New PC? Which hardware?

[Bob666]

christmas is coming, and my sister's pc is broken... normally she gets my old one, but mine is still quite new:

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
1 GB Ram
80 GB HDD
Geforce 6800GS

for about 700€, 2 years ago

now, my sister would give me about 250€ for it
i dont really want to pay more than 600€ for it, so in total my budget is at about 850€, me paying 600€ of it

do you think its worth it to buy a new one? or is a new pc for 850€ not much faster than my old one? any suggestions of which hardware?

i found this one, its currently my favourite:

AMD2 X2 6000+
Asus M2N-X (Sound / Lan)
2 GB Ram
500GB S-ATA HDD
Geforce 8800GTS (320MB)
Thermaltake Alu Tower
500W Silent Nitrox Modular
DVD
DVD Writer

for 859€

what i would prefer as a PC:
- as silent as possible (including the graphics card!)
- need 5.1 sound output, and if possible additional microphone input
- no DVD Writer, and not even any CD / DVD device i think, thats what we have enough
- no modding case with window etc
- more performance than my old pc, it would not be worth it otherwise

i dont know if ATI or Geforce is better, i just liked my 9200se more, but that might be because its no high-end, and works more stable...


the above configuration does not fit my needs, right, but thats what i found as a complete system which could be good, i would remove the DVD writer from it i think

currently my HDD is 80GB, and its quite full... i think i would need 160GB, but 250GB? or even 500GB? would never be able to get so much data^^


just independent to the PC, am i doing something wrong if i cant connect my microphone to the PC using a 5.1 system? ive enough outputs, but afaik they are all controlled by the same sound card, which only provides 3 in/outputs, i will try it later

http://www.computerhouse.de/preisliste_p...sliste.pdf
these are the prices from a nearby computer store, where i bought my old pc, and where my whole family gets their pcs from


please refer to the topic and do not start a battle which pc is the best one or anything like that, i just need information

[Billy_Talent_ll]

i´m buying at euronics this machine^^: http://acer.de/public/page4.do;jsessioni...2832025756
for 800€, getting it tomorrow, so if u wait i can tell ya if it is fast or not^^^
it´s not the gamer line, btw^^

[Bob666]

i believe a 6800GS is not much better than a 8600GS, but i dont really know... and i dont need to know it soon, just in the next week or something like that

[TKF]

EDIT by Bob666: Offtopic content removed

If I were you, I might consider giving her your old pc, and buying yourself a new one. But that is, only if I was in your place.

Otherwise I buy pc's only on Norwegian internet shops (Ultimate PC (23000kr) or Good PC (11000kr, about 1000€ I think) On norwegian), so I don't know any other foreign shops.



Otherwise I doubt this content was useful for you... ^^

[Bob666]

your "good pc" costs about 1400€, so its too expensive

http://de.finance.yahoo.com/waehrungsrec...=Umrechnen


can anyone give me a link of a benchmark containing a 6800gs or 6800gt and new graphics cards like 8800gts, 8600gs?
and what about ATI graphics cards? ive seen no pc with those

[Billy_Talent_ll]

the new ati cards are slower then geforce 8k series^^

[Bob666]

sure? i know that geforce optimizes their cards more for benchmarks, have drivers which take all of the performance out of the card, while ATI is safer, has less crashs, a better render-quality and the performance improves with each driver... after a driver update for my ATI 9200se i could enable the particle system in nfsu1 without more lagg than before.. that was quite much for that graphics card
i dont trust those benchmarks too much...

[Batto]

Well, here is my opinion, you asked for it.

I am in no way a real hardware genius, but i know the following:

that new system will be way faster then your old one, the processor is much better, the graphics card is also much better (8800 gts is one of the best buys at the moment afaik), the 2gb of ram in comparison with your old 1gb (wich is probably even slower RAM ) will be noticable too. Dont worry about the other things like hdds and dvd writers, those arent the biggest costs of those machines. (if you choose to delete the dvd rw from the configuration, it wont save you much more then 20euros i guess, a smaller hdd also) Btw, if you have a better pc, you might go and play better games wich these days require lots of hdd space, but that on a side note.

