Here Today... Gone To Hell!

I'm looking to buy a new computer, seeing as my laptop is knackered and is struggling enough in just allowing me to write this, and I'm looking to spend somewhere in the region of ?800-?900. I thought that my knowledge of computers was passable... Just... But looking at technical components of what may or may not be my new computer I've come to the realization that, well, it's not. Processors, video cards, the like... I have no idea what a decent one is. I was just wondering if anybody could tell me what I should look out for in order to get the most for my money. For example, these are the specifications of one that I came across,

#  Intel? Core? 2 Duo E6750 Dual Core Processor(2.66GHz,4MB Cache,1333MHz)
# Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium Edition
# New MESH Midi-TowerATX Case + 550W PSU
# PCI-Express Mainboard - SLI nForce 650i SLI(C55) - Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad-Core - ATX
# 4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory -( 4x 1GB )
# 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
# LightScribe Super Format 18x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM
# 256MB nVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT - Dual DVI, HDTV, TV-Out
# 22" Widescreen LCD TFT Digital Display with internal speakers (DVI, 5ms)
# 5.1 High Definition onboard sound card - 6 Channel Cinema sound
# Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Cordless Optical Mouse
# Free Microsoft? Works? 8.5 + 60 Days Microsoft Office Trial
# Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
# 2x IEEE1394 Firewire (onboard)
# 1x Gigabit LAN (onboard)
# Multi-format Memory Card Reader (matx)

But I'm not certain that it's in English. What's it like. Any good? Would I be getting value for my money! It's at the lower end of my price scale, so what aspects should I be looking to upgrade a bit? Help!

Please?

No? Okay... Right. Positive karma for anybody that does!

And negative for all eight thousand three hundred and eighty so of you that don't. Come on now.

PS:, I just came across this one on the same site. http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=232137

Good deal? Or not so much?

I went with the extreme processor QX6800 @ 3.20 Overclocked w Quad Core 8MB, Dual 500 GB hard drives, 13 in 1 media card reader w/floppy because you never know?, windows XP instead of vista because of some programming problems.? They may have been addressed in the last 3 months though, 24 inch wide viewable screen with usb ports, data safe 20 GB, X-Fi PCI Sound Card and Ageia physX processor.? Everything else is basically the same.? The PC is set up to view television and play X-box.? I also went for the Microsoft Office Small Business because it had all the big word proccessing and powerpoint stuff.? Depending on the usage of your pc, I chose the optical mouse and the key board with usb ports and just the stuff that you will use or know what they are to be used for.? A key board is a keyboard with some extras.? I found the optical mouse lasts longer and tends to jump around less but that's my own preference.? As for the wireless I know others who don't seem to have many problems.? Go to the site just check the build and where your particular Setup is, check the choices and see if they fall in line to others available for that system you may find yours to be sufficient or you may be able to upgrade the speed, graphic and sound cards .? It sounds like it should be OK maybe a few tweaks and make sure that your able to upgrade to PC after you make the purchase.? You should still be under budget.? Good Luck

What do you actually plan to use the computer for? Just about everything in either of those is very nearly top of the line stuff

I'd swap the graphics card for a nVidia GeForce 8800GTX, if it fits your budget (and you are a gaming guy waiting for Crysis :) ), but like Timothy said, everything else is pretty much top of the line and it's really unnecessary (4GB RAM?) unless you're a serious gamer or a professional designer.

Yeah thats a lot of ram but with windows vista might not be such a bad idea and yeah the 8800 might not be a bad idea if he's gonna play Chrysis.

FY (general) I, 32bit OSs including Linux and Vista have problems accessing the entire 4GB RAM range. If you want to use 4GB+ RAM you have to go for Vista 64-bit.

 :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Get a Mac dude.

I second that!


http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=7B723661&node=home/shop_mac/family/imac

I think the system that you quoted in this message with the # bullet points is awesome, i think you will love it!

let us know what you decide to do

In all seriousness though, I asked a few of the boys at work today, onsite guys who go to offices like News Limited and what not and configure Mac and PC networks and they said that they have seen machines in an office where one is running a program with XP, another with Vista, both with 2 gig of RAM. The Vista machine crashes constantly. He says that to be safe with Vista you need that 4 Gig, which is just fucking ridiculous for an operating system.

My mate at work has an old Powerbook G4 (the model that has been superceded twice by now) that runs Leopard (the current operating system) with 512 RAM. Runs it good, with not fucking problems. Probably helps that you don't need no anti-virus program on a Mac too.  : ok:

The iMac is the machine you want man. The new models just came out a few months ago and are better and cheaper than the last generation. It's a no brainer and it's right in your price range.

PC people confuse the hell out of me.

This is a tasty machine from play.com.


Main Specifications:
Processor: Intel QuadCore Q6600 2.40GHz, 8MB L2 Cache, 1066MHZ FSB
Memory: 2GB XMS Pro Corsair RAM 6400 800MHz
HDD Capacity: 500GB 7200RPM
Graphics Card: nVidia 320MB 8800GTS SLi ready
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
Optical Drive: 18x Speed DVD +/-RW
Card Reader: 13 in 1 Memory Card Reader
Audio: Integrated 7.1 Realtek ALC883 audio codec Audio
Power & Cooling: 550W PSU & Ice Cube Cooling Device
Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLI (NVIDIA nForce i650) motherboard
USB Ports: 6x USB 2.0

He's also lying through his fucking teeth.  Sorry man, but I'm a professional designer who works with some SERIOUSLY heavy graphics .... and Vista is solid as a rock.  Nothing has been a problem.  I used XP for a few years, and I've been using Vista for many many months and it's solid.

Mac owners and XP purists (who are the same people who slagged XP off when 2000 was still the geeks choice), are just taking the stories and spinning them.

Every time a new MS OS comes out, it gets the shit kicked out of it by fanboys, geeks, and media frenzy.

I love the Mac, and I had no problems with XP.  So I'm not biased.  But I like Vista.  It's solid, feature rich, and well designed.  Ignore the haters.

its not just the mac fanboys hating on vista! its everyone.. theres one simple reason! its puke! I bought it ran it on the mac.. and pc.. lames!

Oh, you know, a bit of this, bit of that... A fair amount of downloading, streaming, watching and burning videos and the like, seeing as I don't have access to the best that the television can offer right now. I haven't been into my gaming of late, being that my laptop has been having trouble just running the most basic of videos, but that will change once I have a desktop capable of letting me bash out a decent gaming session... So I want a computer that's going to be capable. Obviously I don't want a total beast of a supercomputer, hence the budget, but I want a system that's around about the current pace.

Right now I'm leaning towards this,

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=232137

so I guess that my main question now is whether I would be getting value for money?

Cheers guys.

I have a new HP running Vista Home Premium.....I haven't encountered any major problems at all, I like it much better than XP.

You're utterly wrong ...

and if you continue this way, I wont keep backing you up in the thread about your forum! :D

;)

Well if you dont back me I'll just steal your myspace page and make it my own!

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?nnmm=browse&mco=3339496F&node=home/shop_mac/family/macbook

 ;)

That would be more then ideal for what you plan on doing with it. If you were more of a gamer i would like someone else said go with the 8800 but since you aren't much into gaming the 8600 will be more then enough. You will love that widescreen lcd and the soundsystem that thing has too.

While I try to catch one of the onsite boys when they're actually in the office, can I ask what a designer working with heavy graphics is doing on a PC?
I deal with a lot of different companies in my job and every single one of them bar none runs their graphics department on Macs. I'm just kinda curious as to why you prefer the PC?  :peace:

whats your budget limit? i would prefer buying the parts separate and put it together

want to help me overclock my cpu  :-X  ;D i have the QX6850

I think you could take care of that on your own and in private.? :nervous:

To be honest the difference between the 2 processors was about $1000.00.? The overclocking was from the factory and not me screwing around with bios or applications.? To gain speed of 2 to 13% on some applications, it just wasn't worth the money.? In a year or so it'll be alot cheaper and probably slower than the next one being made.? It is amazing what comes out w/i weeks of each other.? ?

Well, in an ideal world... The ideal being that my knowledge of computers surpassed 'ample,' at best. If I risked that and the thing blew up, I'd be fucked because I'd have no cover. But aye... If I could, don't doubt that I would.

Anyway, I decided to go with the second one that I posted, the ?900 one. Cheers for all of your help guys, and as promised...

(Mostly because I can, and I enjoy abusing power for my own selfish ends).

That one is pretty bad ass! you're gonna love it!

Good Luck and enjoy.? Oh and thanks for the abuse of power.? :beer:

I love my 8800gtx, best card I've ever owned.

Putting one together really isn't that hard. Me and my dad did it and we never done it before. The part to be most careful with is the processor. I don't know about intel but the newer amd's have the heat spreaders so damaging the chip isn't that easy to do anymore. One important thing to remember, when mounting the motherboard in the case DO NOT forget the motherobard rises. If you screw the board in directly to the back of  the case you'll fry the board.

And Spirit Dave is conspicuosly quiet ...  :rofl: :rofl: