 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory (+119)

Greets from Holland

Apart from the processor that's the same PC as I recently bought from Dell.
Mine's got a Athlon 3800.
Very reliable and robust machine.
I have upgraded the memory to 2GB, but wouldn't go for a 5200 or 5600, you won't gain hardly anything with that.
The MB is probably a NForce 430 chipset with the AM2 socket. Dell doesn't give much info on mb's for whatever reason.

Groeten en succes.

 

[pbaldy]

I'm IT manager for a company with 2 locations. We've got HP PC's in one location, Dell's in the other. I've had fewer problems with the Dell's (including servers), and they're consistently cheaper. They did have a problem with mother boards in Optiplex PC's built a couple of years ago, but they've been very good about replacing them if they fail. I'd have no qualms getting the Dell (just bought one as my work PC in fact).

 

[Rich]

Mine's got a Athlon 3800.
.

The latest version of software that I use won't work with an AMD proc. or Vista for that matter

 

[Ron_dK]

The latest version of software that I use won't work with an AMD proc. or Vista for that matter

What software are you referring to Rich ?

Today , Dell sells the AMD dual core 4200 with Vista installed.
Currently I'm using XP and office 2003 and a couple of music recording programs without any problems.

The only problem I heard of is the combination of AMD with Vista Aero, but with
an improved graphic card and enough memory it should be stable.

 

[Rich]

Prem Elements 3, video editing software. Something to do with socket two proc., whatever that is

 

[GaryPanic]

i have heard that Dell servers are pretty good (value for money)

the only thing I would not buy from dell is probably a laptop and thats not down to the recent battery problems - its just the other makes out there seem to be better (personal preference)

 

[retro]

Hope I'm not too late for you, here.

Firstly, you need to think about exactly what you want the PC for NOW, and what you'll want it to do in future... not only what you'll want it to run, but upgradability.

If you want upgradability, then go for a board with PCI-express, DDR2 (use 667MHz btw), and either socket 775 (for intel) or socket AM2 (for AMD). Actually, AMD are now introducing socket F, basically going against what they promised about having a universal socket, although it is really more server based.

Here's an idea for you of price (sorry, I'm based in the UK, you can roughly double for the US although parts should be slightly cheaper there)......

Our basic system has the following specs:

AMD Sempron 2800+ Socket 754
512Mb OCZ DDR400
80Gb Maxtor SATA-2 HDD
ASUS 16x DVD Writer Dual Layer
400W PSU
On-board 7.1 sound
On-board nVidia 6100 graphics (will run a few games, but a graphics upgrade may be advisable)
Keyboard, Mouse, 2.0 speakers, Vista Home Basic, AVG Anti-Malware 1 year, Nero Express, Office Trial included

All for £285 including VAT

Obviously you need a monitor, which is about £100.

That could be upgraded - not much more to make the board/CPU an AM2, £30 to upgrade to 1Gb RAM, £60 for an X1600 Pro 256Mb graphics card that will play a lot of current games. Oh, and Office Pro 2007 with Access is £225!