Author Topic: Is this worth the price?  (Read 8645 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Davros

  • 29
Re: Is this worth the price?
Ive had to delete some as ive just bought test drive unlimited and stalker
2 games = over 12gig of space
do you need any more proof 200gig isnt enough

ps: yes i do play them all if I didnt i'd replace them with something i did play



ps:
     a 200gig drive is around £40
     a 320gig drive is around £48

so you might as well go bigger its not expensive.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 08:30:52 am by Davros »

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
I've made some changes to reflect what people said.

Original:
Quote
I am bugging my parents to get a new PC, and was wondering if this one is worth the price.

Case - 100$
Motherboard - 140$
CPU - 320$
Video Card - 240$
Hard Drive - 80$
DVD/CD Burner - 45$
RAM - 270$
Memory Fan - 25$
CPU Fan - 25$
The case has two fans and temperature gauges built in.

Total price with shipping and tax - 1236.85$ Canadian.

The speakers and monitor are too heavy and jack up the shipping and I can get better ones at Costco.
I have a copy of XP and don't want Vista.

Would this be worth getting? Have I missed anything?

With Changes:
Case:  Micro Tower - 135$
Power Supply - 600w, - 80$
Motherboard - Asus P5B MicroATX - 160$
DVD/CD Burner - 45$
Processor - 2.4 Ghz, dual core - 270$
Hard Drive - 320 Gb - 100$
RAM - 2 Gb - 150$

Total price: 1423$ Cdn plus 300$ for good monitor and speakers locally.

A couple of questions:
Should I get 2 Gb of RAM now and upgrade later or get 4 Gb now?
Should I get quad core and good video card or dual core and better video card?
Would this be a good case?
Is XP Media center edition 64-bit?
Should I get Media Center or XP Pro?
Which video card is better for the price?1, 2 or 3
I don't like Nvidia, and I like HDRish. :D


Ive had to delete some as ive just bought test drive unlimited and stalker
2 games = over 12gig of space
do you need any more proof 200gig isnt enough

ps: yes i do play them all if I didnt i'd replace them with something i did play
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8765/desktopgames2kp0.jpg


ps:
     a 200gig drive is around £40
     a 320gig drive is around £48

so you might as well go bigger its not expensive.
What is your desktop? A reskin? I've been looking for one but couldn't find one for XP.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 10:47:10 am by colecampbell666 »
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Re: Is this worth the price?
Quote
Ive had to delete some as ive just bought test drive unlimited and stalker
2 games = over 12gig of space
do you need any more proof 200gig isnt enough

ps: yes i do play them all if I didnt i'd replace them with something i did play

I used to keep that kind of games folder in my start menu at one point. I gave up on it after it started becoming too large, so I just launch the exes directly from a file manager program now. :p

Quote
With Changes:
Case:  Micro Tower - 135$
Power Supply - 600w, - 80$
Motherboard - Asus P5B MicroATX - 160$
DVD/CD Burner - 45$
Processor - 2.4 Ghz, dual core - 270$
Hard Drive - 320 Gb - 100$
RAM - 2 Gb - 150$

Total price: 1423$ Cdn plus 300$ for good monitor and speakers locally.

A couple of questions:
Should I get 2 Gb of RAM now and upgrade later or get 4 Gb now?
Should I get quad core and good video card or dual core and better video card?
Would this be a good case?
Is XP Media center edition 64-bit?
Should I get Media Center or XP Pro?
Which video card is better for the price?1, 2 or 3
I don't like Nvidia, and I like HDRish. :D

This looks better, but the E6600 is strangely quite expensive these days and not worth buying. Get either the faster E6750 or the cheaper E6320 or E4400 instead. I'm guessing you won't be overclocking, as that board won't let you go far and heat buildup is always an issue with SFFs.

Ultra power supplies are mediocre and somewhat prone to failure. The good manufacturers are basically Zippy, Seasonic, Enhance and Enermax. PCP&C, OCZ, Corsair and Silverstone units are rebadged versions of these and are also good. Tigerdirect's PSU selection sucks and I couldn't find any of the usual models I recommend to people, but anything around the 500W range from these companies should work fine.

