The Elders' House of Pain
Public Forum => Pc Help/Tweak Page => Topic started by: crazydog on October 26, 2010, 04:43:11 PM
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So, I was doing some laptop shopping with Dell's new XPS line that they just reintroduced, and I was approved for a dell preferred account, which is no interest for 18 months on a new system.
I decided that since Dell approved me, I'd try newegg, and they also approved me for the preferred account, with twice the limit Dell offered.
So aside from the 'yay my credit history is existent', I have a choice here: Should I buy a new laptop, upgrade my desktop, or just do neither?
My current laptop is an XPS M1530 whose motherboard died a few months ago, and I replaced it. I'm sure you're aware that these laptops are not meant to be taken apart, so now it's not in such great shape, although it still runs.
My desktop is a core2duo 3.00 @ 3.30 with 6GB of 800 MHz DDR2 RAM.
I can get a new XPS 15 for ~$1300 with all the bells and whistles I want.
I can build an i5 system (new mobo/cpu/hsf/ram) with 6GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM for ~$650.
If anyone wants to buy my current mobo/cpu/hsf/ram which I posted here(http://theelders.net/forum/index.php?topic=8374.0), that'll greatly entice me to choose this option. :P
Suggestions? Comments? Ideas?
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One of my friends just got one of those new XPS systems and I must say it's pretty sweet. I think I'm gonna ditch my desktop soon for one of them. I played TF2 on it and ran amazingly well. I also tried Civ V and Empire: Total War on it and it ran both smooth with (nearly) everything jacked up.
I'm sort of in a position where I want to continue PC gaming I just don't want to to take up so much space. The new Dell's play the games I want them too and they're about the sexiest PC laptops on the market. I say you get one.
Edit: Oops, it would appear that they have new NEW XPS laptops. My friends is a Studio XPS 16, but hell even that kicks ass. These new ones look amazing.
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For the same specs, you'll spend a lot more money on a laptop - generally almost twice as much as a desktop. So it comes down to whether the portability is worth the extra $500-700 over a desktop. Personally, I like having an awesome monitor and just replacing the tower every so often. Then again, I build computers that still blaze after 4-5 years.
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For the same specs, you'll spend a lot more money on a laptop - generally almost twice as much as a desktop. So it comes down to whether the portability is worth the extra $500-700 over a desktop. Personally, I like having an awesome monitor and just replacing the tower every so often. Then again, I build computers that still blaze after 4-5 years.
The thing is I already have both. They both run well, but the laptop is starting to show its age, and the real reason I'd be getting a new one is so I can give this one to my dad, since his 6 or 7 year old laptop isn't doing so well anymore.
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You COULD be the good son and give him the new one. :P
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You COULD be the good son and give him the new one. :P
Bah. He doesn't need a gaming PC. :P If I were to do that I'd get him a lower end one. The most intensive thing he does is watch HD videos on YouTube.
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If you plan to keep gaming, I recommend the desktop option since you can easily keep upgrading the components as they show their age: much cheaper and longer lasting than laptop.
On the other hand, get a laptop so that you can no longer play games after a couple of years and then use your newfound time productively :)
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Buy your dad a new low end laptop (for Christmas) and rebuild your desktop.
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Buy your dad a new low end laptop (for Christmas) and rebuild your desktop.
Now there's an idea. :P But since my family is Jewish, and my parent's aren't very observant anymore, I think I'll wait til' his birthday in february.
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Luggage ftw.
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Here's the build I'm looking at. Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115067
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231179
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131621
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118046
My thoughts:
I went with the i5 over the i7 because I've heard that hyperthreading can in fact hurt performance on various games, and the increase it gives is on some games is so negligible, it's not worth it.
I want to stick with 6GB of RAM, which is why I'm doing the 2x2GB and 2x1GB, which is the same configuration I'm running now. I'd do 6x1GB but the selection on motherboards with 6 slots is too limited. I don't want to do 3x2GB because then I can't dual channel.
I was thinking about a Gigabyte motherboard, but I've heard so many bad things about the newer ones. Most often, it'll work for a while, and then it'll just get stuck in a reboot loop, and it's happened to way too many people for me to be comfortable with. The ASUS motherboard also provides me the ability to use my remaining 2 ATA hard drives that I'm not in the mood to replace yet.
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Even though I'm an AMD guy (I feel they're a much better value), the i5 is a great processor. You won't be unhappy with is. Hyperthreading has improved, but is still sketchy as you mentioned.
I definitely support the ASUS route. I think I've built 9 boxes in the last 10 years and all but one of them had ASUS boards. Not a single complaint... the other was an MSI and it sucked. That is a pretty expensive board though, any reason why you're going with that one? USB 3.0 probably?
The only suggestion I have is to spend the extra $26 and go with 8 GB RAM. I'd normally only suggest 4, but if you're going with 6 GB, the cost for that 2x1 pack doesn't make sense compared to the 2x2.
Remaining questions:
- GPU?
- What are you doing for HDDs? Using 2 PATA drives and that's it?
- Why bother with the expensive CPU fan? Are you OC'ing or just like the noise reduction?
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Remaining questions:
- GPU?
- What are you doing for HDDs? Using 2 PATA drives and that's it?
- Why bother with the expensive CPU fan? Are you OC'ing or just like the noise reduction?
I'm only replacing the motherboard, ram, and cpu. The rest of the system is staying as it is. I have a GTX 460 already, and I have 4 hard drives, two of them being PATA, so I need a motherboard with PATA support because I don't want a new hard drive (yet). I will be overclocking, and the noise reduction is a plus.
Also, I totally was oblivious to the price of the RAM. lulz. I will go with 8.
I could go cheaper and less featureful on the mobo, but I'd rather get something a little more future proof and not have to upgrade the motherboard for another 4 or 5 years.
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Is that 460 good? I'm looking at getting one, but I gotta upgrade my power supply first. It came out of the box with 375 and my card is rated for 400 XD
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I got that card, very smooth... thought my 430Antec power supply would handle that in my system...nope. Bought a 650TX Corsair a few days later.
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Is that 460 good? I'm looking at getting one, but I gotta upgrade my power supply first. It came out of the box with 375 and my card is rated for 400 XD
It's amazing. My CPU is my only throttle now, which is why I want to upgrade. I'm gonna wait until thursday to order since I'll be out of town until Monday. (I have a 650W PSU).
My offer to sell my current motherboard+its parts is still valid. :P
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:O Oh damn, I gotta go look at that
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http://theelders.net/forum/index.php?topic=8374.0
:P
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It all depends on how you're going to upgrade in the future.
If it's going to be several years before you upgrade again, you're probably going to have to get a new motherboard (again) when you upgrade because the socket will have changed. To me, future-proofing the MB doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're picking up new connection types for devices that you plan to purchase in the near future.
All my builds have been with ASUS MBs...never any problems.
I know you don't need it now, since you have an IDE header, but you can pick up a PATA to USB external enclosure for $20, but you'd need two...and for $40 you could pick up a .5 TB internal SATA drive. I don't know how big your PATA drives are, or what speed they are, but it's some food for thought if it helps you get into a motherboard that's $80 cheaper.
Switching from Intel to AMD w/o reinstalling the OS is a serious pain in the ass. So unless you're planning on installing from scratch, stick w/ Intel (since that's what you already have).
I assume you're running a 64 bit OS already?
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It all depends on how you're going to upgrade in the future.
If it's going to be several years before you upgrade again, you're probably going to have to get a new motherboard (again) when you upgrade because the socket will have changed. To me, future-proofing the MB doesn't make a lot of sense unless you're picking up new connection types for devices that you plan to purchase in the near future.
I upgraded my LGA775 processor once with my current motherboard. I'm thinking I'll eventually do the same with this one. I'm also *hoping* USB3/SATA6 becomes more prevalent before I need to get a new processor.
All my builds have been with ASUS MBs...never any problems.
Good to hear
I know you don't need it now, since you have an IDE header, but you can pick up a PATA to USB external enclosure for $20, but you'd need two...and for $40 you could pick up a .5 TB internal SATA drive. I don't know how big your PATA drives are, or what speed they are, but it's some food for thought if it helps you get into a motherboard that's $80 cheaper.
530GB total, not sure what the speeds are, but I'll take a look to see if I can legitimately offset the cost of the motherboard with a hard drive. Something tells me IDE support doesn't cost $80, but I could be wrong.
Switching from Intel to AMD w/o reinstalling the OS is a serious pain in the ass. So unless you're planning on installing from scratch, stick w/ Intel (since that's what you already have).
That's the idea
I assume you're running a 64 bit OS already?
of course! :P
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lol, yeah, 6 GB + 32 bit wouldn't make much sense there, Baltika. :P
My last build had a $70 ASUS board that was more than plenty. Part of the cost of your current choice is USB 3.0 and probably SLI (even though it's only x8 for both... odd @ that price). So it probably is a wash in the end.
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lol, yeah, 6 GB + 32 bit wouldn't make much sense there, Baltika. :P
My company chooses to ignore this.
They gave me a new laptop with 4 gig of RAM, wiped Win7 64bit and installed XP 32 bit because it's their supported corporate image.
Grrr...
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Hey, lookie what showed up.
(http://imgur.com/xnkVR.jpg)
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Looks like a sweet setup...lemme know how cool that zalman keeps your overclock!
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I hatchu crazy.
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I think I have to reseat the heatsink. When I was trying to do it the first time, a piece fell out, and I had to basically completely remove and completely reattach the system. I'm idling around 38C right now, and the paste still has to be broken in, but if it doesn't drop to around 35 at idle, I think I'm gonna redo it and hopefully get it in on the first try. THEN I'll overclock. My research shows that this thing can be OC'd ON AIR to 4.2 GHz.
Everything runs great (at least it did after I realized that I had a cable blocking my graphics card's fan, which was overheating). I really wanted to test it in GTA, but neither GTA IV or Episodes from Liberty City will launch, so I'm gonna redownload GTA IV tonight, which will (hopefully) fix it.
My only issue with the motherboard is I can't retask the audio jacks in the rear like I could with a Realtek system.
I don't really like using my front ports, especially cause the microphone jack doesn't work, and the headphone jack is picky. Because of that, I have to run an audio extension cable to the front for the headphones, while having the mic plugged in to the back.
That being said, if anyone knows how to retask an audio jack on a VIA set, let me know! If that's an impossibility, I'd have to just buy an audio splitter, which I might actually have sitting right next to me in a drawer.
Splitter works just fine. :P
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Yea those chips can hit 4GHZ easy with good air circulation in the case.
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drool
I love virgin pins
That could be box of 386 parts you pulled out of the bargain bin and I'd still be envious of you...although seeing all those SATA/PCIe connectors does make me smile too.
You have a case big enough to mount that many devices?
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drool
I love virgin pins
That could be box of 386 parts you pulled out of the bargain bin and I'd still be envious of you...although seeing all those SATA/PCIe connectors does make me smile too.
You have a case big enough to mount that many devices?
Heh. Not the sata drives. I'm already at capacity with the hard drives. I have one sitting in the 5.25 bays. I'd need to buy a few mounts.