Computer - $1200 MAX - SecretNet/ARC (2 Viewers)

[Supra]

Hey guys I need your expert opinions...MedNez/Other mods, do not delete this thread please, as my request is independent of the other thread and this is a better way instead of hijacking the other thread. <3

I have limited knowledge of hardware etc.

Purpose:
-Listening to lots of music...I'm not editing/producing or doing anything fancy...

-General uni work

-I've never ever owned a computer capable of playing games...the maximum hdd i've had was a 40gb one...right now I'm using a laptop with a 10gb hard drive

So what I'm after is something that can allow me to play some decent games occasionally. I'm not your avid/frequent gamer. My gaming habits would possibly be weekends/uni holidays since I'm flat out with work and uni. The games I would play:
Civilisation4 and equivalent (Age of Empires etc.)
Flight Simulator X perhaps...i'm guessing u need a shit hot system to play it
SimTower/City (<3 old school)
and that's about it.

- Ideally an AMD system...I don't want Intel.

-Im not fussed by specific colours, cases, fans yada yada yada

N.B My big bulky 19" NEC CRT is still more than good enough. Hence I can spend a bit more on a computer and hold off on the LCD until I can inject more capital.

SecretNet:

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4: nForce4 SLI, 1000MHz FSB, 4xDDR2/800(2x), ATA/133, 4xSATA/300, SLIxPCI-E, GigaLAN, 7.1 Sound, Firewire, ATX

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU + Fan - SAM2, 2.0GHz, 2x512kb, 1000MHz

RAM Corsair Value Select 1Gb 533MHz DDR2 Memory Kit (2 x 512Mb)

Hard Drives 320Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 7200rpm Hard Drive - S/ATA-II, 16Mb - 5Y

Floppy Drive Sony 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Beige

DVD Writer LG GSA-H42NBB 8/10/12 DVD±RW/±DL/RAM Internal IDE - Drive + Software - Beige

Video Card Gigabyte Radeon X1650 256Mb 16xPCI-E Video Card - 2xDVI, HDTV Out

Case Antec SLK1650 ATX Medi-tower Case w/ 350w PSU - Beige

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM
Price: $1045

ARC
CPU AM2A64X238 AM2 Athlon 64 X2 3800 2.0GHz (L2-2x512) 135.10

MBAM2GAM55SLIS4 Gigabyte M55 SLI-S4 (sAM2) M/B 121.00

CSPHPC02B Powerhouse PC-02 450W Black(wait) 44.70

VIDGAX550 Gigabyte X550 256MB PCIE16X 71.40

MEMD242COVS1024 Corsair VS 1G KIT DDR2 PC4200 533MHz RAM 109.70

HDSESATA3201610 Seagate SATA2 320GB Harddisk (16MB) 140.40

CDDVDWDLLG4167B LG Duallayer DVD Burner Black 49.50

DDFD12 Black 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive(IGN) 16.00

SWMSWI4 Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM 213.00

CDDVDME108 Norton 2007 oem 6 Month bundle pack(SPC) 10.00

A11 Assembly Charge (IGN) 40.00

Total Price: $950

So my questions to you guys are thus:
- Are SecretNet and ARC good places? I heard from Whirlpool that they're decent.
-Are the above systems going to cater to my infrequent gaming needs?
-Would you recommend any changes/additions or could I even cut stuff out and save me some $$$

SecretNet is offering to provide Vista Home Premium or whatever...should i get Vista at this stage?

I know the graphics cards are slightly different, but that was the cheapest one on SecretNet (which is double the price of the ARC coz its probably better)

I appreciate your help.

Krish

 

[Collin]

It's hard to answer the question of whether or not it'll cater for your gaming needs.

For example, if you have high expectations for graphical performance, it doesn't matter how 'infrequent' of a gamer you are. You could play your games every day or once a week - the game will still perform the same with the hardware, and hence not meet your expectations for high performance.

Perhaps it would be better to word it as 'Will this computer run my games on somewhat decent settings and give reasonable frame rates?'

Both systems will satisfy your music and study requirements. A dedicated sound card would be nice if sound fidelity is what you're after. Music on my old SB X-Fi and some good speakers sounds amazing.

For gaming, the first system will do OK for older games. Flight Sim X? Forget it.
Also, Civ IV is NOT equivalent to Age of Empires from a performance point of view. Machines 5-6 years old now will run AOE fine, but even some new machines nowadays still chug with Civ IV.