Disclaimer: the things above are in general, i didnt look at the configuration at your shop, so i dont know what brands those parts are from (one brand delivers more for the money then other brands do). But still, in general its a better configuration.

Another thing: in stead of looking at the writer and hdd, you maybe should google some about you motherboard, since if you ever want to upgrade, you will need to know what is possible. Most low-medium budget pcs are configured with 'family'-motherboards wich do not really allow much further upgrading afterwards. (to give an example: my machine has such a family board too and i have only 3 slots for RAM, i have a very limited choice to wich cooler i could place on my processor since many capacitors were in the way, ...) Also they cut back on the L1 and L2 cache memory wich could make a fast processor and much ram useless. (I do NOT say that this is the case in your configuration, dont get me wrong ).

Then, maybe an example wich could interest you: some time ago, when the 8800gt was just out, someone i know had it. We had a LAN party and played Wintermaul Wars (i guess you know that warcraft td). Some guys had lots of frost towers but no damage, so we kept spawning creeps, but they wouldnt die as fast as we summoned them, so everybode started to lagg, from the slowest pc to the fastest.....except one. The guy who recently bought that graphics card. Of course he had also a good pc, but there were others with almost the same configuration but with a 7900 nvidia for example. Well, this is just one case off course, but it may give you an idea.

Now: the first thing you need to do is do decide what you need your pc for. If you game a lot, yes, buy a new one and maybe spend some more coins on it so that it will last longer. If you dont and only play warcraft and use it for work/school and the occasional game at a lan wich still runs, then stick to this pc and save some money to buy another machine later. Also, if you are going to run Linux sometimes, you better go with nvidia cards, since they support linux way better then ATI.

Last notes (for now ):
1) if you choose for this system, buy some more ram instantly, it will pay off in the long run i think
2) you are lucky to be german, your hardware is much cheaper then it is here
3) i thought since you programmed a nice game like this, you would certainly know something about these things LOL
4) some good sites to go through:
-www.tomshardware.com (although some say its sometimes/often unreliable)
-www.tweakers.net (this is DUTCH !! dont know if you understand it, otherwise a very good site!!)
-try out some newsgroups, they are really worth it!!! (i searched quickly for you, maybe this might be usefull, otherwise you have too look for yourself, i do not know german that well : http://groups.google.com/groups/search?q...t_s=search )


Oh and if something i wrote is wrong, pls correct me.

[TKF]

My advice is: 2 HD

Main hard drive (could be standard 80GB, or a fast 40-80 GB HD) for only having windows or similar operative system and other small progs on.

Second hard drive for having heavy progs on, (like games, 3dmax, photoshop...) Storing stash on.

40-80GB
400-500GB
more if you like....

Unfortunately I have all the heavy progs on my main windows hard drive, which a friend of me doesn't recommend. Still 2 HD makes my shitty pc stable and fast (fast and fast, well not really that fast...)


____
About graphic cards, I think a high Mhz speed is important (like 800Mhz is very good, my core speed is only 350Mhz...) But I don't know whats best of GeForce or ATI.

____

If new cabinet, chieftec is very nice (I have one myself) cuz they have side doors, but the new designs are ugly these days...

____

About CPU prosessors, AMD is the way to go, cuz they're stable. I got my brothers old Intel pc (it's newer), but it is unstable shait, that's why I still keep my old slow stable pc...

____

Ram: get enough before pc get extinct (2-4GB ram minimum)

[Batto]

2 hdds arent nesecarry for that, you can split up your hdd into partitions if you want things separated

[TKF]

It's better to have 2 seperate HDs than using split up partitions. For durability reasons that is....


