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Official "I need a new PC!!" 2009 Edition
- Thread starter VictimOfGrief
- Start date
My brother bought this a few months back and Im curious as to how upgradable it is. Hes kinda getting the itch to play some games on it but is reluctant because he read some stuff about the graphics card and how it isnt the greatest.
Hows everything else? If he was to swap out the HD4350 for something better, would everything else be able to keep up? Any recommendations?
HP Pavilion p6120t customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual-Core processor E5400 [2.7GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB]
3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]
750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Wireless-G LAN card
2 USB, front audio ports
Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports
No speakers
HP wireless keyboard and HP wireless optical mouse
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
No additional security software
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Hows everything else? If he was to swap out the HD4350 for something better, would everything else be able to keep up? Any recommendations?
HP Pavilion p6120t customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual-Core processor E5400 [2.7GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB]
3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM [2 DIMMs]
750GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
512MB ATI Radeon HD 4350 [DVI, HDMI, VGA adapter]
LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Wireless-G LAN card
2 USB, front audio ports
Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports
No speakers
HP wireless keyboard and HP wireless optical mouse
Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
No additional security software
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Okay, I think I'm just about ready to pull the trigger, just a last sanity-check before I go for it:
Cases: SILVERSTONE PS02 ATX PC CASE...
Powersupply: AKASA 550W POWER SUPPLY...
Intel - Socket 1156: ASUS P7P55D-LE ATX MOTHERBOARD...
CPU - Intel: INTEL CORE i5-750 QUAD CORE CPU - OVERCLOCKED @ 4Ghz...
CPU Cooler: COOLERMASTER HYPER 212+ CPU COOLER...
PC Memory: G-SKILL 4GB KIT DDR3 - 1600Mhz PC MEMORY...
Hard Drive - Desktop: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Disk Drive...
Card Readers: DYNAMODE 3.5" MULTI CARD READER...
Optical Drives: DVD REWRITER...
Graphics Card: RADEON 5850 - 1GB GRAPHICS CARD...
Soundcards: ONBOARD SOUNDCARD...
+ Win 7 Home Premium 64bit
£926 inc VAT
Any aspect of it I should reconsider? It's the Warbird system from Yoyotech mentioned a few pages back with a few tweaks for more hard disk space and storage options. I'm most nervous about the PSU, but that's the one they included by default so I assume it's not too bad, although I've not had great experiences with some AKASA stuff in the past.
Cases: SILVERSTONE PS02 ATX PC CASE...
Powersupply: AKASA 550W POWER SUPPLY...
Intel - Socket 1156: ASUS P7P55D-LE ATX MOTHERBOARD...
CPU - Intel: INTEL CORE i5-750 QUAD CORE CPU - OVERCLOCKED @ 4Ghz...
CPU Cooler: COOLERMASTER HYPER 212+ CPU COOLER...
PC Memory: G-SKILL 4GB KIT DDR3 - 1600Mhz PC MEMORY...
Hard Drive - Desktop: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Disk Drive...
Card Readers: DYNAMODE 3.5" MULTI CARD READER...
Optical Drives: DVD REWRITER...
Graphics Card: RADEON 5850 - 1GB GRAPHICS CARD...
Soundcards: ONBOARD SOUNDCARD...
+ Win 7 Home Premium 64bit
£926 inc VAT
Any aspect of it I should reconsider? It's the Warbird system from Yoyotech mentioned a few pages back with a few tweaks for more hard disk space and storage options. I'm most nervous about the PSU, but that's the one they included by default so I assume it's not too bad, although I've not had great experiences with some AKASA stuff in the past.
I'm getting near a final configuration... What do you think of this laptop?
Dell Studio 15
PROCESSOR
Its 13 000 SEK includint VAT. Most companies uses a 1 USD = 10 SEK exchange ratio, so it would probably be ~$1300.
edit: That's including a writer and a carrying case as well.
