Re: New PC (maybe OT)


<bob.smithson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:235bcc87-77a1-43f7-9f50-fdc2a472c06b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My current PC is getting a bit long in the tooth. Although it's fine
for general office stuff and browsing etc, I definitely feel the
difference between it and my new one at work when I am doing software
development work at home. The other main thing I use it for is ripping
and encoding of CDs (usually ripping to FLAC and then batch
conversions to mp3 so CPU intensive) and some video encoding work.
The other driving factor is that I don't feel very happy about moving
to Vista (in particular, I don't see the point in being forced to up
the hardware spec just to run the OS) and XP isn't going to be
available for much longer so I'm thinking I need to do something
soon. (Actually I'm currently running 2K and it works fine for me.
The only thing is that there are now getting to be a few applications
that don't support 2K.)

I built my last two PCs myself and I used to browse this group a lot
at the times I did this. In common with the rest of usenet, traffic
seems to have slowed here, and after a few days of looking in I
haven't really managed to get a feel for what the 'in' components are
these days.

Also, things are so much cheaper these days - at least in terms of
where prices start. What I can't get a feel for is the level I need
to start at to get something 'decent' (whatever that means!).

The other issue is whether it's really worth home building these days
(hence the possible OT in the subject). I do like the idea of knowing
exactly what's going in and being confident when it comes to upgrading
but if I could get something of a reasonable quality and ready made
and significantly cheaper than I could do it myself then I would be
tempted.

So, given all this, I have a few questions:

Where are good places to go and learn about current hardware. I'm not
so interested in the sites that go into great detail with benchmarks
etc. as general guides like "if you want your PC to do this then look
at this mobo/CPU" etc.

Given the sort of uses I outlined above, what spec should I be looking
at? One thing I didn't mention was that I'd be interested in anything
that reduced power consumption as long as performance isn't too
compromised.

Let's say I want to spend about £400, not including OS, on a base
unit? Will I get something decent for that?

At that price is it worth me going for something pre-built and, if so,
where from? I came across novatech - are they any good?


Sorry if this is all a bit vague but I'd be extremely grateful for any
advice.
Thanks in advance.

~
Bob

I was reading the news on Tomshardware about the 780G
chipset which has a very low power demand and a useable
integrated video ( makes a change imo) but with hybrid crossfire
capability so it has to be worth a look,Big choice of supported cpu's
up to the Phenom so a decent upgrade path
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/AMD-780G-HDTV-Blu-Ray,review-30420.html

Derek


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