Gaming new computer help

[scrtmstr]

allright, i've got an 8 year old compaq evo, and the soundcard broke. I've tried to replace it, but nothing works.
So i've decided to buy a new pc, and i've found a nice pc, an Acer aspire M5201 with the following specs:

AMD Athlon X4 620 2.6Ghz
2mb Cache
8gb DDR2 SDRAM
750GB HDD
nVidia GT120 1024 MB
8x USB
windows vista home premium
€399,99

It's got windows vista, but i'm probably going to get win 7.
Main purpose is going to be schoolwork, internet browsing and a lot of multimedia usage (lots of music, movies etc.). Not much gaming.
So is this a good pc or can i find another one that's better?

thanks in advance.

 

[Scorpei]

400 euro's, probably not a hell of a lot too much (for the pre built desktop market it is actually a pretty good price and one of the better ones out there. If you're seriously going prefab and dont care about the graka I'd almost recommend it to you from what I can see ^^.

Mind you I'm guessing you got that price out of tweakers.pricewatch so there will probably be shipping costst and etc.).. but 8 gigs of ram :S. 8 gigs of ram is way too much (for what you are planning), you will also NEED a 64 bit os to make use of it (3,3Gb is the max of a 32 bit OS). DDR2 is also relativly expensive these days so assuming that is calculated into your price you're better off with something with less ram (4 gigs ddr2/3) but a better graka (grafics card) and/or CPU. The x4 is quite a nice cpu though, slightly low on cache but still performs quite nicely (my server has an Athlon II 250) but as with the grafics I'd look for something slightly more powerfull (should be do able for that price).

Not sure if you might feel like building it yourself, if not you really need to take a good look around. What you have selected isn't a bad choice but way overpowered memory wise (and underpowered GPU wise). For schoolwork btw you really don't need a powerfull machine and multimedia that's not that hungry for specs either (though the better the CPU the better ^^).

By the way you state replacing the soundcard doesn't work? Sounds to me like you are doing something wrong or the installation is botched (only had 1 board ever be annoying when it came to adding a PCI soundcard which I went around by hooking up a 5 USD usb audio device which I had lying around for my hackintosh ^^).

 

[scrtmstr]

400 euro's, probably not a hell of a lot too much (for the pre built desktop market it is actually a pretty good price and one of the better ones out there. If you're seriously going prefab and dont care about the graka I'd almost recommend it to you from what I can see ^^.

Mind you I'm guessing you got that price out of tweakers.pricewatch so there will probably be shipping costst and etc.).. but 8 gigs of ram :S. 8 gigs of ram is way too much (for what you are planning), you will also NEED a 64 bit os to make use of it (3,3Gb is the max of a 32 bit OS). DDR2 is also relativly expensive these days so assuming that is calculated into your price you're better off with something with less ram (4 gigs ddr2/3) but a better graka (grafics card) and/or CPU. The x4 is quite a nice cpu though, slightly low on cache but still performs quite nicely (my server has an Athlon II 250) but as with the grafics I'd look for something slightly more powerfull (should be do able for that price).

Not sure if you might feel like building it yourself, if not you really need to take a good look around. What you have selected isn't a bad choice but way overpowered memory wise (and underpowered GPU wise). For schoolwork btw you really don't need a powerfull machine and multimedia that's not that hungry for specs either (though the better the CPU the better ^^).

By the way you state replacing the soundcard doesn't work? Sounds to me like you are doing something wrong or the installation is botched (only had 1 board ever be annoying when it came to adding a PCI soundcard which I went around by hooking up a 5 USD usb audio device which I had lying around for my hackintosh ^^).

it is a prefab, since you're dutch you'll probably understand the site
About the soundcard, because my pc is quiet old, it was hard to find one that fitted in there. It had a very outdated slot ( i dunno the exact name) and i've found a quiet old soundcard, put it in, installed the drivers but windows doesn't recognize it, even when i'm using a pc hardware search program.

 

[Cermage]

if you don't mind building your computer, i'd a wait a week or 2 before buying anything. thuban processors are set to comeout within the next week or so. Zosma procs shouldn't be too long after. this should bring down prices a fair bit as the phenom II x6 1055t is going to be priced at $199 US. current Phenom II x4 9xx's should drop along with the rest of the range(x4 8xx, x4 6xx, x2 5xx - athlon II series should drop as well but they're already fairly cheap as is). even more so when the Zosma cores come out.

 

[giratina16]

You should have just got an external sound card. Mind you 8 years is a long time.

 

[playallday]

Wait like two weeks, and get a AMD x6!

 

[Scorpei]

I'm guessing it was an IZA slot then. Well if you;re still on a machine with an IZA slot you deserve a new machine

. If you're not annoyed by / scared of building your own machine you can go that way, but again the price isn't half bad.

150-200 euro's for the ram (it't too much, you can easily work with half), 87 for the processor, say 40 for the motherboard, 40 for the HD, 30 for the PSU and around 30 for Vista I suppose = 377-427 euro's

Don't expect home built quality or expandability from the box, but still it isn't a bad price compared to building your own machine when you have pretty much 0 parts you can take with you.

 

[seahorsepip]

good stuff only bad thing is that videocard...it's a 120, 220 is better or 480
But I think it's a typo because i never heard of a 10years old videocard in a pc with 8gb ram(I'm from dutch too)

 

[Scorpei]

good stuff only bad thing is that videocard...it's a 120, 220 is better or 480
But I think it's a typo because i never heard of a 10years old videocard in a pc with 8gb ram(I'm from dutch too)

1. The graka: http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_geforce_gt_120_us.html = 9500 GT
Which is, as long as he doesn't really want to game, good enough (and possibly he can replace it if he feels the need and the PSU is capable).
2. You're from holland / You're dutch too

.