Dell Studio 15
PROCESSOR
Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
MEMORY 6144MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [1x4096 + 1x2048]
HDD 500 GB (5 400 v/min) SATA-hårddisk
GRAPHICS CARD512 MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570-grafikkort
DISPLAY 15.6in Widescreen Full High Definition (1920x1080) WLED with TrueLife
BATTERY 9-cells primary Li-Ion battery, 85 wh
OS Äkta Windows® 7 Professional 64 Bit
WIRELESS CONNECTION Intel WiFi Link 5100-minicard (half sized) (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2)
OPTICAL DRIVES Fixed Internal DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
Its 13 000 SEK includint VAT. Most companies uses a 1 USD = 10 SEK exchange ratio, so it would probably be ~$1300.
edit: That's including a writer and a carrying case as well.
brain_stew
Member
Salaadin said:
The PSU probably isn't the greatest so he has to be careful not to go overboard on the GPU. I'd recommend a 5750, seriously low power draw, quite compact, full DX11 support and native HDMI output w/ triple monitor support.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102859
It'll make a very capable gaming rig, so long as he sticks to 1680x1050 or below.
brain_stew
Member
Leezard said:
Well I hope you don't plan to do any gaming on it as the 4570 is a 80 stream processor POS. Seems insanely overpriced to me.
lowlylowlycook
Member
So what coolers do people recommend for socket 1156? I'm mainly just looking for something cheap for a moderate overclock and/or being a bit quieter than stock.
Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.brain_stew said:
The price is, well, it's always overpriced here in Sweden compared to the US; I'll see if I do can find it at a better price though. Do you know any notebook with same/better specs at around the same price? Hopefully available in Sweden.
Minsc
Gold Member
brain_stew said:
Well it should be good for very light gaming, like Telltale, and basically anything a 9400M would do. According to this, over half the games or playable on medium or high settings, the other half low or not playable. It's way better than a 9400M, which to my surprise you've said some kind words about before.
If he's looking for a gaming laptop, he should be getting a 260M or something in that range, definitely. The HD 4330 is even worse, which is what he had before, so it's a step in the right direction, even if it is a small one.
PflargBlarg
Member
lowlylowlycook said:
mclem said:
You have an answer right there. Unless you wanna go crazy and get Megahalems but that probably isn't necessary.
mclem has the same CPU and motherboard as me and I was actually almost able to overclock to 4 GHz on stock cooling (had to back it off to about 3.66 because of overheating
) And I'm going to be getting the same cooler that he has listed there.EDIT: I guess I should point out that I have a Coolermaster HAF 932 case which comes with 4 fans, 3 of which are 240 mm. It's also an eATX sized case so there's a ton of room in there for air movement, going by that my results may not be very common. Right now at the aforementioned overclock speed, my i5 idles at just above room temperature and I think it got up to 70 running Prime 95 (and 100% usage on all cores is never going to happen normally).
brain_stew
Member
Minsc said:
The difference is that the 9400m is usually found in £400/$600/500 Euro machines, not $1000+ rigs. Most see a dedicated card with high numbers like that and expect something halfway decent but its really not, the step to even a 4650 is huge.
Well its not exactly the greatest gaming machine in the world but Zepto make some nice little machines:
http://se.zepto.com/Shop/Config.aspx?configurationid=1055¬ebookid=1474
Should be a good 2x as fast in games but is nearly 5000SEK less. The slower processor and 4GB RAM won't really make much difference at all but there is a 2000SEK processor upgrade to bring it upto spec with that Dell.
I don't really know of any Swedish etailers so can't help you with any specific recommendations beyond that but look for something with at least a Nvidia GT 130m / 9600m or ATI 4650 if you can. I'd recommend asking for recommendations over at www.notebookreview.com but either way I'd say that Zepto machine is a much better buy than the Dell imo.
