[BalbanesBeoulve]

Hey guys, should I buy this computer?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&email_id=492430&jumpid=in_r329_emailconfig

After tax and discounts 1011.26

Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q6700 (2.66GHz)
6GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x2048,2x1024)
1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT, 2 DVI (VGA and HDMI adapters)
500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive

No monitor, buying that seperately. What do you guys think?

And if not, can you edit that one for a better cost/performance ratio?
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[Panoptic]

Looks pretty fast. Why 6GB of memory though? Also, I always recommend two hard drives in performance systems. A small, high speed one (such as a Raptor or something) for the OS and programs, and a huge one for all your bullshit that you've downloaded. I doubt HP would offer something like that so you'd have to buy it separately though. Add a standard DVD drive without burning capabilities too, if you can; burners are typically slower at reading than standard ROM drives, plus a second drive adds the ability to do on-the-fly copies.

Either way, if you get that one, first thing you should do it is format the hard drive and install Windows clean.

Oh. Also, don't pay for Norton.

But yeah, I'll also add my obligatory "You should build it yourself."

[Broco]

Seems fine to me. Everything is more than powerful enough for any purpose you might put it to and the price is reasonable. You know I've long had the attitude that stock PC builds are generally pretty much fine, and people obsess on them too much. The only thing is yeah it seems to come with a lot of crapware you'll want to wipe, but that's how they keep the price down.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

[Panoptic]

DDR2 bought at Newegg is only $15 per gig right now.

[Broco]

It will help, RAM is usually the element with the most impact on speed for everyday desktop applications. Vista is aggressive at preloading programs into RAM so you would see faster loading times, and your computer won't be bogged down by lots of applications or tabs open at once. That said 4Gb is a relatively large amount as well and you wouldn't find it frustratingly low or anything. It depends on whether you feel rich or poor.

You might get it separately from Newegg for cheaper as Panoptic suggests; RAM is the easiest kind of component to install.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

The problem is the amount of slots. Seems there's only 4. I think the best solution would be to just get 2x1024 from them, and then get my own 2x2048. They're charging $150 for the extra 4GB, and I can buy it on my own cheaper, right?

Any suggestions on what i should buy on that end?


Another option i have is setting up a pc without a video card and buying that separately. I just need to get it to a 999.99 base price so I can use the $400 coupon.

Something like this.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&config_id=1595432
No video card, only 2gb of ram, and the Q9300 instead of Q6700, but 340.65 cheaper and a lot more hard drive space. It has a 750GB drive, plus a bullshit 320GB external drive i added to jack the price up to at least 999.99.

So could I get a comparable or better video card and 4gb of ram and possibly a better PSU for less than $340? Would this be a better option?
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[BalbanesBeoulve]

Can someone put together a comparable one from newegg or something, for me?
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[sarsamis]

Too lazy to do a newegg build atm, but you could cut $250 off the price by getting it with the cheapest video card they offer, then get a Radeon HD 4870 (far superior to the 9800 you were going to get) for around $250-270. You'd spend about the same amount of money and end up with a better GPU and a cheap spare video card, which can always come in handy.

[Panoptic]

[BalbanesBeoulve]

I had a friend working on one for me too, and this is what he came up with.


mobo -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182
processor -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
memory -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214
gfx -> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130376

Any reason I couldn't get a PSU that's about half the price chosen by Panoptic?


Actually though, this processor is only 10 bucks more.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036
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[BalbanesBeoulve]

Ok, here's what I came up with.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299

MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127361

CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145214

OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI 700W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS 750GB 7200 RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148134

COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106265

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485

Total: $1,097.63

And $115.00 in mail in rebates.

And for a monitor:
SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001268

Total comes to 1222.62 if i actually get the mail-in rebates.

How does it look?
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[Greng]

[BalbanesBeoulve]

I decided to build my own, so it does.
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[Panoptic]

Looks good, but I still want to stress that Windows performance will be significantly higher if you have a separate hard drive for the OS itself (also, backing shit up if (when) you need to format it is so much easier). The tradeoffs I made for raw power in a couple of areas would make up for themselves in general performance, unless this is going to be pretty much a gaming only system. I'd take the quad core CPU myself, but that's just because of how I use my computer. The higher clock speed dual core is going to be faster in current games.

Also, don't bother shelling out for fast memory. Memory speed makes no appreciable difference to the performance of a Core 2. Hell, the money you save getting standard PC2-6400 could get that second hard drive.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Switched the memory to http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145194

Still going over the HDD situation. Might do some raiding.

My friend is suggesting I do a matrix raid with 2 500gb HDDs. Put the OS on the raid 1 part and everything else on the raid 0 part. What do you think about that?

Getting 2 of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
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[Panoptic]

Not a bad idea. Just note that if you're streaming a huge high-bitrate media file off of the RAID-1 section, the I/O performance is going to be reduced on the RAID-0 section. What your friend is suggesting will be faster than two separate drives until you start doing a lot of stuff in different sections of the drive at once. Depending on how big you make your primary partition, you're going to be dumping hundreds of gigs into redundancy rather than open space.

[edit] Wait, what? Why would you want to put the OS on the RAID-1 and everything else on the RAID-0?

[BalbanesBeoulve]

He says to prevent corruption and stuff.
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[Panoptic]

RAID-0 is a performance thing only. RAID-1 is redundancy. If the array exploded, what would you rather lose, your OS or all your other files? Also, RAID-0 isn't going to help media files a whole heck of a lot.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Posting from the new computer itt.

Had some hiccups. Had to return the PSU as the first one I got seemed to be dead.

And while I was installing vista the CPU overheated. I messed around with the heatstink, i dont think I had it installed right. Seems to be running cool now.

Still getting adjusted, moving all my files over, and installing flash, and winamp, winrar, and all that crap you take for granted.
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[Panoptic]

Yeah, I hate doing reloads of Windows; takes forever to get my shit back how I liked it. PerfectDisk and Crap Cleaner go a long way in keeping me from reformatting though.

Also: the stock heatsink for Core 2's is shit, getting a 3rd party one would be a worthwhile upgrade if you feel like spending 50 bucks down the road... that and pulling your board out to install it.

Just as a note, I hope you installed your Chipset drivers first.

[Toptube]

get this ram instead, unless you KNOW FOR SURE that you WILL actually send away the rebates on that corsair ram.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209&nm_mc=AFC-hardOCP&cm_mmc=AFC-hardOCP-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA

oh you already bought it. well nevermind!

[CubaLibre]

One day when I'm rich I'm gonna contract one of you guys to build and setup my PC for me and then ship it to me

Hell yeah
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Let's Play, starring me.

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Loving this computer. My old laptop had trouble even with hinterland (though part of that was because of the shit engine they used) runs perfectly now.

Installed and started playing a bit of Fallout 3. Running perfectly on ultra high settings, though I'm still in the tutorial and haven't gone outside yet.
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[Panoptic]

What'd you end up settling with, anyway?