Hardware The "what computer should I buy/build" thread?

[kylehaas]

That makes sense to me. I was just throwing the idea out there.
Lots of people like the Corsair pre-made liquid cooling systems;
pre-made is definitely the way to go, though I'm not sure if it is cheaper than building it yourself.
I'm pretty sure it's definitely safer; especially if you want to be able to place the blame on someone else, if a problem does come up.
The Coolit ALC model, that I mentioned above, is a great alternative to some of Corsair's builds, but I've heard that the Coolit model is much easier to install on AMD boards than on Intel boards. So, if you ever go with Intel, maybe stick with the more expensive Corsair models.

 

[Chhotu uttam]

if you are looking for a good cheap computer you should get an i3 or i5 processor.
for the graphics card you can get any ati radeon 5xxx seriesor nvidia 9800gtx.this will do it for a couple of years.

and if you are looking for a expensive computer i suggest you amd phenom x6 1100t code name thuban or intel core i7 extreme(it's way too costly)
a good graphics card such as ati radeon 6xxx series or ati radeon firepro or nvidia 280gtx,460gtx will do this

 

[Splych]

if i make a future build for myself , i'd go for the Corsair pre-made water cooler . my cousin also directed me to the Coolit one as well , and i thought that random mini screen was pretty extra

.

@Chhotu - so are you suggesting a Phenom II x4 is not good enough to be built under a 'cheap' computer ? im sorry but the advice you just gave was pretty horrid . . .

 

[Chhotu uttam]

if i make a future build for myself , i'd go for the Corsair pre-made water cooler . my cousin also directed me to the Coolit one as well , and i thought that random mini screen was pretty extra

.

@Chhotu - so are you suggesting a Phenom II x4 is not good enough to be built under a 'cheap' computer ? im sorry but the advice you just gave was pretty horrid . . .

phenom II x4 is a good one but in place of that i5 is better

intel is the best but the i7 cost is way too high

 

[Originality]

@Chhotu - so are you suggesting a Phenom II x4 is not good enough to be built under a 'cheap' computer ? im sorry but the advice you just gave was pretty horrid . . .

It's not just his CPU advice, but the GPU advice seems outdated too. Too lazy to get into detail on yet another thread...

 

[Jamstruth]

Ok, so I'm in the processing of convincing my parents to buy me a £680 as a desktop replacement before I go to Uni in September. I'm trying now as its my 18th birthday on the 21st of April so

The laptop in question is a Vaio E-Series of a custom spec (because I like those things) as follows
Processor: Intel® CoreTM i5-480M, 2.66GHz (presumably Sandybridge)
Operating system: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
Language and keyboard: English (QWERTY)
Finishes: Black
Hard drive: 500 GB Serial ATA (5400 rpm)
Memory: 3 GB 1066MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: DVD disc drive
Display: 39.4 cm LCD, 1920x1080, webcam
Graphics: ATI MobilityRadeon HD5650 1GB
Microsoft® Office 2010: Office 2010 Starter
Internet security: No protection
Adobe® Creation: No Adobe® Creation
Also Included
AC Adapter: 1 AC Adapter
Wireless LAN: Wireless LAN + Bluetooth®
HDMI? output: HDMI? output
Battery: Battery life up to 3 hours[/p]

Notes:
The 500GB HDD is a part I want and is on offer until April 11th. Would normally add £30 but is free right now.
The 3GB of memory has reasoning behind it: Sony charge WAY too much for any more. It costs an extra £50 for them to put in a 2GB stick instead of a 1GB stick while building it. I can pick up a 2GB stick here for less than half that and fit it myself easily. Hell my plan is actually to get this stick of 4GB and get 6GB of RAM for about a third of what Sony would charge me.
The rest of the parts seem relatively well priced, £40 to go from a white/silver finish to black was bull though. The HD5650 should run most of the games I have easily (Source Engine, Guild Wars, Fallout 3 etc.) and the "Hyperspeed" option on the i5 should make Minecraft run lag free (though if your PC can't handle Minecraft there's something wrong with it... mine gets 30FPS on Fancy) 1080p screen sounds nice though I probably won't notice as its so small (but screw it I like to have nice things!)

