Buying New PC.

[weEvil]

I am looking at a new PC. I don't want to spend too much, but I want the best performance to price ratio.

I want a good processor. Mid range. Not the most expensive one as the price is inflated and its only a bit faster than the mid-range ones, but for triple the price.

I've boon looking at the Core 2 Duo Processor. Thinking of Dual Core. Quad Core is overkill right now. What do yo guys reccomend?

Also for a videocard I was looking at GeForce 8. Maybe an 8400 (does this exist?) or 8600. Gonna buy it after the ATi monster is released and nVidia drops prices.

Also motherboards, what do you fellas recommend?

Hard Drive 7200RPM with 500GB or so sounds just fine. Samsung if they have any. They have quieter ones from what I heard.

Also RAM. I was reading that the Core 2 does pretty good with PC3200 ram. If you put something like PC5400 it has little performance difference. What's the sweet-spot for ram?

[jcarle]

All depends on what you do with your computer. Do you play games, if so which ones? What kind of software do you run? Do you do video encoding? Do you collect large files? And so on and so forth.

[weEvil]

Double post.

Edited April 30, 2007 by brucevangeorge

[weEvil]

All depends on what you do with your computer. Do you play games, if so which ones? What kind of software do you run? Do you do video encoding? Do you collect large files? And so on and so forth.

Yes, yes, and yes.

Media center, ripping CDs and encoding, video encoding, video capture and storage... games too. That's why I'd like a GeForce 8. Or 7. Whichever has most fps per dollar.

Also, same with CPU. I don't care what brand. Just want the most fps per dollar. If its a hot AMD processor, I don't care. I'm using water cooling anyway.

More fps usually means better performance. Encoding, decoding and games.

[ripken204]

well give us a price and the place your buying from.

[jcarle]

If you're going to do heavy stuff, I'd suggest you take the initial investment in buying yourself a top of the line motherboard such as the Asus Striker Extreme.

[weEvil]

If you're going to do heavy stuff, I'd suggest you take the initial investment in buying yourself a top of the line motherboard such as the Asus Striker Extreme.

Cool. Anything else? Like a budget CPU and videocard recommendation?

[jcarle]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup. As for the videocard, anything in the GeForce 8xxx series will more then do you good.

[weEvil]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup. As for the videocard, anything in the GeForce 8xxx series will more then do you good.

I don't want the "cheapest" I want the one that has the most value. Bang for Buck.

What about AMD? I heard they were slashing prices since Intel released the Core2 Duo.

[jcarle]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup. As for the videocard, anything in the GeForce 8xxx series will more then do you good.

I don't want the "cheapest" I want the one that has the most value. Bang for Buck.

What about AMD? I heard they were slashing prices since Intel released the Core2 Duo.

If you want advice regarding AMD, another member is going to have to help you as I simply don't see the value in their products.

[ripken204]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup. As for the videocard, anything in the GeForce 8xxx series will more then do you good.

I don't want the "cheapest" I want the one that has the most value. Bang for Buck.

What about AMD? I heard they were slashing prices since Intel released the Core2 Duo.

If you want advice regarding AMD, another member is going to have to help you as I simply don't see the value in their products.

have you ever owned an amd? amd's are good but not compared to the C2D at the moment. just think C2D right now.

[jcarle]

have you ever owned an amd? amd's are good but not compared to the C2D at the moment. just think C2D right now.

No, and I never plan to. I don't feel the need to buy hardware from a vendor who only has a 15% market share. At least with an Intel I don't ever have to worry about hardware or software support, ever.

[nmX.Memnoch]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup.

I just can't bring myself to recommend the E4300 to anyone since it only has an 800MHz bus and 2MB cache. You can step all the way up to the E6420 with a 1066MHz bus/4MB cache and still be under $200US.

On to recommendations...

The reviews of the lower GeForce8 series cards aren't looking to good right now. If you're going for a GeForce8 card but don't want to spend a lot of cash on the high-end models then look at a 320MB version of the 8800GTS.

Motherboards? Personally I have an Asus P5B-E and haven't had any problems at all with it. The only thing I didn't like about the specs was the onboard NIC so I turned it off and threw in an Intel PRO/1000 PT Desktop Adapter. It's PCIe x1 and runs between $35US and $40US from TigerDirect. I'm not using the onboard sound either (never do) so I can't really speak as to how good it is...but I haven't read anything bad about it).

As far as a hard drive recommendation...look at the Seagate 7200.10 series. They're very quiet, very fast and super reliable.

Edited May 1, 2007 by nmX.Memnoch

[weEvil]

have you ever owned an amd? amd's are good but not compared to the C2D at the moment. just think C2D right now.

No, and I never plan to. I don't feel the need to buy hardware from a vendor who only has a 15% market share. At least with an Intel I don't ever have to worry about hardware or software support, ever.

You don't need software support for it. Its an x86 processor. Just like Intel makes. You plug it in and it works. Windows covers a wide range of prcessors. AMDs work in Windows, Linux and even that hacked version of the Apple OS (even though it shouldn't).

And sorry pal. I'm not thinking Core2Duo. I'm thinking MONEY. I don't have brand loyalty like you do.

So far AMD and Intel seem to be in a price war. AMD is cutting prices to sell more. Intel is following suit. So far I want to see which has the best value for the money.

[weEvil]

Core2 Duo 4300 is the cheapest in the Core2 lineup.

I just can't bring myself to recommend the E4300 to anyone since it only has an 800MHz bus and 2MB cache. You can step all the way up to the E6420 with a 1066MHz bus/4MB cache and still be under $200US.

On to recommendations...

The reviews of the lower GeForce8 series cards aren't looking to good right now. If you're going for a GeForce8 card but don't want to spend a lot of cash on the high-end models then look at a 320MB version of the 8800GTS.

Motherboards? Personally I have an Asus P5B-E and haven't had any problems at all with it. The only thing I didn't like about the specs was the onboard NIC so I turned it off and threw in an Intel PRO/1000 PT Desktop Adapter. It's PCIe x1 and runs between $35US and $40US from TigerDirect. I'm not using the onboard sound either (never do) so I can't really speak as to how good it is...but I haven't read anything bad about it).

As far as a hard drive recommendation...look at the Seagate 7200.10 series. They're very quiet, very fast and super reliable.

Cool. Thanks for that. How does it stack up to the AMD X2 6000+? I found one on eBay for about $200. Its the latest one for their AM2 socket.

And yeah. I was just looking at the 8800GTS the other day. Its almost as good as an 8800GT but at half the price. And less memory... but that's not that important. I was tinking of buying it after nVidia releases the 8900 or when ATi lands their r600 monster turd. Whenever that is, since the GTS should lower in price even more.

Also, I'm thinking to "future proof" this PC a bit. To allow expandability.

I'm thinking of getting an SLi board so I can pop in another GTS (or three) whenever I need it or it gets cheap enough.

How is the current socket looking for Intel? Many more processors good for it? Or are they moving up to a newer tech again?

I see that the AMD AM2 socket is pretty much tapped out. The 6000+ is supposedly one of the last processors for it. What about the QUAD Platform that AMD keeps pushing. Is that the replacement for AM2? Again, I don't care about bleeding edge performance. I care about VALUE.