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Question about new comp!
Ok so heres the deal. My comp right now is a Dell blah blah blah its 2 or 3 years old. It runs games like AION and WAR and other PC games just fine, just not with all the high detail. I'm really ok with that... But I figure its time to upgrade..
So Dell is a company I trust and they have these gaming comps and I was looking at just their basic one since I'm sure it will fit my needs but just in case I'm gonna throw the stats out here (cause I have NO clue what they mean) and if you guys could tell me if the parts are good enough or if I should pay extra to upgrade?
- Intel Core 2 E8400 (6MB, 3.0 GHz, 1333 FSB)
- SLI Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240, 2048MB (Video Card)
- 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 DIMMS ( I know this is my RAM but have no idea bout the rest)
- (Hard Drive) 500GB 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
I know plenty of people will tell me to upgrade a bunch but to be realistic I just want a decently fast moving comp than what I already have, which is pretty fast enough as it is, and with better graphics. I've posted on here previously what my current comps stats are which is:
I have a Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
2.99 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
My video card is Radeon x600 256mb Hypermemory
So keep in my I'm not really tech savy at all and give it to me straight.
And on a side note. What do people do with their old comps nowadays?
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Comments
I plan on possibly buying tomorrow and really have no clue about comps so please any help would be wonderful!
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Hey, for starters how much is this dell gona set you back?
To answer your question with no fluff. I would recommended adding 1GB of RAM to that rig and go with it. For your needs and knowledge level, you should be fine.
Awsome I figured one more gig might be needed, thanks!
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
and this Dell would only be 800$ without adding the extra gig or ram
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Ugh, SLI'ing 2 slow video cards is not worth it unless you already had 1 to begin. On a fresh system it's better to get the 1 faster card which is the same price as 2 slower SLI'd cards, that way later on you can add the 2nd SLI card when it's cheap and keep your system going for a while. Plus SLI doesn't always boost performance by much so the single card is safer.
Unfortunately I don't see a single card choice for the $800 base price XPS 630 you're looking at. The $1000 XPS 630 (dunno why they have 2 prices for the same PC) does have the option for a 4870, but $200 extra for a 4870 is ridiculous. So I don't really see the optimal solution for low price PC's there, if you must go with Dell I guess that's the best choice - the dual 4850 are a good upgrade in most games but those are the 512mb versions which don't handle 1920x1200 very well in some games. And at 1680x1050 you'd get playable framerates from either setup anyway.
Also with the DDR2 you will be able to pull the 2GB from your old PC and throw it in your new PC for 4gb total.
The GTX 240 is a 9800GT ($110) card btw so 2 of them would be $220, the same price as a 4890 or GTX275 or 4850x2 2gb (best buy actually).
Well my older comp is Dell is it has never had a single problem and still plays new MMOs with graphics that are completely fine by me. I'm not really a graphics person. Also I am not really understanding which things I should upgrade. I'll look back at the options to see which ones you pointed out here. Again, I'm not that good when it comes to understanding specifics.
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Good luck with it and send me a PM if you have any questions or need any help
Awsome thanks for all the help! And now my last question. Could I just get to 2gig ram on the new comp and take 2 out of my old comp to put in the new one? Or had that also changed too much?
And PS my comp still does really well with even the new mmo and games, although you're right its time to retire it.
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Ok dont buy that dell. I have a way better deal for you. Its an Alienware, whihc is obvoiusly a high end brand that has recently been purchased by Dell. So you wont have to worry about quality or service. The total price is $979.00, and that includes:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz 6MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
1.8GB NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 260
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 x 1024MB
500GB SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM 16MB Cache
Now the only shortfall on this system is the ram, however if your current computer uses DDR2, then you can throw that right in. It will only take 2 seconds and even you will be able to do it. It was mentioned before that the 2 lower end video cards was not teh best option, and that is the truth. Since SLI is far from a perfect platform, in regards to scalability, a single more powerful card is the better option. The GTX 260 is a good midrange card that has been quite popular since release. I realise that this is slightly more than the previuos system, however it does fix the potential problem with the underpowered graphics cards, and leaves a wider room to upgrade in the future. Furthermore, teh quality of components used in this system will likely be much higher than in the lower end dell you had listed. If you are intrested in this system I'll send you the link and tell you how to configure it teh way i have it set up.
Is that easy to buy? And how would I set it up to buy it?
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Now really isn't the best time to buy a new computer, as so much good stuff will be released very soon.
