New computer (Need comments and advice)

[Giovanni]

HP Pavilion Media Center a1640n,


http://shopping.hp.ca/cStoreCA/BaseDetails.asp?PType=57&ProductLineId=49&FamilyId=113&BaseId=3259&BEId=5&LANG=EN
That's what I'm getting... see... I'm being a lazy slob and I calculated what it amounts too...

Yes I do get a shitty case but as far as I know... the parts I get are worth alot more then what I'm going to pay for it and all I really need is a new graphics card so in the end it might cost me around 1300$ total canadian... to get a high end system correct?

I mean correct me if I'm wrong but I should be able to run most or everything on the market, I'll be able to run it for a couple of years (4 at most if I push it) and I'll have a good machine on hand that's vista ready and comes with a free upgrade to it. On top of wich I get the vista ultimate upgrade for 250$ instead of 500$...

So...

a. I need to get a good card that's gonna last me a while and be DX10 ready
b. Can anyone help me find one?
c. Am I right about the whole thing? I mean sure it has bundle shit of course but I can take care of it... programmer friends can remove the crap off it to make it less clutered with shit I don't need.

[OneManArmy]

oh dear god no. let rbstr up in here. I'm too lazy (read drunk) atm to do it any justice. but dear god no.

[Mag-Mower]

The only DX10 compatible cards at the moment are the 8800GTX, and 8800GTS. The GTS Would set you back about $500 canadian.

[OneManArmy]

buy a cheap sm3.0 card like a 76-7900 gs gtx etc whatever. that should only set you back somewhere around 100-150 or maybe less american. then once dx10 gets fully underway (read next year) drop the cash for one.

[Giovanni]

Good point. I know it's a pre-built computer but... I don't have as much time to bother building one... I don't really care about the esthetics of it and I do beleive it would do the trick... then again... I could be wrong I suppose.

[Kyonye]

I don't know much about computers in general, but from what I have seen with HP computers in the past, they haven't been too quality. It could be different now, but a few years ago, I saw a few just breakdown (brand new). That is just my opinion though.

[Mag-Mower]

You could build one your self. They are cheaper, and only take an hour or so to build.

[Sentrosi]

Giovanni, please, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT buy an HP! Hell, you give me a budget and I can build you a pretty decent PC for about 2/3rds what you're going to pay for it. And you can trust me to get it to you in good working condition.

[Biohazzard56]

I work with these everday, those HP cases arent bad and they do have nForce 4 chipsets. But here are my concerns: No SLI, low FSB speed (533mhz, as opposed to the standard PC6400s 800), weak PSUs and massive ammounts of HP crap. Then you have to buy a video card.

When you cross that bridge, id use a 7600 or a 7900 GT as a placeholder card until mid-range and upper midrange DX10 Cards come out.

For that price, I would say no.

[Mag-Mower]

I agree with Bio. One thing I have figured out is that these pre-made systems have very lame power supplies. And with lame Power Supplies, you have a really hard time putting a decent graphics card in it.

[Rbstr]

oh dear god no. let rbstr up in here. I'm too lazy (read drunk) atm to do it any justice. but dear god no.

The specs are OK, except for the GPU, the CPU is also the lowest C2D on the market not thats all that bad of a place to be in.

There's not much to say that hasn't been said, DX10 cards aren't really out there, but a 7900 is quite good for now.

But FFS build the thing yourself, it takes an hour or two tops when you include putting windows on the thing. You'll save money.

[Giovanni]

Hmk well... yeah I see your point... basicly I'm looking for a gaming rig... a friend of mine will help me I have about 1200$ to put in it no monitor or anything else needed... I can sell mine for about 150$...

Windows vista thought... It's out by the 1st right? Vista ultimate will cost how much? =/

Edit: if you have a rig you can suggest please do.

[Biohazzard56]

Ive played around with the RTM (Retail) Build that comes out on the 30th. My friend is a member of MS Tech Net. For everyday tasks and general computing its stable, takes up 600mb of RAM (idle) running Premium versions. For gaming there are a TON of negatives.

In a 32 bit environment XP beats Vista 32 bit by 10-15 percent
In a 64 bit Vista environment that emulates 32 bit Direct X9; 32 Bit XP has it beat by 20-30 percent.

I would stay away from Vista until (ANY version of it) can run games just as good as they would in XP. There is no reason to upgrade now.

[Mag-Mower]

Holy shit! 600mb ram, thats a bit excessive, no?

[Infernus]

Holy shit! 600mb ram, thats a bit excessive, no?

It is windows.

[Hamma]

No, no and no! Do not buy that :p

[Giovanni]

Well one of my friends tried to build it... wound up at 1500$ for almost the same specs.

I'm gonna be waiting 'till the 1st of feb and then I'll probably buying a pre-built... the whole junk packed with it can be removed and I can always upgrade something I don't like... probably wind up being a decent computer... after all I don't want something that will blow everything away...

Still 1200$ is my budget if you can figure something out...

[Hamma]

You have to be careful with those pre-built things because sometimes they make things proprietary and there isnt much you can do in the way of upgrading.

If you build something at least you can have more options when you come to this road again ;)

[Giovanni]

Yeah well my friend is gonna be coming with me to suggest something to me... hell I might just wind up changing the case.

