SOS: Both Computers Dying, Need Advice On Replacement
Story is my main desktop is just getting old and stupid and the laptop is a pretty beat up little thing that wasn’t all that good to begin with and now has a stubborn bit of spyware on it. I can live with the laptop for now, but my desktop is in dire need of a replacement. I’ve had it for something 5 or 6 years, so its time has come.
Obviously I do a lot of Photoshop work, so I need a machine that’ll be able to keep up with that. I was thinking of getting something like this with a 500GB HDD and 3GB RAM. Does anyone have any experience with these built-to-order deals? Do they end up working well? Oh, and can someone give me advice on what processor and stuff to choose? What power protector to choose?? I am not a computer person at all.
Too scared to switch over to the Macs. I’ve been using Windows all my life, so you know.
edit: So uh apparently my laptop is infected with this horrible smitfraud c.coreservice thing and when I google that all I get are horror stories. Apparently I shouldn’t even be connected to the internet with this thing on my laptop, but I can’t even get on the internet with my desktop (the wireless adapter decided to stop working) so this is The Only Way. I’ll probably reformat this thing tomorrow since I don’t want to go through all the drama it takes to get smitfraud off so hopefully reformatting will do the trick. It’s not like I have anything special on this machine anyway. Ugh, what a headache.
It really depends… what is your budget?
I’ll say the sky’s the limit… but over 1000 would probably be pushing things though.
Well I can’t say anything about the quality of the link you provided…
I haven’t been keeping up with the latest tech, but I do know that Intel’s Core 2 CPUs still reign supreme; just get something that’s affordable. As for RAM, that website doesn’t seem to provide you specific vendors… but any 3GB should be fine.
Everything else is just up to you… if you’re not an audiophile and don’t need anything special to record, then some relatively cheap Sound Blaster card should work fine. Video card depends on what you plan to do with it: gaming? modeling (Maya and such)? DVD drives and media card readers are also up to you…
The site also doesn’t tell you the brand of hard drives… certain brands are more reliable; Seagate and Western Digital are common and reliable.
Power protection? A surge protector or a UPS? The latter will depend on the amount of power outputted by your computer (and anything else that you connect to it). That should probably be picked last…
> Western Digital [is] common and reliable.
No, fuck that. I’ve had 2 of their hard drives fail, my dad has had two fail, my roommate’s failed. FUCK Western Digital
How about custom build your comp. Most people would have at least 3 gb of ram and 500 gb of hard drive space. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it depends on how much you want to spend on each part. For example, my comp, totally costumized by me cost around $1700. You’ll also need a decent graphic card and a dvd player/ burner. If you want, you can even get a custom case of something like that. Remember this, computer parts don’t come cheap. It your choice in the end…
@Rin: Building a computer isn’t hard, but he did say he isn’t a computer person at all, and maybe he just wants it delivered to him already built.
@roast-beefy: Bad luck, I’d say. I’ve worked with over ten WD drives and have had none of them fail. My friend runs ten of their Raptor drives (15,000 RPM) and none of them have failed. It’s been a couple of years I think for both of us.
When it comes to processors, just acknowledge, that 4-cores (i.e. Intel Quad) are good for people who need vast capabilities in operations involving multiple calculations, such as video/audio encoding, 3D rendering etc. For games and “normal” tasks two cores happens to be faster.
For the processor, I’d suggest getting an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600. It’s very affordable for a quad core, and one of the most cost effective options available overall. 4GB of RAM wouldn’t be overdoing it.
Taking a look at one of my local resellers, I can get the following config:
Processor: Q6600
Motherboard: Asus P5K Pro
RAM: 2x2GB Corsair
Graphics card: fanless 8600GT 512MB
Hard drive: 750GB (Samsung Spinpoint F1)
DVD burner: a Pioneer one
Computer case: a nice Antec one
+ some USB card reader and a PCI wifi card
for about 600€, or $900. Prices over here are somewhat inflated compared to the US, so I guess you can get something similar with nifty extras (better graphics card, dual hard drives, whatever) for less than 1000.