For starters, I'd say don't get a Core 2 processor. If you absolutely must buy right now, a Phenom II (from AMD) is better value for the money. If you can wait slightly, Intel's Lynnfield line of processors (the replacement for Core 2 Quads) will release next week and give you vastly superior performance (even on a per core basis, before considering that 4 cores is better than 2) for about the same price. Those will be available immediately, as stores already have them in stock and have for weeks, but just aren't allowed to sell them until Intel says so, as Intel doesn't want to cannibalize Core 2 sales without having enough of Lynnfield (to be branded as Core i5 and Core i7) to sell to everyone who wants one.
As for video cards, Nvidia apparently thinks about enough of their GTS 240 that they won't sell it at retail at all. Apparently it's a rebranded card from two generations prior, and essentially identical cards can be bought at retail under other names (8800 GT, 9800 GT). It's probably worth noting that ATI is releasing their next generation of cards next week as well, with lots of good stuff (DirectX 11 support, 40 nm node, GDDR5 memory, etc.). It's unclear exactly what they'll release; some rumors say only their "Cypress" chip likely to be Radeon 5850/5870, which may be out of your price range, while other rumors are that they'll have their whole next line out and were only waiting on TSMC to get its 40 nm production process fixed. It's also unclear when the cards will be available at retail, though we'll find out a lot more next week.
If you're getting a new computer, you should probably get one with DDR3 memory, which is a lot faster than DDR2 and nearly the same price. The Core 2 architecture is old, though, and only recently have motherboards to have DDR3 have come out. If you're getting Vista, then 2 GB of memory will not be enough for some games, as Vista wants a ton of memory. 4 GB should be plenty for quite some time to come.
Speaking of Vista, Microsoft is releasing Windows 7 next month. Opinions differ on how good Windows 7 will be, but it's almost universally rated as better than Vista. If you buy a computer with Vista now, you can get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it releases, but wiping your hard drive to install Windows 7, reinstall everything, track down drivers, etc. is quite a hassle. You can technically upgrade to Windows 7 without the full wipe, but that's not really the best idea.
For a hard drive, unless you think you'll need more than 500 GB (check how much space is used on your current hard drive for comparison), the only meaningful upgrade would be a solid state drive, which is probably out of your budget. Dell won't sell you a good solid state drive, anyway--though they will sell you a bad one and charge you more than you could get a good one for elsewhere. The short version here is that a solid state drive based on the Intel or Indilinx controller is good, the Samsung controller is mediocre, and the JMicron controller is worse-than-a-rotating-platter-hard-drive junk. If a company won't tell you what they're selling, you can bet that it's junk. The difference here is much larger than you might think: an Intel or Indilinx based drive is literally thousands of times faster at 4 KB random writes than a JMicron one.
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If you really want someone to give it to you straight, though, my advice would be don't buy from Dell. They used to be good, but not anymore. Let me tell you about the computer I'm typing this on, which is a Dell bought in 2007.
When I got it, two drivers were installed wrong. I know that the DVD driver was installed wrong because right out of the box, Windows said, that's not a valid driver so it has been disabled. Dell would have seen this if they had turned the computer on before shipping it. I went to the drive manufacturer's web site and it rather prominently said, if you bought a Dell, they screwed up, and here's the driver you need. Apparently Dell did that to a lot of people and just hoped that customers wouldn't notice.
The other driver installed wrong was the video card. Right after I got the computer, I tried to run a game that said, sorry, the game won't run because your video card drivers are too old. A quick trip to the ATI web site to get the right driver fixed that, but it's still an inexcusable blunder on Dell's part.
A few months later, Windows decided that the copy that Dell had installed wasn't genuine. It took a few hours of messing with it to finally get Windows to accept that Dell wasn't pirating the software. That might have been Microsoft's fault rather than Dell's, I suppose.
A while later when I finally decided to try using the TV card, I found that Dell hadn't included software to run it. I think they intended for me to use Windows Media Center, which can do quite a few things with a TV card, but taking an incoming signal and displaying it on the screen in real time (which is, after all, the entire point of a TV card) is not one of them. I went to the card manufacturer's web site, and it said, here's the software for it--but oh by the way, it's not compatible with Vista. And Dell had sold me this card in a Vista machine, which is inexcusable.
A few months later, the computer crashed, and when I tried to boot it, it wouldn't. After about four hours of messing with it, I was able to bring up a DOS prompt and back up my data. After another four hours, I finally got it to boot into safe mode, and shortly after that, it booted up just fine and seemed to be in proper working order.
Right around that time, the hard drive started randomly corrupting files. I got Dell to replace the hard drive two weeks later (as it was still under warranty), and haven't had any problems with the replacement. It's understandable that hard drives fail now and then, but it's still quite a bad thing to go wrong.
About two years after getting the computer, I thought it might be nice to upgrade it to something faster, most likely with a new processor and video card. I looked into what it had and what I could upgrade it to. I could have upgraded the processor from a 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo to a Core 2 Quad with a much higher clock speed, which wouldn't be the recommended processor for a new machine, but would be a perfectly good upgrade for an old one.
For the video card, I was rather stuck, though. Apparently Dell found a motherboard with no PCI Express slot (which has been the standard for video cards since about 2004) and used it to sell a gaming computer in 2007. I could get a video card for the AGP slot, but just not a very good one. It would entail paying $100 for a slower version of a $50 card that isn't really that fast (which is why it's a $50 card). After everything else that is wrong with the computer, I'm rather afraid that such an upgrade would fry the power supply, too.
Recently the computer started blue screening with a cryptic IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error message and automatically rebooting when I'd try to boot it up. Repeated reboots (to try to copy down the whole error message, as it reset the computer after only a couple of seconds) finally cleared up the problem after an hour or so, leaving me no idea of what the problem had been.
Also, the Dell mouse sometimes interprets a single click as being a double click. That can be attributed to normal wear and tear, I guess, and was easily handled by replacing the mouse.
And that's just the things that went wrong with this one computer from Dell. So basically, I'll never buy from Dell again. And I want a new computer now, too, so I don't have to rely on this one. At the moment, I'm waiting for Lynnfield processors, ATI Evergreen video cards, Windows 7, and solid state drives to get TRIM support, and the release of Windows 7 on October 22 will probably be the last of those.
Possibly, it depends if you have DDR or DDR 2 memorys in the old one. IT is most likely you have old DDR memorys and then you cant use them but it is not impossible that you bought a high end system with DDR2.
They don't have the same slots so you can see it if you just hold up the memory close to the slot, there is a pin in the slot that are in different positions depending on the type of memory you have (DDR,DDR2 or DDR3).
And most MMOs uses old gfx engines that wont support multicores and leave the most work to the processor instead of the GPU. That is however changing fast now since AoC released most new games will need newer GFX cards and preferably multicore.
But games like Wow and LOTRO are made to run on your computer so of course do they run fine, only EQ2 have updated itself from single core to multicore and let the GFX card take over many of the processors tasks.
The Alienware computer the guy linked too is way better than the Dell one. Dell is relativly good if you compare to Compaq and HP but it is crap compared to any computer I ever built (I build them for most of my friends, it is cheaper and youll get better things in them). Alienware do however focus on gaming computer while Dells are more general for average users.
Of course do MMOs generally don't need a state of the art gaming computer unless you want to max out every slider in the game but a gaming computer will last longer.
I was LOLing.....Anyways OP please state your needs (gaming only or anything else) and most importantly state the size of the monitor you are using or are planning to use (everything in the end depends on this) and your budget ofcourse.....you will be wasting $ if you are buying anything from Dell or Alienware (no offence to fanboys)...
i cant stand buying already built comps but you should check what you can upgrade things to before getting that comp
its going to need more ram first thing :P
If think you should consider building you own computer instead, you seems to be ready for it. You will get all the instructions you need with the motherboard and when you build your own stuff youll know what you get and it saves money. As long as you are careful it is really not much harder than to change memorys. However is the AMD fan hell to install, I am always scared Ill break it when I install it. Intels is a lot easier.
As for the OP I think you should write down a list of the components you want and give it to the guy in your local computer shop. He should be able to offer you a acceptable price on that. Brand computer always try to use cheap components.
No. Her Motherboard wont support any upgrade, the only thing in this case to do is to move the old harddrive so she can move the old files she need, and then reformat it and use it as a media storage drive.
Unless she have DDR2 memorys, then they are worth keeping too but I doubt it, dell usually are ate with stuff like that.
The general idea is that if the motherboard supports the new stuff it is worh keeping but this one have a old processor slot, probably DDR memorys and possibly a AGP port. Also will the FSB of it be slow.
Anyone with a single core processor should save what he can (harddrive, maybe PSU and possibly memorys) and get a new computer. It is usually only the harddrive that isworth keeping, not counting keyboard, mouse and screen.
Quizzicals post was very well thought out and I agree with most of it.. although, depending on how much you're spending there are many MOBOs right now (amd anyways) that support a wide range of processors and memory types for upgradability. I know some intel boards do as well.. just be careful... look around on newegg and get product reviews if you're building your own.
I have to say, do NOT buy a dell as quizzical said.... just recently I had an old client call me as they bought their new dell about 6 months ago that I setup for them. (I didn't recommend it to them). Apparently they were getting crashes and the dell tech told them they needed to reinstall windows. They called me and it was a bad hard drive. I told them to call back dell and give them the information I told them, in which case Dell decided to replace the hard drive. The tech they had come out to replace it for them did the old Dell and switch on them, where he just switched out the hard drive for a REFURBISHED one.. (not even a new one here folks) and then proceeded to take the old one without loading windows or allowing them to keep any of the information.. much less destroy any information currently on the drive.
When they told me what happened I was pretty furious.... plus the driver disk the tech left for them.. all the drivers were wrong... the PC kept crashing. We had to track down old driver information for the video and network cards so we could pull the correct ones off of dells site.
HP or Sony both have better support..... but building your own is where its at... but only if you have the composure to fix problems on your own when you encounter them for instance.. if your video card breaks, you'd have to RMA it on your own.... luckily factory warranties on this stuff are pretty good..... 3 years for some parts... 5 years for others... Oh and one of the biggest upgrades you can do.. which IS worth the cash... is going with a good SSD ..... you will visually see a performance difference.
If you still haven't bought your comp...then good....otherwise....you just pawned yourself
You can get a wayyyyyyyyy I mean wayyyyyyyyy better config for that price.....and GTS 240 is lame....GTX9800+ is far better than that
for your 800$ I can suggest the following config (refer newegg)
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor - $77.00 or Callisto 3.1 ghz Black edition - 100$
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H AM3 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $89.99
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - $74.99
VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - $139.99
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - $89.99
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $69.99
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ - $74.99
Now....how much money is left out???
Ahh an Amd/Rad man above me..
yea he is right about getting a better spec for ya money, especialy about the Sli 240's, thats a bad idea. However I preffer Intel and Nvidia. either way do your self a favour and re think that spec..
I only have one issue with Dell. They sometimes use pretty good components, while others they use total crap. In a Dell PC you might find you have a fast hardrive, but a weak powersupply. Good graphic card, but bad or not enough RAM to use it to full potential. There are plenty of examples like these.
Mainly I rather build my own computer unless it is from something like Alienware. If you want to buy from Dell you need to make sure you are satisfied with all components, even those they might not have listed. Even if Dell say it is a gaming computer, you should still check out all spec on components before buying it.
For 800 dollars I can pretty much build a pretty good gaming rig myself if I buy from factory or online.
lol...sorry i gave that impression....used to love intel and Nvidia (still do) but I am more of a budget guy rather....Intels have some seriously good processors but you end up spending way TOO MUCH for something you didn't need in the first place...while AMDs made a dramatic change with their AM3s and began making quality stuff again..and not to mention PRICING...and ATis with their DDR5s...so now we have a very healthy competition between the two.
Well as I said earlier I won't be building my own. I don't know how and wouldnt know how to fix any problems. And I've actually had my Dell for 3 almost 4 years and have never had a single problem with it. So using these suggestions I'm going to build the dell with upgrades cause its a company a trust.
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
You could argue that it's partially my fault for not knowing exactly what I was getting in a computer before buying. But that's kind of the point: you can't just assume that if Dell is selling parts, they'll be decent parts, any more than you can assume the same of New Egg. For some parts, Dell won't tell you what they're selling though--notably including the motherboard and power supply. You might be able to get an answer if you go out of your way to contact a person rather than digging through the web site, but you'd still have to really know your stuff to know what that answer means. Though really, it's largely because I got burned last time that I'm reading up on what to get this time.
The choice between Intel and AMD in a processor is largely a question of how much you want to pay. Sure, a 3.33 GHz Core 2 Duo is a lot faster than a 3 GHz Athlon II, but it also costs more than twice as much. Once Lynnfield is released next week, it will basically be a matter of, if you're willing to spend at least $300 for a processor and motherboard (added together), get an Intel (that's what Core i5 with a low-end motherboard will cost), and if less than that, get an AMD unless Intel cuts prices on their Core 2 line considerably. I add the motherboard in because motherboards for Intel's Nehalem architecture (which includes Lynnfield) are more expensive than motherboards for AMD processors.
For video cards, ATI knows that their next generation of cards is out soon, and cut prices a little while ago to try to clear inventory on their previous generation. For a while, that meant you'd get a better deal from ATI than Nvidia except at the high end, but Nvidia has since cut prices to match, so you can go either way at the moment and get a good deal. The basic rough equivalences (in both price and performance) are:
ATI Radeon 4850 <-> Nvidia GeForce GTS 250
ATI Radeon 4870 <-> Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 (no seriously, that's what they call it)
ATI Radeon 4890 <-> Nvidia GeForce GTX 275
If you're not willing to spend $100 on a video card to get the first of those, it's not much of a gaming computer, though you could perhaps get by with something lower end. If you're willing to spend a lot more than the $200 for the last of the three, you'll get a lot better value by waiting for ATI's next line of cards. As for when Nvidia's next line of cards is out, there's a lot of conflicting rumors out there, but they may or may not be generally available at retail by the end of the year.