Computer Specs 101

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Praetor

Praetor

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Preface
Thanks to some VIPs for giving me the push to finally do this, Ive been meaning to do this for the last few months, just seems like a big undertaking (in terms of maintanance). In any case, this stuff should hopefully be updated monthly.

As for pricing, while I will be trying to get the best price, that may not always be the case however look at it this way: if you can find a better price then great! The suggestions are only there as a baseline to compare to, I would expect people to do their own price searching and bargain hunting, the pricing here is only included as a guineline.

Due to the complexity for picking out systems for people all across the planet who may or many not have the same access as everyone else this guide will be broken down first by region and then by intent/budget, this way there is the least amount of scrolling around. Of course, once you do scroll down to the individual sections, it's still pretty messy but thats the price of catering to everyone.

Applicable to all sections:
  • I dont pick out peripherals like mice and keyboards and that silliness
  • I dont pick out monitors, speakers, printers, card readers either
  • I also dont pick out operating systems or software
  • So if you need these things, make sure you keep that in mind when picking the budget category.

When navigating to your prospective geographic region, the breakdown is into three groups
  • Work machines Machines in this bracket emphasis the processor, RAM and harddrive the most: the video subsystem is rarely a concern as most buyers for these serious machines will be looking to have their machines run 24x7 or to be able to do some statistical analysis or something to that effect rather than play games.
  • Play machines Machines in this bracket, short of going the PentiumM route (which generally will be more expensive as well as more finicky) will be an AMD dominated arena due to the performance/dollar ratio. The emphasis here will be the videocard, CPU and ram
  • General purpose machines Profiled as a family PC or one which literally is a multirole system: this machine will empgasise the same things as the play-machine except the videocard requirements will be toned down significantly (but more than allow the user to play when he/she wishes)


As for regionality, in particular, European readers, all prices have VAT included.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- American Buyers --

Work Machines
Budget: <500USD
Not much to say here, got a 1GB dualcore box with 250GB 16MB cache harddrive; only thing that was compromised on was having onboard video. This however isnt an important consideration for a work machine so it is an acceptable loss for the raw value of the machine

Budget: <600USD
Upping the budget allows us to jump to the PentiumD 820 as well as add a discrete videocard, again a hell of a deal for what you're getting

Budget: <700USD
With the budget here we can finally get a balanced system based on the Athlon64 X2. The A8R-MVP is an added bonus: flagship performance for a far-from-flagship price

Budget: <800USD
Here we move to the X2-4200 and away from "included" (although decent) power supplies.

Budget: <900USD
The budget here now allows us to upgrade the harddrive as well as the RAM.

Budget: <1000USD
This is a very formidable workmachine: two 250GB high performance drives, a proven motherboard and CPU, 2GB of RAM and an excellent power supply. Realistically, after this machine we're just looking for ways to spend money (except when it comes to the later SMP machines)

Budget: <1100USD
Although I am normally opposed to putting such a gaming oriented motherboard in a work system, this machine offers an extensive amount of support for infrastructure: twin RAID5 configurations and an obscene amount of HDD connectivity justify the motherboard switch

Budget: <1200USD
Three 300GB drives (so ready for RAID5 configuration), an aftermarket cooler to allow the system to handle virtually any heat related issues that may (but probably wont) arise, this box will serve as a fairly robust data archival server if needed. Very good for people looking to do video processing and animation.

Bigger Budget?
Well short of a $2000 budget, not much really is going to be improved here without seriously unbalancing something. With the higher budget, we can finally move to a Opteron 2xx configuration for true SMP/SMT (ideally Opteron 265 or higher). To balance this out, a decent RAID5 and memory configuration are needed (explaining the cost). Throw in the cost of the eATX case and various controller cards, the prices will climb very quickly.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- American Buyers --

Play Machines
Budget: <500USD
Hard drive and PSU were skimped (whithout compromising the system however) but this is a hell of a machine for the budget.

Budget: <600USD
Surprisng what $100 can do, we improved the processor, motherboard, power supply and harddrive. This system here is a hell of a buy for the price!

Budget: <700USD
Took a step back with a few components but this is a highly balanced dualcore gaming box.

Budget: <800USD
With an extra $100 we've upgraded the videocard and harddrive significantly as well as made a minor improvement to the motherboard

Budget: <900USD
Shuffling things around we've managed to get a X850XT into the box -- nothing to balk at.