Hm, it does get a bit more expensive than the Dell, as you said. I'll have to consider it. Considering I'm going to be using it for 4-5 years its not that much actually, but it is 2-3k SEK higher if brought to the same specs (not counting the graphics card, there was a couple of things I considered to order with the Dell one, it was actually about 11k SEK without it). I still have to get a printer though. Now I'll have to look for the battery lives of both laptops. I'll take a look at the site you linked as well.brain_stew said:
Minsc
Gold Member
brain_stew said:
I agree, I never meant it to come across as a solution for a gaming laptop, just an improvement, which I chimed in because I had just purchased a Studio 15 myself. The whole price/performance is horrible for a gamer, even for laptop. This is the reason apple laptops really annoy me (holy crap, $2000 and you get that shitty GPU?) But I didn't get the Studio 15 for gaming, though the few games I do through at it, it will handle no problem. The desktop is for gaming.
He's probably better off just sticking with the cheapest inspiron he can buy, and building a desktop with the difference, it'd be worlds better than anything you could buy in a laptop even for triple the price.
Leezard said:
You're going to be hard pressed to find better battery life than the Dells, the Studio 15 gets ~4.5 hours (Dell claims 6 hours according to some reviews) with an upgraded battery (I think a VAIO gets even better battery life, but at a higher cost). Typical gaming laptops get ~1.5-2 hours, so once you start finding the laptops with better gaming performance, expect to sacrifice weight and battery time.
Wormdundee said:You have an answer right there. Unless you wanna go crazy and get Megahalems but that probably isn't necessary.
mclem has the same CPU and motherboard as me and I was actually almost able to overclock to 4 GHz on stock cooling (had to back it off to about 3.66 because of overheating
I should point out that I don't have that PC yet, but I was asking for opinions on if it sounds like a worthwhile spec, and I guess from this response it really is!
brain_stew
Member
Leezard said:
Huh, what upgrades are you making?
The stock config really is more than sufficient, save perhaps from a screen upgrade, but then I'd just recommend buying an external 1080p monitor for any serious work, 1080p on a 15" screen is more than a little ridiculous.
An upgrade from 4GB-6GB RAM and a tiny CPU bump really aren't going to produce a noticeable difference. Heh, laptops have such terribly priced upgrades, so damn restrictive.
brain_stew
Member
Minsc said:
Well that Zepto does have a hybrid SLI mode so it will use the integrated chip when idling, so battery life should still be good with the 9 cell. I dunno, I'm trying to help here but I really don't know enough to be of any great use, notebookreview.com has helped me out in the past, its a much better place to ask.
Minsc
Gold Member
brain_stew said:
Shouldn't that be irrelevant with window's 7 dpi scaling? You can work at 1080p and simply have all the text etc scaled. I ask because usually the 1080p upgraded displays also come with better brightness/contrast/quality as well, for instance with dell, as you upgrade your screen resolution you also get brighter/better screens as well.
brain_stew said:
Screen, OS, Battery, HDD, CPU and it gets to around 14000 SEK. :/
The Studio 15 was about 8000 SEK before I added those things as well (except the cpu, which was included), so the insanely expensive part is most likely due to me.
Minsc said:
brain_stew said:
I see. Battery life is very important for me. As of now, I am more inclined to buy the Studio 15 and get a desktop in the future for the future games I may want. I don't know how much gaming I will be able to do once I'm in engineering. :lol
I'll continue looking tomorrow, gotta go to sleep now.
Thanks a lot for the help, both of you.
Azure Dream
Member
Sigh. :lol To do a quick summary, I have this PC, with a Radeon X300, another gig of memory and two more hard drives. I picked up this card to try to make my gaming a little more fun. It didn't work, I figured it was the power supply was too weak. I bothered this thread again, MoFuzz recommended this power supply, and I just got it in the mail today.
It turned out I had two issues to deal with: 1. I didn't specify the dimensions, and the way they fit the original supply in to lock it down was clever, but meant there was no real way to secure this new power supply, other than the fact that it was wider and shorter than my old one. No way for MoFuzz to know that, I didn't even think there'd be an issue like that. It was really tight against my video card inserted (although I could test it without it being inserted, I did both), and the mounting bracket I could've taken off to make room would've had to have been cut, because the case makers drilled out the screw grooves on the screws holding it there.
