Computer Help

[Nick07]

Hey guys, I'm looking at purchasing a new PC, just the tower due to my current one giving up slowly.

My main uses are word and excel processing, AutoCAD, structure analysis programs, Itunes, web surfing and occasional gaming (CSS & TF2).

What do you think of this deal? Is there anything I should get upgraded etc?

http://www.austin.net.au/COMPUTERS/Desk ... fault.aspx

[tadz0rz]

The 5450 Graphics card is a bit on the lower end. If your doing 3D cad work you\'ll want to step it up a bit. Best value for money card going at the moment is the HD6670. They are around the $100 mark and you get a pretty good kick for the money.

I work for a computer store and if you wanna check out some of the packages that we sell and compare prices n specs jump on cnettechnology.com.au and check out the online PDF pricelist. Its on page 2 or 3 cant remember haha.

ps: Power supply is a bit on the low side though if you want the upgraded cards. You can pick up generic 620w power supplies for about $15-$20 nowadays and they work mad.

[Nick07]

Price wise do you think it is a good buy? Seems to be a lot cheaper than other shops.

[tadz0rz]

Its not a bad package for the price considering the O/S is included in the price however as I said, the graphics card is lettting you down a little bit. Same with the power supply.

Just looking at the specs of the board aswell, your better of to go with an asus board which has USB3.0 as standard aswell. USB3 stuff is starting to come out and having a mobo without it can make it outdate faster than you would believe.

[Meaty]

Benchmark comparisons on some cards here : http://appsnet.bentley.com/mstnbenchmark/Reporting/Default.aspx

[king eternal]

Having an SSD drive for your operating system and programs Ive found to be one of the best upgrades ive ever done. All my other data just goes on one of my other drives.
However considering the price of the tower the ssd might be too expensive in comparison.

[Nick07]

Also, is it true that the new i5's have quad cores compared to the old ones. Should I be trying for the 3.1Ghz?

[xTheAvengerx]

In all honesty you can build one yourself for the same price and end up with a solid PC that will last a long time. GFX card is outdated you will be looking for a replacement by early next year, plus it wont do such a great job on TF2 if you're a hardcore gamer, I'm a bit skeptical about the brand of the Ram, ive never heard it before, i'd suggest something like Corsair for the ram. PSU is 350watts, its really...well crap tbh, if you ever want to upgrade anything like a better gfx card in the future, you will most likely need to change the PSU aswell, so before you buy get a decent PSU. GFX wise, stick with ATI, they provide a lot more cheaper GFX cards that dont use as much voltage and produce as much heat as Nvidia cards, but as for the CPU stick with the Intel chipsets. The one thing that will squeeze out the most out of your PC is autoCAD, so try and build up as much as you can in terms of Ram and GFX, 4-6gb should be fine, and a decent 1gb Ati card should be plenty. CPU wise, i5 or i7, i5 is a cheaper alternative, most people go with it because the performance difference isnt that huge per say and most programs arent developed to use the 4 cores as of yet, by memory they are programmed for dual core CPU's but then again an extra 2 Cores would definately give you better multi tasking ability. Best thing about this build is the mobo, aim for ASUS motherboard.

Building your own computer isn't as much head work as you think, youtube a few guides and you'll know what I mean. As for software, download yourself a copy of Win 7/XP and off you go.

[Nick07]

I've decided to get my current PC serviced and go from there. I think I can get another year out of it.

[alterego13]

As Nick said..its really not that difficult to build your own PC.
I built my PC back in 2009 christmas.. it cost me $1000 for the whole rig including a 23" monitor.
It works flawlessly till date *touch wood*
I play Battlefield Bad Company 2 which it runs smoothly on high quality. I also work with photoshop, ArchiCAD, lightroom and other 3D rendering programs..and needless to say they all run pretty well.
Just spend a little time doing your research and you can build one as well..
I bought my parts from MSY and Foxcomp. But I've heard good things about Austin and PLE.

[Juisarian]

The case/power supply combo in this quote looks fairly weak (although I've never encountered BigAnt before so I can't really say) but there's an option for $66 to upgrade to the Coolermaster Centurion 5 and 500W PSU which looks good - assuming they're not using a flimsy cheapo 500W power supply unit. Personally I would only ever buy a name brand PSU, something like Antec, Corsair or Seasonic for example. Once you've got the Centurion 5 you'll probably never need to buy another tower case, just upgrade the guts every few years if need be so it's a decent investment.

For around $90 they ought to be able to add a 2 TB "green" second hard drive which will give you plenty of storage for all your stuff.

Really odd that there's no option to upgrade the graphics card though, the 5450 is a poor choice for 3D games or apps.

[Dire]

Whats wrong with the current one?

[cammag5]

Get the parts from MSY and build your self or pay $70 for them to do it.

CPU: Intel i5 2400 [$189]
MOBO:Gigabyte H61M-USB3 Motherboard B3 [$79]
DVDRW: Samsung [$20]
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws-X DDR3 1600 8G [$62]
HDD: 2.5” Seagate XT Hybrid SATA 500G [$116] <- totally worth it!
VGA: 1G 6770 Gigabyte [$119]
CASE: Thermaltake Black Edition V4 with 450W PSU [$79]
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium [$91]

Total parts price is $755 and you are going to have a MUCH better system

[Nick07]

The worst problem is that occasionally when I leave it on idle, it starts to beep, like a long beep with a pause and then another beep and so on. Don't know what is causing it. Also sometimes it doesn't pick up the monitor, keyboard or mouse.

That's not a bad deal - I have a really good case, i might look into seeing if i can keep it.

[INVUR-1]

MSY DIY the way to go