TL's PC thread - I want more RAM Post #66

  • Thread starter Turbo Lag
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Turbo Lag

Turbo Lag

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Australia
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Alrite, many of you guys probably know my computer is useless and old, I'm still running Win2000, and nearly all the parts are from 1998. We are going to build a desktop, with a budget of around $1000 AUD. We are still in the process of thinking of whether we should upgrade this current one or build a new one, and we are leaning towards a new computer, nearly only for media.

We are looking for a good processor for around $200. I have absolutely no clue about processors, I'll probably need a fair amount of advice to decide on which to buy.

A graphics card for $200 (most likely a GeForce 8). We are looking for preferable GeForce 8800GTS.

Motherboard WITH audio card for around $200. I have no clue about these either, I'll need more help here too. Is the combination available or not?

DVD-writer for under $30. I'll be able to buy a good one of these, but if there is anything to know please tell me.

Minimum of 2Gig RAM starting at $70ish. Would I need 4gig of RAM, or will I be enough with 2gig? I'm not too sure about this, but I should be able to purchase something good.

A computer case, not sure about what we should buy, although we are not setting away too much money for this. Is around $70 enough to get a decent one?

A Hybrid Tuner TV card. Not sure about these, but it's to watch TV basically. Not sure how much this will cost.

A Hard Drive, about $150~ worth. Will 750gig be adequate for later? We are most likely getting 2 HD's, each 300gig.

OS, Windows Vista Home Premium for around $200. There is a Student Version for cheaper, but I'm not too sure we can buy it. Is Home Premium enough? Oh and will MSOffice 2000 be ok?

Is this all I will need, Or is there more to it? We are planning to use the same monitor with both PC's, this one and the new one which we will build. I'm fairly sure there is a way of doing this, but not sure. Also, is there a way of using the same speakers with both PC's without having to change the wires every time? I have heard that the new HD's will not be compatible with the old HD's since they have different wiring. I have tonnes of data on this HD, probably around 300gig worth, will I be able to use this same HD with a new motherboard? I can't afford to lose all that stuff. And is there a way of creating a network between the two, so that we can transfer all the files from one to another.

It's ok if the price goes slightly over the budget, maybe a maximum of 1100AUD.
 
The 8800 is probably overkill if you don't plan on doing much gaming. I'd be more inclined to go with the ATI HD3850, especially because it has native support for decoding high definition and uses much less idle power than any of nVidia's offerings.

I don't think you'll be able to use the monitor between both computers unless it has dual inputs. I'm not 100% sure, but logic would say if you can only connect it to one computer, you can only use it with one computer. Same for the speakers. Besides, a good Samsung 19" LCD only goes for $200AU...

You can use your old IDE harddrive in the new machine if your motherboard supports it, which it should. Although, the performance gain from a new SATAII drive is massive. And HDD prices are pretty much negligible these days. Simply install both drives, install Windows onto the new drive, copy your stuff across, remove the old drive. Also, if you buy a cheap case it might not come with a power supply. And if it does, it's probably a crap one anyway. Unless you shell out some cash for a trusted brand (Antec, Coolermaster, etc), I wouldn't trust the PSU in it.

Here's a quick list I threw together:
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
  • ASUS Radeon HD3850 512MB
  • Western Digital 750GB SATAII
  • LG H20NS10 20x DVD Writer
  • Geil 2GB PC6400 RAM
  • Samsung 953BW 19" Widescreen
  • Antec TruePower 550W Trio PSU
  • Coolermaster RC-690-KKN1 Case

All prices from Umart, this comes in at $1223 including a 19" widescreen monitor. So, if you really want to share a monitor, it comes in under budget at $988 (before shipping). Of course, the case is purely subjective - I don't know what style you like. ;)
 
Thanks Shannon 👍. About the monitor, we may as well buy the same one as we have right now. We bought it around $300AUD and you can buy them damn cheap, and we can get it cheaper since my dad's friend runs a computer shop (or atleast works there). I chose the GeForce because it seems to be common these days, my dad's friend is used to GeForce that's all really. But it is the same price, although I will still need to look into it a bit more. Tomorrow, I shall look into each item you listed and see what we think about it, thanks for making the list 👍
 
CurrentSystems.jpg


Take the monitor, keyboard and crap off one of the $1000 systems and I might be able to do you a 8800GT.

If you're lucky....
 
I think Shannon hit the nail on the head.

ATi is the better way to go if you're going to be doing media-related stuff, since the 8800 is more of a gaming card. Unless you went for a Nvidia Quadro, but they're generally less common and more expensive.
 
