[Mostly Serious] New computer - suggestions please

I think it's high time I got myself a new computer. My ancient Packard Bell laptop has served me well for 7 years and it deserves a happy retirement.

Budget £600 has to include two LCD monitors (and therefore a PC with dual video output).

What would you guys recommend? I'll be using it to dual boot Linux and windows XP (hopefully) and to play the occasional game (nvidea graphics would be desirable). Mainly I'll be using it to crunch numbers (databases, high-volume reporting etc) and software development. It needs to be a powerful machine but I'm not fussed if the graphics capability is less than cutting edge.

So what can you get these days for that money? I'd quite like at least a dual-core 64bit cpu and lots of RAM. I know very little about what hardware combinations are good or bad so I need guidance.

AMD versus Intel? (no flamewars please:))
Dual-core vs Quad-core? (quad would be nice obviously but I know it's pricey).

What do you lot think of this...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/384255

There's a new CPU on the market (well kinda new). Not sure much about it though.

http://www.intel.com/products/proces...rei7/index.htm

Hey,

You are in the UK right?

I have bought a couple good rigs from Novatech in the past and have been more than happy with them.

This one is a little over your budget, but they have a whole range:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/r...pc&c=all&r=NTT

You can either buy the system with or without an OS, so you are not wasting money on Vista if you are not wanting it.

As for the whole Intel vs AMD argument, the last I read about it, the new i7 chip blew everything from AMD out the water. So at the minute, think Intel are winning.

Just a thought.

Gary

I'll second Novatech, good products/prices, and great after sales support (I had a broken graphics card after the warranty ended, and they gave me a better model to replace it).

Dabs also tend to be good on products/prices, never needed support from them.


All my other favourites have disappeared over the last two or three years. :(

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Originally Posted by wossname

What do you lot think of this...
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/384255

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The ATI Radeon HD 3100 graphics are on-board, so you'd need another card for a 2nd monitor. Disk size etc look reasonable - they don't mention the keyboard & mouse (optical/wireless?). Can you get to a store to check out the one they'll have on display to, erm, check its robustness?

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Originally Posted by wossy

What do you lot think of this... <hyperlink>

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Not too bad, though there are two things that I would find out first if I were you:

• 4GB DDR2 Memory - Clock speed? Probably would make a difference seeing as you want to run high volume reporting. Going for less than 800MHz would be "cutting it thin"...
• Motherboard brand? And what chipset is on it? Could also make a difference with the database performance and/or development performance.

Buy a server from Pioneer.

Forgot to mention as well, Novatech do a range of Bare Bones systems, so if you are scrapping the old computer, you can salvage some parts from it, i.e. DVD Drives, Hard Drives etc, that way you can save some pennies, and get a better system.

Gary

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ro?mco=MTE3MDQ

I think you missed out on the first post - he wants a machine for productivity and gaming.

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Originally Posted by Arrow_Raider

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ro?mco=MTE3MDQ

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:) :lol: :)

I would do intel all the way, including the mobo, or at least a mobo that uses intel chipsets.

I think what I'll end up doing is getting some of the basic essentials first, case, CPU, RAM and an HDD and then work up to something utterly insane and jealousy-inducing in, say 6, months.

That way I can afford a big quadcore and about half the total RAM I need straight away, then I can think about graphics card later on.

Eventually I reckon I can budget for the following:

- 4ghz quadcore Intel (or similar)
- 6GB RAM
- 2x 1TB HDD (hwraid) (or 4x 360gb in hwraid pairs)
- 2 gigabit ethernet interfaces
- 2x 21" widecreens (rude not to :D)
- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0px-ModelM.jpg
- 4TB or 8TB NAS HDD (do they make these yet??)
- Gigabit + wifi ADSL router (Christ alone knows how much these things cost)

OK I realise I won't be getting all this for &#163;600 so I've had to make some sacrifices. You all know I like a beer or two... so that's clearly not going to change. I'm going to sell my XBox and all the crappy games I've accrued over the last 6 years. That will free up much of my disposable income.

I've not ruled out water cooling yet :D

Thanks for the help chums. I'll keep you posted.

The fastest current intel CPU is the quad core i7 extreme edition, which only runs 3.2, and costs more than you want to spend on your entire rig ;)

Also, I like to not raid my primary drive, and keep it somewhat small

Like the velociraptor 150GB drive for a primary is nice, because it runs at 10K RPM, and drives are always faster without RAID mirroring (unless you want to stripe and mirror)

You can't really get faster than these for standard systems unless you do something like go SCSI, or SSD both which cost big bucks.

Then all my important data goes on large raided drives

My home computer now, which also is in need of upgrade, has 1 74GB 10kRPM raptor, but it also has 2x320 and 2x750 GB raid drives all mounted on 1 drive letter

Are you sure 6Gb of RAM is going to be enough for Windows Vista ultimate?

I have run Vista just fine on 1GB ram machines...

Indeed, I used to run Call of Duty 4 on Vista, with 1 gb of memory. Worked without any problems.

Zaza, there is not enough RAM in Christendom to make me run Vista.

Why not Win7 beta then?? or it could be CTP or even RTM by the time you are ready...

Like it or not (and I am sure you fall into the "or not" category) Vista outperforms Windows XP, and Windows 7 outperforms Vista.

Now if you say you only have a copy of XP laying around, and would have to purchase a copy of Vista or 7, then that is justifiable for keeping with XP, but other than that, what is a good reason at this point to stick with XP... and I am only asking Wossy, because I am trying to not have this become a WinVer flame war (we have enough of them in CC already)

Windows 7 beta is so much better than Vista even though it is only a beta. Let's just hope they don't break the good stuff it has going for by time of release.

I'm not going to discuss my reasons for avoiding Vista or Windows 7. It would not make for productive discussion.

However:

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Originally Posted by kleinma

Like it or not (and I am sure you fall into the "or not" category) Vista outperforms Windows XP

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Why does it matter? All Windows OSs are sorely lacking in productivity tools, surely that is enough to choose between OSs?

ok, but if you have not yet tried Win7 beta, you are missing out because it really is a sweet OS.

I got an intel 80GB SSD and loaded Win7 on it... boots in all its glory, browser open, on the web, in about 20 seconds from a cold boot. That was in my 2.5 year old laptop with onboard graphics BTW...

That's not what I'm really looking for.

This is turning into a OS war. Lets not go there.

MS did not deliver on Powershell in Vista last time I looked, did they fix that yet?

ok, im done talkin about it. I only brought it up because you mentioned performance and things of that nature since you were planning to use it for gaming. That is all.

I stick by my stance to go with all intel though... too many problems with nvidia chipsets. Their video cards are ok.. just not their chipsets.

Although I think intel is planning on merging the GPU and CPU at some point not too far off... probably AMD as well being that they own ATI

I found this on ebuyer. Here are the full specs, and it's &#163;609.99 (The original price was &#163;807.41).

In short: It's got 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB ram, 250GB hard drive, NVidia GeForce 9200M GS, BluRay player (??), 16" HD screen (again, ??), and all the fancy fluff.

Hope that helps. :)

EDIT: Epic fail. Didn't see the "PC" part. /facepalm

DOUBLE-EDIT: Found this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155475. Comes with just tower, keyboard and mouse. Specs are on the same page. Now I hope that this helps.

Are you going to finally get Oblivion for the PC so you can mod it up and play a REALLY good game? You'll want good video for that.

Doubt it. I've played it to death, I am the world expert on Oblivion now.

Oh no doubt, no doubt.

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Originally Posted by MaximilianMayrhofer

Oh no doubt, no doubt.

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I sense doubt.

Criminy! Scarper billy, e's on to us!

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Originally Posted by wossname

I sense doubt.

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I doubt it.

It may be a little pricey at $10,000... but how about a Cray? You can run Redhat on it instead of Windows HPC Server 2008.
http://www.cray.com/Assets/Demos/cx1/index.html

I mean god forbid - I've never even remotely written a program that would ever put a machine like that to task, but perhaps that's your expertise.

I'm sure Firefox would run like silly mad though.

Doubt it would run any faster than your internet connection. Other than that, I want it. Now.

If I could afford one of those, I'd buy two!!

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Originally Posted by nemaroller

I'm sure Firefox would run like silly mad though.

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If your talking about the linked video! It crash Firefox. :mad: I only have 256MB on my laptop and have to use it sparingly. :lol: The cray looks sweet though! :)

Was that link to Cray or....Cyberdyne Systems?

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Originally Posted by SJWhiteley

Was that link to Cray or....Cyberdyne Systems?

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It says cray.com in the url! ;)

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Originally Posted by wossy

If I could afford one of those, I'd buy two!!

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Ooohh, I c wut u did thar.