Photoshop only supports dual cores right now. Quad core would be more futureproof, in my opinion. If you want to get a pre-built, I suggest a 64 bit OS (XP Pro or Vista, Vista’s not as bad as people make it out to be anymore, I run on it and it treats me nicer than XP with everything except for visual novels.) – so, 4GB or more of RAM would work. Right now, though, Photoshop only supports up to 2g of ram, 3g if you “cheat”. This is because Photoshop is a 32 bit app. However, there is good news. http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/03/photoshop-sheds-windows-bit
Within a version or two, Photoshop will be 64 bit, and reaallllly fun.
A pre-built I can suggest: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883107657
It doesn’t exactly have the capabilities to be a gaming powerhouse, but if you replace the power supply and graphics card, it can.
Remember to shop around and check out review websites. If you don’t choose a q6600 or q9300, I highly recommend the e8400.
Right now I’m running a q9300 and 2GB of DDR3-1333 and it takes about 14 seconds for CS3 to open up, and it runs extremely smooth. I’m sure that system I linked could compete very well.
Also, if you’re buying a pre-built, it doesn’t matter if you are not a computer person. ADD SOME EXTRA FANS IF THERE ARE SLOTS ON THE CASE. They never hurt.
Thanks for the tips. Yeah, I wanna stay away from building something. I’m lazy and lack the skills and patience for work like that. Anyone know any other sites that do good built-to-order stuff? I just choose TigerDirect since I know them.
Just got Windows reinstalled on the laptop. Seems that horrible spyware/virus is gone…
After a talk with a friend of mine and taking you guy’s tips into consideration, I’m leaning towards a built to order Dell… any objections?
A lot of people hate Dell, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea. Go with Dell (there really aren’t any cheaper alternatives). mt-i and Rob seem to know what they’re talking about, except I wouldn’t recommend a 64-bit OS yet. There isn’t much reason to go 64-bit when there aren’t many apps that take advantage of it; and wildarmsheero doesn’t seem very knowledgeable in this area, so just let him use 32-bit XP or Vista.
Yes, I know of the stigma against Dell, but they’re a known name that I can trust to throw together my machine with the specs you guys have given me.
You can get a pretty decent desktop for under $1000 these days, especially if its main purpose is photoshop rather than gaming.
Most built to order computers are okay. If I was going to do it, I would go with Dell. Yes, Dells often crop up with problems, however, Dell’s customer service is the best out of all of the big names. If your Dell screws up, they genuinely try to help you.
So, buy a Dell. But do invest in either a 2 year or 4 year extended warranty, just in case, because after all, you get what you pay for.
OS wise, I would go with Vista. It isnt quite ready yet, but another year or so will se SP2 come out, and then (hopefully) it will be just as stable and awesome as XP. Vista is more futureproof.
Good luck.
I say that you should get a nice Desktop from HP with 4 gigs or ram with Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I installed and play School days on my HP tablet in Win Vista Ultimate 64 bit and it runs great. I recommended getting a AMD processor for future 64 bit compatibility in 5+ years and on my HP tx2000z it works great. When you need more than 3 gigs of ram, you’ll be happy you got the 64 bit OS and the Intel boards need to checked for compatibility for 64 bit even if the processor is 64 bit. AMD, all 64 bit processors are mated to 64 bit compatible hardware and that means a better upgrade path in a few years even if you don’t get Win 64 bit OS yet, but it should be ready for that time.
Dude, you’re getting a Dell or I’m punching you in the dick.
DELL=FAGS
Typical Anon comment, not willing to fess up their identity since they know they can’t maintain their opinion in a logical discussion.
Vista SP1 isn’t much better; the only advantage of Vista is security, but in the no way does it offer better performance than XP SP2/3. I’d say stick with XP 32-bit (if you do go for 64-bit, go for Vista… but not XP x64).
64-bit does offer better performance, but only if the application in question has 64-bit support. Even at this point, drivers for XP x64 and Vista x64 aren’t great.
For you, the only good thing that will come out of going with a 64-bit OS is that Photoshop CS4 will ship with a 64-bit version.
Well I was going to stay with XP anyways since Share doesn’t work on Vista. The copy of XP I have is the 32bit one, so I’ll keep with that. I don’t even have CS3 yet, I didn’t even know they were pumping out 4 already…
Can always dual boot Vista and XP. Just partition your harddrive when you reinstall XP when you get your PC so you can remove the bloatware.
when buying a computer there are 3 things to choose from and you can only have 2
Cheep
Fast(Power)
Built well (not a piece of crap that going to fall apart)
Welp, le Dell is ordered. Sorry Anonymous, I will have to be a Dellfag
Never apologize to an Anon. If they don’t have the balls to identify themselves, they aren’t worth the time of day.
One of my computers is 4 years old, and guess what? Since then, he’s gotten only faster. I replaced only the old RAM, which got burned during an accident with unstable electricity, some of the IDE cables, obviously the power supply, and bought a 300 GB HDD to replace the old burnt disc. Such things happen when thunderstorms visit you and you have no UPS.
But still, the motherboard and CPU are unharmed. If I weren’t so smart to be able to upgrade/replace hardware, I’d have to buy several new computers.
I think you don’t really need a hyper-super-special-awesome computer from a production line. I always buy separate parts in order to have an ultimate config. Stick to the parts that were brand new about a year ago, saving lots of money. They’re atill good, but a lot cheaper. Photoshop needs a good graphic card, but you don’t really have to buy anything expensive made for hardcore gamers. Look for benchmarks. Like so: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
I suggest that you compare the list of mid-range CPU with their prices. Something that’s 2 times better is sometimes 4 times more expensive. And sometimes inferior hardware costs an arm and a leg(vide:Macs).
Next thing: When buying RAM, besides from checking the bookmarks it’s good when there is ECC correction. It helps a lot.
Of course, when you’re buying a laptop, your freedom of hardware choice is limited. That’s why I wouldn’t buy a laptop unless it was truly needed.
Then look for some tutorials how to speed up xp, and I’m sure it’ll be just fine.
You may not know that your hardware has lots of wasted potential. Proper partitioning, customising the OS, optimisation and maintenance are crucial if you want to save some money for e.g. some anime posters ;:)
It has been traditionally suggested that a pagefile be placed on a separate hard drive on a separate channel from the Windows installation because then Windows can access the pagefile while the OS drive is being accessed. Remember that even when you have 4 GB of RAM, the pagefile is still needed. Like when you use photoshop, while e.g. downloading a batch anime torrent.
Also, everything that is placed on the first sectors of the HDD, is a lot faster(since the disc is round).
Defragmentation also helps.
http://www.nliteos.com/ <- for reducing XP size and improving performance.
Oh, and by the way – Photoshop CS3 is a lot lighter than CS2. I was amazed that I can no longer prepare tea while Photoshop is loading.
oh, poopie, my post got caught in the spam filter?
I don’t have the time or patience for all that.
ONE DAY, WILDARMS, ONE DAY YOU’LL HAVE TO BUILD YOUR OWN MACHINE.
Yes, one of these days, but today is not that day!
If you’re goal is to run Photoshop and watch videos, you can pick just about any pre-built machine on the market seeing how you’re just going to be running XP. To avoid future upgrades a processor over 2.4 Ghz should be more than enough, and any N Vidia card over 7600 will be more than enough. Another point with XP is that you only get 4 Gb of total memory. This includes the ram and video card.
To give you an idea, I use a Toshiba Satellite laptop with Vista, a 1.73 Ghz processor, 2 Gb of ram, and a N Vidia 7600 512mb video card. It can run everything from the Orange Box perfectly with everything but shadows on high.
Using a Dell Inspiron for $999 after rebates:
PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
MONITOR 22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
MEMORY 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz – 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD nVidia GeForce 8300GS 128MB
More than enough to play h-games and draw.
Smitfraud is definelty bad stuff. The first time I came across this I had a ton of problems removing it. Now whenever I run into this I do a system restore first then run the free smitfraudfix tool and then run a full scan with Spyware Doctor. If you have Smitfraud I can gurantee you are infected with other threats as well and that is way you need to use other software besides just the smitfraud fix tool.