August 4, 2010 at 9:44 am
In the next few months, I hope to replace my old Dell desktop. I've been extremely happy with it, but I'm not sure that I want to stick with a Dell next time. I'm old enough to remember when ABS was good and I bought a 486 - it was the savvy choice back then. What's the smart choice now for around $1,000? I want it to last - I don't want it to be badly outdated in 3 years.
There are related questions...
Should I go with Intel or AMD?
I want MS Office - at least the basic apps. Could I get that (legally now!) fairly cheap if I don't buy it from a major shop like Dell on the new PC?
By the way, I wanted to hold out for SSD, but maybe it is a little too early yet. Maybe a hybrid this fall that at least has some SSD tech.?
Thank you for your comments! 😛
Edit 08/12/10: OK, no comments yet, so let me put my thoughts out there...
Let's see, I think I'll stick with Dell. You get customization and good choices. HP is OK maybe, but not too crazy about their choices. Gateway, the same. Acer seems to be all right, but my overall impression is that they cut too many corners. (But Dell just had a big recall problem - hopefully a fluke though.) The other brands that are less familiar, I'm scared to try without a lot of people saying that they're good.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
August 12, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Build your own. Do the research and you can make a great machine that's exactly what you want. NewEgg is great because you can do side-by-side comparisons and view user reviews. You will be able to upgrade your machine later and not have to rebuy the machine every couple of years.
DEFINITELY make your boot drive a SSD. It makes Win 7 really snappy. I actually turn my machine off now because it boots up in less that 15 seconds.
For $600-800 you can get a screaming machine. AMD's 6 core processor is an awesome deal at around $150 the last time I checked.
August 12, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Will Summers (8/12/2010)
Build your own. Do the research and you can make a great machine that's exactly what you want. NewEgg is great because you can do side-by-side comparisons and view user reviews. You will be able to upgrade your machine later and not have to rebuy the machine every couple of years.DEFINITELY make your boot drive a SSD. It makes Win 7 really snappy. I actually turn my machine off now because it boots up in less that 15 seconds.
For $600-800 you can get a screaming machine. AMD's 6 core processor is an awesome deal at around $150 the last time I checked.
Will, that's fantastic. 😎 If I can have a SSD and save that much money, I'm willing to consider building my own. I'm also up for an AMD again. I've had one before and it was fine (except that a video card I bought once didn't help the performance much and they claimed it was because I didn't have an intel chipset).
What about software though? I'd like to have at least the basic MS Office and Windows 7. I think that will ring up about $300 just for those two. Actually, it still sounds worth it.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
August 13, 2010 at 12:58 am
Yes, you would have to budget for the software. Also bear in mind that if you build it yourself you have to be able to find and fix any issues that arise yourself--you don't have a warranty on the machine as a whole, only on the individual components (and sometimes not even then!).
August 13, 2010 at 1:07 am
I would build it myself as well unless it was a laptop.
As for warranty issues and fixing issues yourself, I think that ship has long sailed with PC manufacturers a long time ago. If there is a bug - they just re-image the machine rather than fix the bug. I would rather fix it myself and learn something along the way.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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August 13, 2010 at 1:18 am
I was thinking more of hardware issues than bugs in software--if your machine simply won't turn on in the morning then it could reasonably be PSU, motherboard, or CPU issues, and it can be hard to tell which if you don't have a spare one of the relevant items to swap in to test!
August 13, 2010 at 1:22 am
Good point. I would probably still take my chances and be careful about purchases made. You could end up with a toshiba laptop after all and be without the laptop for long periods of time (re: Steve's laptop issues about which he editorialized).
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
August 13, 2010 at 7:04 am
CirquedeSQLeil (8/13/2010)
I would build it myself as well unless it was a laptop.. . . .
learn something along the way.
Couldn't agree more on these two above points.
And to the original thread author:
1. Are you a student? If so, then you can get pretty much any software REALLY cheap.
2. I picked up a new, valid, shrinkwrapped copy of Windows Ultimate 7 64x off craigslist for $85. Not sure the region that you live in, but I'm sure there's a similar deal. I'm pretty sure I've seen the newest copy of Office for about the same price.
August 13, 2010 at 8:29 am
Will Summers (8/13/2010)
CirquedeSQLeil (8/13/2010)
I would build it myself as well unless it was a laptop.. . . .
learn something along the way.
Couldn't agree more on these two above points.
And to the original thread author:
1. Are you a student? If so, then you can get pretty much any software REALLY cheap.
2. I picked up a new, valid, shrinkwrapped copy of Windows Ultimate 7 64x off craigslist for $85. Not sure the region that you live in, but I'm sure there's a similar deal. I'm pretty sure I've seen the newest copy of Office for about the same price.
I'm not a student, but I can sure try craigslist for buying the software. Thanks for the suggestion.
I'm interested in the SSD setup - is there anything special you have to buy to make that work well? A special motherboard for it or BIOS maybe?
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
August 13, 2010 at 9:09 am
To get the most out of SSD, you have to have a newer motherboard. Pretty much any of the new ones will have an APHC mode (prob a typo on that mode, but it's close). The connection is just like a SATA drive and the drives I have are all the size of a laptop drive, so they fit just about anywhere.
It's really a pretty easy setup. You don't defrag a SSD though. You TRIM them. It requires special software from the manufacturer. I have yet to see where anyone has proved that TRIM actually speeds up the drive, so I'm not sure why you would even do it. Perhaps someone with more knowledge on SSD can help me out here.
In all the research that I've done, OCZ seems to be the fastest and best bang-for-buck manufacturer. Everytime I check for the fastest and largest drive in my price range, I end up buying OCZ.
August 13, 2010 at 9:21 am
After reading these posts, I went and did a little homework in regard to SSDs.
Personally, I love the concept of SSDs, and will very likely invest in them at some point, but I'm going to hold off until the prices come down and the technology matures a little more. But that's just me.
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August 13, 2010 at 9:32 am
I understand waiting till the price comes down, but it's totally worth buying one to use as a boot drive. Seriously, my win 7 machine boots up in less than 15 seconds, bios and everything. I picked up a high-speed 50gb SSD off NewEgg for $160ish with free shipping. In the tests I've ran it's about 15-20x times faster than my old SATA boot drive.
August 13, 2010 at 9:38 am
Ray K (8/13/2010)
After reading these posts, I went and did a little homework in regard to SSDs.Personally, I love the concept of SSDs, and will very likely invest in them at some point, but I'm going to hold off until the prices come down and the technology matures a little more. But that's just me.
Maybe this SSD is designed for laptops, but I don't know why it couldn't be used in a desktop. 128 GB for about $200.
Kingston SSDNow V Series SNV425-S2/128GB 2.5" 128GB SATA II Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Sequential Access - Read up to 200MB/s
Sequential Access - Write up to 110MB/s
MTBF 1,000,000 hours
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
August 13, 2010 at 10:23 am
It should work (SATA) you would just need to be able to mount it in the bay.
Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events
August 13, 2010 at 10:26 am
That's a good size for a SSD drive, but those speeds are a little slow for that price. I would opt for a little smaller, since it's a boot-drive only. I picked one one up that had 275/275 and was 60gb for about 160ish.
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