1: It depends on what programs you're using and what the price differences are. As I said, Vista 64 still has some driver issues, XP 64 is even worse and you'll be limited to about 2.5-2.7GB on 32-bit OSs.
2: Latter option by far. For games, always go cheap on the processor and splurge on the video card.
3: Seems decent enough for an SFF. Just make sure it takes standard ATX power supplies.
4: No.
5: Pro is probably fine, if you don't already have it. MCE comes with some extra HTPC software that is supposed to be pretty good, but it's only worth it if you're actually planning to use that stuff.
6: #2, but none of them are very good. If you want an AMD card, get a cheaper processor (E4300 or E4400) and use the saved money to get a 2900XT.

 

Offline Davros

  • 29
Re: Is this worth the price?

What is your desktop? A reskin? I've been looking for one but couldn't find one for XP.

Its a hacked uxtheme.dll so you can use 3rd party skins
the skin is called pipeline you'll find it on wincustomize or skinz.org

i do like my customised desktops

My favourite theme Understorm  (Understorm talisman 2 theme, drkcmd windows theme, understorm sysmetrix skin)
and yes all the buttons do work


My 2nd Favourite theme
CopperDeck 2

« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 02:21:58 pm by Davros »

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
So a worse processor (not much worse) and a better video card shouldn't affect performance on non-video intensive programs?

I don't like Ncix, they don't have a better selection, they have worse. They have no Matx motherboards, no Micro towers and few processors.
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
A few changes:
Case:  Micro Tower - 135$
Power Supply - 600w, - 110$
Motherboard - Asus P5B MicroATX - 160$
DVD/CD Burner - 45$
Processor - 2 Ghz, dual core - 170$
Hard Drive - 320 Gb - 100$
RAM - 2 Gb - 150$
Video Card - Radeon 2900XT - 600$

Total: 1434$ Cdn.
Won't the processor speed affect performance?
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Re: Is this worth the price?
It depends on what you're doing. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in basic office/internet usage (almost any processor you buy today performs similarly with that) and games are much more dependent on the video card. On the other hand, various specialized tasks like 3D rendering or video encoding will benefit a lot from extra processor speed, although at the same time it's easy to make up the difference with even small overclocks.

 

Offline Roanoke

  • 210
Re: Is this worth the price?
I'm annoyed at Microsoft, my old MS Optical Mouse worked like a charm for years, if there was one thing by MS you could rely on it was their mice, but the next generation seems about as robust as custard house, already the buttons are losing responsiveness and the Wheel seems to have two speeds, i.e. Full Stop or Mega-fast.

MS always did the best joysticks too. My Precison Pro is/was (comp still down) going strong. Dusty as hell but it just wouldn't die.

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
It depends on what you're doing. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference in basic office/internet usage (almost any processor you buy today performs similarly with that) and games are much more dependent on the video card. On the other hand, various specialized tasks like 3D rendering or video encoding will benefit a lot from extra processor speed, although at the same time it's easy to make up the difference with even small overclocks.
Will it affect things like modelling or Movie Maker? Would a quad core improve those tasks you stated?

Why are these missing specs that the other has? Such as one has vertices per second and one has pixel pipelines. Are these different processing methods?
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Re: Is this worth the price?
Quote
Will it affect things like modelling or Movie Maker? Would a quad core improve those tasks you stated?

It wouldn't affect modeling (moving around in the viewports), only rendering. As for Windows movie maker, it depends on what codec you're using. Almost all of them take advantage of two cores, but many of them aren't designed to work with more than that and don't show much of an improvement on quads.

I think at the moment, the main use for a quad is rendering, which benefits from it immensely in most programs. If you do that a lot, it's definitely worth getting one. Otherwise, you're better off saving your money and getting a cheaper dual.

Quote
Why are these missing specs that the other has? Such as one has vertices per second and one has pixel pipelines. Are these different processing methods?

Are you talking about the video card? It has 16 texturing units, 16 ROPs and 320 shader processors. If you want to see how it performs compared to other cards, look at Xbit's benchmarks, which cover a large selection of games.

