Jul -- Computers and Technology: So, I want a new computer.

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Jul - Computers and Technology - So, I want a new computer.

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Aerakin
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Posted on 04-26-10 12:08:04 PM (last edited by Aerakin at 04-26-10 09:14 AM)

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Well, a new computer or a new laptop. Now, I've been really out of touch with what is good and what isn't for desktops, let alone laptops.

So I'd like to get you guys opinion on what I should get.

What I'd want is either a decent laptop or a desktop that can:
- Play games (nothing too fancy, but I'd at least like to run Starcraft 2 decently if it's a laptop)
- Edit HD Video.
- Mix music (processing power wise, I'm okay soundcard wise already)
- Emulation would be cool, but not a must.
- Hard Drive size isn't really important, I've got an external for that.

So yeah, pretty wide requirements.

Now, there's the whole laptop vs. desktop aspect.

Right now portability is something I'd appreciate, but not at any cost. Anyhow, I'd be willing to drop about $1000-$1200 for a desktop or $1500-$1800 for a laptop that would do run very well. I am aware that good laptops are pretty expensive.

Another question is where to get that stuff (I'm in Canada). I know you can custom build desktops (I'd rather do that than get one from say, HP), but what about laptops?

Obviously, I'm also gonna do research but I'd appreciate the help.

EDIT: I remember that back in the day Alienware seemed really overpriced. Is it still the case?

Bagel

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Posted on 04-26-10 01:58:24 PM (last edited by Bagel at 04-26-10 11:07 AM)

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Actually one of the new i5 or i7-based MacBook Pros would be able to handle all that stuff if you booted to Windows (you could handle the video and music aspects without needing Windows at all by getting Final Cut Express or Logic Express preinstalled -- there are merits to doing creative work in OS X because it's designed for that,) but that depends on if you really want Mac OS X or not and want to spend a little more to get it.

Otherwise ... well. Actually my suggestion is to browse newegg and the like. If you want a Linux box, check out system76.

Pretty much any current processor, whether AMD or Intel, as long as it's not a Sempron or a Celeron, will be no slouch and should handle music things well.

As for video, look at a higher-end nVidia 9 or 200-series card, like a 1GB GeForce 9800GT or a GeForce 250GS, or a Radeon HD 5000-series card like a 5670 or a high-end 5800 -- all of these would handle pretty much anything you could throw at it right now, even moreso if you tried a dual-card SLI/Crossfire setup. Games, emulation, video editing, you name it.

4GB of RAM is pretty much the minimum you'll want these days, because ... well, it's still not really *needed* yet in most situations (even in the case of high-end gamers), but it leaves you lots of room to run things other than your OS. Some people play it *really* safe and use even more. But 4GB is good for a base configuration; if you have slots left open, you can always add more later.

A basic rule of thumb when buying a PC though: always buy more than you need. It adds more longevity to the machine.

At any rate a desktop equipped with the above on newegg would probably run $1000USD at the most. As for laptops, you're pretty much stuck with well-known brand names.

Here's a desktop that would meet your list's requirements too. Cyberpower and iBuyPower are offshoots of major brands and are very inexpensive for what you get; the problem with them is that you get basically no support. If you're fine with that, that's the way to go, since you're basically buying a custom-built PC from them.

Here is an example of a portable that would be able to handle all the things on your list, though it's not got an HD screen.

Both of those are base models though. You can look for something even more powerful since it looks like you've got a pretty huge budget (even for Canadian currency.)

Just in case here's the link to the (Canadian) MacBook Pro store page if you wanted to look at those.

An Alienware machine is a rebranded Dell with generally higher-end specs and neat case designs. You can look at them on Dell's site but the support is pretty much bleh.

My opinions on brand-name PC manufacturers is to avoid Dell, avoid HP (especially Compaq), and to especially avoid Sony. As far as laptops go, Lenovo and Acer machines are pretty good, Toshibas are all right. If I got a desktop at all it would not be from a major brand name unless it was an Apple machine.

