What to look for when shopping around for new pc

[rabosi]

Originally Posted by JERRY2KONE

.................................................. . My personal PC is one that I built myself and it is now 16 years old.

16 yrs!!! What's it called? An Abacus?

I'm from the built it yourself school but that's not for everyone. Though it's not difficult it could be a headache if you are a novice and you run into problems. Check out Tomshardware. They have charts comparing cpus, graphics, memory with various applications. This will give you a good baseline on what you can expect.

I haven't trusted Tomshardware for years. He gets paid under the table from manufacurers and as a result, is hardware reviews have always been slanted and biased and the forum isn't much better. Anandtech, overclock.net or hardocp.com are better choices.

If you can swing the cost, go with an quad core as that will greatly extend the life of your PC usage down the road as everything is becoming multi core based. Do no less then 4 gigs of RAM, 6 is even better and HDD's are so cheap nowadays you can get a 600gig- 1 terabyte drive for screaming low deals in most machines. Onboard video is fine if you don't plan on gaming. Decent 5.1 onboard sound is fine as well for your use.

FYI, your old machine is running an older Pentium 4 which was top of the line back in 2003-2004. Needless to say, it wouldn't hold a candle to todays current dual and quad cores, either AMD or Intel. Download and run CPU ID and it will tell you everything about your hardware specs, and then some

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

You can get a nice specced machine for less built on an AMD quad core, but Intels quads will still beat it in most areas, they just cost a bit more. I"m also from the "build your own" camp, but for alot of tech challenged people, its simply not the best option. I build gaming rigs like this for myself as gaming and PC's are my primary hobby as well as career.

[shaunjohnson]

Originally Posted by Freezebyte

mine has less fans ....i'm with brianG with PC's as well although that looks like the same CPU cooler that i have, but i dont have them silly light up-power wasting fans
modded my powersupply to take a quieter fan, cut a rough hole in side of case and stuffed 4 more USB ports in it.
man...to give you an idea...my case is sooooo old that it has had EVERY single pentium in it!! it has all the stickers across the front to prove it
pent 1-4 stickers

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by rabosi

16 yrs!!! What's it called? An Abacus?

I'm from the built it yourself school but that's not for everyone. Though it's not difficult it could be a headache if you are a novice and you run into problems. Check out Tomshardware. They have charts comparing cpus, graphics, memory with various applications. This will give you a good baseline on what you can expect.

Yes funny poke. My son just picked up that new Toshiba laptop and is still confused as to why my machine is faster than his. So yes it is an older model, but that is why I was lead in the direction to build my own system in the first place. If you chose wisely on the motherboard it leaves you room to improve upon the components you put into your PC. Yes the processor is 16 years old, but that shows you just how reliable they can be when you make the right choice. I am looking now pricing out stuff for my next generation PC, but my R/C purchases come first since this PC is still running fine. With all of the great goodies comming out in the R/C world I don't want to miss out on some of the great products that are available. MonsterMike's new Maxx center diff/motor mount is at the top of my list, and I plan to pick up two or three of them. So my ideas for a new PC just have to wait.

Your best bet is to hook up with a firend who knows computers somewhat and learn from them, but do not take everythign they tell you as Gospal. Purchase one of those build your own PC's for dummies books to start off with. Learn teh basics and move forward slowly. If you make a purchase here and there as you find really good deals it can be a little bit easier on your wallet by not breaking the bank all at one time. That way you can also spend a little bit more on getting the best stuff you can aford as well. Like anything it is a learning curve and you can make mistakes to. Take your time and do it the right way as it applies to your own thought process. Nothing is perfect, but anyone can build a very classy system on their own. Good luck with that.

[zeropointbug]

Combo deal at Newegg.com
-Intel i5 750
-Seagate 1500GB HHD
-G.Skill 4GB RAM
-Gigabyte motherboard
-700W PSU
-NZXT LEXA PC enclosure (case)

extras (but required)

-POWERCOLOR 5670 Video Card (for media)
-Zalman CNPS 9700 CPU heatsink
-Windows 7 Home Premium


With that great deal of a combo, along with the 9700 CPU heatsink, you can overclock the i5 processor from 2.66GHz to roughly 3.6GHz no problem on the stock Vcore (CPU voltage). This system will do anything you want it to do, even play games, albeit with lower settings. Plenty of HD space, processing power and RAM.

