Thoughts on this computer?

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 5:57 pm

AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 4200+ - Socket AM2
with HyperTransport™ Technology
Mini-Tower Micro ATX Case +550W PSU - Black/Silver
ASUS PCIe Mainboard - nForce 430Chipset
1024MB DDR2 533MHz Memory
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
512MB DDR2 nVIDIA GeForce 7300GS - TV out- DVI - PCI X (256Mb SMA)
17" TFT LCD Monitor with Multi Media, DVI & Analogue (8ms)
8 USB, 2x Firewire, GB LAN

+ keyboard, mouse, xp etc. the usual

£ 635.30 inc VAT

good system? good price?

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:35 pm

dopedragon · Post by **dopedragon** » Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:53 pm

new or used? assembled? if you're savvy, you can definitely get it cheaper if you wanna put it together yourself.

are noise and heat a factor? if so, that power supply sounds huge, and dont know about the case.

the specs look to be more than enough, and the price seems nice relative to what you can get stateside.

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:07 am

This system would be new and assembled

TBH I'm not that keen on self-assembley as i don't really know what i'm doing.

I was a bit confused as to the power as well. My bro said may as well upgrade to the 550w PSU, from a 250w - what does this change?

marsyas · Post by **marsyas** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:45 am

stay away from mini towers, they may seem nifty.
but they suck !!

i guess it depends on what u want to do with it?
is it just gonna be for browsing and whatnot?

dopedragon · Post by **dopedragon** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:58 am

ramadanman wrote:This system would be new and assembled

TBH I'm not that keen on self-assembley as i don't really know what i'm doing.

I was a bit confused as to the power as well. My bro said may as well upgrade to the 550w PSU, from a 250w - what does this change?

like marsyas said, it kinda depends on what you wanna do with it.
for audio production, noise can be a concern, and there's a trade-off with trying to make a quiet system that can remain cool.

most noise reduction techniques involve insulation of the case, removing/reducing the use of fans, suspending harddrives, etc.

so with a higher output PSU, heat can be a problem. 250 is kinda low, but 550 maybe unnecessary. just my thoughts.
if youve never had any problems with noise before and werent doin anything to keep it in check, then you'll probably be fine.

judging from your production work so far, i think youre in the clear

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:24 am

this is gonna be for producing and browsing etc

unfortunately i can only get a mini tower with this offer - tbh i'm not that concerned with upgrading etc so hopefully should be cool

i may get the lower PSU then - heat + computer components is never a good thing..

forensix (mcr) · Post by **forensix (mcr)** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:49 am

ramadanman wrote:this is gonna be for producing and browsing etc

unfortunately i can only get a mini tower with this offer - tbh i'm not that concerned with upgrading etc so hopefully should be cool

i may get the lower PSU then - heat + computer components is never a good thing..

mate i picked up something similar, as just a base system for just over £200 i'll sort my own graphics card out, have many monitors, doesn't have firewire but i can pick up a pci card if needed and i have a copy of xp which i bought for my old computer.

i978 · Post by **i978** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:44 am

TBH I'm not that keen on self-assembley as i don't really know what i'm doing.

You should seriously think about building your own - it really isn't that hard and you'll get a machine that's exactly what you want plus it won't have any crap you don't need - it's not that technical - more akin to assembling flat-pack furnature. All you really have to worry about is matching your CPU and RAM to the motherboard.

These guys are good for parts http://www.ebuyer.com

The specs on the PC you're thinking about seem pretty good. It probably is worth the money but I'd still shop around a bit more if I were you.

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:55 am

i978 wrote:
TBH I'm not that keen on self-assembley as i don't really know what i'm doing.
You should seriously think about building your own - it really isn't that hard and you'll get a machine that's exactly what you want plus it won't have any crap you don't need - it's not that technical - more akin to assembling flat-pack furnature. All you really have to worry about is matching your CPU and RAM to the motherboard.

These guys are good for parts http://www.ebuyer.com

The specs on the PC you're thinking about seem pretty good. It probably is worth the money but I'd still shop around a bit more if I were you.

Just to warn you, eBuyer are cheap but the service is crap. They sent me a dud monitor and the wrong cpu, I sent them back, the cpu got "lost" and I had to threaten legal action to get my money back. It was long. Funny thing was they also refunded me for some bits I never sent them aswell.

forensix (mcr) · Post by **forensix (mcr)** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:05 am

elemental wrote: Just to warn you, eBuyer are cheap but the service is crap. They sent me a dud monitor and the wrong cpu, I sent them back, the cpu got "lost" and I had to threaten legal action to get my money back. It was long. Funny thing was they also refunded me for some bits I never sent them aswell.

yeah i placed an order they took the money and they sent me nothing, got my money back and i'll never use them again

batfink · Post by **batfink** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:07 am

Seriously man don't buy AMD you're just throwing cash away.

An Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor will happily keep up and in some cases smash an AMD X2 4600+, never mind a 4200+. Its cheaper too.

I'd recommend a core spec of something like:

Intel Core 2 E6300
2GB DDR2 533 ram
2 x 250GB samsung spinpoint sp2504c

elemental · Post by **elemental** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:28 am

Batfink wrote:Seriously man don't buy AMD you're just throwing cash away.

An Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor will happily keep up and in some cases smash an AMD X2 4600+, never mind a 4200+. Its cheaper too.

Yeh i kinda wish i'd waited on the Core 2 Duo ... I got an Athlon X2 3800 but it runs sweet anyway.

batfink · Post by **batfink** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:36 am

elemental wrote:
Batfink wrote:Seriously man don't buy AMD you're just throwing cash away.

An Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 processor will happily keep up and in some cases smash an AMD X2 4600+, never mind a 4200+. Its cheaper too.
Yeh i kinda wish i'd waited on the Core 2 Duo ... I got an Athlon X2 3800 but it runs sweet anyway.

don't get me wrong. an x2 is still good, i mean i'm still running a shitty old single core 2.8ghz p4 and its almost enough... almost

its just that core 2's are scary fast. i'd buy one, hell i'd buy 2, if i hadnt managed to nab enough free bits to build a x2 4800+ machine.

lord_qzuma · Post by **lord_qzuma** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:52 pm

AMD is awesome for gaming but i totally agree with Batfink, Intel DUO is definitly the best bet for production.

Thoughts on this computer?

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