Casio
CurrentSystems.jpg


Take the monitor, keyboard and crap off one of the $1000 systems and I might be able to do you a 8800GT.

If you're lucky....
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The Deluxe PC IV looks good, take off the Monitor, speakers, and mouse/keyboard. The 8500GT should definitely be enough, and add another 320gig HD and Vista Home Premium. It should be around 1k~ right? Whitehorse road sounds alrite, since I am going there in a few hours to play soccer. Might drop by to have a look around. If you take the 'Supreme' PC, take off all the crap, what about Vista Home Premium and the lowest GeForce with 512mb?


G.T
I think Shannon hit the nail on the head.

ATi is the better way to go if you're going to be doing media-related stuff, since the 8800 is more of a gaming card. Unless you went for a Nvidia Quadro, but they're generally less common and more expensive.
Click to expand...

I am going for a gaming type computer, but only to play games like Trackmania which are not too big. I basically need a separate computer for gaming and work. I don't need such a good computer since school work isn't too complex. The new one will just be used for music, games, and movies etc.

Thanks all for more replies too.
 
The Deluxe PC IV is a much better computer (and a far better deal) than the Supreme. Better processor, better GPU, similar everything else. If you subtract all of the external parts like you want to, you would have a lot of financial wiggle-room to play around with, too.

I would try to get at least an HD3650, though, as I doubt an 8500 would be good at playing much of anything. It would only cost about $10 more, and would be something like twice as fast. Plus, Radeons are better at multimedia and movies than GeForces are, especially crappy GeForces.
 
You can always order from us without any graphics card, and then put your own one in. The speakers/key/mouse are next to worthless so maybe $30 for all of those, and maybe $240 off for the monitor. Which would put it at about $719.

$719 + Vista Premium is $878.

So that gives you another ~120 for an upgraded graphics card to be under 1000 all up. Possibly could do a 8800GS for that but not sure. Don't come in and quote me on these either or I'll get in trouble :lol:.
 
There's a huge difference between the 8500 and the 8800, so stick with at least the 8800. If the 8800 is cheaper than the 9600 then stick with the 8800, because I think they perform very similar.

So, in basic terms for your budget - ATI for media, GeForce for gaming.

512mb on a card will be enough for gaming, unless you're going to be running at a very high resolution. I don't think many high-end computer will be taking advantage of 1GB yet.
 
Well, what branch do you work at :lol: We're thinking about the Deluxe PC you got there.

I'm still thinking about the GeForce over the ATI, because it will mostly be used for games anyway. I think i'll be going for that.
 
Mitcham.

I'll be there wednesday, friday night (If we're open), saturday and sunday.
 
Turbo Lag
So, I found a XFX 9600GT for a tad over $200. So you are saying that this one should be better for gaming then, its a HD870. I thought that since the GeForce is 1gig and the Radeon 512mb, the GeForce must be better. Excuse my n00bish-ness.
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Well, the HD3870 performs pretty much frame-for-frame with the 9600GT, costs the same, uses less power, has high definition decoding and DX10.1 support. Other than fanboy-ism, I really don't know why budget builders are neglecting the HD3000 line for similarly priced GeForces. Like I said before, unless you're playing the latest DirectX 10 titles, hell even a HD3850 is overkill.

Edit: Revised list
  • Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
  • 2GB Kingston DDR800
  • MSI Radeon HD3870 512MB OC
  • Western Digital 500G SATAII
  • LG H20NS10 20x DVD Writer
  • Antec NSK6580 Case w/ 430W PSU

This will do everything you need it to. Hell, it's faster than my rig and I can play most of the latest titles just fine. You can save $100 just by downgrading from an E8500 to E8400, and it's only a modest 160MHz overclock if you want to bring the E8400 up to the same speed. All this comes in at $884 from Umart. So that gives you $120 for a TV tuner card (because I know nothing at all about them) and whatever else you need.
 
Thanks Shannon, I'm quite sure we are going with the items that you posted. If we can't find it, then we can go for Casio's Deluxe PC. 👍
 
I didn't know why you didn't go to the MSY near your house anyway.

E8400 - $249
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L - $109
2GB Kingston DDR800 - $53
ASUS Radeon HD3870 512MB - $249
Western Digital 500G SATAII - $97
LG H20NS10 20x DVD Writer - $29
Antec NSK6580 Case w/ 430W PSU - $135

= $921
 
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - $243.10
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L - $117.70
Kingston DDR2 2GB PC-6400/8800 - $60.50
ASUS Radeon EAH3870 512MB - $213.40
Seagate Barracuda 500Gig SATAII - $102.50
LG GH-20NS10 SATA DVD Writer - $38.50
Cooler Master Elite 331 Black/Silver Tower Case - $69
1.44mb Floppy Drive - $15
Vista Home Premium - $146.30
Leadtek WinFast DTV2000H PCI Hybrid - $70

Total - $1150.30 built.

