Change of Plan

[Walsingham]

Rather than pay for subcomponents and go through the palaver of fitting them to my poor old PC I've been looking into buying a copmletely new system. I'll have to service the debt until December, at a cost of around

[mkreku]

Rather than pay for subcomponents and go through the palaver of fitting them to my poor old PC I've been looking into buying a copmletely new system. I'll have to service the debt until December, at a cost of around

[Walsingham]

Thanks mkreku. I appreciate that to the skilled it would be an inferior tool. But I doubt I should be able to stretch its capabilities without my own powers failing, rather than the machine's!

 

Two further questions:

 

1. Should I purchase additional cooling?

2. How long will this machine be capable of keeping pace with games?

[Oblarg]

Thanks mkreku. I appreciate that to the skilled it would be an inferior tool. But I doubt I should be able to stretch its capabilities without my own powers failing, rather than the machine's!

 

Two further questions:

 

1. Should I purchase additional cooling?

2. How long will this machine be capable of keeping pace with games?

 

1. If your prebuilt is overheating and needs additional cooling, then you should ask for a refund. The point of a prebuilt is so that you don't have to worry about minor details such as that. In general, though, as long as you have a case with a sufficient number of fans, you shouldn't need fancy cooling unless you're overclocking (not recommended for casual computer users).

2. I built the machine I'm currently using 2.5 years ago for ~$800, and it's still running most games on high/near-max settings without major issue. Seeing as your rig is a good bit more expensive, it should last you a few years at least. Keep in mind that, at least for now, hardware progresses faster than the hardware requirements for games. Current generation hardware is overkill for current games.

[Walsingham]

Understood.

 

I guess my main question on tha rig is the motherboard and power supply. Any issues there?

[Oblarg]

Understood.

 

I guess my main question on tha rig is the motherboard and power supply. Any issues there?

 

700w should be fine.

As long as everything fits on the motherboard, the motherboard is fine. A cheap motherboard could have lower RAM voltages which will prevent you from setting the timings correctly, but I seriously doubt that will be an issue. Even if it is, the performance difference is next to nothing.

 

Once again, though, these are the types of things that should be ironed out already if you're buying a prebuilt machine. The entire point of a prebuilt machine is so that you can have it arrive at your house, plug it in, and have it work with minimal setup. You are ultimately paying extra money so that you don't have to worry about those things.

 

If you ever have the time, however, it's worth learning to build your own. A few google searches can get you all the information you need to learn how to build a computer, and it'll save you a good bit of money.

Edited June 23, 2010 by Oblarg

[mkreku]

I would actually say that 700W is a little overkill.. but then I remembered that your future rig has a Fermi GPU and suddenly 700W seems perfectly normal.

 

For how long it will last.. Well, I haven't seen a huge jump forward in PC performance demanding games since Crysis was released, and that was like three years ago now. If PC gaming continues to evolve in the current pace, I would not be surprised if that rig would last for at least three years, and even longer with a later GPU upgrade.

 

And don't worry about the motherboard, it is X58 based, thus it can not be ****. That's actually an enthusiast chipset so it's a little bit weird that the rig isn't factory overclocked.

[Walsingham]

Sounds good, fellahs. Looks like I'm waiting another week before I hear whether our new contracts are coming through. If it's a go then by the Lord Harry I'm getting a new PC!

[Walsingham]

I'm planning on completing the order today. Just one last question:

 

What's the reliability curve on these babies? Is it worth getting a 2 year warranty?

[Walsingham]

System is on its way, with a new keyboard and win7 professional pre-installed.

 

Can I get a BUAHAHAH! ?

[Walsingham]

It's arrived, it's hooked up, and by God does it shift! I have all my work up, Shameless on 4OD, plus napster, plus Mass Effect and Firefox running. Not a stutter.

 

Slowest thing atm is downloading all my steam games...

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Nice! Glad to hear it's working.

[LadyCrimson]

It's arrived, it's hooked up, and by God does it shift! I have all my work up, Shameless on 4OD, plus napster, plus Mass Effect and Firefox running. Not a stutter.

 

Slowest thing atm is downloading all my steam games...

VRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!

[Walsingham]

I've also set up my 'old' PC on the other side of my desk. Now I really can work on a lot of things at once.

 

*deeply insane cackling*

[Gorgon]

I got one of these. 999 e. and then another 20% on top for duty and Danish VAT and god knows what. Ridiculously expensive, but compared with what else is available it really is a superb imput device.

[Morgoth]

I'm quite happy with my Q6600 and 4870.

 

I'll upgrade again when Intel releases an entirely new CPU generation. Something like 100 cores would be cool.

[Oblarg]

My Athlon 64x2 3.2ghz and 8800 gts g92 are holding up admirably, given that the video card sits around 85 degrees under load in this ****ty, undercooled case. Not sure when I'll upgrade, I need a job to pay for it first, and I'd rather buy a new guitar than a new computer at the moment.