Friend building a new comp

T

toenexx

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 13, 2004
Messages
162
Hello again. Need some help here. Recently a friend of mine just got some help from her brother in building a new computer, he gave her a list of parts to get....and boy, are they top of the line. Here are the parts list:

Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1024 PC6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit $348.04

Motherboard:
ASUS P5WD2 Premium ATX LGA775 955X DDR2 PCI-E16 PCI-E SATA RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard $239.40

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon Toxic X1900XTX 675MHZ 512MB 256BIT 1.6GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E 2DVI-I Water Cooled Video Card $669.99 (after rebate)

Processor: Intel Pentium D 950 3.4GHZ LGA775 2X2MB 800FSB Processor Retail Box $410.93

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.9MS Hard Drive 3 Year MFR Warranty $106.84

DVD Drive:
BenQ DQ60 DVD+R 16X8X16 DVD-R 16X6X16 DL 8X/4X DVD-RAM IDE Writer $55.15

Monitor:
Viewsonic VP2330WB 23IN LCD Monitor Black Widescreen 1920X1200 0.258MM 8MS 800:1 VGA DVI-I HDCP $1,226.40

She has not yet selected a case/psu, mouse, keyboard, soundcard, etc. Dunno why, but anyways, she is upgrading from this:

Machine Model: PowerBook G4 15"
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.7.1f1
Serial Number: V73409ACNRW

Quite an upgrade. The main concern she has, is whether or not to spend this much money for something she kinda doesnt know about. Her brother is going to build it for her, and basically picked all the parts. She is paying for the whole thing, and kinda likes the idea that if its top of the line, wont have to be upgraded for a while. My question is, is there anything on that list could be downgraded to something cheaper that is also of same/better [performance? I doubt she will be using all the features on these things. Anyways, thats about it. Thanks.

brian
 
What exactly will she be doing with it? Depending on that, there's quite a bit to be saved.
 
What concerns me the most is the monitor. $1200 is a LOT of money to spend on a monitor. Not only can you get similar monitors for much less, you can get monitors of worse quality without noticing any difference, really. Plus, even the X1900XTX alone will have problems rendering modern games at that monitor's (very high) native resolution.

Samsung makes some really good widescreen monitors now for not a whole lot of money. I would suggest the Samsung 215TW, personally. It's about $500 USD... don't know how much it would be Canadian.

It would also be worth it to hear what she's going to be using this computer for - if she's going to be doing some hardcore gaming, then the X1900XTX will be the way to go. But otherwise, an X1800XT or even an X1600XT would probably be more than fine.

As for the sound card, I'd say skip it - the onboard audio on the Asus motherboard will be more than sufficient and will put out some very high quality sound (Asus mobos are good about this).
 
yea seriously...what's she going to be doing on that machine? I mean I guess if her powerbook is obsolete she's doing more than playing mahjong...maybe photoshop and such? It just seems like her brother went to newegg and selected the most expensive things that were compatible and said tada...

i think what stares out at me is the monitor first and foremost. She'd probably be equally happy with a 24 or maybe even 20 inch dell widescreen. She had a mac so I doubt she's a big gamer.

Maybe if the girl's loaded and really has an infinite budget I'd say "consider" the setup, but it looks like, more than anything,, her brother didnt do any research whatsoever.

Why does she need PC-6400? Assuming she's photoshopping, if she's gonna spend that much on ram why not get 4 gigs instead of 2 for the same price? Just seems a bit excessive, especially not knowing her intentions for the comp.

EDIT: Just saw it's canadian dollars and too lazy to convert
 
things she will probably be doing with the system is: video games (World of Warcraft, and prolly other graphic intensive games), Photoshop, Illustrator, surfing web, and she wants to be able to run mutiple programs at once like a game, photoshop, movie, w/e, at the same time. Basically, she wants to be able to mutli task, hence the large montior. Shes considering getting two smaller ones and dual monitoring, but she said the bigger monitor might be closer to having dual monitors. Also, she's planning to buy this stuff within the next few weeks, or sooner. Anyways, thanks.

brian
 
For that? Stupidly overpriced setup. She'd be fine with a X2/165, midrange card (7600 is <$150 now, I think) and 2x1GB kit from the egg, running on a A8N32 or similar. As for the monitor...check [H]otdeals often and grab the 2004FPW or similar for ~$500 IIRC using some mad coupon-age. That'll chop the price down a lot.

Dual-cores will cover the multi-tasking, 2GB of RAM is awesome for games + Adobe apps, 7600 is a very good midrange card (I guess you could shoot for the 7900/X1900 if you want to run at the native LCD res with eyecandy and such) for games, and should own WoW easily.
 
any other advice would be greatful. she just notified me that, the main reason she might go for this setup at this price is the longevity of the system....it might last her a SUPER LONG time, that is if she maintains it at least.
 
toenexx said:
any other advice would be greatful. she just notified me that, the main reason she might go for this setup at this price is the longevity of the system....it might last her a SUPER LONG time, that is if she maintains it at least.
Click to expand...
You know, if you keep using the same old apps, it'll never go obsolete. ;)
 
toenexx said:
any other advice would be greatful. she just notified me that, the main reason she might go for this setup at this price is the longevity of the system....it might last her a SUPER LONG time, that is if she maintains it at least.
Click to expand...
CPU/RAM is what'll make a system last for tasks other than gaming. My P4 3.2C still handles everything almost two and a half years after I got it. I see no problems in the near future 'cept for some bloaty-ass games. (*cough* Battlefield 2142 *cough*). Photoshop/Productivity apps thrive on CPU/RAM/HDD etc.
 
if she wants longevity she'd be far better off buying cheaper products and sticking to an upgrade cycle...I can understand wanting to futureproof your computer, but you really need to decide if you need all of that. And what other "graphic intensive" games? WoW is by no means graphic intensive, and unless she intends to be playing oblivion with max settings the setup just seems excessive. In my opinion it'd make more sense to downgrade some hardware (save money) and then upgrade as necessary. When she upgrades she can sell the old stuff and recoup some money. Sure, it's a bit more work, but it's definitely a better and more cost effective way to future proof. I'm not a big fan of buying "the best" because it often comes at a premium that depreciates rapidly.
 
The reason why that monitor is $1200 is partially because of how it accepts HDCP-enabled HDMI inputs. If she doesn't understand what that means, she can get a similar monitor for probably about three to four hundreds less.
 
1) Does she still live at home? i.e. with her brother?
2) Is her brother a big gamer? What kind of computer does he have?

Maybe that will help explain his thinking... ;)
 
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