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Orlandu

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Posted on 04-26-10 02:12:26 PM (last edited by Orlandu at 04-26-10 11:14 AM)

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	I have always pieced my computers together up until my recent laptop purchase. I always order from newegg.com also until I bought my laptops. The best bang for your buck would be this same one I got: Gateway NV5925u $800 It has an Intel Core i5 processor, plenty of power for anything you want to do. 4GB DDR3 memory, 1GB dedicated video card for gaming 500GB hard drive The only downside is the resolution, its only 1366x768. That can show 720p video in its native resolution but downsizes 1080p video. You can view and edit it no problem, you just don't see it in its native size. Also, no blu-ray if you wanted that as a feature. I am going to try replacing the DVD drive with a blu-ray as i've read it can work if the manufacturer makes a similar model w/ blu-ray which Gateway does. I just have to get enough to buy the drive (about $120 on ebay) If you want something with a larger screen and 1080p then your best bet is this: ASUS G Series G51JX-X1 $1200 It has an Intel Core i7 processor, 4GB DDR3 memory, 1GB dedicated video card, 500GB hard drive, 1920x1080 resolution and 17" screen. If I had more money, I would have gone with something like this. But I had to order 2 (1 for me and 1 for the wife) so I had to keep the cost down some. If you want to spend the money, I would go with the ASUS since its got 1080p native resolution which is better for HD video editing. You can do it on a 1366x768 screen but its best to view full size and not reduced. Don't let the slower processor speeds of the i5 and the i7 fool you. Both use turbo boost technology which will overclock the processor when needed but keep it slower when not (which improves battery life). Plus they both have 6MB cache and the i7 is quad core. Modern video editing software will utilize all 4 cores and your video card. As far as desktops go, you're better of piecing it together but you have to know what you're doing. I used to build my machines for about $600-800 (sans keyboard & monitor) with specs similar to what a $1200 machine from a manufacturer would get me. ____________________

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Posted on 04-26-10 08:44:10 PM

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Keep your eyes on i5 and i7 and browse Newegg for prebuilt machines, you can't really go wrong there.

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MilesH
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Posted on 04-26-10 08:47:25 PM

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Some new notebooks on newegg have been making their way, with the i3 i5 and i7 cores, most noteably with the ASUS notebooks that I've seen so far. Though you probably like a different brand, I still think ASUS may be the best choice thus far.

But yeah, most notebooks on newegg are quickly doing away with the Cure2Duo's and those notebooks won't last much longer either.

Hiryuu

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Posted on 04-27-10 06:03:43 PM

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You know, with all this i3-i7 talk, I'm surprised no one's putting a little stock into the X6es from AMD. The best AMD processor you can get, starting today, would be an excellent alternative for the price, and would score within i7 range power for a whole lot less.

Most of what you'll want to milk goes into the graphics card often times anyways. Depends on what all you'll do with it, if it's bleeding edge gaming or if it's just general stuff that you want to do while staying on a decent budget and attempting to get the bang for the buck.

I went, a couple years back, the AMD route but grabbed a very high-end (at the time) graphics card. Probably one of the better decisions I made for the time and cost.

I can go through AMD alternatives once I get home from work to space them out among the i7 MUST HAVERS. I probably would be in the same boat of mentioned a month or more ago but consider the launch of these hexacores, I'm giving AMD a little more leeway into my recommendations right now.

Orlandu

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Posted on 04-27-10 06:45:45 PM

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	Originally posted by Hiryuu You know, with all this i3-i7 talk, I'm surprised no one's putting a little stock into the X6es from AMD. Because no store has stock of a laptop with an X6 in it, hehe. For desktops, its certainly a viable option now. Before, you went AMD to be on a steep budget. Now AMD is comparable to some Intel processors. I would still get Into over AMD when matching up a dual or quad core but the new X6 would have priority over an i5 or lower budget i7. When the X6 makes in in to laptops, then that will be the route to go for mobile computing. As far as video cards these days, I would say nVidia is still top of the line for solid machines, but ATI has some budget cards that stand up pretty well. In a laptop, as long as its a dedicated card with 1GB ram, you are set, nVidia or ATI. ____________________

Hiryuu

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Posted on 04-27-10 06:48:33 PM

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Well yea...I read desktop AND laptop in the first post so I figured I'd add on to it.

Laptop-wise, yes, there's nothing better on that front than Intel...but it's still pretty expensive and I'm not really a laptop fan either.