The unfortunate number 2 was that after it was hooked up, my card still wasn't outputting video, the same way as before. I don't understand why, but I tried removing and reinserting it, and there's no extra plugs for power on the card that I could find. So unless anyone has any idea left on why this is happening (bad card, PCi Express slot's not a current enough version?), I'm stuck. GAF was right, I was a fool to hope that a computer barely 4 or 5 years old could have any hope of being modestly upgraded.
So I'm faced with a quandry here: try to return the power supply and video card, which will probably get me my money back (but the sticker's damaged on the side of the power supply from sliding against a rough post edge), or an alternative. At some point my sister is going to purchase a new PC, her old one is dying. Now she's not a huge gamer like me, the most graphic intensive stuff she does is Photoshop, and some video editing, to my knowledge. So with that in mind, is this Power Supply and Video Card a good start toward building her a Windows 7-capable PC? Or should I be buying a drastically different set of parts for that?
It turned out I had two issues to deal with: 1. I didn't specify the dimensions, and the way they fit the original supply in to lock it down was clever, but meant there was no real way to secure this new power supply, other than the fact that it was wider and shorter than my old one. No way for MoFuzz to know that, I didn't even think there'd be an issue like that. It was really tight against my video card inserted (although I could test it without it being inserted, I did both), and the mounting bracket I could've taken off to make room would've had to have been cut, because the case makers drilled out the screw grooves on the screws holding it there.
The unfortunate number 2 was that after it was hooked up, my card still wasn't outputting video, the same way as before. I don't understand why, but I tried removing and reinserting it, and there's no extra plugs for power on the card that I could find. So unless anyone has any idea left on why this is happening (bad card, PCi Express slot's not a current enough version?), I'm stuck. GAF was right, I was a fool to hope that a computer barely 4 or 5 years old could have any hope of being modestly upgraded.
So I'm faced with a quandry here: try to return the power supply and video card, which will probably get me my money back (but the sticker's damaged on the side of the power supply from sliding against a rough post edge), or an alternative. At some point my sister is going to purchase a new PC, her old one is dying. Now she's not a huge gamer like me, the most graphic intensive stuff she does is Photoshop, and some video editing, to my knowledge. So with that in mind, is this Power Supply and Video Card a good start toward building her a Windows 7-capable PC? Or should I be buying a drastically different set of parts for that?
Leezard said:
As a guy from Denmark, I think this is insanely overpriced. But then again, I consider gaming laptops to be paradoxical in nature. For 13.000 SEK, you could get an insanely good gaming PC. Like:
- AMD PHENOM II 955 x4 (4x3.2ghz) 8MB CACHE (BLACK EDITION) (AM3)
- GIGABYTE KVALITETS BUNDKORT 790XT-UD4P (AM3 & DDR3)
- 2stk HD5850 1GB DDR5 GRAFIKKORT (XFX) CROSSFIRE
- 1000GB HDD, 7200RPM (SAMSUNG) (32MB CACHE)
- 8GB DDR3 1333MHZ KINGSTON RAM "DUAL CHANNEL"
- 24x SATA +/- OG DVD-RAM DUALLAYER DVDBRÆNDER (SONY)
- 850W GAMER STRØMFORS, FRA CORSAIR TX850 (80PLUS GODKENDT)
Archie said:I checked my email after a job interview and got a message from Newegg saying that the 5850s were in stock, but when I checked the website they were already sold out. Is ATI hand crafting them one by one or something?
The same happened to me a lot. I just preordered on amazon and they shipped one out to me within a week of the order even though the actual site still had them listed as being in stock in 4-6 weeks.
MoFuzz
Member
Kulock said:
Sorry to hear you are still having issues!
