| RotoGuru Computer Forum View the Forum Registry XML Get RSS Feed for this thread | Self-edit this thread |
|
| 0 |
Subject: New Computer Posted by: Punk42AE - Donor [036635522] Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 12:21 I'm in the market for a new computer and trying to figure out what all I should get in it. What are the pluses and minuses between AMD Athlon and Intel processors and what's the best type of Dule Core tech out there now, that's a reasonable price? Also what different video cards have people had good experiences with? I'm looking to spend $1200-1500. | |||||||
| 1 | biliruben ID: 52014814 Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 13:46 |
The last few years, I've leaned towards AMD for both price and performance. The latest Intel Core-2 Duo however, performed favorably. I went with the E6600, and it zips along. Not the highest end, most expensive, but good enough for me. I went with the ATI Radeon X1950GT 256MB video card, but there are a lot of non-board, dedicated video cards out there that would be acceptable I think. Depending on what other components you get, this setup will get up near the high-end of your desired range. I jacked up the memory, got an second big harddrive and hardware RAID, a nice MB and a DVD burner, and that put me a few hundred higher than I that, but I'm very happy with it. | ||||||
| 2 | Punk42AE Donor ID: 036635522 Thu, Apr 05, 2007, 19:50 | I'm thinking of getting 2 gigs of Ram, or should I spend more and go with the 4 gigs? Also go for a normal flat screen or an HD Flat? | ||||||
| 3 | xpdurmind ID: 48312323 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 01:33 |
I agree with biliruben on the E6600 intel duo core chip. It's probably more than you'll need. try this link. Configure it with 2 gigs of ram, Vista home premium, a free upgrade to the nvidia GeForce 7500LE 256 MB video card (should be good enough for your needs. You can later upgrade if you're a gamer. The nvidia 7600 GTGeForce 256 mb would be excellent if they offered it~ $110 ), a free upgrade to the ATSC-NTSC TV tuner w. PVR, FM,remote, a 802.11 b/g Wireless LAN PCI Card,a Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi, 24-bit Xtreme Fidelity , n 320 gig 7200 rpm sata hard drive,3.5 in. 1.44MB Floppy Drive, no monitor, and Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers, it comes out to $1485. The best part is that you can upgrade it down the line if you need to. You can also return it in 90 days if you're not happy with it. When I ordered mine 2 month ago I configued it a little on the higher end with a 4 gigs memory and a better video card , better speakers , vista ultimate, more drives and a few extras. Haven't been happier. | ||||||
| 4 | xpdurmind ID: 48312323 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 01:42 | hd flat only if you'll be using it for tv viewing also. Then you'll be looking at a $$$ spike. You can get a decent 20' lcd for $197 if you order it through the above site. | ||||||
| 5 | Punk42AE Donor ID: 036635522 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 08:03 | Even though all the hate that Dell got on here with the past computer problem, i'm more apt to go with them. The one I have right now is the 3rd Dell i've used and never had a problem. The monitors they were showing came with a 19 inch flat, but for only $50 more it could be a 20 inch flat WIDEscreen, didn't mean HD before. | ||||||
| 6 | biliruben ID: 52014814 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 14:59 |
The screen matters. Often much more than any other component, these days! Speed is nice. Graphics card is nice. Nice big, clear screen - essential. Yeah, I got the nvidia 7600 for my wife. It works great. I bought her a Dell, and it was so jammed with with crap that I was tempted to wife the drive and start over. Unfortunately I couldn't because they didn't give me the OS. It took me all day to remove all the horsecrap software with 30 days trials that was gumming up the system and making the boot and operation slow. For my computer, I bought it without an OS and just bought a full version of XP-pro (I'll leave it to the more couragious to explore Vista for a few years) and installed it myself. It took a while to install all the drivers, but now I feel like I have a firm handle on the machine. | ||||||
| 7 | Mike D Leader ID: 041831612 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 15:33 |
