Time to buy/build new PC NOW!

[navychop]

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the day I first powered up my 2.2 GHz Athlon 64 based PC. I’ve been having problems, which have now become intolerable. Probably hardware based, in part. No more on that, time to say goodbye. I’ve been considering a replacement, but now I must get off the dime and move on it.

I’m asking for help in selecting or designing the replacement. Unfortunately, I can no longer wait for Windows 7, so I will have to deal with the undead Vista. This will be a home machine, which, if successful, will be the model for my machine at work.

Uses:
-SatelliteGuys, of course!
-Usual email, WP & SS work.
-Web browsing, including videos.
-Little or no gaming, online or otherwise.
-Burning a few discs.
-And the biggie, devouring the most resources: Converting AVCHD files from an HD camcorder to DVD, HDD and eventually BD.

That last one has driven me to consider only the Intel® Core™i7 Processor 2.66 GHz or Core 2 Quad 3 GHz (sad farewell, my AMD). Any particular reason to favor one over the other? The latter is about $35 more at Newegg. Is the hyper-threading of the i7 particularly important?

I’m inclined to build it myself, but for the right price, would consider a pre-built. The motherboard will have to support at least 8 GB, probably start with 4.

I’m intrigued by the imbedded Linux with some ASUS boards (Express Gate) and would love to hear anyone’s experience with it. Yes, I’ve googled it and read.

If I build it myself, any input on motherboard?

Any input on specs or equipment, such as video card? Any ideas at all?

 

[mike123abc]

The i7 tends to benchmark 25% faster than the core2 quad at the same clock speed. The i7 also has more SSE instructions that are starting to be used in various programs.

I would get a MB with 6 memory slots and put 6GB in initially using 3 of the slots.

 

[navychop]

OK. Sounds good. Any good place that reviews mobos?

 

[snathanb]

That last one has driven me to consider only the Intel® Core™i7 Processor 2.66 GHz or Core 2 Quad 3 GHz (sad farewell, my AMD). Any particular reason to favor one over the other? The latter is about $35 more at Newegg. Is the hyper-threading of the i7 particularly important?

While the i7 processor isn't gonna run you too much more than a Core 2 Quad, the motherboard and DDR3 memory are going to drive the overall costs of an i7-based system a good bit more than the Core 2 Quad.

 

[Frank Jr.]

Dell Studio XPS 435 Desktop Computer Product Details This is what I'm getting with a i7-965 processor. Some or many may say this is over board but after dealing with a laptop with a 1.6 Celeron as my home computer for 4 years I had enough. I can't build my own so that is the way it is. Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit 1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis 9GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Dual Drives: Blu-ray Disc (BD) Burner (Writes to DVD/CD/BD) and DVD+/-RW VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 4870 GDDR5 1024MB
Soundblaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio 56K PCI Data Fax Modem WIRELESS Integrated 10/1000 Ethernet
Norton Internet Security™ 2009 Edition 15-months
Dell Remote Access, free basic service Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Studio XPS Studio XPS 435
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language
After rebates it's around 2700 bucks. It's expensive but.............

 

[Frank Jr.]

I think the case is ugly but after I get it I don't want to down load a video in hd and have it freeze or the thing be out of date a year down the road. just my two cents Heck thats all I can afford now anyway.

 

[Hermitman]

I've read somewhere that pre-builts with Vista installed will soon be coming out with a coupon for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Might be something to look for. Good luck.

 

[frodoz737]

I went with the C2Q X3370 (same as Q9650), 8GB OCZ Reaper, Gigabyte EP45-UD3R MB, WD 1TB HD, BFG GTX-295 GPU and put it in a P182 Case. Added Vista Ultimate 64, Office Ultimate and some other goodies for around $2500.

This is top line 775 socket rig with all fixes and tweaks known. In time the i7 will surpass, but decided to let the hacks do the beta for a few years first. To get same with the i7 would have cost me at least $1000 more.

Just my opinion for what it is worth. Good luck with the build.

 

[Van]

Sign up for email specials from tigerdirect.com, I got an email special a week ago for a 12gig memory monster barebones system for $999 that all it needed was a video card, kboard, mouse, monitor and speakers to finish. Pics in two pieces but you get the idea.