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
What is rendering?
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline Ghostavo

  • 210
  • Let it be glue!
    • Skype
    • Steam
    • Twitter
Re: Is this worth the price?
Fancy word for drawing complicated stuff.
"Closing the Box" - a campaign in the making :nervous:

Shrike is a dirty dirty admin, he's the destroyer of souls... oh god, let it be glue...

 

Offline Flipside

  • əp!sd!l£
  • 212
Re: Is this worth the price?
Mostly it's to do with 3D Ray-tracing, though, as Ghostavo says, almost any kind of image can be rendered, but what's being referred to here is the high quality stuff such as Lightwave or 3DS pictures, which are calculated to a far higher degree of accuracy that in-game rendering (i.e. DirectX). 'Fast' rendering styles like games rely heavily on the Graphics card, however, Ray-Tracing etc is usually CPU-based, it's slower, but a LOT more accurate.. e,g,



That took about 20 mins to render that single frame, but was done entirely through the CPUs.

 

Offline Polpolion

  • The sizzle, it thinks!
  • 211
Re: Is this worth the price?
Why are you spending so much money on a case? HD space looks good now, though. Oh, and get a faster processer.

 

Offline colecampbell666

  • I See Dead Pictures
  • 212
  • Evolution and ascension.
Re: Is this worth the price?
The case I picked out is one that will last. That is the lowest priced good quality case I found. If you can find one for better/the same quality for less, tell me please.

EDIT: Changed the processor.

Case:  Micro Tower - 135$
Power Supply - 600w, - 110$
Motherboard - Asus P5B MicroATX - 160$
DVD/CD Burner - 45$
Processor - 2 Ghz, dual core - 170$
Hard Drive - 250 Gb - 85$
RAM - 2 Gb - 120$
Video Card - Radeon 2900XT - 600$

Total: 1704$ Cdn.

I may need to downgrade the case or video card. I need to cut the price down to 1400-1500. If anyone has a cheaper, quality case that they know of, it would be much appreciated.
« Last Edit: August 29, 2007, 06:26:48 am by colecampbell666 »
Gettin' back to dodgin' lasers.

 

Offline CP5670

  • Dr. Evil
  • Global Moderator
  • 212
Re: Is this worth the price?
You're paying too much for that card. I see some of them for around $460-480 on ncix, and TD has a few models for $525 (I'm guessing these prices are in CDN). In this case, the various brands only differ in support/warranties and game bundles.

Not sure about the case. I don't know much about MATX cases as I don't use those personally. Most of them should be fine as long as they take a standard ATX power supply. Make sure whatever you get has reasonably good intake cooling (that Thermaltake one has a side vent, which is useful), as the 2900XT produces a ton of heat.

 

Offline diceman111

  • 28
  • Keep on playing Glottis, keep on playing.....
Re: Is this worth the price?
Ok I just gotta say that I think you really should get a Intel Core2Duo or Core2Quad they are excellent (I have a Core 2 Duo)

Asfar as the motherboard goes I would recomend a ASUS a little bit more expensive then others but I think it really pays of , my motherboard have always been stable and easy to overclock(when the computer gets old), see you have choosend the P5B, I have the P5B-Deluxe WiFi/Api edition and that one is excellent.

As for the Graphics card i would choose this:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2597917&CatId=1558
Since its faster than the 2900XT and Cheaper
See http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=857&model2=706&chart=277

EDIT: And the hard-drive, you can never have enough storage space I have ~1TB and have 160GB free (and most of that is on the C:\ drive)
« Last Edit: August 29, 2007, 03:38:18 pm by diceman111 »
Flames Of War Chapter III - http://web.comhem.se/~u35702611

"If at first you don't succeed try a bigger thermonuclear weapon" - My philosophy on life

"I dont care if we smack it into her or smack it out of her just aslong as there's smacking invovled" - Max from Sam & Max Situation Comedy

 I live in Sweden and before anybody ask NO we do not have polar bears walking on our streets thats Norway, we have penguins (Red ones with blue dots)

 (These messages was brought to you by the people from DFWD (Diceman For World Domination))

 

Offline Bob-san

  • Wishes he was cool
  • 210
  • It's 5 minutes to midnight.
Re: Is this worth the price?
I'm responding to first post...