Should be getting it during sometime this week.
 
Turbo Lag
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 - $243.10
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L - $117.70
Kingston DDR2 2GB PC-6400/8800 - $60.50
ASUS Radeon EAH3870 512MB - $213.40
Seagate Barracuda 500Gig SATAII - $102.50
LG GH-20NS10 SATA DVD Writer - $38.50
Cooler Master Elite 331 Black/Silver Tower Case - $69
1.44mb Floppy Drive - $15
Vista Home Premium - $146.30
Leadtek WinFast DTV2000H PCI Hybrid - $70

Total - $1150.30 built.

Should be getting it during sometime this week.
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Looks like that be a really nice rig. Its a shame how much cheaper you can build a near-top-of-the-line system now than when I built mine.
 
Yeah, I know what you mean. My current one had basically all the best parts possible...from about 1998. You can by a PC for around $300 brand new with better parts than this.

I've decided I don't want Windows Vista. I have tonnes of programs to run, and apparently they might not work. I guess I'll have to try to get 64bit XP.

Great, all the prices have gone down :)
 
Turbo Lag
I've decided I don't want Windows Vista. I have tonnes of programs to run, and apparently they might not work. I guess I'll have to try to get 64bit XP.
Click to expand...

Anything that won't run in Windows Vista, which is basically now anything too old to care about, certainly won't run on that pile of **** 64bit XP.

What programs are the looking to run.
 
Yes, 32 bit Vista > 64 bit Vista. You'll start to have some unwanted issues.

And I ditto Casio's comment - what programs are you going to install?
 
Tonnes of programs. Quite a few will be running in the background. Photoshop, camera software, MP3 Player software etc. Too many to list really.

So 32bit Vista HP over 64bit XP/Vista?
 
Yes, or just 32 bit XP. There's only a few programs so far that take advantage of 64 bit and your other software may not like running on a 64 bit operating system.

But, all the programs you listed should work on Vista if they're a couple of years old. There's sometimes updates for them if they're older, so you'll be unlucky if the software doesn't work at all unless they're pretty old.
 
Yeah, I've decided to stick with XP, as Vista is seen as a bit of a flop anyway. I can't buy everything until Monday, until I get a quote from another computer shop.
 
I've been thinking, will the stock power supply on the case be adequate for all the parts I'm having? The case I will be buying is most likely a Cooler Master Elite 331 Black/Silver Tower Case 420w. Will the power supply last long, and will it be reliable? Or is it worth to buy a case with no power source and buy a 500w separately, or buy a case with a better power source?
 
That 420w case has a pretty terrible 16A 12V rail. I'd change it for something better, $100 for a decent supply would be a good purchase.
 
Cooler Master Elite 331 Black/Silver Tower Case (No PSU) $68.20

Antec "TriCool" 80mm Blue LED Case Fan $15.40

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400/ 3.00GHz/ 6MB Cache/ 1333FSB/ LGA775 $221.10

Asus EAH3870-HTDI-512 Radeon HD3870, 512MB, DDR4, PCIE2.0, VGA, DVI, HDMI, HDTV, HDCP $185.00

Kingston DDR2 2GB PC-6400/800 (2x1GB) CL5 Value Ram $59.40

Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L motherboard $115.50

LG GH-20NS10 SATA DVD Re-Writer (20x/Dual Layer Black) $37.40

1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive (Black) $15.00

Antec Basiq 500W ATX Power Supply $69.30

Western Digital 640Gb 7200RPM 16Mb SATA 2 $115.80

Leadtek WinFast DTV2000H PCI - Hybrid, HDTV, FM $69.30

Microsoft Windows XP Pro - OEM $189.20

Standard Computer Build $75

Total Price (With G.S.T) Sub-Total: $1,235.60


This is the final list. By now, everyone here is probably tired of me changing the list so many times, it is because of all the different shops which offer different parts etc. The order should be placed on either Monday or Tuesday, and we should get the PC in about a week and a bit from now. :)
 
Where on earth are you getting a 3870HD for 185?! (I sell them for $275...) That's a steal. E8400 for that is major cheap too....

...this wasn't a back alley deal was it. :lol:
 

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