Budget: <1000USD
With 1GB of RAM, a 7800GT and a dualcore X2 this spec is here to show you how much you're really should be paying when you buy from an OEM.

Budget: <1100USD
The extra $100 goes towards getting a non-combo motherboard with a solidly overclocked videocard as well as upgrading to 2GB of RAM

Budget: <1200USD
A whole bunch of shuffling was done here to make room for the X1800XT but it fit :)

Budget: <1300USD
Some shuffling was done but this is a fairly balanced box packing a X1900XT in it ... and unlike OEM boxes, this one doesnt cost more than a few small countries.

Budget: <1400USD
An upgrade in the HDD, RAM and the addition of a aftermarket cooler is what an extra $100 fetched us.

Budget: <1500USD
The extra $100 allows us to shuffled the harddrive configuration (for 200GB more space) around and improved the HSF
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- American Buyers --

Budget: <1600USD
Adding an extra 100GB and upgradsing to a class leading power supply we're definitely approaching the maximal performance/price value point for this type of system

Budget: <1700USD
For a system that will easily cost you a few grand when bought from an OEM, this box packs a whallop of performance for it's price.

Bigger Budget?
Realistically after this point I'm essentially looking to spend money and it's not really for a few more budget steps that I can direct the system to a more balanced state (i.e., add a RAID5 infrastructure as well as upgrade the memory and then processor/motherboard)
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- American Buyers --

General Purpose Machines
Budget: <500USD
This is a fairly well balanced and affordable box which should be able to tackle most things thrown at it whether it be straight up work, gaming or something in between

Budget: <600USD
A dualcore gaming oriented rig for $600 .. there's not a lot to balk at here.

Budget: <700USD
The extra $100 goes a long way to upgrading both the CPU and the videocard.

Budget: <800USD
Here we've shifted the entire platform over to an X2 based system

Budget: <900USD
As a general purpose machine the 7800GT will prolly be the best allaround card to suit the task in the videocard department for some while

Budget: <1000USD
The extra $100 allows us to upgrade the harddrive and CPU here.

Budget: <1100USD
Upgrading to 2GB as well as tacking on an aftermarket cooling this machine is more than able to tackle virtually anything thrown at it

Budget: <1200USD
Doing a bit of shuffling, you can get an extra 200GB and improve the HSF.

Bigger Budget?
Anything after this price point and again I find my self looking to spend money so as far as reccomendations go, if you've got more money to play with (and the above specs havnt net your performance needs), make a post and we'll deal with it on a case by case basis.
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- Canadian Buyers --

Work Machines
Budget: <500CAD
Really not a whole lot of options in this ballpark! Do note that the motherboard is AGP based and so wont be really upgradable anymore. If this is a problem the Foxconn 761GXK8MB-RS [SiS761GX] ($80.92) will provide a PCI-Express based upgrade path however the SiS chipset isnt exactly spectacular by any means. If the budget can be stretched by a few dollars, the MSI K8NGM2-L [C51G-6100] ($84.99) will offer no compromise.

Budget: <600CAD
A huge jump from the above, this box features a harddrive upgrade as well as an upgrade to a dualcore configuration.

Budget: <700CAD
Here we've uupgraded the processor as well as stepped up the harddrive significantly in both size and performance.

Budget: <800CAD
Taking a minor penalty to the harddrive, we can make a switch to the superior Athlon64 X2 system here.

Budget: <900CAD
With an extra $100 we can upgrade the CPU and bring the HDD back to the 250GB mark

Budget: <1000CAD
Here we've upgraded the box to 2GB

Budget: <1100CAD
Here we move to an extremely solid motherboard and discrete video solution and do a minor upgrade on the memory

Budget: <1200CAD
The extra $100 goes towards doubling the harddrive capacity here.

Budget: <1300CAD
Here we add an extra 100GB as well as upgrade to an extremely solid PSU.

Budget: <1400CAD
Although I would have preferred the Blue Orb II or Big Typhoon, IMO, the Golden Orb II is more than a fair trade for the extra 150GB which is ready for a RAID5 configuration for business servers needing data integrity.

