Need help choosing PC please please!

N

n00dles

New Member
I could do with a bit of advice please! I've just been given a couple of specs for new PC from a local computer company.

Other bits and bobs, 19" monitors, speakers, sub woofer etc are included in the price - the two in question are as follows:

Advance AM2 Dual Core upgrade 3 Asus M/Board
200 GB Spinpoint HD200HJ SATA 8Mb Cache Hard Drive
Asus GeForce 8500 GT 512Mb PCI-E(x16) silent GDDR2 HDTV/Dual DVI Graphics Card
3 GB Ram
XP Home Edition
£510

Asus M/Board + Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU
1000GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 SATA II 7200 rpm 32MbCache
BFG GeForce 256Mb 8600 GT OverClocked PCI-E(16x) Mem 1400Mhz GPU 565MHz GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI Graphics
4Gb DDR2 PC2 (2 x 2Gb KIT REAPER 240pin)
Windows Vista Home Basic
£650

I want something that I can use as home office and can sneakily run games on comfortably,eg online roleplay type things like Second Life.

I notice the cheaper PC has 512Mb (Asus GeForce 8500) and the more expensice PC has 256Mb graphics card (BFG geForce 8600), although this is meant to be the high spec'd machine. i would have expected the more expensive card to have the higher Mb? Any comments on this? (I know bugger all about graphics cards)

The second PC has Vista but its only the Basic edition. Is it any good?

Which would you go for? (or would you not go for either?) All I want the PC for is some home office work, a bit of graphics messing about with photoshop, playing Second Life (or maybe some other graphics hungryish game) and as a bog standard music centre. nothing too flash but got to be able to handle graphics well. I'm a bugger for having a game and a zillion programmes open at the same time does that help with what i need?

This chap is local although i dont know anything about the store having moved the the area fairly recently. I'm open to suggestions if anyone see's anything online that looks a bargain! Dont want to spend more than 600 smackers really!

Thanks so much!!
 
Second PC is better. Is your price include VAT?

Do your local shop have custom made?
For the second one, you could down 4GB RAM to 2 GB.
And ask them if you can upgrade the video card to 9600GT 512MB.
Also not sure if you really need 1TB of hard disk.
And for Mobo, don't know what mobo he give you. you'd better ask for a P35/ P43 chipset.
 
Hi there, yes the price includes VAT, 19" monitor and everything else.... they do custom made yes.

He didnt state what motherboards they were apart from being Asus.

Also, someone suggested that a quad core was unnecessary and a dual core with a higher Gb would be better? and I quote... "Most applications don't use them (quad core) fully. I'd possibly be more tempted with a dual core E8400 (2 x 3ghz compared to 4 x 2.4) which has a 1333 fsb compared to a 1066 Fsb.

Would anyone else agree with this?
 
n00dles said:
Hi there, yes the price includes VAT, 19" monitor and everything else.... they do custom made yes.

He didnt state what motherboards they were apart from being Asus.

Also, someone suggested that a quad core was unnecessary and a dual core with a higher Gb would be better? and I quote... "Most applications don't use them (quad core) fully. I'd possibly be more tempted with a dual core E8400 (2 x 3ghz compared to 4 x 2.4) which has a 1333 fsb compared to a 1066 Fsb.

Would anyone else agree with this?
Click to expand...

In terms of gaming, E8400 is faster than Q6600 Currently, coz most game do not ultize 4 core at the moment. But will be in future.
However, in video editing Q6600 is faster than E8400.
Anyway the are at similar price and performance overall. Up to you.

Actually, I am more concern your GPU, as 8600GT is a bit weak.
And the reason I ask for which chipset is P35/ P31 are good overclocking chipset. While C2Q could run at old P945, but the performance is not really good.
 
The second one will be better for you. The Q6600 is a great proc for multi-tasking. Since you will be doing a lot of multi-tasking, I personaly would keep the 4 GB of RAM. He is right about the video card, 8600 is a little weak. Ask them how much it would be to upgrade. The 9600 GT is only about $70 U.S. dollars more and you will be much more pleased with it. I would not go with home basic version of vista! Ask if they can install Windows XP. You could drop the hard drive to about 500 GB (if you need more later just buy an external), drop Vista for XP and that will be more than enough money saved to upgrade the vidoe card. Can you find out the exact model of motherboard they are trying to sell you and post it so we can do a little research for you? Also ask what kind of power supply unit it has and the amount of watts it produces.
 
thanks guys and gals

I'll speak to the guy this afternoon and find out what motherboard it is and also what psu. i have a feeling that the processor, motherboard, case, fan and psu come as part of a bare bones kit and he is adding the other bits in himself...

Will be back with more info! I'm thinking about amending it for the spec below so far..

Asus M/Board + Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU
200GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 SATA II 7200 rpm 32MbCache
change graphics card to BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Pioneer DVR-212 18X DVD+/- RW Dual Layer DVD Writer Black OEM
OCZ 4Gb DDR2 PC2 6400 800Mhz (2 x 2Gb KIT REAPER 240pin)
Logitech S220 2.1 speakers with subwoofer
Trust media connect bay CR-3400
Belkin wireless keyboard and optical mouse
19in Hanns-GHW191DP Widescreen Silver/Black multimedia 5ms DVI TFT Monitor
Windows Vista Premium 64bit


But will find out this afternoon about the motherboard and power supply :)
 
aaah just spoken to computer guy....450w psu and

Asus motherboard is P5K/VM Intel G33 LGA775 comes in at just under £70.

He's open to suggestions as to any other similar priced MB if anyone can recommend another
 
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n00dles said:
thanks guys and gals

I'll speak to the guy this afternoon and find out what motherboard it is and also what psu. i have a feeling that the processor, motherboard, case, fan and psu come as part of a bare bones kit and he is adding the other bits in himself...

Will be back with more info! I'm thinking about amending it for the spec below so far..

Asus M/Board + Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU
200GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 SATA II 7200 rpm 32MbCache
change graphics card to BFG GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Pioneer DVR-212 18X DVD+/- RW Dual Layer DVD Writer Black OEM
OCZ 4Gb DDR2 PC2 6400 800Mhz (2 x 2Gb KIT REAPER 240pin)
Logitech S220 2.1 speakers with subwoofer
Trust media connect bay CR-3400
Belkin wireless keyboard and optical mouse
19in Hanns-GHW191DP Widescreen Silver/Black multimedia 5ms DVI TFT Monitor
Windows Vista Premium 64bit


But will find out this afternoon about the motherboard and power supply :)
Click to expand...

Is the harddisk 200GB or 1TB?
If your set-up with 250GB Harddisk, with a mid range P35 Mobo, and a good quality PSU, should cost something like £700 if building yourself.
So, If he charge for £750-780 overall, I will say it is a reasonable price.
 
ok next update... the quote is £667 for above spec, as changed.

I have the option of saving £30 if I go for an Asus P5GCMX Motherboard instead of the Asus P5K/VM Intel G33 LGA775 .... ??
 
n00dles said:
ok next update... the quote is £667 for above spec, as changed.

I have the option of saving £30 if I go for an Asus P5GCMX Motherboard instead of the Asus P5K/VM Intel G33 LGA775 .... ??
Click to expand...

Get P35/ P31 if you can. Stick to G33 if you don't have choice.
 
How about a MSI P6NGM motherboard with the Q6600 and the 4Gb RAM??

I've been offered this at a fraction of the cost... I'm not planning on overclocking and no doubt if i want to upgrade the processor in a few yrs I'll upgrade the motherboard at the same time... would the MSI be a fair compromise on price against the Asus PK5?
 
The board you choose only runs 667 MHZ RAM. If you are going to do some serious multi-tasking I would look into a motherboard with at least 800 MHz support maybe even higher if you can. Also the LAN speed on the board you choose only has 10/100 Mbps. I would not buy a board without the 1000 Mbps LAN speed (thats just me, I like quick interweb) These are two things that might bottle neck you. I am not sure what your budget is but these are a few things to consider;)
 
Sorry I was not more specific. The ASUS P5GC-MX only has 2 RAM slots, 100 Mbps LAN, and only accepts 667 Mhz RAM. I think that might not be what you are looking for. Also on the Asus support page it does not list this board as compatible with any Quad core procs.

The MSI P6NGM-L only allows you to run 667 Mhz RAm, only has 100 Mbps LAN but it does support quad core procs! It only has 2 memory slots so the max you can use is 4 MB. Thats good for today, June 4, 2008 but with all the multi-tasking you do, in another year and a half or two years you might need to upgrade to 8 MB. The way stuff changes everyday, it's a possibilty.

I would recomend the ASUS P5K-VM motherboard. It has 1000Mbps LAN, accepts 1066 Mhz RAM, 4 memory slots, and it IS compatable with quad core procs! And it has 6 USB ports. This is your winner in my opionin!:cool:
 
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