Orlandu

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Posted on 04-27-10 06:55:02 PM

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	This is what I bought a few months ago. My last PC build (albeit almost 2 years ago) was about $600 (AMD mind you) sans monitor and keyboard/mouse and was barely able to play current games of the time on low settings. My 3Dmark06 score was like 3.5k overall. With this new laptop for $800, I can play today's games on medium or high settings and got over 12k score on 3Dmark06. This one and an ACER from newegg have the same config (i5 w/ ATI 5650 gfx) and are very reasonably priced at $800. Its hard to get a desktop with monitor for that price that has a 1GB video card and 4GB memory. ____________________

Aerakin
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Posted on 04-28-10 01:25:18 AM

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Well, right now, I do think the "building the computer myself" path is pretty interesting (I mean, with $1k I could do something good).

What I hate is that lol canada, basically. Look up any laptop on newegg. Then look it up on a canadian website (say, tigerdirect.ca).

There's a guaranteed $100 difference, if not more (and if I buy from the USA, I'll be getting raped by customs =( )

But yeah, if I do build a computer what compatibility do I look for (besides motherboard with pretty much everything else?)

Hiryuu

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Posted on 04-28-10 10:30:03 AM (last edited by Hiryuu at 04-28-10 07:35 AM)

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Here's an AMD 6-core desktop start that I received over e-mail this morning. Very decent setup and decent parts for the price (around a K) and the best AMD you can get at this point. The only real things you'll need to consider getting if you do that is a DVD/Blu-Ray drive, which will set you back 25+ bucks and an OS.

Which, unfortunately, with tigerdirect.ca, expect to pay 200+ more unless you get someone to import that. Feel your pain there since Tyty's in the midst of building his up in the same boat of being in Canada.

Newegg doesn't have any pre-builts/barebones that include X6 just yet. You'd have to mix and match parts otherwise, which if you take the time to build up, you might very well save yourself on the price, depending on what you get. Or, you can decide on a decent Phenom II X4 setup and upgrade down the road. So long as you have an AM3 socket or some sort of modern processor socket, you'll likely be fine with upgrade-ability.

EDIT: Take that back, it's about 100 bucks more. Still a dumb premium.

Aerakin
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Posted on 04-28-10 12:00:31 PM

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Well, disk drives and OS are not really a problem.

I've got free legit licenses for pretty much any Windows version.

(also lol: I wonder how paypal would handle a $1300+ transaction

)

Hiryuu

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Posted on 04-28-10 12:02:51 PM

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I don't know if PayPal can handle that much if you don't have more than a basic account. Not really sure. Never put down more than a few hundred dollars on the service. I'd be using debit/credit at that point.

Aerakin
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Posted on 04-28-10 12:59:24 PM

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I just learned two things:
- Paypal's transaction limit is stupidly high.
- NewEgg Canada exists and is utterly useless.

Hiryuu

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Posted on 04-28-10 01:18:24 PM

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I'm hearing most things in Canada in the technological regard aren't much better. :/

Aerakin
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Posted on 04-29-10 06:16:23 PM

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I'll have to admit that barebones with the Phenom II X6 is interesting.

In fact, I might go with that for now (unless I find something better/find parts cheaper)

Hiryuu

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Posted on 05-27-10 08:01:06 PM

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I know you've got your system now...but I want to let you know for those that are still vying for a six-core that they've made some additions to their lineup.

Specifically, the 1599 and 1899 USD packages. Check out that 1899 USD, especially.

Aerakin
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Posted on 05-27-10 08:14:41 PM

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Reminds me I should get another 4GB RAM, now that I'm on a 64bit OS

Hiryuu

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Posted on 05-27-10 08:18:20 PM

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Considering how you were doing already, I'd wonder if another 4 is honestly needed.

Hiryuu

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Posted on 06-02-10 07:23:45 AM (last edited by Hiryuu at 06-02-10 04:24 AM)

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I'm waving my arms like crazy now...I just got done to talking to a few people that let me in on a NICE secret special on this very case for your compy with TigerDirect.

ZUG2479

That code, put in at checkout, drops the price of that case by 25 bucks. I just got the case for 114.99.

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Jul - Computers and Technology - So, I want a new computer.

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