Bigger Budget?
After $1400 it's a big jump before we get something seriously balanced and significantly improved. This is because, any substantial upgrades involve: adding another 2GB, adding a dedciated RAID5 controller and/or switching to a SMP dualcore Opteron configuration all of which incur large price penalties. If you're lucky enough to have a higher budget, make a post stating your requirements and we'll get to it on a case-by-case basis
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- Canadian Buyers --

Play Machines
Budget: <500CAD
Christ this was a hard box to balance out ... unless you're absolutely dying for a gaming capable box in this budget I would advise against this box. Too many sacrifices had to be made: this box is already obsolete (socket754 is discontinued, AGP is essentially dead). The only saving grace was that the on-die memory controller here gives the system a chance at handling games; the Radeon9600Pro is probably the best videocard in its price bracket here but it's also horribly outpaced. I guess the only good point about this box is that it has a decent amount of HDD space and I didnt compromise on the 1GB of RAM.

Budget: <600CAD
With an extra $100 we can upgrade to a S939 Athlon64. Granted we're still stuck with a 4-pipe card but it's a generation newer than the 9600Pro as before.

Budget: <700CAD
Finally, a system that has more non-compromises than compromises. The X800GTO here gives this box a significantly improved chance of handling games that are thrown at it

Budget: <800CAD
This is now a competitive box, the extra $100 allows us to upgrade both the motherboard and CPU.

Budget: <900CAD
A step back with the videocard however with this box we've moved to a dualcore configuration

Budget: <1000CAD
With the extra $100 we've got the the unlockable X800GTO² and upgraded the HDD to a respectable 200GB

Budget: <1100CAD
Here I've upgraded the PSU, case as well as the HDD

Budget: <1200CAD
Shuffling around the HDD we can make enough room here for the 7800GT.

Budget: <1300CAD
Here we've upgraded the power supply (for tighter rail management) as well as paired the A8R-MVP up with an overclocked eVGA 7800GT (in addition to bringing back the 250GB drive)

Budget: <1400CAD
Here we've switched to a different 7800GT to make room for a second 250GB drive

Budget: <1500CAD
Here we've traded one of the 250GB drives for the upgrade to the 7800GTX ACS³
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- Canadian Buyers --

Budget: <1600CAD
The extra $100 allows us to finally hit the X1900XT and upgrade the system cooler.

Budget: <1700CAD
Losing the aftermarket HSF we've got a beefier PSU and a second 250GB drive.

Budget: <1800CAD
Here we've brought the aftermarket HSF back along with an upgrade to the PSU for even tighter regulation

Budget: <1900CAD
The extra $100 allows us to wrap this box up with an upgrade to 2GB of memory.

Bigger Budget?
Well the boxes are for the most part, maxed out in a balanced manner; yes there are more balanced configs possible but not without incurring a few hundred dollar jumps in between.
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- Canadian Buyers --

General Purpose Machines
Budget: <500CAD
Nothing special about this machine although compared to the $500 gaming box, this rig is a lot more upgradeable due to it's PCI-Express nature although it is still based on the discontinued S754 platform

Budget: <600CAD
Downgrading from the X600Pro to the X300SE, we can fit in a dualcore CPU

Budget: <700CAD
The extra $100 allows us to upgrade the CPU as well as bring back the X600Pro

Budget: <800CAD
The extra $100 allows us to make a substantial upgrade on the videocard

Budget: <900CAD
With the budget bump we've got enough to easily make the switch to the Ahlon 64 X2 platform

Budget: <1000CAD
Here we've upgraded to the X800GTO and upgraded the motherboard significantly

Budget: <1100CAD
Here we've upgraded both the PSU/case as well as the processor

Budget: <1200CAD
Here we've made a CPU sacrifice to get the 7800GT into the spec

Budget: <1300CAD
This budget allows us to comfortably bring back the items that were trimmed back to make room for the 7800GT originally

Budget: <1400CAD
Here we comfortably make the switch to a 2GB of memory setup

Budget: <1500CAD
With the extra $100 we've upgraded the PSU slightly and shuffled the harddrive configuration for an extra 150GB

Bugger Budget?
I would reccomend you reconsider your performance requirements as "general purpose computer" tasks should be more than adequately handled by the configurations above. If not, feel free to make a post idenfying your particular needs
 
Praetor

Praetor

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-- European Buyers --

Work Machines
Budget: <250GBP
By the time we get to the higher end components we wont be using any of these parts ever, this is still a nice system for a very low price.

Budget: <300GBP
Dang it took a long time to spec this box out, but this is a hell of a box for the price.

