OT: Building a new computer...

Will · #1 September 20th, 2007, 01:30 AM

The Core 2 Quad chip isn't worth it. In most benchmarks the Duos beat the pants off of it, and it doesn't really offer any better multitasking performance. I would bump it to a Duo E6750 instead, at $194.99; that brings total to about $600 plus tax, and leaves only video card, optical drive, and case. For optical drive, Lite-On is pretty much the best value out there... basically same exact thing as Sony drives, only 10-20% less expensive. A good burner is about $30-35. Video card... take your pick, from the $125-225 range. And don't cheap out on the case. It really depends on what kind of look you want, but general rules: the less plastic the better, well established compartments for PS, MB, and HDD makes your life much easier, and you do NOT want to use any fans that may come with the case (buy at least two separately). A decent case will probably run you $60. You're better off going for the ones that are closer to $100+. Lian Li's are excellent.

And I'll second the suggestion to go for a nice monitor; you can get a nice 19" for almost $150 these days, and 22" for a bit over $200. 24" and 30" are still really expensive ($600-1200), but you won't know how you lived without once you try them. But that is beyond your budget, so just something to think about.

GuyOfDoom · #2 September 20th, 2007, 01:47 AM

I've been a fan of this case since I saw it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

Combat Wombat · #3 September 20th, 2007, 03:11 AM

EVGA seems a popular choice for the card manufacturer, I can't say I remember which one I choose for my new 8800GTS but it wasn't evga because it was more expensive and I am a cheap bastard.

AgentZero · #4 September 22nd, 2007, 03:09 AM

Quote:

GuyOfDoom said:
I've been a fan of this case since I saw it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021

Fancy fan LEDs are all well & good in theory, but in practice they are the badness. Trying to sleep as your PC works on an overnight download while simultaneously lighting up your room like a cheap strip club is not fun.

Also, quad cores are useless.

Randallw · #5 September 22nd, 2007, 04:29 AM

You don't say. I'm in the market for a new computer and I saw a quad core that the salesman explained had less Mhz than his old one but was 5 or 6 times as fast. I thought dual or quad core meant 2 or 4 times the Mhz but I have gotten conflicting information that it is the speed listed but having 2 or 4 cores makes it process faster.

capnq · #6 September 22nd, 2007, 05:08 AM

As I understand it, multiple cores only give significant speedups for programs that were designed to exploit them.

Randallw · #7 September 22nd, 2007, 05:11 AM

so is it worth it for a rig to play games in about 6 months?. Stuff like Spore or a MMPORPG. I would expect them to be designed for stuff like that.

Raapys · #8 September 22nd, 2007, 10:05 AM

Quad Cores aren't completely useless. You will get a faster computer overall. However, few applications yet take advantage of all the cores. Photoshop and 3DStudioMax are programs that benefit enormously from quad core( or even more cores ). Upcoming games like Crysis, and all games being made with the UnrealEngine3.0( that's alot of games ), are designed to take advantage of 2 or more cores. The future is Quad Core, really. But with brand new Intel and AMD quad cores coming up within the next few months, there's little use buying the current quad cores on the market.

Especially interesting is the AMD quad core, since they've been sort of 'out of the loop' lately it will be interesting to see how theirs perform compared to Intel's.

Fyron · #9 September 20th, 2007, 03:51 AM

I'd have to second the recommendation against a quad core chip. Snake oil silicon at its finest...

Randallw · #10 November 12th, 2007, 06:49 AM

Well it's getting close to me buying a new computer. I reread this thread and will be going for a reasonably high end dual core system with plenty of RAM (3GB perhaps), helped by how well our dollar is doing at the moment. I know things differ from US to Australia equipment wise but I wonder if there is some way of making the computer more silent I could mention to the store bloke. I don't want to try mucking about with fancy cooling systems. My mother hooked me up with an expert last time who built my system for me and I've never been entirely happy with how loud it is. Are fans less loud than 3 years ago. As it is I keep my computer down stairs because it can't handle hot weather and even then I need to turn it off in the middle of the afternoon sometimes during summer.

Does anyone have any advice that could be useful?