Asking Advice For New PC

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

My goal is simple.. to get a GOOD new pc. I think it's important to also mention what the pc will be used for Mainly webdesign, graphics (PhotoShop, ImageReady, Illustrator) and Flash. I also listen to tuns of music and would love to try my hand at 3D. Gaming is not realy my thing, unless some MUD's and text based games (not much load on a system LOL). Oh and perhaps some programming.

I made a lil page with the specs I've chosen so far, but with the memory, graphics card and such I am stuck. Since my pc (laptop) is so old, I actually have very little idea left of what I should have. Keep in mind, that I would like to have the minimum and some more. I don't need state of the art at this point (important for the memory) but I just want a good system pretty fast So I think 512MB RAM would be ok. I really want to know what brands etc you have found to be good. I used Apacer and was happy with them. Since the MB I chose has Dual channel support, does it have advantages over single channel RAM?

Also the monitor can be changed (again, no knowledge of TFT screens), however it has to be a TFT screen since CRTs give me migraines after a while (2hrs of more use). And then there's the issue about fans... which ones, will the one with the CPU suffice? If not... let there be silent fans

And then here's the link LOL http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

[subasteve 0]

Some good brands I recomend are AMD(proccesser), asus(Motherboard), Nivida(graphics card), PNG(memory), and Maxtor(Hard drive). If you are going to do some heavy graphics I recomend 1gig ram and at least a AMD 64, for the Graphics card you don't need anything that cost to much money since your not playing games. Dual Channel ram is faster then single channel ram.

[thaichatham 0]

Well lots of things to consider, 512 is what i have and it's more then i needi dont think ive ever used it fullyi use my comp for p2p alot, video editing, gamming, t.v., movies...the thing that will slow u down is the cpui use presently p4 2.4gb, always maxed out when im editing video have to change priority in task manager to be able to do much elsei'd recomend the newer amd's faster then pentium, cheaper, and they've worked out the overheating bugs, to be sure id still change the biosalso dual channel does just what it says, gives u 2 channels to read/write fromall i know bout thatabout the silence, when i first got my cpu there was some thing loose in it, ratteled all the time, not techincal prob so not covered by waranty... assesso this is what ya do get a zalman vf700-aicu vga cooler ( bout 40$ u.s.) - for video card, zalmanusa.compioneer's dvr-a08xla is the most silent dvd drive around - ive never used thoughantec tricool fans (20$) antec.comakasa paxmate sound dampening meterial (cheap) chek them out at http://www.akasa.com.tw/ hope this helps, any q's feel free to drop me line

[kevlar557 0]

I do not have the extange rate from dollars to euros, so I will post in USD

First of all, AMD is not the best kind of processor for multimedia. The new prescott's from Intel are looking pretty good. I would get that, with an Gigabyte motherboard. I've heard nothing but good things about Gigabyte'sGA-8I915G-MF.
It goes for about $95

As for graphics, I would recommend one of the cards from ATI's X700 line of PCI-E graphics cards. They are about $150-$210 on newegg.

With cooling, the stock heatsing should suffice, but if you want to buy a sweet CPU heatsink, look at any of the zalmans.

If you are doing lots of multimedia, than 1 gig of memory would be perfect. I've always liked Mushkin memory. It is inexpensive, but good quality.

Everything else about you system is excellent. Seagate makes a awesome hard drive, and benq(formerly acer) makes a quality product.

[thaichatham 0]

whats the prescot like? havent herd about itamd is just a very fast, cheap general cpunewest i think go around 4.0 and saw them going for around 8-9 hundred u.s.

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

WOW thank you for the replys... The reason I opted for AMD as CPU is because I used to work with AMD only LOL. I think I had an AMD Duron or something (it was a 950 MHz) and it worked like a charm, I have never encountered any issues with it, even though a lot of people told me they overheat fast. In the end yes, I managed to mess them up. I wanted to overclock - so I did that. And I forgot about ONE thing... cooling. I didn't have enough cooling power LOL. Right now I have an Intel PII 333MHz in this laptop (just the regular CPU, not mobile technology LOL) And I find it gets hotter etc. I don't like that LOL. Of course the 1GB RAM would fly I used to have 256MB and it annoyed me LOL. But then again, I used to have Win XP Pro with Dreamweaver MX open and Flash MX open at once. Maybe that was a little strain on the system LOL. Ah and in case you're wondering why I left out a normal DVD reader, I still have one in my closet here, an internal one. Same goes for a CD-writer LOL. This is a thing I thought about last night in bed Since I will be running a Dual Boot with Ubuntu Linux (or Gentoo or Mandrake - Maybe I'll try several LOL), the hardware should work in Linux too LOL. Intel may not be the best choice then.

[warbird 0]

I use a Dell Dimension 8300 with 1024 mb, a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and a harddisk of 260. That's pretty good, i like it, but it's also pretty expansive (not in my case because my father buyd it but...)

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

but it's also pretty expansive (not in my case because my father buyd it but...)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well rIxXoN, that's the reason why I am trying to get this "specs"page together. Mom will pay part of it, for my birthday (which is July 31st). Of course I still need to save some money But mom is the type that needs convincing a lot, so that means I need to know stuff like this way in advance. My global idea of price would be around 1500€ (which I think is around $2000) The thing is, if I spend this much time on a puter a day, I might as well make it be as smooth as possible I am sure everyone here understands that LOL.

[warbird 0]

I don't think it will be that much money, but i don't know where you're living.One reason why we have such a pretty good computer is because i do much with html and C++, and my parents like that.BTW: (it's maybe a bit early but) Congratulations with your birthday.

[PC Astray 0]

If you're planning to build your own system, I suggest getting a Shuttle XPC with integrated graphics since you're not into some serious gaming or Antec's Solution series with a Foxconn WinFast NF4UK8AA motherboard and so on. I highly recommend AMD processor chips since they're quality and rather cheap when compared to Intel and other companies (bet you never heard of them). 512MB of RAM should be enough but your OS will be a problem since most programs only work with Windows XP and I can recommend you lots of freeware programs for optimizing your computer if you want (but I think you already have it optimized by then) but considering the fact that Windows XP is always targeted by hackers, it's your choice whether to use it or not.

[RainbowPhoenix 0]

Ok hon, here... as promised... is your surefire, never-fail, Mr. Phoenix solution to a superfast PC for doing what YOU want!!! YAYYY!!!First of all, get the fastest darn processor you can afford. Second, get a gig of RAM. No less. The dual channel stuff is faster, but if it means doubling the price you're not necessarily doubling the speed. Third, your video card is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!! You don't want some flash-boom-bah game card, you want a production workhorse. For apps that draw a TON of pixels on the screen, why worry if the card can render 3-D graphics and halo effects for games? What you want is raw, pixel crunching power. NVidia makes a good one for that.Now, something you may not have expected... your hard drive. What I recommend (and have done this successfully in the past with large-format RIP workstations) is two SCSI hard-drives. Why? Because first of all, you can put your swap file and data files on one and your proggies on the other. Second, because SCSI drives can read/write simultaneously to each other, you don't have the wait times like IDE drives. Believe me, with apps like Photoshop generating large swap files, you want to keep your drives humming!!!Finally, I know CRT gives you a headache, but if you spend a few bucks more on a 19" monitor (NEC is mighty fine) then crank up the refresh rate (80Hz or higher) you won't get that blasted 60 cycle flicker that gives you the headache. PLUS... the colour fidelity and brightness of a CRT is unparalleled. Plasma and LCD screens just don't cut it (yet) for professional graphics production.Well, that's all I can think of now. Let me know if you've got any more questions!!Blessings,Phoenix

[jipman 0]

NEVER EVER take a presscot

 

Those bastards heat up to 60 C stressed with the standard cooler and makes so much noise while doing that, I hurts your ears. So You're ending up spending 20 bucks more for a decent cooler, (I spent 35, but I bought a Zalman ). So AMD would be a good choice, maybe the AMD 64 bits 3500+ CPU.

 

The best cooler in my opinion is the Zalman CNPS7700 it's not very expensive, but it's almost the best money can buy (a little bit lot of money ). It has 2 modes, in silent mode, you CANT hear it when you are standing more than 2 feet away from it. In normal mode it is slightly audible. Switch between the 2 modes when you have a lot / little cpu load.

 

Also take a goood Powersupply, the OCZ MODSTREAM is in my opinion the most silent and best psu there is.

 

About Ram, I don't have much knowledge about that... i'm sorry.

 

About harddrives, SATA ones do the job fine and are also fast. For SCSI you need to get a separate controller and stuff, and you also need to install a lot of drivers even before the windows install (quite a hassle i think).

 

For graphic cards, take a Nvidia Geforce 6800 (GT / Ultra) if you need the top of the line. Else a 6600 will do fine too. Also if you are planning to do a lot of graphical stuff, consider SLI, thats when you use 2 identical 3d cards so you get about double the performance.

 

Also don't forget about a decent mouse which you'll need for decent photoshopping without having to hit UNDO all the time, you could try these.

 

- Logitech MX510 : Incredibly precise and accurate, looks and feels really nice too.

- Logitech MX1000 : Even better better accuracy but a slight lag due to it's wireless-ness

- Razer Diamondback : Are better than mx510 and below the mx1000, but has a wire, so no lag, but ERGONOMICALY a disaster, it isn't very comfy, especially not for big handed people.

 

Good luck with it, and make a good choice, if you got it, post the specs ;).

 

Want to add something to the previous post.

 

If you take an AMD, the standard cooler will do fine, it makes a little noise, but not irritating.

 

The Intel cpu's are always noisy, so take a good cooler.

 

Don't forget, 3d card coolers are very noisy, especially the high performance ones, so get a Zalman graphic cards cooler for lets say GF 6600 and up.

 

that was it.

 

Ps. I'm a Zalman fan, but Arctic is also good and cheaper

 

hehe 3rd last addon

 

You can have a UBER, and I really mean UBER powerfull computer for € 1400 excl monitor.

 

I don't know your budget but I just wanted to add this.

 

SOrry in advance

 

I reread your post and i overlooked the price thingy a bit, with your budget, you can have an incredible machine, I wish I had that budget...

 

since you're from belgium i do the prices in euros

2000 dollars = about 1500 euros

 

Let me give a few hardware tips :

 

- AMD 64 3500+ about € 300

- ASUS A8N-SLI motherboard @ about € 140

- Leadtek WinFast PX6800 GT TDH @ about € 430 (maybe add another one later)

- OCZ MODSTREAM 510 Watt powersupply @ about € 110

- RAM 2x Kingston HyperX 512 @ about 130 each

 

This is what I would go for if I had that kind of money.

 

Allright, I've posted enough here. Good luck with finding the right stuff.

 

PS. could an moderator please add these 4 posts together? Thanks in advance.

 

Done ask nicely and thou shall receive

[Vagodeoz 0]

Hmmm... *wondering why the edit post option is disabled*...Well... for a graphics card you don't need a great card. I think you could get a GeForce 3. And for memory, I really think you should get 1 gb of RAM.Apart from that... tell me when you get the computer, so I can steal it from you. =)

[moonwitch1405241479 0]

Apart from that... tell me when you get the computer, so I can steal it from you. =)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One word to the "steal it", I have a big nasty mean dog (rottweiler/dobermann mix), he'll eat you alive LOL and yes, he sleeps in my room

 

Jipman,

I'll edit your posts don't worry. The reason I set my budget so high, is because I don't want to spend 1200€ on basic stuff and then face the need to replace parts in 6 months I prefer to wait longer over having to spend money on replacing parts early on. I really like your idea on the ZalMan fans I mean, I heard nothing but good about them.

 

See the reason I asked this here, is you guys have no gain from trying to get me to buy expensive stuff. But the comp store sales dude has financial gain from it So obviously he'll try to get me to spend as much as possible.