$830

Oh, I forgot to mention you have to build this system, which you may not want to do, so if you have any friends who can do it for you, go for it.

[Gee]

Originally Posted by zeropointbug

Combo deal at Newegg.com
-Intel i5 750
-Seagate 1500GB HHD
-G.Skill 4GB RAM
-Gigabyte motherboard
-700W PSU
-NZXT LEXA PC enclosure (case)

extras (but required)

-POWERCOLOR 5670 Video Card (for media)
-Zalman CNPS 9700 CPU heatsink
-Windows 7 Home Premium


With that great deal of a combo, along with the 9700 CPU heatsink, you can overclock the i5 processor from 2.66GHz to roughly 3.6GHz no problem on the stock Vcore (CPU voltage). This system will do anything you want it to do, even play games, albeit with lower settings. Plenty of HD space, processing power and RAM.

$830

Oh, I forgot to mention you have to build this system, which you may not want to do, so if you have any friends who can do it for you, go for it.

I'll look into a setup like this. I guess one thing that comes to mind is with the new mother boards can older card pci cards like an additional video card still be used? The memory is probably different then what is used on this mb. I was a little confused with the different types of cards which I didn't really pay much attention to prior to this either. APG, PCI, PCI-E, etc. Does anyone have a link to a place that might help me understand the different ones or how to identify them? Is the PCI slot outdated and not used on the new mother boards anymore?

Under the system properties on my pc it has intel Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz 4.78GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM. Is that 2 cpus? One a 3.20Ghz and one a 4.78GHz. I would of thought they would be the same speed. Visually, there is one huge heatsink with the fan shroud over it. A smaller black heat sink seperate from that one. I will have to check out the ram. I know I have 4 - 1mb chips of RAM installed but it's only showing 3.25gb of ram. How does this system compare to what's available? Slightly better then the abacus? Decent but on the verge or fossil fuel. Upgradable to improve it maybe video card with more memory?

[squeeforever]

Originally Posted by Gee

I'll look into a setup like this. I guess one thing that comes to mind is with the new mother boards can older card pci cards like an additional video card still be used? The memory is probably different then what is used on this mb. I was a little confused with the different types of cards which I didn't really pay much attention to prior to this either. APG, PCI, PCI-E, etc. Does anyone have a link to a place that might help me understand the different ones or how to identify them? Is the PCI slot outdated and not used on the new mother boards anymore?

Under the system properties on my pc it has intel Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz 4.78GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM. Is that 2 cpus? One a 3.20Ghz and one a 4.78GHz. I would of thought they would be the same speed. Visually, there is one huge heatsink with the fan shroud over it. A smaller black heat sink seperate from that one. I will have to check out the ram. I know I have 4 - 1mb chips of RAM installed but it's only showing 3.25gb of ram. How does this system compare to what's available? Slightly better then the abacus? Decent but on the verge or fossil fuel. Upgradable to improve it maybe video card with more memory?

PCI-E (AKA PCI-Express) is more common now for videocards. The older standard was AGP, but there aren't many AGP cards still around and even fewer mobos. a standard PCI is your usual slot for things such as RAID cards, wireless cards, etc.

[JERRY2KONE]

What I have planned is to build a newer unit for myself and then give my 14 year old son this one as a hand me down. He is thrilled to get this one though, because it is a pretty good unit. Anyway you could always sell your outdated one for a few hundred dollars or donate it to charity(without the HD of course). Just do a little research and start by buying a good CPU that appeals to your sense of computer savy. Then find a desent motherboard to match the CPU for mounting, and one that has all of the latest periferals. I found a book called "The Ultimate Custom PC Builds" that gave me all of the items to look for and how to find the best ones. I am sure that it is outdated by now, but there has to be something out there similar that is up to 2010 standards that will lead you in the right direction. Once you read up on what the different components are and how they differ anyone can build a pretty good system from scratch. I had to acquire help formatting the drives and getting all of the best software installed, and that takes the longest of all to complete. Still it was not all that hard to do. Now I plan to do the same thing with todays technology and build something that will last another 10 years or so. This one is 16 years old and still runs great. Everytime something failed on it or got broken in shipment I just upgraded it with the newest replacement. I have replaced the motherboard(cracked), the Video card(cracked), the hard drives twice due to viruses, and upgraded the RAM to 4gig, and finally the sound card was updated to 5.1 surround.

Now I just want something faster and more modern in components. The case I have is an old Thermaltake and it weighs like 20lbs empty.