The Radeon X550 video card in the second computer is significantly worse than the offering from the first. The first system is definitely a better gaming machine.

Why not Intel?

 

[withoutaface]

Intel have improved a shitload since a couple of years ago and now offer better value for money than AMD in 90% of cases.

MSY's probably gonna be cheaper than either SecretNet or ARC.

I'd definately fork out the extra for the X1650.

EDIT: Whirlpool suggested systems, based on MSY prices:



$1250 AMD Box:
CPU: AMD X2 4600+ 940-Pin $162
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe $199
RAM: 2x1GB Kingston DDR2-667 $165
HDD: Seagate 320GB SATAII $121
Case & PSU: Antec P150 w/ 430W NeoHE PSU $230
GPU: 256MB Powercolor x1950pro $258
Optical Drive: Pioneer 212D SATA Beige/Black OEM $52
Fan: Thermlatake Big Typhoon VX $65

Total: $1252

$1250 Intel Box:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8GHz 775-Pin $233
Motherboard: Gigabyte 965P-DS3P(Pro) i965 $188
RAM: 2x1GB Kingston DDR2-667 $165
HDD: Seagate 320GB SATAII $121
Case & PSU: Antec P150 w/ 430W NeoHE PSU $230
GPU: 256MB Powercolor x1950pro $258
Optical Drive: Pioneer 212D SATA Beige/Black OEM $50

Total: $1246

Maybe lose a stick of RAM or carry your old DVD player over and you'll have it under $1200.

 

[Supra]

Thanks Collin and Justin...I want the games to run decently I guess that's what I was trying to say. I prefer AMD because I remember a few years back they were good value etc. but if things have changed I don't mind either AMD or Intel. Is there any real difference anymore?

I like those MSY systems, for a little bit extra I'm getting 1more gb of ram and assumably a shit hot graphics card

I think to run Vista they say u need 1gb but recommend 2gb of ram...

 

[withoutaface]

Might also be worth talking to your faculty at mq to see if they offer free copies of microsoft software to students on msdn (I think that's what it was called).

 

[jumb]

I got mine from secretnet, so I've got a few suggestions on this:

Floppy Drive Sony 1.44Mb Floppy Drive - Beige

Don't get a floppy drive! I am 100% serious, I got one and disabled it about a year ago because I don't use it. The only reason you would need it is for boot disks, but you can do that with usb thumb-drives these days (I have actually done that), so save your $30.

Case Antec SLK1650 ATX Medi-tower Case w/ 350w PSU - Beige

I have the black version of this, and the power supply is SHIT. It ended up giving me a bunch of problems and I ended up buying a new power supply, so buyer beware.

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional OEM
Price: $1045

Are you sure you can't "acquire" this piece of software some other way?

 

[Serius]

if you want it to be cheaper and you dont lan[ so u dont need a flash case] just grab one from anywhere. My house has about 6 spare cases sitting around, also like jumb said, shit psu.

the pc i have now doesnt have a floppy drive, neither did the one previously... i dont think ive had one at all for about 6 years.

not worth throwing in extra money for vista, which is basically whats happening.

You could save a bit more money by buying all that stuff at computer fair and building it yourself. You dont even need to do that if you buy all the stuff u need at the one stall, if you ask nicely they usually do it for you for free. You can also pick up some sort of cheapass second hand case whilst you are there.

I dont really like the videocard options they have, i would get something more like a foxconn 7900GS OC edition, way better bang for buck and you can pick it up for less than $300

it might work out cheaper to get 2 X 250GB hardrives, you get more space and they go for pretty cheap.
if you just look at where you can save, $30 here, $40 there, you can either make the whole system alot cheaper, or you can put a bit more money into the more important parts, e.g gfx, or more storage.

 

[jumb]

if you just look at where you can save, $30 here, $40 there, you can either make the whole system alot cheaper, or you can put a bit more money into the more important parts, e.g gfx, or more storage.

I had a dilemma over this issue, the whole idea that if you spent another 20+hrs researching and finding the cheapest price on every single item then having to build it yourself. I came to the conclusion that my time was worth more than that, so for the sake of no more than $100, you might as well just do the secretnet or whoever thing.