[OneManArmy]

your friend fucking sucks at building computers. I didnt even shop around. shit i just did this in the middle of class too.

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4799749?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG $120
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005 $188
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152074 $ 26
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820161670 $180
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128025 $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068 40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817170010 20


total $650 american.

without all the HP bullshit. better hard drive too. and you have plenty left over to get a spiffy gfx card.

[Giovanni]

Well I do say... any more of those builds laying around? I know some of you do nothing at work :P!

[Rbstr]

OMA's build is just fine, add in a graphics card and your set.

Find one you think might be good and ask about it though.
We've already given a great example in this thread, if you've read it at all. It takes a special kind of retard to be completly incapable of finding a website and looking online for things yourself, we've given you the parts to look for.

I am not going to sit here and put together ANOTHER full list of parts for you simply because your too lazy to do a bit of googling.

[Giovanni]

I actually went on NCIX.com...

I'll be browsing around but it seems for what I want... it's gonna cost me alot. Might just want to save some more and go with a 1500$ budget.

See, with tax and shipping etc. it would wind up being expensive to make it come from the US. Thus I'll be checking out canadian sites I supose.

[OneManArmy]

heh and honestly you could spend a little more for the PS and Ram if you wanted to. or even drop a little extra cash for a MB with more features.

[Sentrosi]

I actually went on NCIX.com...

I'll be browsing around but it seems for what I want... it's gonna cost me alot. Might just want to save some more and go with a 1500$ budget.

See, with tax and shipping etc. it would wind up being expensive to make it come from the US. Thus I'll be checking out canadian sites I supose.

Ok, your budget is $1500 Canadian, correct? :sigh:

$1500 Canadian = $1267 American

Ok, here goes. All prices are in American.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012) for $132
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 2.13Ghz (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115004) for $222. This chip is a good OCer. Known to get above 3.0Ghz on stock cooling alone.
Ram: Buffalo 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820150054) for $244.
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7900GS (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130056) for $176 - $20MIR = $156
Storage: Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0Gb 16mb cache 250Gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148144) for $80 x 2 = $160 (raid 0 array = 500Gb storage)
Optical Drives: Lite-On 20x DVD burner with Lightscribe support (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106045) = $38 x 2 = $76
Case: Cooler Master Praetorian (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119035) for $110. Easily the best case you can get for your money. Nothing flashy. Just solid and upgrade friendly. I have the silver one and won't part with it ever.
Power Supply: Enermax Liberty 500W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003) for $110
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Pro w/ service pack 2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16832116175) for $140

Grand total not including shipping and handling = $1350 A little over your budget, but it's going to be a solid PC for a while. Probably just need to update the video card when DX10 cards come down in price.

[OneManArmy]

holy fuck. I know 100 bucks ain't much but damn thats still a lot of cash for a hunk of metal.

[Hamma]

Not a bad piece of hardware though :chomp:

[Rbstr]

Sent's got basicaly what I'd put in my next Comp if I were to do it now, I'd just go with an ASUS mobo, because, well, I'm a fanboy. Though I think I'd wait for the ATI DX10 part and spend a little extra cash. I'd also add in a sound card for EAXHD loverlyness.

If it's a bit too much for you:
You can knock down the case price by going for soemthing a bit cheaper.
Also you can drop one of the DVD burners, you don't really need two.
And you can also drop the CPu down one speed grade(though it's a critical compenent so more $$ here tends to be worth it more)
Hell you can even go for XP home for $40 less, I bet that puts you within budget.

[Sentrosi]

Yeah, but if he ever wants to upgrade to Vista, he's going to get the POS crap version of it unless he wants to pay more. With XP Pro he'll get Vista Premium (I think)

And I would never trade in my Praetorian for any case out there. Period. Way too many good things about it. Mostly the fact that the mobo tray slides out WITH the expansion slots. You spend a little cash now and get a good case and you won't have to worry about upgrading it for a VERY long time.

The Gigabyte DS3's have been great OCers that's why I went with it. No Firewire on the board, but that's the only hitch against it in my book.

[Hamma]

Yea I think I'd go with the extra cash on the Case - I saw one at CompUSA the other day - really sexy case :rawr:

Slide out motherboard? you cannot go wrong - one of the older aluminum cases I have does that.

[OneManArmy]

eh I guess I'm from the redneck philosophy. I'd rather have all my money under the hood. fuck all what it looks like.

I have that case I linked that sells for 30 bucks. best damn case I have ever seen or used. does it slide or suck dick? no but there's plenty of room for even my fat fingers the airflow is ungodly good, and everything is screwless.

so fuck your 100 bucks id rather spend that on a bigger CPU or GPU.

and of course that just goes to show you value is nothing more than a worthless opinion.

[Hamma]

Well its not just looks its also extra fans and cooling :p

Now if it had a window on the side.. :lol:

[OneManArmy]

or spinnaz. now that is money well spent.

[Hamma]

Agreed :lol:

[Mag-Mower]

NCIX.com is the best. I hear nothing but good things about them, they have the best pricing for a Canadian store, plus you only pay 7***37; tax, as their warehouse/location is in BC, which means that you pay no PST.

[Giovanni]

Well... I'm checking stuff out until the 30th... at wich point I'll make my decision on what I get... thanks for the input guys.