Please ask your opinion

[JesseD]

Ok guys, I went to the place where we get computer stuff from. It will cost us $189 AUD to get 2gb of DDR RAM to go into this computer.Thats the maximum for this computer. I asked how much it would be for a computer with:
Quad core system
4gb of RAM
1 terabyte hard drive

First off, he said there was no such thing as a 1 terabyte HD. And that I would have to get to 500gb's. I know it's their job to get the highest price out of people, but there's no merit in lying to people. I would get two 500's if it's cheaper, but a 1 terabyte would be nice. I'll way out the options. I would like someone to tell me what would be cheaper. The speed of the drive'd be factor too. Two 500's may be faster.

The core is a "Intel Q6600 Quad Core". That'd be about $700 alone, he said. I do want the Quad Core.

For the Quad Core and the RAM to work, considering it'd be "making" a new computer, I'll need a good Mother Board. He says a GA-533 Mother Board. No idea the price on this.

Since it'll be 4gb of RAM, it's 4 x 15B RAM that'd be used. Again I'm a bit mystified.

Judging by that on this buisness card of items he wrote a DVD-RW drive, it's a new tower I'll be getting. I don't need a new DVD drive. Considering DVD drives come standard these days, I refuse to pay for one, it should be a given. I already have my external one.

He wrote a 8600 GT 256mb Video card. When it comes to video cards, I know nothing. I don't need anything fancy. Just something to look nice.

This comes with a clean install of XP Pro. This all up costs: $1849 AUD. I know I'm being ripped off. desirecampell, you've helped me a lot and been rather patient with my questions. Please tell me what I should be paying. At this point in time, I have $630 AUD to throw away on a new computer. I could probably get a $200 - $250 trade in on this computer. So you get what I'm saying, right??? Please tell me what we should be paying these guys. Thank you.

The guy who quoted this price, there's something I don't like about him. paulk@thecomputermarket.com is his email. If anybody want's to send him an email telling what a flaming idiot he is, please do so.

[desirecampbell]

First, you should read my post on the last thread. Get CPUID, find out exactly what you have so you know what you're working with (you can probably salvage a lot from your current system, and that means saving a lot of cash).

I answered most of this in the last post, but really quick: yes there are one-TB drives, but they're four to five times the cost of half-TB drives. As for speed, it's a toss-up: the TB drives I've seen actually have a larger buffer than half-TBs, but that's not really much of an issue, plus you can RAID two drives for better performance, but that's definitely out of your league right now. My recommendation: get half-TB drives. One for now, and more when you need the space, it's easy to add more drives later.

Yes Q6600 quads are expensive. I'm not sure about the conversion from CAD to AUD, but I found this for about 400 AUD. I'm a bit iffy on it, since it's the cheapest I've ever seen a Q6600 quad (usually, they're about 500-700 CAD). Still, that's four bills for a CPU (even this one, which could be overclocked to the equivalent of a $1200 CPU). My recommendation: get a $100 dual core. Sure a Core 2 Extreme would be faster, but only for rendering, and not by that much.

$200 for two one-GB sticks of DDR RAM isn't bad. If you keep the old board, definitely pick these up. Though, if you're getting a new motherboard you'll probably get one that uses DDR2, which would mean RAM would be cheaper (by 20-40%). My recommendation: depends on whether you can keep your current board or not. There's no reason to use fading tech on a new purchase. But definitely don't bother with more than two GB. You wouldn't notice the difference between two and three, and the computer probably won't recognize the fourth gig.

And, yes, you should expect to pay for everything that comes with the PC. Nothing's free in hardware . If you've got a DVD-burner already, you won't need a new one, but it can't cost more than fifty bucks anyway so it's the least of your worries. You'll probably get a new case too, which you can expect to cost around fifty bucks (maybe a bit less, if it's nice it could be 100 or more). Hell, XP will be included in the sticker price as well and that's probably 150 bucks or more.

8800 GT... actually that's probably a good idea. It's a low-mid range card that'll push HD video and do DX 10. 150-200 bucks well spent. You could opt for a cheaper card (like a 7200 for under a hundred) but cheaper cards won't push HD 'properly' and won't do DX 10. Plus, it's a nice powerful card for desktop work, so your video playback will be nice and smooth.


For a quad core system, with a TB is HDDs, and a 4 GB of RAM, you can expect to pay 1450, for the parts alone (and this is shaving 400-500 off with that oddly cheap Q6600 and DDR2 RAM)

mobo: 150
cpu: 400
ram: 200
hdd: 220
video: 180
psu: 50
case: 50
winxp: 150
dvd: 50

And I'd expect another fee for putting the whole thing together too.

I can see where he's coming from with his selections, even if I disagree with them. He's trying to get you a nice system that should stay current for several years (and, obviously, get as much profit as possible). In the end, this guy's just doing his job, giving you an estimate for a new PC with the specifications you requested and what you seem to want to do with it, and he's charging you fairly. And you're doing exactly what you should be doing: shopping around, finding out if what you're buying is what you want, what you need, and is fairly priced.