 

[ZeWarrior]

good stuff only bad thing is that videocard...it's a 120, 220 is better or 480
But I think it's a typo because i never heard of a 10years old videocard in a pc with 8gb ram(I'm from dutch too)

a gt 120 isn't 10 years old.......

 

[playallday]

AMD X6 = $200 (first six core CPU ever! It can do around 4GHz

)
CrossFire AM3 ready board with HD 3200 = $75 (CrossFire boards are better because you can do SLi on them as well)
4GB DDR3 = $75
PSU = $75
Case = $75
HDD = $50

Total: $550 or €405. Then if you want to game later save up a little and buy some video cards.

This is about the best system for the price that I can think of.

 

[Scorpei]

AMD X6 = $200 (first six core CPU ever! It can do around 4GHz

)
CrossFire AM3 ready board with HD 3200 = $75 (CrossFire boards are better because you can do SLi on them as well)
4GB DDR3 = $75
PSU = $75
Case = $75
HDD = $50

Total: $550 or €405. Then if you want to game later save up a little and buy some video cards.

This is about the best system for the price that I can think of.

I seh what you did theare.... You stated 1,35 USD = 1 euro. Sadly that's not the case, closer to 1USD = 1EUR

.

Also, what the hell stating crossfire boards can do SLI :S? Although yes haxoring drivers CAN make it work it is by no means a guarentee and the hax will have to be done for each driver revision.

Also that means he will have to build his own machine. He will also need a disc drive (though only 20-30 euro). You also halved the ram, with ram costing 200 euro's, and added a 100 euro's to the proc miraculousl thus making it an even price difference (true regardless of the conversion). However you also added a case which adds 50 euros: in total you end up with about 70-80 euros more then he would be spending now (me personally, I'd go for that everytime). The price on the prefab machine isn't bad. Yes waiting and spending 50-100 euros more together with building your own machine can be a better choice if that is what you want to have. If all he wants to do is watch some movies and do light office work there is no need for him to buy a 900 euro machine with an HD5870 or w/e.

Yes assuming the X6 will range at round 200 euros (which is expected so yay there), it's not a prefab machine which is what we already pointed out. All in all, enough advice given I'd say, up to you scrtmstr

.

 

[Thoob]

AMD X6 = $200 (first six core CPU ever! It can do around 4GHz

)

Uh... Core i7 980X?

 

[Originality]

From what I read, he wants a simple multimedia PC. It doesn't need 6 cores - it doesn't even need 4 cores. It also won't need more than 3GB of RAM, but most systems I see around me always aim for 4GB of RAM unless photoshopping/animating. The graphics also doesn't need to be great - crossfire or SLI would both be out of the question.

So €400 for a ready made system with windows is very good in my opinion. After that, any spare money can go into a decent monitor (and possibly the windows 7 upgrade).

 

[scrtmstr]

thanks for all the reply's, but i don't really need an X6, an X4 was the maximum as that's what I need, and will rarely use 4 cores. I've also looked into dual cores, but there aren't a lot of good specced dual cores out there anymore in my area. I'm not really looking into building a pc myself, because I don't have an awful lot of free time (friends, school etc) and I don't have enough experience.

I've heard there is a whole new wave of pc's coming along, so maybe i'll wait for that lot, but they'll probably be way to expensive.
Do you guys know any pc's with good multimedia performance, for around 400 euros ($542 US)?

 

[Scorpei]

thanks for all the reply's, but i don't really need an X6, an X4 was the maximum as that's what I need, and will rarely use 4 cores. I've also looked into dual cores, but there aren't a lot of good specced dual cores out there anymore in my area. I'm not really looking into building a pc myself, because I don't have an awful lot of free time (friends, school etc) and I don't have enough experience.

I've heard there is a whole new wave of pc's coming along, so maybe i'll wait for that lot, but they'll probably be way to expensive.
Do you guys know any pc's with good multimedia performance, for around 400 euros ($542 US)?

What you selected IS good (enough). Performance is pretty decent and again the price is pretty good. I checked the rest out there right now according to tweakers pricewatch and your selection is pretty nice for what't out there right now. Also remember computers age --> what is overkill now can become usefull, and seeing as you are still running a machine with an IZA slot you clearly use your hardware quite a while

.

 

[playallday]

Meh, I still don't think that system is any good.

Building your own computer isn't that hard, it only took me like 2 hours the first time.

 

[ZeWarrior]

Meh, I still don't think that system is any good.

Building your own computer isn't that hard, it only took me like 2 hours the first time.

some people aren't up for the task of trouble shooting in case they do something wrong. and lol, i7 980x is the first 6 core cpu, not amd phenom ii x6

 

[playallday]

Meh, I still don't think that system is any good.

Building your own computer isn't that hard, it only took me like 2 hours the first time.

some people aren't up for the task of trouble shooting in case they do something wrong. and lol, i7 980x is the first 6 core cpu, not amd phenom ii x6

Crap, that was my bad.

Now I feel really stupid forgetting about the i7-980X, didn't know it came out already!

 

[Raki]

Meh, I still don't think that system is any good.

Building your own computer isn't that hard, it only took me like 2 hours the first time.

I don't think it's good as well,
It's a low spec processor (go for a Phenom II x4 955), too much RAM for daily tasks, most likely a cheap AM2+ board, a cheap graphics card, some ok hdd and vista...the upgrade vista to win7 program is closed since a month or so

better build one yourself and buy a OEM win7 license

btw: the Phenom II X6 1090T costs 279 Euro in germany