PC shopping question

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Bungleau 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]

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

Hope you and the wife have a good dinner

[Variol (Farseer) Elmwood]

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]

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

Originally Posted by Variol (Farseer) Elmwood 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.