When you customize a dell you can opt out of most of the trial stuff. I like Dells, have bought roughly 5. Punk----for widescreens, you might want to go to your local warehouse (costco?) and buy one first. Use it for a couple weeks, and if you don't like it, return it. Or return it anyway and get a different brand (Dell etc). I did this, and could not get used to the widescreen. It was great for things like Excel, but I wasn't a fan of it for web browsing. You can still get a 20" flat without the widescreen. I'd rather try it out locally then use Dell for trying it because of sending items back and forth. You can play around with the dpi settings etc. | ||||||
| 8 | R9 Leader ID: 02624472 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 15:57 |
I got a 22" Samsung widescreen (SyncMaster 225BW) and couldn't be happier. Once you have a widescreen, you can't go back. 2 gigs is a must, as is a big harddrive. As I've said before on this forum, your best bet is still to buy the parts and build your own comp. Very easy to do, saves money, and you know exactly whats in it and what you installed on it. 2nd best would be bili's process; buy a non-OS rig and install your own OS. | ||||||
| 9 | loki SuperDude ID: 4211201420 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 16:03 | After the problems that I had with Dell and Vista, I purchased a Gateway machine. It is not on Gateway's web site, but you can buy an XP machine from them over the telephone. I decided to do this and upgrade to Vista in 6-12 months. | ||||||
| 10 | Punk42AE Donor ID: 036635522 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 17:15 | I had a Gateway before the Dell's and I wasn't as happy with it. So leaning towards Dell the most. | ||||||
| 11 | biliruben ID: 52014814 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 17:28 |
I tried Gateway. I loved gateway. I bought 4 straight machines from them, going all the way back to the early 90s, and I had generally love their costumer support. I had this machine all ordered and everying. I wanted to make one minor change, and it became very obvious very quickly that costumer support wasn't up to this simple task. I canceled my order. | ||||||
| 12 | biliruben ID: 52014814 Fri, Apr 06, 2007, 17:28 | Costumer. Heh. They can no longer dress my cast. | ||||||
| 13 | Punk42AE Donor ID: 036635522 Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 03:58 | Through Dell what is everyones experiences with XPS and Dimensions? I've got a Dim right now. | ||||||
| 14 | Punk42AE Donor ID: 036635522 Sat, Apr 07, 2007, 04:30 |
Just going through quickly I came up with something along these lines... Module Description -XPS 410 Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB) -Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium -Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs -Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard -Monitor 19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel -Video Card 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache -Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ -Floppy Drive and Media Reader 3.5 in Floppy Drive -Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse -Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem -CD or DVD Drive Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability -Sound Cards Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition -Speakers Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer -Labels Windows Vista™ Premium TOTAL:$1,364.00 | ||||||
| 15 | ¤ Mario LeMoose ¤ ID: 43336721 Sun, Apr 08, 2007, 10:30 |
If you opt for a Dell, don't overpay: Dell Home Coupons Don't worry about the expiration dates; new coupon codes are posted on a regular basis. | ||||||
| 16 | xpdurmind ID: 48312323 Sun, Apr 08, 2007, 13:56 |
Punk42AE, You want all your hardware to work together. Your graphics card will be the bottle neck in the system. Vista has what they call a windows experience index where they score the performance of your hardware on a scale from 1 to 5.9. You can read about it at this site . The E6600 will get you a score of 5.3( took a snap shot of my system below), where as you'll be lucky to get a 3 with that video card. The 2 Gb memory should be around 4. If you don't upgrade the video card, I would go with the E6400 or 6300. In my system for example I can do better if I upgraded my processor. But the components are close enough in the same range. That is what you want. No need spending extra $$ on one part if other parts are the bottle neck. R9 I agree with you on the SyncMaster 225BW. An excellent value to boot. 
| ||||||
| ||||||||
Post a reply to this message: (But first, how about checking out this sponsor?) | ||||||||