I definitely do not see any power connectors for the Asus video card based on the pics from Newegg. Are you saying that if you plug in your old Radeon X300, you get picture, but with the 4670, you don't?
The Sony listing does not seem to show the motherboard specs. The thing with alot of these pre-built towers is that it is hard to determine compatibility when you are trying to upgrade, since they aren't specific on what parts they are using. It may even be semi-propietary stuff that only plays nice with parts that Sony sells directly. My aunt had an eMachines tower a couple of years ago that was like this. Couldn't even do a fresh install of Windows on it either.
I am unsure of Newegg's return policy. Do they typically charge a re-stocking fee for refund once items have been opened? Also, what resolution will you be gaming/running at? If it is fairly low, you could just keep the Asus card and Antec PSU for a new build.
Azure Dream
Member
MoFuzz said:
Correct. It's been like that both before and after the new power supply. I also booted up with the X300 first when I installed the new supply, made sure that worked, before powering down and putting the 4670 in again.
That's possible, but they advertised it as upgradable, and never really pushed Sony parts on me.
If it helps, the motherboard model is PTGD-VX. I'm having trouble finding the specs myself, but I found this post interesting, my Catalyst Control Panel says something similar it looks like.
You're right, a 15% restocking fee, and of course postage. Still, that's not awful. Truthfully, I originally planned to just buy an expensive card, plunk it in my PC, and have it work, this was sort of a compromise until I could afford a nicer rig of my own once I was schooled on how old my PC was. So it's probably not the best card for me for the long term.
Romance Pie
Member
I've been mainly working with intel systems, so my AMD knowledge has gone down ever since I had my Athlon :<
My flatmate has this motherboard http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2287 with a 5200+, and was wondering what phenom II cpu he can throw in it for a boost?
Can a AM3 cpu go in it? or do I have to look for a AM2+ phenom?
My flatmate has this motherboard http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Motherboard/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2287 with a 5200+, and was wondering what phenom II cpu he can throw in it for a boost?
Can a AM3 cpu go in it? or do I have to look for a AM2+ phenom?
After another xp reinstall , my 2003 athlon really needs replacing. I will probably be buying a laptop as most of my gaming is done on the 360 and PS3. I still want something to be able to play some games even tough it would be more for work/websurfing/music playing.
I was looking at a DELL studio 17 T6600 core2 with an ATI 4650 for about a 1000$CDN+tax-epp of 7% any comment. With the review I saw on the card It seems I would be able to play newer game on a low setting at 1024*768. Anyone here has this kind of config
I was looking at a DELL studio 17 T6600 core2 with an ATI 4650 for about a 1000$CDN+tax-epp of 7% any comment. With the review I saw on the card It seems I would be able to play newer game on a low setting at 1024*768. Anyone here has this kind of config
Romance Pie
Member
Rufus said:
Yes I had a look at that, but I had a bit of doubt in my mind I couldn't kill myself and just wanted some outside advice for reassurance.
Plus the Phenom II X4 810 wasn't on the list and wondered if Gigabyte have not updated this list yet.
Cheers!
Right, time for me to ask for some help. I'd like to upgrade my graphics card but don't know where to start. I haven't followed the hardware world the last 2 years so... My current PC is a E6550,2GB RAM with a 8600GT. Yeah, already garbage ready. I'm wondering, if I buy a new graphics card, would that only be enough to run for instance Dragon Age? I built my PC as silent as possible with help of http://forums.silentpcreview.com/ so ultimately I'm looking for a budget passively-cooled card. Can be 2slot, don't care. Any help?
Edit: a 5850 fits in the budget but that card looks like a monster! Does it need an external power supply? (Yeah I've been living under a rock)
Edit: a 5850 fits in the budget but that card looks like a monster! Does it need an external power supply? (Yeah I've been living under a rock)
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
Jefklak said:
The 5850 takes 2 six pin connections from your power supply.