That said, I still suggest using your old board to help cut costs if at all possible. Upgrading is always cheaper than getting a whole new system. If you do get a new system, don't spend so much on a CPU - you can get excellent ones for under a hundred; get less RAM, you don't need more than two gigs; don't get a full TB at once, just get one half-TB drive for now and get more when you need the space. Upgrading can save you $200-$400 (keep your old mobo, psu, dvd, case, OS) and getting cheaper (or less) parts can save you another $500.

If you're going to get a whole new system, salvage as much as possible from the old one, like your case and psu (if possible, you may need a new one), and OS. Get a good $150 mobo, get a new half-TB HDD for $110, get a new videocard for $200, get two gigs of DDR2 RAM for $120 - spend $600 and gild the innards of the old carcass.


-edit-
Of course, this assumes you install everything yourself. Not a big deal, but if you haven't tried it before, play doctor with the old system, not the new one first I didn't think anything of it at first, I've been ripping systems apart since I was 13 (yes, "I hacked my Mac" ) but I never asked if you've ever put a system together before. Have far have you gotten with PC hardware?

[JesseD]

A lot of this is way over my head, but I'm getting the idea. So I don't quite get what over clocking is. Is it combining the RAM and a good CPU to make it faster/better?

$787 AU for a Quad core, DDR2 RAM and a P35 mobo... that seems pretty damn good. I'll go with just 1 half TB HDD. I'd get another half TB when I have the money. I've heard of RAID before, but I don't really know what that is. Sounds expensive. A High-Def video card will be good, I'd be willing to pay for that. I have no idea what a psu is. I suppose a new case isn't that necessary. My uncle could get a XPPro from his "ellicet" sources. Factoring in that I'd use this case, I won't need a DVD drive. This one is a "DVD-RAM" burner. No idea what the "RAM" part means, but it does its job. The case on this PC is really small, it uses a Laptop disc drive.

I aparently have a "i845G" mobo. So $787 for the mobo, RAM and cpu, $310 for a half TB HDD, a video card and a psu. I'd get my uncle to help me "play doctor" on this PC. I'll be getting another lot of cash, this time about $300 or so, including my $600... I should just be able to get this under my belt. What about a sound card?

I've had no real experience with installing hardware. I have a fairly good grasp on how to do things, though. But knowing and doing things are two different catergories.

I should get just a Dual Core, but something is luring me towards the Quad. How much is that much difference? The deal with a mobo and RAM makes it sound that much more enticing. Please feel free to call me stupid, I'm very appreciative of all the help.

[tarsonis]

Zipzoomfly has the quad-core Q6600 for $295.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... Code=80864

[desirecampbell]

The difference between a single core proc and a dual core is huge: instead of setting having the whole system slow down (or stop responding) during heavy CPU load, you can set that process to the second core, and barely notice the process is happening because you have a whole core free to do everything else.

Going from a dual core to a quad core is not nearly as noticeable. It's the same thing, except you've got four cores to play with instead of just two. Just having two more cores will make the CPU faster, but not twice as fast. It will, definitely, be faster though.

The Core 2 Quads are beastly processors. Even if they were dual cores, they'd be awesome. But you'll pay for the performance. Even if you can get the quad for $400 (a friggin' steal for that processor) that's still more than four times the cost of an perfectly good dual core AMD. I don't think you should get a Core 2 Quad, I think you should get a more modest AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+. But it's your call, really. If you think you'll need the extra power and you don't mind paying the extra cash, get the quad. It's a great processor (and for 400, it's a damn good deal), I just don't think you'll need the power.

-edit- You can check out some real world performance charts here. -/edit-


RAID's hard. It's hard for experienced RAID users. Don't even worry about it.

PSU is shorthand for Power Supply. It's that box at the top that has all the cords coming out of it. The one you have now probably won't handle a new proc and that video card - and for about fifty bucks you might as well get a new reliable one.

DVD-RAM, um, don't worry about it. Your drive's fine -it'll do anything you need.

Where are you getting $300 for a half-TB? You shouldn't pay more than $150 for a single 500 GB drive.

You may need a new case as well, if your current one is small. Like the PSU, for piece of mind, it's probably best to just get a new (largish) one - $30-$50 to be sure everything fits. (You'll want to get a "mid tower" size or bigger. You'll need to fit a "micro ATX" or full "ATX" motherboard in there. Your local shop or online retailer will have such info listed).

Sound card? Pfft. Let the onbaord deal with it. Unless you're an audiophile or want a two percent performance increase in video games, an add-in sound card is pointless. Same deal with network and USB, leave it to the mobo.

You're no stupid - not by a long shot. We've all been where you were, and you're doing exactly what we've done - ask questions, research, figure it out. You're progressing well, young padawan.



To get the biggest bang for your buck (as it were) the best thing to do is get a barebones system (any online retailer will have a section for it) with a decent case, psu, mobo, and proc. Doesn't have to be top of the line, just something good: aluminum mid-tower (full ATX) case, 400 watt CPU, mobo with a PCI-Express video card slot, and a dual core processor (try for 2+ GHz). Anything better than that is cake (I found one here (Canadian site) for $200). After that, add in a video card and a gig or two of RAM and a HDD and you're set.