New Computer shopping help?
By
Cade Lawson,
Posted on: 2010-05-08 10:18 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
This text is a link to Father Xmas' Public Profile. There are two links in the Signature section. One is for a $750 build the other is for a $1375 rig. Neither are a water-cooled system and both include a Windows 7 64-bit installation cd.
At times one or more parts may be out of stock due to popularity, but you should be able to find a comparable part made by a different manufacturer with similar or identical specs. For example, if he lists an EVGA nVidia 475 video card and it's out of stock, you may be able to find an nVidia 475 video card with similar specs made by XFX to replace it.
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Quote:
Based on your original post, I'm inclined to think that you, as a user, would have no reasonable application for a water-cooled desktop system. If a Dell laptop, several years old, has been running CoH and meeting all your 'gaming and business needs', then looking at something which would truly benefit from liquid coolant would be an exercise in deliberately seeking Overkill (note the capitalized 'O').|
Originally Posted by Captain_Simian
Hey guys, I've loved how up-to-date you guys can be and so I am turning to you all for a little help. I am a skilled technician, but haven't worked in the computer field for well over 5 years.
Let me bring you up to speed. In March of 2008 I bought myself and my wife two Vostro Dell laptops on a steal and they have run our gaming and business needs remarkably well. Today my power supply...died? Sort of. It's on the way out, so I called Dell and much to my chagrin my 3 year warranty has apparently expired a year early. Fancy that. So unless customer service can make everything happy with rainbows I am stuck with a system that I cannot do much more than moderately surf the web. I work from home, so you can imagine how much this will affect me. I am hoping you technical lot can help me figure out what I need, and how to find it cheapest in order to run my beloved CoH, preferably with ultra mode settings. I've bounced around in here, but it's a bit hit or miss or dated. Do you guys think it would be best to build it myself or go through someone to get a reliable setup? Not concerned about the budget until the wife says "whoa there fella". But at the same time I am not a rich guy either, so budget is something of a concern. Right now I need to just get a preliminary view of what I am looking at. On a side note/related question, I have next to no experience in maintaining a water-cooled system. Is it worth it? Is there a high maintenance to it? Like I said, I am married, I have enough high maintenance going on. ;-) Thanks in advance for any help or direction you guys can give. I sincerely appreciate your taking time to even read this. |
I'll second the rigs recommended in X's sig; building really isn't terribly challenging (yes, I do mean 'even for you') and you'll end up ahead by a good chunk in the end. If budget is no immediate object, then you've got quite a few very solid options out there, but we really ought to throw out some numbers so we can sort of...you know...suss out what you need to pay for versus what you want to pay for, you know?
Just how much are you willing to spend for the sake of CoH/Ultra Mode? Are you a big media-on-pc guy (HDTV, DVD, etc)? If you were laptop'n before, you probably need a new monitor, right? How big can you reasonably go? Are there spacial constraints for your 'desktop' area (ie, is an ATX-Full out of the question)?
Let's get some details on the table.
Fair enough Cade.
Yes, a new monitor is in order. I am a big media buff, so I stream movies, play games, work and generally (god how did this happen to me?) in front of this rig. The laptop has run everything to satisfaction, but like all things in life "wish it could do more". Multi-monitor would be a nice change especially for work. (Not kidding...how weird to say that...)
I am trying to have to keep the costs down, so let's keep the rig itself at or under 1500. I've read Santa's rig write ups. They are really informative.
</rant>
I am coming from a somewhat angry place right now with Dell due to this somehow shortened warranty. Come Monday when customer support opens back up I will know more, but I know how Dell is and they never fun when they think they are right.
So would it be best to buy the parts and pieces and put it all together or get a warranty plan with a manufacturer? To give you some perspective, when I bought this laptop it came with a GeForce 8600M GT card. What they don't tell you is that the memory is in has a reduced pipeline, so it's a downgraded version of the full on mobile card. (For the record it has performed admirably, I only know this because I did my research before buying it.) I just don't trust when I buy something and the seller isn't completely forthright, and then shortens their warranty.
</rant>
I am rather technically skilled so assembly isn't the issue. But if a part goes out (and they always seem to within a year or two) I have to follow up on manufacturer warranties which generally only last a year, and track each one seperately. Either way it's a headache.
Now that I've ranted and raved...*sighs*
Let's see what we've got for details.
Monitor - check
dual monitor - capability later is fine
HD - yes please, movies are so pretty
SLI/Crossfire - Not necessary, but I do like other games that support it, and hopefully we can get it for CoH soon.
Ultra-Mode - at LEAST capable of mid-range settings with decent FPS
Size constraints - could care less. Let's build a rack!! (I kid...or do I? mwa haha)
Cost constraints - rig under 1500, prefer under 1000 to accomodate a nicer monitor.
As a side note I see iBUYPOWER.com has some pretty reasonable boxes up for what appear reasonable prices. Anyone have experience with buying there?
