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Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-27-2008 09:17 PM

PC shopping question
 
Sorry, I couldn't find the other threads on this. I was just messin' around, building a system on Greenlyph:
http://www.greenlyph.com/new/compbuild.php

That's where I got my current PC.
Here's what I have so far:
http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/7342/pcnq5.jpg

I don't need a HDD. I will take it from my old one.

Do I need a sound card or is it on the MB anyway?

Does it have networking on the MB? Does it come standard?

General thoughts on the processor, MB, memory and video card would be a help. I will also transfer the CD & DVD drives.
The case & power supply would be helpful as well.

doh, Heroes is on..!

SecretMaster 10-27-2008 11:31 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Just a brief quick response, I'll be more thorough when you have time.

All motherboards have integrated audio, so you don't technically need a sound-card. Sound-cards really should go the way of the dodo but they haven't yet. Sound cards still provide a higher level of audio, but it is all a matter of preference.

All motherboards have built in network adapters as well. Networking shouldn't be a problem.

For a video card if you want a low-end card, consider a AMD 4670. Great price/performance. A 9600GT will work well too.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-28-2008 07:36 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Thanks,
I wasn't sure about the network/audio thing. Mine has it, but it's 5 years old.

Looks like they don't carry the AMD video card.

Ilander 10-28-2008 11:45 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Honestly speaking, you might want to think about a new optical drive...now, I'm not saying get a blu-ray drive, but a new DVD-Burner will almost certainly be much faster than an old one (if you have one)...and if you don't have one, they're pretty cheap.

Also, courtesy of Newegg.ca, you might think of a Radeon 4670 or a Geforce 9600 GT.

But, anyway...I'm really happy that Newegg Canada is up and running now! I don't know if it will have the best prices you can find, but it always does here in the U.S.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-28-2008 11:48 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
I do next to no burning anyway, so it is minor concern.

Harkoliar 10-29-2008 02:38 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
if your pc is 5 years old most likely your HD would be just as old. Check the motherboard to see if it still supports IDE settings. Else nowadays its Sata2.

oh unless its wireless connection, then lan is standard onboard function nowadays

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-29-2008 04:40 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
The drive is SATA. I bought it 2 Christmas' ago.

SecretMaster 10-29-2008 10:41 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Some other questions Variol

What kind of gaming are you looking to do with this machine? None at all or a lot (including new/upcoming releases?). Also what is your monitor resolution? Knowing that will help decide what an appropriate video card.

Also do you have a budget limit? How much are you looking to spend? Can you give a range?

For case/power supply. The case is largely user aesthetics and what appeals to you. Many people are partial to the Antec P182 case. I'm going for a Gigabyte Mars case. It is fairly recent, and ever since eyeing it I fell in love with it. When I build my new rig that is my case of choice.

A reputable 500W power supply is all you'd need I reckon.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 06:23 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
I play mostly turn-baser strategy & RPG's. All my games are a few years old, or more. If I build a gaming machine it will do everything else anyway.

I don't care what the case looks like; I plan on looking at the screen.

Right now I'm at 1024by768 32bit resolution. I could go higher, but why bother.

I know I should not skimp on a good power supply.

I don't want to spend more than $500.

Ilander 10-30-2008 12:25 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Here is a good build for you...

What it does well:
Word Processing, internet browsing, virus scanning, video and photo editing, video viewing, folding@home, and any number of other tomfollery.

What it does reasonably well:
Play older games, as the onboard graphics from ATI are actually capable of running Oblivion, on somewhat reduced settings, at your resolution.

What it does not do well:
Play high-end modern games at resolutions other than 1024x768, with high settings...

BUT, you have upgrade room to fool around with, and should you find yourself in need of more power later, you can drop in quite a few graphics cards without any modifications to my recommended PSU...like the ATI HD 4670, or an nVidia GeForce 9600GSO, which are both good choices at around the $100 canadian mark.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 02:03 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Boy, that's a pretty good price and as I mentioned, I don't need the HDD.

So, do you have them assemble it and ship it, or how does it work?

Edit: Oh, and why AMD? I thought everyone was leaning heavily toward Intel.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 02:32 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
I called Greenlyph and here is what they suggested:

Intel E4600 2.4gig dual processor (with fan) $132
ASUS MB P5KPL-CM $90
2gig ram $34.88
Case w/450w power supply $45
Video card: XFX 8400GS 512mb $50

Total $352 + $10 to install the old stuff into the new one.

Ilander 10-30-2008 04:12 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
With Newegg, you'd have to build it yourself.

I like AMD processors for lower-end builds, mostly because of the three-core processor option...and here's why.

1) AMD motherboards typically have a lot more value-oriented features (their onboard graphics are the best, bar none).
2)For the price of a two-core Intel processor, you can get a 3-core AMD.

The 3-core AMD will, with old games, work great, and work pretty well with newer ones too...but here's why I prefer it.