 

[Serius]

its not really a waste of time though, for me it was fun so its like iam getting paid like $40 to do something i would do for free anyway, just to learn about your own machine. Yeah theres also the fringe bennefit of that, if you built it then you know whats wrong when something fucks up, or atleast its alot easier to know, and heaps easier to fix. People who didnt build their own risk fucking shit up if they just try and fix it themselves, and if they dont try they have to pay out the ass to do something i can do myself in like 2 mins[antec cases have quick releases]

because really, even if you know all about computers, unless you put that particular machine together, you are probably going to have a couple of difficulties when it comes time to fix it. i learnt that the hard way.

 

[withoutaface]

No need to search for the cheapest price, because MSY is the cheapest 99% of the time.

 

[Supra]

thanks for the responses when im closer to buying it I'll post here...shouldnt be too long now

 

[bringbackshred]

I was the same about AMD for a while, but the C2Ds kick the shit out of anythign AMD has (except maybe the X2 6000+)

Also, many people prefer CRT monitors to LCD - LCDs aren't simply 'better'.

 

[Collin]

Although Intel has forced AMD to relinquish the performance crown, it's important to acknowledge they are still competitive due to their price cuts, especially for the budget consumer. Those 3800+ X2s has hit rock bottom prices as of late, and for many people they're still very fast chips.

Heck, productivity-wise my A64 3200+ is still overkill right now.

 

[icraig88]

like a few ppl have said here, i would just carry your old dvd burner over to your new computer, don't purchase a floppy drive as people only use it for boot disk these days and can still do it with a usb drive. Also the question remains, why AMD? why not try the intel conroe e6400 or e6600? i've heard many great things about those cpu's. heres what i'm looking at anyways:

cpu: intel conroe e6600
m/b: asus p5b deluxe wifi
ram: 4 gb corsair ddr2
hdd: seagate 500gb sataII
gfx: asus 8800gts 640mb
case/psu: antec sonata II
lcd: acer 22" dvi wide screen 5ms

but i get huge discounts like between 50-60% off on each part because my sisters bf works for the new windows vista magazine so im cheering and probably only going to be just over the $1000 mark

 

[Collin]

like a few ppl have said here, i would just carry your old dvd burner over to your new computer, don't purchase a floppy drive as people only use it for boot disk these days and can still do it with a usb drive. Also the question remains, why AMD? why not try the intel conroe e6400 or e6600? i've heard many great things about those cpu's. heres what i'm looking at anyways:

cpu: intel conroe e6600
m/b: asus p5b deluxe wifi
ram: 4 gb corsair ddr2
hdd: seagate 500gb sataII
gfx: asus 8800gts 640mb
case/psu: antec sonata II
lcd: acer 22" dvi wide screen 5ms

but i get huge discounts like between 50-60% off on each part because my sisters bf works for the new windows vista magazine so im cheering and probably only going to be just over the $1000 mark

Thanks for the shameless advertising. Talking yourself up about getting a PC which could typically cost over $3,000 is REALLY relevant to the OP's question.

Have a think about why he wouldn't consider an E6600. (Hint: Cost vs. Budget).

Also, 50-60% off what? I can tell you now that the 50-60% claim obviously doesn't refer to RRP. Why do you get a discount because of some affiliation with a Windows Vista magazine? Does that organisation somehow manage to rort huge discounts off all of those companies (i.e Intel, Asus, Corsair, Seagate etc.)?

 

[charithjperera]

that system is a rip, get a C2D e4300 with a gigabyte 965p-ds3 motherboard, throw in a half decent heatsink you will be able to overclock it to 3ghz easy, thats like a core 2 extreme for $700 or $800, why would you bother with AMD's now?

 

[Collin]

that system is a rip, get a C2D e4300 with a gigabyte 965p-ds3 motherboard, throw in a half decent heatsink you will be able to overclock it to 3ghz easy, thats like a core 2 extreme for $700 or $800, why would you bother with AMD's now?

Not everyone wants to overclock. Thanks to continuing price slashings, AMD has managed to stay competitive.

 

[Supra]

overclocking is a problem i barely know what it is and involves. I really don't have the time to modify the computer myself in anyway. so what i'm looking for is pretty much stock.

I need the computer badly now since my old laptop is restarting itself every so often.

 

[voltagex]

I have dealt with UMart and SecretNet and Computer World and I would say both SecretNet and Umart have the best customer service, and CW isn't too bad - except when you order from CW make sure you select the shop nearest to you, same with Umart.

 

[icraig88]

yeah umart is really good and customer service is the best, no waiting to order (i've waited up to over an hour at msy) and really close to me, so if i really need something and done quick they'll be able to do it. also they always have the stuff you want in stock (unlike msy "sowwi out o stock")