I'm not liking the case, though that's personal preference. The included power supply is likely crap. Motherboard could be much better--Intel-made boards can't overclock, not to mention G33 is not exactly the best. I recommend you look at P35 motherboards (Abit IP35-E is very good at OC'ing Q6600s). I don't know if TigerDirect has them, but the IP35-E is third to some $200 Asus board and the Abit IP35 Pro. Anyways... next thing--good processor, you will need cooling and likely thermal grease. I'm not sure I'm really liking the Radeon x1950 Pro, but it's good if you aren't ever going to Vista. I'd say the hard drive is a little small and I don't exactly trust Maxtor (compared to WD and Seagate)... it's IDE, though should probably be SATA. DVD burner is fine, though I'd go with a SATA burner as well. You won't need that much RAM if you don't use a 64-bit OS. I'd say a max of 3.5GB with that graphics card... 3 1GB modules and 1 512MB module would run you the least. Ugly PCI-bracket fans but whatever--its your choice on that. Finally, the CPU cooler is crap.

The points...
1) I'd recommend a different case
2) You need a better power supply. To check required wattage, you can use this utility.
3) Motherboard is crap, like you heard. P35 would be much better, especially an Abit IP35-E
4) Get a SATA hard drive
5) Get a SATA optical drive
6) You don't need that much RAM
7) You need better processor cooling


Next, on the second setup ((Bloodeagle))... I'd recommend straying from AMD for your current budget--they're power hogs and will cost ya in the long run. As for the Intel setup, the nForce 570 SLI chipset is outdated (replaced by nForce 650i SLI), and the processor is also considered outdated (replaced by the E6550 or E6750). The case is fine, first and second power supplies are horrible. You can find a suitable power supply by this listing. Good hard drive, the first graphics card isn't as good as the original Radeon x1950 pro, but it should be close. I'd say the 8600GTS is a bad deal, even now. An 8800GTS 320 would be much better and not for much more. The third is fine if you want to burn that much money.

Here's my recommendations for a build...

P35 motherboard (Abit IP35-E)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 6750, or E6850
3GB max of RAM
GeForce 8800GTS 320MB graphics card
Any case you really want
SATA DVD burner
SATA 320+GB hard drive (I am wishing I had a bigger drive--my 80GB has about 10GB left to fill... I exceeded my previous 8GB drive's usage (4GB) by about 18x in 5 years)
Themaltake Purepower 500W power supply
A better cooler, such as a Cooler Master Hyper TX2 or Gemini, a number of better coolers can be found in Anandtech articles
NGTM-1R: Currently considering spending the rest of the day in bed cuddling.
GTSVA: With who...?
Nuke: chewbacca?
Bob-san: The Rancor.

 

Offline akenbosch

  • Pretentious Noob
  • 29
  • doesent care about canon
Re: Is this worth the price?
should i get a dual-core proccessor or a 2 gigahurtz single core paired with a few memory sticks? im kinda torn right now.

Burn the sucker out of the sky!
EAT PHOTONS INFIDEL! MAY THE HEAT OF A THOUSAND SUNS CONSUME YOU! :mad2:


snail gives a debriefing: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,48825.msg991954.html#msg991954

 

Offline Bob-san

  • Wishes he was cool
  • 210
  • It's 5 minutes to midnight.
Re: Is this worth the price?
DO NOT get a single core processor. A dual-core is always a beter choice. Quad-core is better, though for approximately the same price as a Q6600 2.4GHz you can a E6850 3.0GHz. If you game more and care more for high framerates, the dual-core is better. If you do much beyond game, such as Photoshop, a quad-core is better.

Anyways--dual-core is a minimum. Quad-core is what's next... not quite taken advantage of right now but it will be for some later games (stuff like AI and physics will be separated out)
NGTM-1R: Currently considering spending the rest of the day in bed cuddling.
GTSVA: With who...?
Nuke: chewbacca?
Bob-san: The Rancor.