I'm am trying to build a new PC (mostly for backing up home movies/ some game playing). Here is what I built on dell's website. PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E7200 (3MB L2, 2.53GHz, 1066 FSB) OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows XP® MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 4DIMMs HARD DRIVE: 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ OPTICAL DRIVE: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB supporting HDMI SOUND: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio Network Interface: Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Labels: Windows XP™
How much is it? Look at this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...MC-IGNEFL112808-_-DesktopPCs-_-L4A-_-83107705 If you like the one I linked to, I can give you a discount for $150 off, so it will be $650 shipped. The HP has a faster CPU and better Video Card. Edit: The $150 discount is not expired. There is also the alternative of building your own. It will be tough to build a system of similar quality for less than $650, but you can build a slightly better (more reliable) one for about $720 or so.
The computer that I made was a Dell Inspiron 530s and costs $664.00 The link that you posted says this (Pros: Fast computer. Somewhat high specs. While it works. Cons: Alot of users are having problems with this computer and other new high end HP systems. Most likely hardware problems, motherboard, hard drive? Computer slows down to a crawl at least once a week for hours on end. Other Thoughts: Mine has already been back to HP for service after a month of ownership and its still not fixed. HP has no idea what the problem is.) This doesn't sound to good. It sounds like it is sick! LOL
That's probably a software issue. Tthey usually pack PCs with tons of useless apps. Why I don't buy pre-built PCs Either way, that deal has expired, so it is no longer $650. The main concern with the Dell (like the HP) is that you have no control over what type of components go in. They usually use cheaper RAM and Power supply. The Intel Core 2 Duo are very good Chips. If you are interested in building your own from scratch, we can maybe get a full build (no monitor) for about $650 that will be 1.5x better. We would need some preferences (Intel vs. AMD) and a budget. Do you overclock? If not, then AMD vs. Intel is not an issue and price would be a main concern. Otherwise, it will take some research to figure out the best buys. The one you chose may be a good buy, but it is very hard to compare pre-built PCs as you do not know what is inside of them. Here is what AMD's top end self built PC build would cost (click on the links to go to the component and see the individual price. Note that the CPU and Video card have the same link. This is a combo deal for $340 you get both an AMD Phenom 9950BE and a Sapphire Radeon HD 4870): CPU: No longer Valid Deal Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H RAM: 4GB Corsair Dominator GPU: No longer valid deal HDD: 500GB Seagate Case: NZXT Alpha Black K/B: Black Rosewill DVD: LG 22x DVDRW PSU: PC Power & Cooling 500 Watt (corrected link) ------------------------ Sub Total: $827 Less Rebates: $105 -------------------- Total: $722 The benefits would be: -AMD 9950BE is the best AMD Processor. This would compete with the Q6600 from Intel and similar to an E8500 from intel. -Motherboard is very solid with lots of features and overclocking potential. -RAM is top quality Gaming RAM. Will last longer and stay cooler than whatever a store build PC will have -Video Card is the best video card you can buy without taking out a mortgage on your home. -HDD is Seagate, a very reliable manufacturer. 500GB is enough -Case is a solid performer -DVD RW is capable of booktyping. This increases reliability with DVD Players when using DVD+R media. PSU: Store bought PCs generally give you cheap Power Supplies. PC Power & Cooling uses expensive parts and creates quality units. They have a very powerful 12V rail which is crucial. They are estimated to last 100,000 hours (11+ years of running 24 hours a day) Now, this would not include a monitor however. I don't know if the Dell includes one. The Intel equivalent will be a little more as there is a special with the 4870 at $50 off with purchase of a 9950 CPU. This is a great deal!! There is also an alternative including $300 of free gas. The price difference will be about $20 more for this, however, there is a downgrade in the video card. Obviously price can go down as these are for the most part top of the line components. However for $722, this is much better than the HP I linked to and leagues better than the Dell one. A good monitor would be a 22" - 24" Samsung for this PC. I think I will stop recommending PCs and components to people for a year or so though, because this is about $80 cheaper than what I put together three days ago and it has a much better Video Card It makes me feel real bad when I see I could have upgraded while saving money. Mine was $799 - $140 in rebates: $659, but no HDD, no keyboard, no DVD Drive, and an HD 4850 (vs the 4870). I did buy a 3rd party cooler, but the AMD chips seem to have better stock coolers. So my build total would have cost $800 and it is no better than what I recommended to you other than the overclocking potential Now, I'll have to put in some extra hours before the year is up so I can upgrade my CPU in the summer.
