"Rate my Rig" thread

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Since my laptop has had its keyboard and monitor fail over the past long while and had what I'd thought was the start of a motherboard failure for a bit, I'm getting around to replacing it finally. I haven't looked at new computers in years, though, so I have no idea how good of a deal this is. Straight from Dell's Inspiron 530 model:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E7400 (3MB L2 Cache,2.80GHz,1066 FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
19 inch SE198WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
500GB1 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
1 Year Warranty

$624

Any idea if this is a good deal for a computer I'd like to use for games but don't need the cutting edge for?

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Since I can't edit that, I'll just say that in case it's not clear, that's a desktop model, not a laptop.

[phongn]

Since I can't edit that, I'll just say that in case it's not clear, that's a desktop model, not a laptop.

Don't expect to do much in the way of 3D gaming.

[darthdavid]

Seagate 640GB 7200 RPM
MSI N9500GT GeForce 9500 GT 512MB
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066
MSI P43 Neo3-F LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz

---
How does this look (I have a case, DVD Burner, monitor and mouse/keyboard)?

[phongn]

You can go for cheaper RAM if you don't plan to overclock (DDR2/667 or 800 is fine, whatever's cheaper). Otherwise that's a fairly solid little upgrade. Incremental upgrades would be an R4670 or R4830 GPU and a P45-based motherboard (like the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R)

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

I hope you're not planning on playing any modern games on that 9500 GT. If you are, get a Radeon 4830 or GeForce 9800 GT instead.

[darthdavid]

I hope you're not planning on playing any modern games on that 9500 GT. If you are, get a Radeon 4830 or GeForce 9800 GT instead.

I know it's not the best card but I got a special deal on it (after MIR I end up getting paid 5 dollars to take a video card).

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

I hope you're not planning on playing any modern games on that 9500 GT. If you are, get a Radeon 4830 or GeForce 9800 GT instead.

I know it's not the best card but I got a special deal on it (after MIR I end up getting paid 5 dollars to take a video card).

Well, it's pretty queer to spend so much on a CPU that's pretty decent and grab a crap card just because it's 5 bucks.

[Uraniun235]

An E8400 isn't that much - plus, he could still upgrade to a superior video card in the future.

[darthdavid]

Exactly. I was on an ~500$ budget and all my PC games are old right now anyway because I haven't had a fast computer for several years at this point. This gets me a working machine. And I mean come on, they're paying me 5 dollars to take the card (discounted down to 10$, comes with 15$ mail in rebate ) so its not like this one is using money I could put towards a better card or anything.

[Beowulf]

• LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L - Retail
  Item #: N82E16827136133
• CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8D - Retail
  Item #: N82E16820145224
• CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX 620W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail
  Item #: N82E16817139002
• EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
  Item #: N82E16814130370
• Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
  Item #: N82E16822136284
• Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail
  Item #: N82E16819115202
• ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
  Item #: N82E16813131359
• Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
  Item #: N82E16811129025

[starslayer]

I see almost nothing wrong with that setup. I have a similar DDR2 setup that runs very well. I would, however, get a 260 Core 216 instead of a straight 260. Only $10-20 more, and somewhat faster (on par with a 4870).

[Uraniun235]

I have the P182. Nice case, makes cable management relatively easy. It's heavy, but so what.


I agree with the Core 216 recommendation.

[phongn]

I have the P182. Nice case, makes cable management relatively easy. It's heavy, but so what.

I have a P180. I hate all of you people with fancy P182s and cable management holes. * shake fist *

[Uraniun235]

I have a P180. I hate all of you people with fancy P182s and cable management holes.

I seriously have to admit that it's like night and day between this case and my last one... bloody thing had cables criss-crossing all over the damn place, including a big fat SCSI ribbon.


Out of curiosity, how much power do quad-cores draw while they're idle? I know the C2D's can idle pretty low but I don't know if that necessarily translates to the Core 2 Quads.

[phongn]

Out of curiosity, how much power do quad-cores draw while they're idle? I know the C2D's can idle pretty low but I don't know if that necessarily translates to the Core 2 Quads.

I'm not sure, though I do know they do dynamic underclocking and undervolting when idle.

[starslayer]

Current-generation P180s are exactly the same as P182s, except for the finish (the 180 is still silver versus the 182's black). So my P180 has all those nice cable management holes too (thank God).

Oh, Beowulf, make sure you get a 55nm 260 Core 216 as well. They draw less power and run cooler, and are exactly the same price as the 65nm parts.

[Master of Cards]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883103154

Anything wrong with this rig? I could n't spec out parts for the same cost and it looks like a great deal.

[Uraniun235]

Antec Three Hundred - $60

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W - $95

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L motherboard - $100

Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz - $220

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800, x2 - $90

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition - $200

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 1TB 7200 RPM - $95

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD burner - $25

Total: $885


Now, if we add a keyboard, mouse, and speakers, that'll put you over the (current sale) price of that Acer; however, this build has a slightly faster CPU, a superior video card, and very probably a superior power supply as well. There are some compromises as well (a little less HD space, no firewire), but I imagine they could be rectified by taking slightly longer to pick out components than I did.

That's also a pretty impressive sale price on that Acer unit - that's basically 25% off.

Honestly for me it would really come down to that video card - I wouldn't personally want to buy a 9800GT new, but then I like to play games at times, and your (or others') priorities may differ. Plus with the Acer you'd get a warranty on the whole computer. On the other hand, some of the reviews on Newegg are a little troubling - they appear to suggest that Acer has poor support, and that the case is excessively cramped.


Maybe someone else here has better knowledge of Acer's quality?

[Darth Nostril]

Well my graphics card, a venerable GeForce 6600GT, started playing silly buggers, but to be fair it only had 128 Mb of memory and was never intended for use with 3D apps like Vue 7 Infinite.
Managed to eke it out a little longer but it was glitching too much and I had to bite the bullet, this time I went for an entry level Quadro card seeing as my main computer is for 3D work only and the one I'm typing on now (built out of spare parts) is more than capable of running the few old games I still play.

After three years of upgrades system is now

Athlon X2 4200
Asus ABN-Sli Premium
4 gigs DDR Ram
Quadro FX 570
200 & 250 gig IDE HDs
400 & 500 gig SATA HDs
Philips lightscribe DVD RW
Lian-Li PC-60 case
2 x 19" LCDs
Toshiba 1Tb external backup HD (bought at same time as Quadro seeing how ridiculously cheap it was and my old method of using 200 gig IDEs in a hot swappable caddy was getting rather unwieldy)
Microsoft Comfort wireless keyboard & mouse
Wacom Graphire 3 Studio XL tablet

Really, really want a quad core, preferably two on a dual socket mobo with a shit ton of Ram, technically I could afford a new system but with the current economic situation that £10k is staying in the savings account and the £3ks worth of wine stays under lock and key for another five years before I sell it at auction, so I'm just going to have to cajole this three year old beast on a bit further.

[Ace Pace]

That rig is at the end of it's life. Not really upgradable, theres no quad core Athlon 939. The only way to eke out more preformance from that thing is OCing and that's not a valid option for rendering.

Pretty much nothing except the GPU and Sata drives are portable to a new system, so I'd advise saving up some 500-600 quid and preparing to buy a Nehalem kit with 8GB of RAM soon enough.

[phongn]

Single or dual socket Nehalem is pretty much the best you can do for rendering and nothing else comes close.

[Ace Pace]

Single or dual socket Nehalem is pretty much the best you can do for rendering and nothing else comes close.

If he's reasonably happy with this dual core Athlon X2, then I think a dual socket Nehalem is overkill.

[Darth Nostril]

Single or dual socket Nehalem is pretty much the best you can do for rendering and nothing else comes close.

If he's reasonably happy with this dual core Athlon X2, then I think a dual socket Nehalem is overkill.

Hell no, there no such thing as overkill.
Raytraced reflections, transparencies and subsurface scattering chew up a lot of CPU cycles, a 2000 by 1500 single frame render can take anything up to three days.
A dual socket Nehalem would cut that right down, plus I'd keep this existing computer, network it with the new one and use Vues RenderCow utility to make use of the dual core, giving me ten cores total to render with.
Might even be able to get some animations done

[Lord Relvenous]

WEll, my laptop has finally died, so I'm looking new one. I'm just looking for something that will be able to run most games, and is reliable. As I was walking through Bestbuy on an unrelated trip, I saw what looks to be an ok laptop. Unfortunately it's a Gateway.

P-7805u

It looks pretty good for a laptop, and Bestbuy is selling it for $1100, with intrest-free financing available. Good buy, ok buy, or horrible buy?

Unrelated question: Is the Windows Vista Experience Index even worth paying attention to? Does it give a good indication of the performance of the machine?

Edit: It's gotten some pretty good reviews online, running about a 9/10. Also in relation to my question above, it has an Experience Index of 5.2, with most the numbers above 5.7. It's using a Geforce 9800M GTS with 1GB memory. The processor is just a little slow, a P8400 dual core running at 2.27 Ghz. IT also comes with 4 GB memory.