Brand spanking new PC

[pixelmitherer]

Hello,

I've been looking around for a new machine as my current PC has grown very old.

Was just after peoples thoughts and opinions on these machines? (with 3D art creation in mind, and gaming!)


http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Trident/Gladiator+Trident+Intel+Gamer+%22MR%22+Base+Unit+? productId=36112


http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Trident/Gladiator+Trident+Intel+Gamer+%22ZU%22+Base+Unit+? productId=34759


http://www.aria.co.uk/Systems/Gaming+Range/Trident/Gladiator+Trident+AMD+Gamer+%22ZE%22+Base+Unit+?pr oductId=34758

Any expert help would be cool.
Cheers.

[Ark]

Have you thought about building one yourself?

[pixelmitherer]

Yeah,
while I have a little technical experience, it still makes me a little nervous :poly122:

[arrangemonk]

simple workflow, free the mobo from its hull, then put it on the foam in ts box, insert cpu, put the paste on it then put cooler on it and then clips ram on it, then screw it in the housing and add graka and connect so power supply, the rest isnt dangerous at all

dangerous is mocking around on a running pc (killed a hdd that was lol)

ibought a phenom II 940 x4, biostar mobo and 4gb ram for 265,5€
with onboard graphics(ati 790 gx chipset, because gfxcard prices will drop soon again)

i mean its cheap and good hardware, buying full pcs has always some shortcome somwhere either hardware software or price (because cool rigs out of the box are way too expensive)

[muppo]

intel core2quad are old hw, next week there will be new corei5 that will put eol those old cpu's.
go either amd (945/955/965 phenom II x4) or just wait for corei5, one of those for a good performance/value ratio, else go for intel i7 if money aint a problem.

[pixelmitherer]

Thanks all for the help...


So what would people think of this rig?...


AMD PHENOM II X4 945 3.0 GHz SOCKET AM3 8MB CACHE

8GB CORSAIR XMS2 DUAL-DDR2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY!

ASUS® M4N78: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, PCIe x16, 2 x PCIe x1, 3 x PCI

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

250GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

700W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan

[perna]

You don't need 700W (holy smokes, you can power a car factory wif that thing). Also you don't list the psu or case fan manufacturer or indeed your case

Also you didn't list a GPU... are you gonna use the on-board one? That won't give you a great deal of performance. If you're going for on-board you might as well make a tiny mITX box semi-portable.

[ZacD]

else go for intel i7 if money aint a problem.


you can get a nice i7 920 rig for about $1,000, and the performance difference between a high end quad rig for $600 to a i7 920 is worth the price.

[pixelmitherer]

Oops, yeah forgot to list the GPU...

Graphics Card
896MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX260 PCI EXPRESS

Perna: I'm always confused about the power supply as some people say you need more power to be safe, while others say you can get by on less.

The above were listed items from pcspecialist.co.uk, who I found after reading recommendations from other Polycounters from another thread here.
I'm still shying away from building it myself, I know I could save myself some money, but its still nicer to get it built by someone else.:)

Thanks for the help.

[Calabi]

Power supplies are a headache I had a cheap one that was rated as 400 watt and it couldnt handle it when I got a new graphics card. So I got a corsair 520 and it works perfectly apart from the heat.

If its a cheap one you might not even get the wattage thats rated or adequate voltage through some of the rails.

There is a website somewhere which gives you the wattage of all the components, its alot less than what you think. All you should need max would be 500 watt as long as its from a decent manufacturer.

[pior]

Hey there,

there is one thing I highly recommend now that I am running a similar setup : if you can, try to install two similar OSes on your machine, on two different drives. I know it sounds overkill, but it really helps.

For instance I have one 'crapOS' where I put all the games, new programs I want to try out just for the sake of it, all that kind of stuff. It can get bloated bery fast (game installers adding downlaod managers, fixes you need to apply here and there for whatever reason, and so on). For this a 32bit OS is way enough.

Then, on another physical drive, your 'workOS'. On this one you install only what you really need to get stuff done, nothing else. You can install a high performance 64bit OS for that purpose. And you maintain it in that one exact config for a long time.

Once again it sounds like a pain, but I think it's really worth it.

[arrangemonk]

go for win7, im having it, it rocks

[pixelmitherer]

Calabi: Thanks. I'll downgrade the wattage of my power supply I think then.

Pior: Hey thanks. Good idea. I know what you mean about your system getting bloated very fast. This is something I would consider for my new system.
I usually use my old PC as a 'scarificial' one, where I test out new software and games etc.

Arrangemonk: Yep, Win7 it is. Heard good things so far about this.


Would people recommend a AMD cpu over a Intel one or vice versa?