Maybe try a silent ATI 4850 it takes one 6 pin connection from your powersupply. I would just make sure you have great case cooling. They maybe hard to find though.
My 5850 can get a little loud at times. I really don't mind it so much though as it is a fantastic card.
Cool, thanks, I found a relatively cheap 4850 with amazing passive performance:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...gabyte-radeon-hd-4850-1gb-passive-review.html
120. Great!
Edit: I have a 380W SKU, will this do? It's from the default Antec NSK2400 case.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...gabyte-radeon-hd-4850-1gb-passive-review.html
120. Great!
Edit: I have a 380W SKU, will this do? It's from the default Antec NSK2400 case.
DietRob
i've been begging for over 5 years.
Jefklak said:
Here is a power supply calculator of sorts. It allows you to enter the components in your system and gives you a rough guesstimate of how many watts you will need.
http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/
Porkepik said:
Btw has anyone any other idea of a laptop that could be suited to me in the same price range?
Also after some search I also found info about the ASUS G51vx-rx05 which seems even a better fit at around the same price, problem is.... It does not seem to be available in canada except refurbished by tigerdirec(which I would not buy , i want at least a standard warranty). Anyone knows a place in canada that sells these? Model seems recent so as I'm not in a big hurry(was planning to buy jsut after christmas) maybe these will climb up north. Best buy is selling them in the US.
EDIT: I guess I will have to make a small trip to the US about an hour from montreal to plattsburg. Bestbuy does have them in stock there. Asus warranty on notebook seems to be international and not country specific
lowlylowlycook
Member
What do people think about this HD+case combo vs this one?
I think I'd be sold on the coolermaster but it doesn't have free shipping. Both should have room for a 5850, right?
I think I'd be sold on the coolermaster but it doesn't have free shipping. Both should have room for a 5850, right?
BloodySinner
Banned
lowlylowlycook said:
I'd totally go with the Cooler Master one.
Well, judging by the fact that none of the Phenom IIs on the list are supported, I would think it safe to assume that the others aren't supported either. I could be wrong, of course, but only the 2.0 version of the board even mentions the Phenom II X4 810 (as supported), so...Romance Pie said:
brain_stew
Member
Romance Pie said:
The CPU support list is listed right on the link you gave:
http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2287#anchor_os
Just be sure to upgrade to the latest BIOS before upgrading, then choose a CPU listed there and you're good to go.
brain_stew
Member
Porkepik said:
Make sure its the DDR3 version.
brain_stew
Member
Jefklak said:
Hardly, the E6600 is still a great CPU, just needs a little OC.
Clock it to 3ghz+, add another couple of gigs of RAM and get another GPU and you're sorted. You're going to have to give up the passively cooled requirement if you want a decent GPU.
Jefklak said:
That PSU is fine for a 4850, its probably an Earthwatts model, right?
The 4770, 5770 and 5750 all have a significantly lower power draw than the 4850 and all offer better performance, so it might be worth you finding a custom version of one of those (you may have to wait a little) or fitting a aftermarket cooler. If an Accelero S1 fits any of those cards, its a good choice.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced pc headset for me?
brain_stew
Member
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
Just get a cheap clip on mic (Zalman make a decent one but any off Ebay are usually fine) and use a set of proper headphones.
darkpaladinmfc
Member
Can someone help me a build a computer for £300 using UK sites (No monitor, OS, keyboard, mouse, or speakers needed). I've had a look at the 'GAF'S ultimate $500/£400/$650 CAD budget gaming rigs' thread but £400 is a tad high and I'm not sure what to change. Thanks in advance.
brain_stew
Member
darkpaladinmfc said:
What's it for?
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
brain_stew said:
Somewhat related:
What would you recommend, a 5770 or a 4890?
darkpaladinmfc
Member
Low-end gaming. It's for my brother - he mainly wants to play SC2 and L4D2 at medium settings with a decent framerate. His current computer sometimes goes to 1 FPS during WoW :lol .brain_stew said: