Topic: Looking for a new PC

[kahless]

Hi everyone out there! Your opinion is very much appreciated!  

I'm looking for a new pc because my current Dell (about 5 years old) has increasing annoying issues.

I need a pc with a sufficient performance for the next 5 years. Gaming is not important but I like the best possible performance for all office applications and of course DVD Profiler.

My current configuration (to be replaced soonest):

Dell PC Inspiron 530
- Processor Quad CoreQ6600 (goes extremely hot, I have to clean the processor cooler every 2 weeks otherwise I have about 60°C when idle)
- Memory: 4 Gig (I can only use 3,5 because it's a 32 bit system)
- 2 HD's a 250 GB
- Power supply: 350W
- Graphic: ATI 256 MB (cannot be replaced because lack of power supply!)
- 2 DVD RW
- Operating System: Windows 8 (I hate it but I could not resist to upgrade from Vista for only 15€)

That's what I have seen:

- Intel Core i7-3770, 4x 3.40GHz, boxed (BX80637I73770)
- Graphic: MSI N630GT-MD4GD3, GeForce GT 630, 4GB DDR3, VGA, DVI, HDMI (V809-070R)
- Power supply 600 Watt Super Silent
- Memory: 16 GB RAM SAMSUNG / Kingston / G-Skill DDR-3 PC1600
- Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit (DELL OEM) Lizenz installiert incl. DVD und Key im Lieferumfang enthalten - READY to use
- HD: 1,0TB HDD SEAGATE SATA-3 6GBs 7200rpm
- 24xDVD-Writer SATA intern incl. Software Suite
- Mainboard MSI B75MA-P45, B75 (dual PC3-12800U DDR3) (7798-010)
- Price: 599,00 EUR


My budget is about 500-600€. What do you think?

Thanks for your proposals!  

[Tom]

The most important part to have high performance is a SSD (solid state disc) hard drive. At least for the system partition. I have it at work and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore.

[kahless]

The most important part to have high performance is a SSD (solid state disc) hard drive. At least for the system partition. I have it at work and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore.

That's very interesting because I'm a little bit afraid that ssd's may die earlier than "normal" hd's. I suppose ssd's should be the system partion containing the operating system and the 1st boot partition?

[Tom]

The most important part to have high performance is a SSD (solid state disc) hard drive. At least for the system partition. I have it at work and I wouldn't want to miss it anymore.

That's very interesting because I'm a little bit afraid that ssd's may die earlier than "normal" hd's. I suppose ssd's should be the system partion containing the operating system and the 1st boot partition?

I have had a SSD for about two or three years now and never had a problem. And so have a lot of my colleagues. We hadn't yet a single failed SSD. And what I have heard about the short lifetime of such discs: it is said to be not true anymore.

And if it really fails,I would rather have it on my system partition than on my data partition. If it really should fail after a few years than maybe it was time to clean out the system anyway.


You will get huge speed improvements when often accessed files and folders are on that disc. Which means the operating system, memory swap (page) file and temporary files folder. And program files.

It is also a lot faster when searching the disc.

And for software developers it brings huge speed improvements when putting your visual studio workspace on it. I had about the third of the compilation time as without SSD. And of course browsing the solution is a lot faster.

[DJ Doena]

Yes, the SSD should hold the boot partition, the Windows installation (assuming you go for Windows) and the installed programs.

What it should not hold are the pagefile.sys (page file) the hiberfil.sys (hibernation file) or any kind of temp folder where files are often written. Just like USB flash drives they have a limited number of write accesses - i.e. limited in comparison to a classic HDD. it's still several hundred thousand write accesses per sector.



The question is if you are a gamer or video editor, because otherwise the i7 CPU might be a bit overkill and you can get the i5 cheaper.

[kahless]

[...] The question is if you are a gamer or video editor, because otherwise the i7 CPU might be a bit overkill and you can get the i5 cheaper.

I'm neither a gamer nor a video editor, just a "normal" office and internet user. I think I should look for an Core i3/i5 and invest more money in the other components...

[GSyren]

The question is if you are a gamer or video editor, because otherwise the i7 CPU might be a bit overkill and you can get the i5 cheaper.

I'm thinking of getting a new PC, because both DVD Profiler and Visual Studio feel like running through treacle at times.

I'll be going for the i7, because I've cheated myself too many times, thinking "This is powerful enough for anything I'll ever use", and I've been proven wrong every time. So this time I'll get the most powerful junk I can find, and hopefully it will last a couple of years longer than the "good enough" stuff...

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Offer:

CPU:	AMD FX 4130 (4x 3.80 GHz)
Mainboard:	ASUS M5A97 ATX AMD 970 Chipset
Graphics:	NVidia GT640 passive 2048 RAM
RAM:	8GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 CL9 (Dual Channel)
PSU:	be quiet! Pure Power L7 80+ (bronze) 650 W
HDD:	WD Caviar Green 1TB
Other:
	LiteOn BluRay-Combo
	CoolTek CPU cooler
	CoolerMaster Elite 372 black

Price (without software): € 550,-

Optional:
SSD: Plextor 128 GB SATA3 (synchronous) as system drive + € 80,-

OS: Win7 Professional 64 Bit (incl.installation and configuration) + € 50,-

[kahless]

That looks interesting! 

My only objection would be buying an AMD CPU. I found very interesting AMD systems in the German online shop of A*kermann PC (seems to have a good reputation)

I was a little bit afraid of looking for AMD systems...maybe I should change my mind

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I was a little bit afraid of looking for AMD systems...maybe I should change my mind

You definitely should.
They may be a bit slower than Intel (at same frequency), but are significantly cheaper.
I'm running AMD systems for ages and had no problems yet (except once, but this CPU was extremely overclocked (+75%), with the normal "Box"-cooler and then eventually died: After 4 years!).

EDIT:
From the retailer you mentioned this one looks extremely good. Just change the Mainboard (to one with 970 chipset), HDD and the optical drive, the rest is nice.

[DSig]

I too have had no problem with the many AMD systems I have or have installed at client sites.  And they aren't really noticably slower than Intel unless you are doing really hard number crunching or heavy video processing ..

[kahless]

I did it. I ordered:



CPU (Prozessor):AMD FX-Series FX-8320, 8x 3.50GHz, boxed (FD8320FRHKBOX) (1x)
- Mainboard:MB MSI AM3+ 760GA-P43 FX (MB02169) (1x)
- VGA Card:NVIDIA MSI N650-2GD5/OC, GeForce GTX 650, 2GB GDDR5, VGA, DVI, H (1x)
- RAM:16384MB DDR3 Dual Channel 1600MHz SAMSUNG (PC3-12800) (1x)
- HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 3000GB SATA 6Gb/s (WD30EZRX) (1x)
- Drive:24x SATA-II DVD Brenner Multi Fromat Dual Layer (Black) (1x) (I came to the conclusion that I don't need blu ray for my pc)
- PSU:Thermaltake Germany Series Berlin 630W ATX 2.3 (W0393RE) (1x)
- Case:Cooler Master K380 mit Sichtfenster (RC-K380-KWN1) (1x)
- Cooler:Scythe Big Shuriken 2 Rev. B (Sockel Intel/AMD)(SCBSK) (1x)
- MS Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit MULTILANGUAGE 1pk DELL OEM (1x)
- Cardreader intern:Ultron UCR 75 75in1 Card Reader/Writer schwarz intern 3,5zoll (1x)

Thanks for all your hints and comments!! 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Boah,
wat'n Krawallgehäuse.

(Sorry Boys, this is untranslatable)

[DSig]

And you are getting it with Win7 ... not stuck with8 .. yeah!

[kahless]

Boah,
wat'n Krawallgehäuse.

(Sorry Boys, this is untranslatable)

I won't see it very often because it will be placed under a big desk