Quote:
Dell have always been a pile of turd when it comes to support. If its just your power supply thats dead though, are you sure you want to look into a new pc?|
Originally Posted by Captain_Simian
Today my power supply...died? Sort of. It's on the way out, so I called Dell and much to my chagrin my 3 year warranty has apparently expired a year early. Fancy that.
|
I mean as unreliable as it is, ebay actually sell a fair amount of chargers and plugs. I have a Toshiba laptop, that I didnt research before I bought, then realised the plugs were dodgy and the inside of the sockets came loose very easily, both these replacement parts could be bought off ebay for less than £10 so its was pretty easy to sort out.
My bf also has an asus laptop, his plug died a couple of days ago and his came this morning, it only cost him £8 for a new plug and charger.
I maybe misunderstanding what you wrote, but to me it seems easiest to just fix what you have
Oh yeah, and I was curious if Father Christmas ever addressed that shopping list notation. The poster said the memory didn't fit (it wasn't the right speed) and to try another motherboard.
I know the memory could be overclocked, so I am not sure if he ever directly addressed any of that.
I was able to help a friend set up a rig with Ibuypower for about 700 shipping included and he has been very happy with it. you should be able to set something very solid with your budget if you choose to go that way and not build it yourself.
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Quote:
If you're confident enough to build you own, head over to newegg.com (or newegg.ca like I did) and pick out some stuff. Id recommend using X's builds as a good jump-off point. Once you make some decisions, we can help refine...but inviting people to pick out stuff for you will degenerate into AMD versus Intel (and nVidia versus ATI) fanboi catfights. *cough* ATI + Intel win *cough*|
Originally Posted by Captain_Simian
Fair enough Cade.
Yes, a new monitor is in order. I am a big media buff, so I stream movies, play games, work and generally (god how did this happen to me?) in front of this rig. The laptop has run everything to satisfaction, but like all things in life "wish it could do more". Multi-monitor would be a nice change especially for work. (Not kidding...how weird to say that...) I am trying to have to keep the costs down, so let's keep the rig itself at or under 1500. I've read Santa's rig write ups. They are really informative. </rant> I am coming from a somewhat angry place right now with Dell due to this somehow shortened warranty. Come Monday when customer support opens back up I will know more, but I know how Dell is and they never fun when they think they are right. So would it be best to buy the parts and pieces and put it all together or get a warranty plan with a manufacturer? To give you some perspective, when I bought this laptop it came with a GeForce 8600M GT card. What they don't tell you is that the memory is in has a reduced pipeline, so it's a downgraded version of the full on mobile card. (For the record it has performed admirably, I only know this because I did my research before buying it.) I just don't trust when I buy something and the seller isn't completely forthright, and then shortens their warranty. </rant> I am rather technically skilled so assembly isn't the issue. But if a part goes out (and they always seem to within a year or two) I have to follow up on manufacturer warranties which generally only last a year, and track each one seperately. Either way it's a headache. Now that I've ranted and raved...*sighs* Let's see what we've got for details. Monitor - check dual monitor - capability later is fine HD - yes please, movies are so pretty SLI/Crossfire - Not necessary, but I do like other games that support it, and hopefully we can get it for CoH soon. Ultra-Mode - at LEAST capable of mid-range settings with decent FPS Size constraints - could care less. Let's build a rack!! (I kid...or do I? mwa haha) Cost constraints - rig under 1500, prefer under 1000 to accomodate a nicer monitor. As a side note I see iBUYPOWER.com has some pretty reasonable boxes up for what appear reasonable prices. Anyone have experience with buying there? |
You really can do this within your budget, and most decent video cards can support multiple displays (although multi HD I'm not entirely certain about). For support on that particular issue, I'd recommend sending a PM to Je_saist; she's incredibly knowledgeable.
Go. Shop. Find partts.
I followed the Father-Xmas guide before he changed it all to his new $750 rig and built his $600 dollar system with some minor improvements and in the end with shipping for everything the total was close to $700 and I could not be more happy. The game runs awesome and looks amazing.
Keeping it Brutal !!!!!!!!
Hey guys, I've loved how up-to-date you guys can be and so I am turning to you all for a little help. I am a skilled technician, but haven't worked in the computer field for well over 5 years.
Let me bring you up to speed. In March of 2008 I bought myself and my wife two Vostro Dell laptops on a steal and they have run our gaming and business needs remarkably well. Today my power supply...died? Sort of. It's on the way out, so I called Dell and much to my chagrin my 3 year warranty has apparently expired a year early. Fancy that.
So unless customer service can make everything happy with rainbows I am stuck with a system that I cannot do much more than moderately surf the web. I work from home, so you can imagine how much this will affect me.
I am hoping you technical lot can help me figure out what I need, and how to find it cheapest in order to run my beloved CoH, preferably with ultra mode settings. I've bounced around in here, but it's a bit hit or miss or dated.
Do you guys think it would be best to build it myself or go through someone to get a reliable setup? Not concerned about the budget until the wife says "whoa there fella". But at the same time I am not a rich guy either, so budget is something of a concern. Right now I need to just get a preliminary view of what I am looking at.
On a side note/related question, I have next to no experience in maintaining a water-cooled system. Is it worth it? Is there a high maintenance to it? Like I said, I am married, I have enough high maintenance going on. ;-)
Thanks in advance for any help or direction you guys can give. I sincerely appreciate your taking time to even read this.