Re: New PC (maybe OT)
- From: Daniel James <wastebasket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:49:31 GMT
In article
news:<235bcc87-77a1-43f7-9f50-fdc2a472c06b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
, wrote:
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.
That sounds familiar ...
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.
... but not games?
If you don't play games (or use some sorts of CAD/Modelling software)
you don't really need to worry about graphics hardware -- onboard
graphics will probably be enough, and that makes spec'ing a PC (and
paying for it!) easier.
The other driving factor is that I don't feel very happy about moving
to Vista ...
Who does?
XP isn't going to be available for much longer so I'm thinking I need
to do something soon.
There's no sign yet of XP disappearing from the retail channels for
shrink-wrapped OSes. It's getting harder to find on new pre-built PCs.
What I can't get a feel for is the level I need
to start at to get something 'decent' (whatever that means!).
That can be tricky. What's the spec of the new PC at work that you're
comparing with your home system? Do you want more, less, or about the
same performance as that?
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.
The main advantages of building the PC yourself are that you get to
specify it in detail, you know what you've got and how it all fits
together, and you will have some idea of how to fix it if it goes wrong
and how it might be upgraded as and when the time comes. The main
advantages of buying a pre-built system are that you don't have to worry
about the spec in detail or how it all fits together -- and you have
someone to call on (possibly at cost) to fix it if it goes wrong or to
help you with upgrades. Pre-built systems tend to be cheaper --
especially at the low end of the range -- because of economies of scale,
but you don't have as much freedom to specify components and you may
find that the manufacturer uses non-standard parts that can't be
replaces with off-the-shelf ones if they fail or need upgrading.
You may also find that pre-built systems come with Vista, whether you
want it or not.
Where are good places to go and learn about current hardware.
Asking here's a good start. look at the websites of the bigger online
retailers and see what they're making a fuss over (Yes, Novatech, also
ebuyer.com, scan.co.uk ... there are maybe half a dozen more high-profle
"e-tailers" that are mentioned here regularly in varying terms of
approbium or opprobium whose sites are worth a look). Review sites like
Tom's Hardware, Hexus, Anandtech, etc., are useful too (even if you
don't read the reviews in detail).
... general guides like "if you want your PC to do this then look
at this mobo/CPU" etc. ...
If you find a site that does that let me know!
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.
You're asking at the right time ... power consumption is becoming a big
issue. A couple of years ago the most powerful PC CPUs doubled as space
heaters, but that's no longer the case. Some manufacturers make special
"energy efficient" versions of their kit, which costs a little more and
makes a small saving, but will probably pay for itself over the lifetime
of the kit.
Let's say I want to spend about £400, not including OS, on a base
unit? Will I get something decent for that?
You could spend half of that on a fancy graphics card if you wanted a
games machine. As game-playing doesn't seem to be important to you you
can probably do quite well for that money.
Here's a suggestion:
Go for an AMD processor - not because the processors are better, but
because you can get a good motherboard for less. The newest AMD
processors use an AM2+ socket which is still a bit new (and so costly)
but the older AM2 socket still has lots of life in it. I like the Asus
M2NPV-VM board, which you can get for a little less than £50 (plus VAT)
and has everything on it -- PATA and SATA ports, USB, Firewire, Sound,
network, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, Serial ports, video. Pretty-much a
single-board computer. It's a micro-ATX board, though, so it only has
two PCI slots and one each of PCIe x1 and x16 -- not much scope for
expansion, but also not much need.
In an AM2 board you can use a cheap Sempron CPU or a more powerful
Athlon64. I'd suggest one of the dual-core Athlon64 X2 chips. They vary
in cost, speed, and power consumption but in real terms there isn't a
very great difference between them in performance. Around £50 will buy
you a retail middle-of-the-road (between 2GHz and 2.5GHz)
energy-efficient chip depending on where and what you buy. (I mention
retail because the OEM chips are cheaper but don't come with a
heatsink/fan. Some people prefer to source the heatsink separately, but
AMD's stock sink is effective and fairly quiet.)
You'll want RAM. A couple of GB will cost you around another £50.
You'll want a hard disk. A fair-sized SATA (around 500GB) drive will
cost you around another £500. Hard drives are subject to fads. A year or
so ago almost everyone recommended Seagate but their most recent drives
have been found to be a little less reliable and now most people
recommend Samsung or Hitachi.
You'll probably want an optical drive. There are lots of makes and they
don't vary hugely in quality. Expect to pay up to around £20 for a
bog-standard dual-layer DVD+/-RW drive, several times that if you want
Blu-Ray.
You can add floppy disk drives, memory card readers, etc., but they cost
peanuts.
You'll want a box to put it in. There are any number of cases available
in different shapes sizes and styles. I've suggested a micro-ATX
motherboard but that doesn't stop you using a full-size ATX case if you
want (for the extra drive bays, perhaps). Cases cost anywhere between
about a tenner and several hundred pounds and may or may not come with a
power supply and cooling fans. In general, the power supplies that come
with cases are rubbish and should not be used. You pay more for a case
that's well-built and has useful features like screwless fixings or a
removable tray to make it easier to fit the motherboard, or for cases
that are soundproofed. Expect to pay between about £30 and £80 for a
decently-made case that you like. (I have one PC in a cheap no-name case
that cost me £9.99 and another in an Antec Solo case that cost £48 the
Antec case is so clearly superior in every way that I don't regret the
extra money ... but they both do the job). The Antec also came with a
12cm cooling fan (large fans move more air more quietly than smaller
ones) the cheap case takes only 8cm fans which were not supplied (but
were 50p each).
Expect to pay £30-£40 for a decent power supply. You can get PSUs that
churn out 1000W or more (at a price) but you don't need anything like
that for a normal PC. 300W to 400W (depending on the number of drives,
etc., that you intend to use) will be more than ample.
I think that's about it. A whole PC system unit for about £300 (plus
VAT) and couple of packets of peanuts.
Oh ... mains lead. You probably have more than enough of these as
spares, but be warned that PSUs usually don't come with one.
Does that help?
Cheers,
Daniel.
.
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