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Making a dream PC for cheap (as possible) - help anyone?

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wreckedcarzz:
wtf. are you talking about "frame rate hit"? O_o. Deliberately getting a single-core CPU is outright stupid, unless you're very very short on cash. And even if you don't run threaded software, well, dualcore makes your whole experience sooooo much smoother. Btw, QuadCores are quite affordable now, Q6600 very cheap (and overclockable), and the Q9450 being mad power right out of the box, but still reasonably priced.

Your motherboard is guaranteed to be LGA775, and if it was purchased relatively recently, it should work just fine with a core2 CPU.

Oh, and finally: Pentium-D consumes more power and is slower per megahertz than the core2 CPUs.

-f0dder (January 18, 2008, 04:52 PM)
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When I compare my dad's HP PC (is is about even, I have a couple better parts (sound and power supply) versus his dual core and slightly better (but not HD) graphics card, his always loses. Boot time, frame rate in games, program launching... it didn't exactly impress me.

I have been looking at quadcore CPUs but they are still out of any price range for anyone in my family atm (dad is in retired and now back in college and mom is now the primary source of income @ $~40k a year - down from about $120k a year - major change in lifestyle).

And yes, I am aware of the power consumption thing, but it doesn't bug me. A few bucks more a month (tops) isn't going to change much.

It's not even a Pentium D, it's a Celeron D. But I thought the D stood for Dual Core?
-Deozaan (January 18, 2008, 05:27 PM)
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My mistake on the Pentium thing. But no, I thought the same thing a year or so ago but I guess they just decided to throw a D in for its name. I checked- its single core.

Why do you want/need so many USB ports? And why do you want to use up every slot on your motherboard? I know it's fun to upgrade computers, but is it really necessary to have something plugged into everywhere?
-Deozaan (January 18, 2008, 05:27 PM)
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I ran out of USB ports. Litterally. I used every last one. Including the 2 on my keyboard! Hence the need for a USB card. I now have 5 total ports left, opposed to none. :) And for the PCI slots, I only had a PCIe 16x (GPU), a PCIe 1x (now my USB hub), and 2 PCI ports (sound card, TV tuner). I use my PC for everything now- I only leave it to sleep, eat, go to the bathroom and school. I can do just about everything sitting here.

Your reasons aside, when I build a new computer I focus on CPU, RAM, GPU, and HDDs. Those are the areas you want to spend the most money because most everything else (IMO) doesn't make much of a difference for the longevity of the system. And naturally with all those USB ports in use you'll need a good Power Supply and naturally a good motherboard to handle the high end GPU and CPU. But my point is that I focus on 3-4 things I want and then determine the rest of the stuff I need to be able to handle those 3-4 things.
-Deozaan (January 18, 2008, 05:27 PM)
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I look only at a CPU when I buy a PC. I upgrade everything else afterwards. The only reason I went single core was simply because I don't want to go multicore yet. I don't see the point. (And I am one of those people that still compares GHz speeds, regardless of CPU type/cache/size etc)

Deozaan:
Well I thought the letters meant something. For instance, the Pentium/Celeron M stands for mobile (laptops) and I was under the impression that Pentium/Celeron D stood for Dual core. But I seem to have been mistaken.

If it doesn't stand for Dual core, what does it stand for? Why not just go with Pentium/Celeron 5? Was it a conscious effort to fool people into thinking the D was for Dual Core?

Ooh I just thought of one: D is for Desktop. M is for Mobile.

wreckedcarzz:
Maybe D = Desktop...
My laptop has a Pentium M in it so that could be the reason...
hmm :tellme: :huh: :-\

f0dder:
I think they went for "Pentium D" because it sounds cooler than Pentium 4? Dunno :P

Wrecked, game FPS is mostly tied to graphics card, and program launch speed to harddrive (and possibly running antivirus apps)... so it's not smart to judge CPU based on comparing your pc to your dads on those terms. Do yourself a favour and get a core2duo, even the low-end models are likely to beat the crap out of your celeron d :)

Deozaan:
I look only at a CPU when I buy a PC. I upgrade everything else afterwards. The only reason I went single core was simply because I don't want to go multicore yet. I don't see the point. (And I am one of those people that still compares GHz speeds, regardless of CPU type/cache/size etc)
-wreckedcarzz (January 18, 2008, 05:42 PM)
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I think your method of buying a PC is flawed, and that's why you end up spending so much later in upgrades. I focus on GPU and CPU foremost, with the knowledge that I can upgrade RAM, HDD size/speed, and everything else later.

As for choosing your CPU, f0dder says it well:

Wrecked, game FPS is mostly tied to graphics card, and program launch speed to harddrive (and possibly running antivirus apps)... so it's not smart to judge CPU based on comparing your pc to your dads on those terms. Do yourself a favour and get a core2duo, even the low-end models are likely to beat the crap out of your celeron d :)
-f0dder (January 18, 2008, 05:47 PM)
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But I feel I should also add that it's not wise to choose CPU by Ghz alone anymore. Think about it. If you have 2 cores (effectively saying 2 CPUs) at 2.4Ghz or just one core at 2.6Ghz, which one will show the best performance? To put it into a more traditional math word problem: One person working at 5 units a second is not as good as two people working at 4 units a second. The result is, in the same amount of time 5 units a second vs. 8 units per second.

EDIT: as f0dder explained after I posted this, it isn't a perfect analogy but I think it gets the point across.

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