The base user who uses a computer for word processing, email, web browsing, listening to music, watching movies, and the like, doesn't need the highest straight-line speed processor...they're much better off with a processor able to handle more things at once, because it doesn't take too much power to open firefox, or microsoft word (or OpenOffice)...the most demanding program you would probably run would be an anti-virus scan.

That, though, will typically use two cores to scan things...so, having a three-core processor means that your single core applications will run fine during a virus scan.

Plus, you'll encode music and videos faster, if you do that sort of thing, and you'll see a speedboost in photoshop as well.

I deliberately tried to keep the price low, though, so that you could potentially pay a friend to put it together, or so that you could buy an operating system, should you need to.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 04:28 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Thanks for all that. As I said though, I'm keeping the drive, which has XP on it.

I do consider myself a gamer. And really that should be it's primary use! ;)

I spoke to the fellow about the AMD processor actually and her recommended it, up to the where the Intel he suggested at that price comes. The lower cost AMD's are better than the intels. The AMD's are hotter and need mote juice and put more strain on the power supply.

I think the $40 on the intel would be a good investment. I don't want to go hunting for a site with a bunch on benchmark tests.

Do you know of any?

BTW, I do use Open Office..

Bungleau 10-30-2008 04:53 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Tom's HArdware (www.tomshardware.com) is the place I'd start at for tests. Not that they're the best or greatest or anything like that, but they've had enough answers for me.

I'd bump the power supply up to 500W, and the memory up to 4GB. No, you don't really need them right now, but sooner or later... you'll wish you had them. Especially as frequently as you seem to upgrade ;)

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 05:26 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bungleau (Post 1221001)
Tom's HArdware (www.tomshardware.com) is the place I'd start at for tests. Not that they're the best or greatest or anything like that, but they've had enough answers for me.

I'd bump the power supply up to 500W, and the memory up to 4GB. No, you don't really need them right now, but sooner or later... you'll wish you had them. Especially as frequently as you seem to upgrade ;)

Hey, shut up!!

450 to 500w is really nickel and dime. With Xp, I think 2gigs of ram will do.

I'll look at the other stupid thing... ..after I take wifey out for supper!

Where's that other thread we had?? We had a benchmark link in there I'm sure.

Bungleau 10-30-2008 09:00 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
True enough. Here's a link to a Power Supply Calculator. Enter in the components you have, and it will suggest what you need. It came back and suggested a 316 watt for what I think you have, but I'd still go to 500... :) Never know what you'll add later :D

Hope you and the wife have a good dinner :D

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 09:27 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
We had a great supper! I was actually a little, or a lot tipsy.

I can't see adding anything, maybe removing though...

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 10-30-2008 09:37 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
I found this:
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube...%3DJeFyUiV6gxI

Kinda fast and confusing: any comment?

Here's another one I don't understand:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Featur...rformance.aspx

Here's overclocking stuff on the one I'm looking at:
http://www.pcstats.com/NewsView.cfm?NewsID=62977

SecretMaster 10-30-2008 10:46 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood (Post 1221022)
I found this:
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube...%3DJeFyUiV6gxI

Kinda fast and confusing: any comment?

Here's another one I don't understand:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Featur...rformance.aspx

Here's overclocking stuff on the one I'm looking at:
http://www.pcstats.com/NewsView.cfm?NewsID=62977

That technorati "stress test" video is ages old. You are looking at the comparison two very dated architectures. Don't worry about that, it is effectively useless.

The PC authority on price v. performance is also a year and a half old. This article on TechReport http://techreport.com/articles.x/14756 is much more recent and they actually explain everything so it is easy to understand.

Ilander 10-31-2008 12:18 AM

Re: PC shopping question
 
...So, those links...well, sadly, they're outdated, as SecretMaster said.

That said...I'm not so sure that I like the benchmark suite that Techreport used on that last test you linked to.

An HD-playback %utilization benchmark is a good (and common) one...as are real-time strategy games, which tend to favor multithreading.

But, I won't quibble too much. If there is room in the budget, then Intel is definitely the way to go at the moment.

That said, the Phenom X3 8450, which really looks bad on those graphs, does perform on par with the E7200...for $24 less.

If you were to instead get the Phenom X3 8650, which costs about the same, you'd *most of the time* get a product that's about 10% faster.

All this, Variol, is a bit subjective, though. Only you know what programs you use, and honestly, that's what matters the most in choosing between Intel and AMD, as both sides have advantages over the other in key categories and software.

Another useful link, which is worth perusing, is the $500 System Builder Marathon Build that Tom's Hardware just posted...though realize that that's $500 US, so you'd probably end up taking the money out of the graphics card to balance it to your budget.

Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 11-02-2008 07:06 PM

Re: PC shopping question
 
When I called on Friday, they didn't have the E4600. They only had the E7200 for $24 more. They said more of the 4600s were coming in on Tuesday.

I decided to wait.

I'm concerned about the XFX graphics card. 512mb for $50?? I dunno, doesn't sound good to me. But, things have changed over the last 5+ years.


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