The closest I've been able to find in the same price range (£700 is my max) is this Samsung R780 with a lower spec graphics card, bigger but lower res screen, more RAM and a bigger HDD. 17" screens aren't too portable though and this is likely to be going back and forth to lectures, the library, etc.

So what do you guys reckon? Buy now? There aren't any big tech developments in the coming months I should be aware of? (last time I made a topic like this in January was just before Sandybridge came out)

 

[Advi]

that's perfectly fine for that price. enjoy your laptop

 

[naved.islam14]

You have a superb laptop, even better than mine and I thought my laptop was good.

 

[mk.2]

That i5-480M, is not Sandybridge. If you want current gen Intel CPU, this might not be the laptop you're looking for.

 

[Jamstruth]

How big's the difference in performance? I'd have though they'd have shifted manufacture over quite quickly (given its the same socket, only the processor being changed). Not seen any laptops with a Sandybridge in it then...

 

[Rydian]

Are you going to be doing anything that's specifically CPU-limited?

 

[Jamstruth]

Not particularly tbh. I render videos, play the odd game. I'll be compiling software at Uni though that's not incredibly CPU intensive. The thing is that this laptop has to last me 5 years. I'm sure the Arrandale will keep up 5 years in the future (hell my Pentium D has kept up alright by just being a dual core) but obviously a Sandybridge will stay in the game for a bit longer.
The only Sandybridges I can find are in the C-Series which means a 14" screen of slightly lower res, less stock RAM and a different GPU (haven't looked it up 66xx series though). Its another £100 though so its out of the question. I doubt the E-Series will get any cheaper or get an update to SandyBridge anytime soon (and when they do they'll have a price bump)

 

[mk.2]

I've never read the any comparison article of these two gen CPUs, but there were rumours that Sandy Bridge would have around 20% performance gain over Arrandale. That's from before Sandy Bridge was released to the market.

By the way, what kind of HDD upgread you'll get? If it is an increase in capacity, it's not really significant (unless you plan to store a lot of data on your laptop). You could get external portable HDD for your self later.
I'd suggest you to get a 7200 RPM drive instead. It really makes difference when you use your laptop; faster loading time for applications/faster file transfer. (comparison video)

 

[Jamstruth]

5400RPM 500GB is the only one they offer. That's free atm, the stock one is a 320GB 5400RPM. It costs £30 to go to a 7200RPM 320GB, £60 for a 640GB 5400RPM (not worth it).
I store quite a lot of data on my PC so 500GB harddrive is kind of a must. I do have an external but its only 120GB and a 3.5" old drive I stuck in a external enclosure. Looking at that video I just go...so? A 7200 boots up 2s quicker, takes 30s less to copy a 32GB file and half as long to launch 39 apps. In the grand scheme of things I doubt I'm gonna notice any difference. I'd rather have the extra space than a faster drive.

 

[mk.2]

It's good that you are fine with 5400RPM speed. I'm easily get irritates with slow transferring speed so I always emphasize on that.
Here is the mobile cpu benchmark (I forgot I have it bookmarked) which you might already read it.
I5-2520M (2.5GHz) scores 3505 on 3DMark06 CPU where as i5-480M (2.66GHz) got 2880. I think you probably should get Sandy Bridge, considering you'll have it with you for another 5 years.

EDIT: Also, make sure you have a good look at the screen before you buy. I had a big disappointment when I bought my VAIO-F last december. The screen sucks hard. The screen is too reflective;I can't use my laptop outdoor without seeing my own face on the screen. Brightness is not even; the bottom of the screen is too bright where as the top area is too dim.