My first recommendation to you is to consider building your own PC. It might seem like a tall order, but it's not that hard, there are loads of guys here to help you, and you end up with a better PC for the price, EVERY TIME if you're a gamer. Plus, if anything goes wrong with it, you'll know how to sort it out, because you built it! Nothing like freeing yourself from the chains of lousy tech support The Dell system you posted could be built for next to nothing, as small hard disks like that, basic motherboards, and 800mhz RAM cost next to nothing these days, and the graphics card is literally only worth 20 dollars. The CPU is the only valuable component in it, and even that's only worth 100. JaguarGod's system is better as unlike the Dell, the graphics card in it isn't completely useless for playing games, and it also has a relatively powerful processor, but apart from being out of stock, it's expensive, greatly so for how powerful it is. JaguarGod is right in saying that prebuilt PCs include a lot of useless software which is why I'm not fond of using them, and while they say they include genuine Windows, you try reinstalling it, they won't have given you the CD to do it... I think not overclocking is probably a given in your case, especially for a first time builder, if you're curious later, I'll explain. The combo deal on jaguarGod's post has also expired, as far as I can see, so here's what I'd do instead: CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018 Q6600 $178 M/B: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347 EP43-DS3L $85 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145176 4GB Corsair $91 ($61 after rebate) GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770 Sapphire HD4850 $150 ($130 after rebate) HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136073 WD 500GB $60 Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146041 NZXT Alpha $60 ($40 after rebate) Input: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126018 Logitech USB $16 CD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136152 LG 22x $24 PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003 Corsair VX 450W $70 ($60 after rebate) Once again jaguarGod, the power supply you recommended only fits Dell cases, not normal ATX ones. As for a monitor, I don't know if he needs one or not, so I'll wait to find out.
Thanks for the info on the PSU. I didn't know that was Dell Fit only. Probably the reason why it is $40 after rebates The only bad thing with Combo packages is that they don't tell you when they expire. It was an insane deal. $340 for a Sapphire HD 4870 and AMD Phenom 9950BE + an additional $20 rebate and free shipping on both. I was close to buying a 2nd system That's a nice build you suggested. Same price as the Dell, but much better. @Keebles, The system that sammorris suggests, is an excellent deal and a very good system. This system is a lot more future proof than the Dell. You will not find a system for the same price at a store that is similar in performance for 5 years or so.
Exactly the reason, as newegg sell an identical unit that fits ATX cases and it costs much more. Didn't mean to be so abrupt but you recommended a few people that PSU, so I had to stop them all before they all bought the wrong unit... :S
Yeah, thanks. Newegg did not specifically put "Dell" on the title, so you have to spot it from the PPCS500D. Combine that with me doing these recommendations after 2AM. Maybe I need more sleep. Great job spotting it!! That deal definitely seemed to good to be true, because I guess it was I'm glad that PCP&P seems to be same quality as before OCZ bought them. When I put Workstations together, that was the only brand I went to for a PSU. You can run them 24/7 for years and the PSU always outlasted the workstation. They were so much. About $500+ for a PSU, but, you can take the PSU into a new build, so it was worth the price. The low prices scared me. Oh, and those things are solid. I would not want to drop that on the floor as it would probably completely destroy the wood floors. The PSU weighs at least 8 pounds! Those cheapo ones are like 5oz, so it takes 25 cheap PSU to equal one PCP&P... I wonder what the cheap ones are made of?
Haha it's alright, I was up until 4am posting last night... I have seen no evidence that PC P&C units are any less well made than they ever were. They don't quite live up to the silent performance of the big Zalmans, Corsair HX models and Enermax's Modu82 series, but the Silencer units are quiet enough and like you say, will run pretty much forever. Usually the lost weight is in lack of heatsinks for the voltage regulators, and lower rated components (that's right, the cheap 600W PSUs out there only use components rated for 200W)
So that's why they end up getting fried (good scenario) or frying your components (bad scenario)... PSUs are probably the most overlooked component. There are all those gimmicks about wattage and people only look at that factor.
I don't plan on over clocking. Most of the games that I play are Revolt, MechWarrior 3, Star Wars Episode I Racer, and a bunch of emulators such as PlayStation 1, GBA, GB, Genesis, N64, SNES, Saturn, and try to play Dreamcast(it is really slow). Most of what I do is ethier backing up dvds to dvdr / converting them to xvid. Here is a list of programs that I usually run. (1)AVG Free (2) Samsung ODD Live firmware update (3) Tversity( use it to stream my xvid to my 360)(4) Magic ISO Virtual CD/DVD Drive (5) Fire fox (5) DVD Shrink (6) DVD Fab (7) Imgburn (8) DVD Decrypter (9) dvd SmartRipper (10) AutoGK (11) VLC media player (12)PSP Video 9 (13) PowerDVD (14) unlead movie factory 2 (15) Nero 7. I am trying to keep the build price under $700( I don't think I need any type of alien ware computer( seen them in some of the gamer magazines I read)
Sorry for these long posts, but I have included a lot of info. I think it is important to make a very informed decision when making a large purchase like a PC. Every program you listed benefits from processor and RAM. I think those two are most important for you. I think the build that sammorris suggested is perfect for you. The only component in the build that you might not need is the graphics card and you can save some money by downgrading that component. You are already noticing that your system is currently having issues from the Dreamcast Emulator. Emulators rely heavily on your processor. You will notice the most difference from encoding (converting) videos and music. It should be at least twice as fast at that. DVD Decrypter, you will not notice a difference. That is limited by your Drive speed, although a faster PC will definitely max out drive speed. In terms of Burning DVDs, it makes no difference on speed, however, it greatly decreases the probability of write errors. You will get fewer coasters and your burned movies will last much longer. Sammorris's build costs $734 prior to rebates and $654 after rebates. Here is what the differences are between his build and the Dell: CPU: The Q6600 has 4 cores. This will improve performance on video editing, video/audio encoding, video/audio converting, movie viewing, picture viewing, multi-tasking, browsing the internet, general application performance. On top of that, it is a better CPU in general and will outperform the E7200 in every task. RAM: Corsair RAM is very high quality and low latency. It has heat spreaders to keep temps down. This RAM will perform faster and last longer than "value" RAM found in pre-built PCs. This will improve performance on every application you run. It will also reduce lags when opening applications and allow you to have more applications open at the same time without killing your Hard Drives. Video Card: The 4850 is by no means the over the top video card you are afraid of, however, it will run pretty much every game with max settings up to a certain resolution. This is a mid grade card (gaming perspective), but it is about 100 times better than what the Dell comes with. Having a dedicated mid-grade card takes off any extra stress from your system from having resources allocated to On Board or Shared Graphics. The Dell System will use your RAM and CPU in order to run the graphics "solution" and will overall slow down your system. HDD: Maybe the Dell HDD is quality, maybe it's not... You don't know. The Western Digital is a Top quality Desktop HDD. Data will not be lost and it will have fewer CRC errors. Also, the drive will last longer and can be carried over to future builds. The size is 140GB larger as well. This is not as important, but it is always nice to have more storage space. Optical Drive: The only advantage is that LG Drives can Bitset. I am not sure if the Dell Drive will. Bitsetting is changing a bit in the DVD+R so that a DVD player will read the disc as DVD-ROM and think it is an original disc. This increases compatibility of burns, but I feel that good quality media is more important than bitsetting. This is really a bonus feature. Case: Having your own case makes it easier to move components around and upgrade in the future. Also, this case will have better airflow than a stock case. Power Supply: The Dell comes with an unknown PSU. Odds are it is a very Cheap PSU that will fail in time or cause harm to your system, like Data loss or component malfunction/damage. The one recommended by sammorris is a high quality PSU with better internal components. It is also more efficient and will save costs running your PC over time. It will also support additional components if you plan on upgrading in the future and is reliable so your system will be much safer and last longer. Sound: They are probably the same. Integrated sound is enough unless you are an audiophile or have a $10,000 audio system. LAN: Both are identical OS: You can use Linux or install Windows XP from your previous PC. In order to install Windows from your old PC, you would need a tool to read your Windows Key as well as Windows XP on a CD. You can also make your custom build or include all updates and service packs using a tool called nLite. You can even make an unattended install disc. This means that you just pop your Windows CD in and that's it. Everything is done automatically. It doesn't take long to learn how to use nLite and it is a lot of fun. I don't know if you can do the same with Vista as I do not have Vista. The only benefit to the Dell is that it is prebuilt and you will save about 2 - 3 hours of screwing things together and setting up your operating system. And about your Alienware worries... I do not play games and I am building a system very similar to the one sammorris suggested for you. If I had the AMD option available that I presented to you before (I guess it was 1 day only), I would have gone that way because of the improved Graphics card. Also, I purchased a $50 CPU cooler (that doesn't fit on the Motherboard I purchased ) even though I do not plan on overclocking the CPU. Reason was that anything involving video is very CPU intensive. The cooler will prolong the life of my CPU. My PC will mainly be used for Video Encoding, Video Editing, and DVD/Movie back ups. I also have some emulators, but I think my most advanced would be Super Nintendo (Super Punch Out is fun). When building remember that $20 goes a long way when you are choosing components. By this I mean that the difference between cheap parts and quality parts is usually within $20. So if you go a little over budget, remember that $20 more today = $100 less tomorrow Edit: You probably need the quad core to just load this post
Wow, that's quite a post. It nearly meets the word count for the last essay I wrote! As it happens, Dell use PC Power & Cooling units. As for the graphics card, he did mention 'some game playing' but not the extent. If it's more light usage, then get this instead of the 4850: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127383
lol Neither do I I do get a little carried away at times. I guess I pay attention to detail. My old DVD Editing guides were like this as well. The size ranged from 25 pages to over 200 pages and I wrote like 20 of them. @sammorris, Wow, didn't know Dell uses PCP&C PSU. That further explains the Dell Exclusives from the company.
Yep, the two manufacturers I've seen in Dell PSUs are PC Power & Cooling and ChannelWell, the latter make Thermaltake Toughpower, Corsair TX and numerous other units including some Antecs. They also manufacture the power bricks for IcyBox's external hard disk enclosures, and since IcyBox is a Tagan brand, I wouldn't be surprised to see some CWT in their stuff either. Dell PSUs tend not to go pop like most prebuilt units do. I have no complaint about the build quality of any of Dell's stuff, other than the laptop battery incident their technical reputation is well-deserved, and the laptop batteries were Sonys... go figure!
Which is better for video editing(dvd to dvdr & DVD to divx)and emulators. Right now I am using an pc that has an 80gb HDD, 512 Ram, 2 DVD burners(1 is Iomagic samsung, the other is HP 1040(both internal), and is running Windows 2000 SP4. My older brother says the AMD is more for gameing, and that Intel is more for Gerneral work/ causual play.
Here is what I am currently looking for( I want it to be able to run Windows XP( I want to be able wait until Most of the bugs that my brother has been having to tackel at work are fixed(he doesn't say much about what the problems are)but a few of them are certian apps just wont run on vista. I will be using the dvd burners from my current computer since I just got them last year and they burn cdr's at 52x and dvdrs at 20x( both are dual formats and are able to burn dual layer discs(even though I have never burned any yet). I also will be using my 13 Inch CRT View Sonic monitor along with my 4 piece speaker system, keyboard and wireless usb mouse, my firewire card, and my USB WINTV tv tuner. Here is a list of items that I am try to put together 1) Intel BOXDP35DPM LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard Specs: CPU: CPU Socket Type: LGA 775 CPU Type: Quad-core / Core 2 Duo FSB: 1333/1066MHz Chipsets: North Bridge Intel P35 Memory: Number of Memory Slots: 4×240pin Memory: Standard DDR2 800 Maximum Memory Supported: 8GB Channel Supported: Dual Channel Expansion Slots: PCI Express : x16 1 PCI Express : x1 3 PCI Slots: 3 Storage Devices PATA: 1 x ATA100 2 Dev. Max SATA: 3Gb/s 6 Onboard Video Onboard Video: Chipset None Onboard Audio: Audio Chipset: SigmaTel STAC9271D Audio Channels: 8 Channels Onboard LAN: LAN Chipset: Intel 82566DC Max LAN Speed: 10/100/1000Mbps Rear Panel Ports: USB: 6 x USB 2.0 IEEE 1394: 1 x IEEE 1394a S/PDIF Out: 1x Optical Audio Ports: 5 Ports Onboard USB: Onboard USB :6 x USB 2.0 Onboard 1394: Onboard 1394: 1x 1394a Physical Spec: Form Factor: ATX Dimensions: 12.0" x 9.6" Windows Vista Certified for Windows Vista Power Pin: 24 Pin 2) CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit 3) PNY VCG88512GXPB GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card 4) Antec 75003 120mm Case Fan 5) COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UB Black /Blue Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 6) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM what kind of power supply should I get? I don't want to under power it/over power it and break it. Also did I forget anything? Total cost so far is $468.95
lol 2 things? Depends on your budget. If you aren't on a extreme budget it would be wise to get a cheap Core 2 Duo like a E7200 combined with a motherboard like a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R to get a very good OC. That would set you up with a very fast system. Don't get an Intel motherboard. Intel chipset sure, but the actual manufacturer of the motherboard should not be Intel as those don't OC.