But its useful to use partitions, but I don't

[DerSatan]

if the hdd isnt too slow, partitions (logical drives) have the same effect as physical different drives. most hdd's offered nowadays should be fast enough to deny any difference. but the hdd is far from beeing the most important/expensive part of your system, as batto already mentioned. :arrow:

the main questions i had to answer myself are: is my pc really satisfying me and all applications i want? is he still enough to do fairly what i expect him to do? or do i need a bucket o' cold water for anger management everytime i start him or a program bigger than text editor? :mrgreen:

if you answered these questions honestly, you should know if you need a new pc. if you think you caught me exaggerating, youre right. just felt like giving my text an entertaining touch 8)

[Bob666]

I know that I don't need a new pc, but my sister's PC is broken... Well, I don't have problems with PCs at all, normally I can fix them. And if I had, my sister could not take it anyways. I reinstall Windows about twice a year, it's still fast enough. And is it satisfying? I don't know, at least a new PC is not needed. I am able to play most of the games, but when it comes to Battlefield 2 for example, or Rainbow Six: Vegas, Crysis, Cellfactor Revolution etc, there's always some lagg, so it doesn't make fun to play such games... But I don't need to play those games, either. It would just be some luxus, but why not?

So my sister's PC is broken, and one solution could be that she gets my PC and I buy a new one:

1. Repair my sister's PC for about ~75€, but she already hates that one, as she cannot even play Warcraft on it without lagg. So she will probably buy a new one in the next year anyways.

2. Buy a new PC for my sister, that should be at about ~400€ for a usable PC. Then we will have two PCs on the same level (mine and hers), and later i would buy a new PC and we couldnt do anything with my old one.

3. My sister buys my PC for 250€, I buy a new one for ~800€ (including 250€ from my sister, 550€ for me then). This is the most expensive solution. It would be the best for my sister, but I would have to spend some money for it.

And christmas is coming, so I would have to spend even less money on it.

These are the PCs I am thinking about, the first one is the one I would currently prefer:
(But I'm not really sure, if it's much better than my current PC)

570€ (Me paying 320€)
-AMD64 X2 6000+
-KUGELGELAGERTER KÜHLER
-ASUS M2N-X
-250GB SATA Festplatte 7200U
-2x 1024MB DDRAM2 PC-800
-256MB GeForce 8600GTS
-DVD-Laufwerk
Sound on B.
Lan on B.
-MIDI TOWER GMX X-22 mit
Temparaturanzeige, Lüftersteuerrung
und 2x 12cm
Lüfter + 500WATT Silencer
Nitrox Modular

740€ (Me paying 490€)
-AMD64 X2 4600+
-ASUS M2N-X
-250GB SATA Festplatte 7200U
-2x 1024MB DDRAM2 PC-800
-320MB GeForce 8800GTS
-DVD-Laufwerk
Sound on B.
Lan on B.
-MIDI TOWER Thermaltake Alu
500WATT Silent Nitrox
Modular

830€ (Me paying 580€)
-AMD64 X2 6000+
-KUGELGELAGERTER KÜHLER
-ASUS M2N-X
-500GB SATA Festplatte 7200U
-2x 1024MB DDRAM2 PC-800
-512MB GeForce 8800GT
-DVD-Laufwerk
Sound on B.
Lan on B.
-MIDI TOWER Thermaltake Alu
500WATT Silent Nitrox
Modular

[psycho_dmr]

if you think you can build your pc at your own, then msg me at weekend when im back home, then i can give you some tips for your new PC (600€ is more then enough for a good an silent pc)

[Bob666]

the store i mentioned build pcs from what you say them, too... the prices are contained here:
http://www.computerhouse.de/preisliste_p...sliste.pdf

but im not even sure if its really a good idea to buy a new pc, and currently i think it isnt... but as i already said im not sure... i just want to buy an e-guitar,too, and a mobile phone, so i dont know if i really should kill my whole budget^^