Budget: <350GBP

Budget: <400GBP

Budget: <450GBP
Shuffled a few things around to fit in out first X2 box

Budget: <500GPB
Those extra 100GBP go a very long way in allowing us to upgrade virtually everything: RAM, PSU and mobo

Budget: <550GP
Not nearly as impressive an upgrade as before, here we've upgraded the processor

Budget: <600GPB
Switched up the motherboard, the optical drive, RAM and to a tried-and-true power supply.

Budget: <650GPB
Here we've changed the drive configuration a bit to allow us an extra 150GB total.

Bigger Budget
If you're lucky enough to have a bigger budget and the above suggestions dont meet your needs, feel free to make a post outlining your requirements
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- European Buyers --

Play Machines
Budget: <250GBP
If you can confirm that the PSU that comes with the case has a minimum of 18A on the 12V line then you may consider dropping the added PSU (which isnt that great anyways) and upgrading the CPU to the 3100 (the 3000 gets a clock speed bonus at the cost of half the cache). If not, this is still a fairly competitive system especially so for its price.

Budget: <300GBP
By sheer luck I was able to locate a X600XT (the alternative was to settle for a X300/6200 class card which is significantly behind in performance). In addition to the videocard change we've changed from a S754 Sempron above to a S939 Athlon64

Budget: <350GBP
Here we spent the 50GBP to upgrade the videocard and CPU as well as switch to branded (as well as tried-and-true) memory.

Budget: <400GBP
Did a lot with the 50GBP difference between this and the previous stepping: a phenomenal upgrade in videocard performance as well as a bump in the CPU

Budget: <450GBP
Did some minor changes here and there as well as bump the harddrive up to a respectable 250GB.

Budget: <500GBP
Not quite enough money to make the jump to dual core so we make motherboard and CPU change.

Budget: <550GBP
Some shuffling around of parts and we've got a dualcore gaming rig.

Budget: <600GBP
Some more shuffling: traded one top notch motherboard for another as well as got a first rate PSU

Budget: <650GBP
A bit of shuffling and we can put a 7800GT into this box
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- European Buyers --

Budget: <700GBP
Here we've shuffled back to the highly overclockable A8R-MVP

Budget: <750GBP
Here we upgrade the CPU and PSU as well as add an aftermarket HSF

Budget: <800GBP
Here we've upgraded the machine to a 2GB setup

Budget: <850GBP
Stil not enough to upgrade the system to a 78GTX or the ATi equivalent so I've doubled the harddrive capacity

Budget: <900GBP
Cutting back on the drives, we've got enough room to upgrade to the 7800GTX

Budget: <950GBP
The extra 50GBP gave the needed budget to get a balanced gaming rig packing a X1900XT

Budget: <1000GBP
Here we've switched the memory over to the more overclockable Corsair XMS stuff

Bigger Budget?
If you're lucky enough to have a larger budget and the above guidelines dont help, feel free to make a post outlining your requirements.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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Staff member
-- European Buyers --

General Purpose Machines
Budget: <250GBP
Ironically this is very similar if not identical to the 250GB Gaming box

Budget: <300GBP
Again, very similar to the gaming box: for these lower budgets its not often we have wildly differing specs

Budget: <350GBP
Here we make a move to dualcore and bump the harddrive capacity

Budget: <400GBP
Trading the harddrive for the processor, I've picked out the PentiumD 820

Budget: <450GBP
Shuffling around quite a few things we end up with a X700Pro and a X2-3800

Budget: <500GBP
Here we have a switch to Corsair memory and an upgrade to the X800GTO

Budget: <550GBP
The 50GBP difference allows us to upgrade both the CPU and videocard

Budget: <600GBP
A much need harddrive upgrade and PSU upgrade are easily afforded by the extra 50GBP

Budget: <650GBP
A transition to the nForce4 Ultra platform and a videocard upgrade easily fit into the addition 50GBP allocation
 
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Praetor

Praetor

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-- European Buyers --

Budget: <700GBP
Some shuffling around allows us to add the 7800GT to this spec

Budget: <750GBP
Upgrading to the superb K8N Neo4 Platinum as well as adding an aftermarket cooler are afforded by the extra 50GBP

Budget: <800GBP
Here we've upgraded the box to a 2GB setup

Budget: <850GBP
Although technically 2pence over, I'm too lazy to make this fit, here I've doubled the harddrive capacity of the system

Bigger Budget?
If you've got a bigger budget and the above arent adequate guidelines, feel free to make a post indicating your particular requirements.
 
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