 

[Van]

Go to tigerdirect and do a search for quad zilla, another good deal with a ton of storage and decent memory specs to do what your looking for. Well it does use an amd phenom quad core so it may not be what you want.

 

[riffjim4069]

I quit building my own systems almost 10-years ago since it's not worth the time and effort to build a single system. Me and my crew would typically buy the parts from someone like TigerDirect and build 10-12 systems at a time. We would use them for 4-6 months and then sell them to coworkers at cost and builld another batch. This was actually a great deal for everyone because it would save coworkers more than 50% if they had purchased an inferior system from Dell/Gateway, we maintainted personnel computers for everyone at the office for peanuts (usally pizza), and the thing we got out of it was the use of a brand new computer or two for a few months until we rolled it over.

 

[mike123abc]

tomshardware.com and anandtech.com have reviews of I7 motherboards. I usually build my own, it takes 30-45 minutes to build a basic PC. It goes pretty fast. Installing windows takes the longest. When I buy machines I wipe the disk and install from windows disks to remove all the junk demo programs these machines come with.

 

[TheForce]

And the biggie, devouring the most resources: Converting AVCHD files from an HD camcorder to DVD, HDD and eventually BD.


Check out the HP m9280F

I started with this model for my AVCHD edit system. It is very fast, comes with Vista 64bit and 4Gb ram. I added to 8Gb and added a raid 0 dual 1 Tb drive system for the work drive E:. It takes a minimum of two drives to be fast enough to play AVCHD 1080p files in real time for editing. I also added a BD burner 4x SATA drive. Installed Adobe CS3 Video production pack and Vegas / DVDA plus Sony PMB. It renders fast and burns a 45 minute program 1080p x 1920 to BD in an hour and renders that in 5 hours in Vegas. The same video project rendered in 12 hours on my dual core 2 2.66Ghz using windows XP and Vegas. The box without upgrades will set you back $1500. With this machine you will have both blkuRay and HD DVD players and SD DVD burner. Adding the BD burner allows the BD burning capability.
I don't think you would need a raid 0 drive set for just HD video to burn to BD but this allows faster access to preview two HD streams for editing HD video. The cool thing about Vegas is it has a 64 bit version that is very fast and even less buggy than the 32 bit release.

 

[navychop]

Some really good ideas here. I'll have to examine them all.

I'm having some problems with my PC and AVG, plus other quirks. But I suddenly have a major home improvement project with a 3 week deadline. So I'll have to put this off until after we return from our April vacation. If the PC dies, it dies, and I'll just have to use a laptop for a while.

BTW, there's some great deals at Expo, which Home Depot is closing. 30%-50% off. Just beware, if you get some nice lawn furniture, your spousal unit might come up with a little project for you, "so there's a nice place to put this stuff." :yikes!sadroll

 

[Smith P.]

Sign up for email specials from tigerdirect.com, I got an email special a week ago for a 12gig memory monster barebones system for $999 that all it needed was a video card, kboard, mouse, monitor and speakers to finish. Pics in two pieces but you get the idea.

Are they will have more ? Today it shows:
Item Number: B69-1019
Model:
THIS ITEM IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

 

[Van]

Are they will have more ? Today it shows:
Item Number: B69-1019
Model:
THIS ITEM IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

Probably, they have a 3D gaming rig up right now complete with monitor and 3D glasses for under a grand. Usually they have something nice every week geared towards a specific user type, the mail I got yesterday was all excellent refurb deals and todays was the gamer pc set up.

 

[Smith P.]

The barebone system back on sale - still show same $999 price.

 

[diogen]

...it takes 30-45 minutes to build a basic PC. It goes pretty fast. Installing windows takes the longest.

Installing Windows XP from an unattended install version of the OEM disc with slipstreamed SP3 and antivirus of choice takes less that half an hour. And you don't have to be around. Even less time is needed for Vista and Win7 install.

Installing all the apps can take hours...

 

[mike123abc]

True if you do enough installs to make a slipstream version up. The problem I have with XP is that you seem to have to have the exact version/service pack to use the license key.

With Vista you just get the latest disc you have and it works on any install.

 

[navychop]

Well I have finally heard a Vista feature that I like! Thanks for sharing that. The picky XP OS disc has bitten me more than once. I started keeping the original disc in each individual PC's file folder.