 

[Jamstruth]

An extra £200 is not in the budget unfortunately so I think the compromise will be that I get an E-Series with Arrandale instead of the C-Series with Sandy bridge
C-Series Spec I'm looking at btw
Processor: Intel® CoreTM i5-2410M 2.30GHz
Operating system: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium
Language and keyboard: English (QWERTY)
Finishes: Black
Display: 35.5 cm LCD, 1600x900 + webcam
Graphics: AMD Radeon? HD 6630M 1GB
Hard drive: 500 GB Serial ATA (7200 rpm)
Memory: 4 GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM
Optical Drive: DVD disc drive
Microsoft® Office 2010: Office 2010 Starter
Internet security: No protection
Adobe Creation: No Adobe® Creation
Adobe® Lightroom®: No Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom
Also Included
AC Adapter: 1 AC Adapter
Wireless LAN: Wireless LAN(bgn) + Bluetooth
HDMI? output: HDMI? output
Keyboard Style: Backlight keyboard
Battery: Standard battery[/p]
Total: £839.02

The 7200RPM HDD was the free upgrade on this one, also only £20 for going from 2GB of RAM to 4GB of RAM. F- You Sony.

 

[Splych]

phenom II x4 is a good one but in place of that i5 is better

intel is the best but the i7 cost is way too high

it's proven that Intel does perform better than AMD , but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't recommend it . not all people could afford an i5 but they could afford a x4 which is $50 cheaper .

in my opinion , i'd rather go for a x4 over an i3 anyday .

mind reading up some more on what you recommended . . . rather than just saying them . the 6xxx series performs slightly better than the 5xxx but some have said the difference is so little , the 5xxx would be better since it's cheaper .

 

[Chhotu uttam]

phenom II x4 is a good one but in place of that i5 is better

intel is the best but the i7 cost is way too high

it's proven that Intel does perform better than AMD , but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't recommend it . not all people could afford an i5 but they could afford a x4 which is $50 cheaper .

in my opinion , i'd rather go for a x4 over an i3 anyday .

mind reading up some more on what you recommended . . . rather than just saying them . the 6xxx series performs slightly better than the 5xxx but some have said the difference is so little , the 5xxx would be better since it's cheaper .

if this is your opinion,i'd rather go for a core 2 duo or core 2 quad it way to cheap and can easily run(with a good graphics card) about 2-3 years without upgrading it.

 

[1NOOB]

hey just 2 questions , maybe irrevelant , but where i live noone know shit about pc lol not even in store so i buy everything online (anyway in store it would be too pricy lol )

heres what iv got :

motherboard: biostar TA890FXE (was a combo with my cpu)
cpuhenom II x4 955 black edition overclocked @ 3.7 (more make it became too hot , i need a cooling system (i have 2 fan on my case for now) lol)
gpu:Radeon HD 6950 (i think i should flash it or something to make it better )
ram: 6gb @ 666 (1x 4gb ,1x 2gb(i know i didnt had a llt of money left when i bought the ram lol )



so heres my questions ,

first is my pc any good ? lol (id say it is ok but im not that good in computer and im not too dumb too lol )

what is the first thing ill need to change when i have money , i think it is the ram lol but id like someone opinion

edit : never understood geekbench test , but i get arounr 6-7k depending on what is running , my memory being what lower the score)

 

[Splych]

@Chhotu - the point i am trying to make is that AMD is cheaper than Intel . why would you bring up the Core2Duo or the Core2Quad after just saying the i3 and i5 ? there's a reason why the Core2 have stopped production and if you wanted a computer to be future proofed better , Phenom > Core2 .

@1NOOB - yeah your PC is good . i do find it a little odd that your RAM isn't in pairs . i'm not sure if it'll affect performance , so it's best to wait for a computer geek to explain something for RAM being in pairs or triples . if you say say your CPU is getting hot , then invest into an after market cooler . something as simple and cheap as the CoolerMaster Hyper212 should do you well enough . i am not sure what case you have , but it's always nice to have good ventilation that is going in one direction [front = in , back = out] .