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ExarKun · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 2322 Location: USA

Just got a new computer, and wanted people's thoughts.

I had been running a old DELL for years and decided I needed a new one, so here I am now.

HDD is two 320 GB's @ 7400 rpm, one is for all my junk, the other is for the Digital Tuner on the back so when I record show it doesn't take up my main HDD

Ram is 6 gb's of DDR 2 PC 6400

Vista Ultimate 64 bit

CPU is a Intel Quad Core 2.4 ghz Q6600

Video Card is a Saphire Radeon HD 3870. I had to depate on 4870 or 3870, but for the diffrence in specs I just couldn't justify for the difference in price.

A PhysX Acelerator card

and a 750 Power Supply,.

While I love games, i'm not a person who often wants to do like cross fire or sli, but the rig is capable of it in the futurue if need be. Though I know some people's PC's that can put this to shame.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7360 Location: Texas

It's got plenty of horsepower, if you ask me.

Only flaw I see is Vista, but you have to pay extra these days for XP.

The rest looks good. You might know better rigs out the, but most of those are custom rigs. Pre-made rigs like yours aren't all that common.

How much did it set you back?

ExarKun · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 2322 Location: USA

technically it isn't fully pre-built, I spent 700 for the processor, 2 gbs of ram, vista ultimatew 64 bit, and one of the 320 gb hdd's as well as the case and motherboard. The video card I replaced for 170, the physx for 110, the psu for 100, 4 gbs of ram for 60, extra hdd 60.

I did the math and it was easier to buy pre built, but just so much damn cheaper to put the parts I want in myself, so after all was said and done cost me roughly 1,200 then tax and shipping, about 1,375 total. I looked for what I want if I built myself it was gonna cost roughly that, so I figured i'd have someone do the grunt work and i'd do the easier upgrades.

JuntaJoe · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 7360 Location: Texas

You didn't do too bad there in price.

Doing it yourself would have saved you a couple hundred, but that's not bad to pay extra if you aren't a builder fanatic and want a warranty.

NibbyCat · Joined: 07 Nov 2004 Posts: 3201 Location: Eastern Ohio

Turn off the User Manager (the thing that keeps asking if you want to do whatever it is), and Vista's really not that bad. It's easier for me to find files and programs, to adjust settings, and I can still have my "classic" interface.

ExarKun · Joined: 25 May 2005 Posts: 2322 Location: USA

You do that and there may be problems in the long run that can hurt you, least there was a chance before the SP1, it may have been resolved now.

I work with Vista enough I feel comfortable by it though, and it was a free Upgrade to Vista Ultimate. Overall the computer is nice, I could have save a little dough, but like you said I have the waranty in one place if something goes bad, well sorta, I have a waranty on the motherboard, cpu, disc drive, tv tuner, and such. All the parts I got myself in there I need to go to there place.

In the end it's sorta a half and half waranty, if half it goes bad I can go to HP, the other half to 4 other people. Better than if I had bought 10 diffrent parts from 10 diffrent people.

Jason · Joined: 08 Nov 2004 Posts: 12 Location: Texas

Vista is a good operating system. It has bugs here and there, but so does XP. Almost everything has vista-compatible versions now and the new UAC (User Account Control) is a very good thing for a Server '08 domain controller, but for the average user is a pain in the ass. Nice specs; and as far as the warranty goes, my feeling is if you can build it yourself, you should be able to maintain it yourself.

Why not go for the 1 TB storage drive? Found one online for 130. (Man that's cheap, I remember when I paid more than that for a 40 gig and thought I'd never be able to use up all the space.)

Also, you didn't mention what sound card you had.

The difference in video cards is the stream processing units (the 4870 has considerably more) but no one would notice a difference since gaming (yes, even crysis) just isn't that advanced. The hardware world is fast beating the software world in the push for multithreading performance. Your mobo does support PCI Express 2.0 though right?

Speaking of multithreading, the kentsfield core in your processor is very nice, but it'll be about (hopefully less) another year or so before you see that serious boost in performance. Software is still in the wow-64-bit! phase instead of moving to the wow-64-bit-and-awesome-multithreading! phase.

Overall a nice computer, it'll last you a while too.