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One Computer
Æthelred
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Why yes, it's another computer post! My laptop is slowly dying and getting increasingly frustrating. I'd like a PC that can actually handle having lots of programs open at once, not take three minutes to load up and with a nice large harddrive. That said, could anyone take a look at what I've picked out and comment on it please? I'm moderately proficient, but I still don't understand hardware fully (this is prebuilt btw) so would like advice on the key points.
This is the machine: http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=116818
Processer
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core Processor (2.40GHz,4MB Cache,1066MHz)
This was an upgrade of £75 from the E6400, but from what I've read that's worth it; the E6600 is supposed to be the cutoff point, with a jump up to 4MB of cache. Worth the extra money?
Memory
1024MB DDR2 533MHz Memory - (2x512MB)
I'd thought memory had gotton cheaper now, but it's still so damned expensive. What's the difference between this at 533MHz, and the same at 900MHz? It's a mystery to me.. That'd be £50 more.
Graphics Card
512MB DDR2 nVIDIA GeForce 7300GS - TV out- DVI - PCIe (256Mb SMA)
I understand graphics cards not at all. I'm not really looking for a machine to play games, but I'd take it if it came built in. The possible upgrades for that are..
256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS - DVI,HDTV & TV-Out - PCI-Express[upg £ 30.00]
2x 256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS - nVIDIA SLI Configuration[upg £ 45.00]
Are either of those worth bothering with?
Thanks.
This is the machine: http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=116818
Processer
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core Processor (2.40GHz,4MB Cache,1066MHz)
This was an upgrade of £75 from the E6400, but from what I've read that's worth it; the E6600 is supposed to be the cutoff point, with a jump up to 4MB of cache. Worth the extra money?
Memory
1024MB DDR2 533MHz Memory - (2x512MB)
I'd thought memory had gotton cheaper now, but it's still so damned expensive. What's the difference between this at 533MHz, and the same at 900MHz? It's a mystery to me.. That'd be £50 more.
Graphics Card
512MB DDR2 nVIDIA GeForce 7300GS - TV out- DVI - PCIe (256Mb SMA)
I understand graphics cards not at all. I'm not really looking for a machine to play games, but I'd take it if it came built in. The possible upgrades for that are..
256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS - DVI,HDTV & TV-Out - PCI-Express[upg £ 30.00]
2x 256MB nVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS - nVIDIA SLI Configuration[upg £ 45.00]
Are either of those worth bothering with?
Thanks.
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The 7600 gs is the best bang for the buck out of the list you have there, and it will happily play most games at average quality and resolution.
The programs you're actually running will give you an idea of how much RAM to go for. Graphics applications like Photoshop use up a fair bit more.
-Thinatos
You could always try selling the DDR2-533 memory you get with the system and buying cheaper DDR2-667 modules somwhere else.
I suggest you consider some other place to buy your computer from - a small local computer shop might have better prices and you get to choose whatever components you want and I doubt they'll charge much for assembly.
I assume here that you already own a copy of XP or don't mind running Ubuntu until Vista comes out
I estimate (based on US prices /1,5) that you could get a E6600 with 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM and a 7600GT and some resonable LCD for <£850.
At night, the ice weasels come."
Is 1 gig RAM enough? Yeah, it's enough. But you could get more and give your computer a lot more breathing room. 512 is the "minimum" nowadays, and 1g is a good start. In other words, it's kind of silly to have a souped up CPU and a fancy GPU but only 1 step above the "minimum" for RAM.
As for overall speed and opening programs, a lot of that will come from a faster HDD. Most laptops have a 4200rpm HDD, although some newer ones come with 5400 stock. Desktops almost always use 7200, which means faster seek times and more bandwidth.
anecdote time: My girlfriend has a souped up first gen Mac Mini, which comes with a 5400 RPM laptop drive. It's not bad, but starting up apps takes a while. What we did was boot it off of a FW-connected 7200 desktop HDD, and it's a WORLD of difference. Saving, opening, doing multiple things at once, etc.
The good thing about RAM is that it's easy to buy more later. What I would recommend is making sure you get plenty of fast HDD space, preferrably 2 drives, and go with what you have. If you feel that you need more RAM (check the system monitors to see how much you're using when you feel stuff "going slow"), then you simply buy some more.
Heh, Linux isn't for me afraid. I'm too attached to Windows' programs and not having to worry about configurations; it's a fine OS if you just protect it. That computer dealer (Mesh) actually have a deal on at the moment where you get a free upgrade to Vista when it comes out (if you buy their computer, including this one), so that's pretty good.
edit: Okay, good advice. Might plump for the 2x250GB HDD, I do like to keep a lot of stuff lying around. With the money in mind.. would it be worth staying down with the 6400 and getting bigger RAM with that; or, having the 6600 with just 1GB of RAM? I suspect the former is best.
I've never actually seen my laptop not on 100% CPU usage.
I'm not sure if it's the case with this retailer, but from what I've read usually the upgrade is to the Home Basic version, which doesn't have Aero, most noticeably.
At night, the ice weasels come."
i know this kind of thing is rare, but it's just my experience of mesh.
oh and also.. if you are paying all that for graphics cards, ram etc... do make sure it has at least one case fan... or you might find it runs slower than it could... shop bought pc's ALWAYS fuck you on the fans... i've now fixed up 4 or 5 for family members and none of them had any way of removing hot air except the psu, which is normally pretty busy shedding it's own heat.
In this case, Mesh Computers do offer Vista Premium. However, as the proud owner of a Mesh system I'd rather have my teeth pulled out with a pair of rusty pliers than buy from them again. If you don't have a hardware problem, they're okay. If you need technical support, they suck.
Also, to the original poster specifically: the 7300 is really not what you want to use for playing games. Getting that card wouldn't be a trade-off in price and power, it would literally mean not being able to play most new games at all.
I myself am planning to buy a new PC soon, and I'm looking into this for my next:
http://www.eclipse-computers.com/systemview.aspx?id=96
It appears to be a good price for good components, though I might be missing something obvious.
He'd also be suprised how fast it runs the programs that he doesn't have! He said he's "moderately proficient" and doesn't understand graphics cards. How would Linux help him?
Anyways, dual-core is definitely the way to go and if you can get it, get 2gb of ram and the 7600 GS. 2gb of memory will make a lot of difference with multitasking.
It doesn't actually mention fans at all on the page. :? I'll bear the graphics card thing in mind though. I'm not sure what to think of customer support really; whenever I go on any consumer satisfaction site, every company has negative stuff on it. I'm going to go away and build this same bundle at various other manufacturers though, to check the price.
I did want to mention that I feel that computer is pretty pricy considering it's specs. Now I hardly know anything about your economy, but I'm paying less in canada for more machine. I'd just like to encourage you to look around a bit more to make sure you're getting the best deal you can.