I have $2000 to spend on PC

[PabloZed]

Guys,

I can't make up my mind. I had planned to go to the Apple store this morning, but I got cold feet after reading an article showing the iMac was slower than the pc on some things. I also wonder about my beloved porn. Would I have to convert all those avi and wmv files to mov? What about, gulp, torrents?

Anyway, I can't even decide between HP vs Dell vs Alienware. I think the Alienware area 51 machine is more heavily a gaming machine than I need though.

The reason the decision is hard is because I have not read anything that declares one machine better than all the rest (for my price range). I would buy that machine, but I've read good things about the Dell XPS and the HP Pavillion Elite. Anyone have a word or two why one is better?

 

[DonQuixote]

Pablo,
You've got all of the info I sent you. Remember that the original XPS is now getting to be a dated platform - 800MHz vs 1066 Studio or Studio XPS laptios, 1333MHz on the newer desktops.

From all the vibes I get from you, if you take the pressure of your roommate away, you're more into the PC camp than the Mac.

As for safety - i.e. Anti-virus and need - I'm running PC Doctor suite.
There are new bots out there attacking Mac platforms now -- maybe that's a price paid for Apple switching from Motorola RISC to Intel processors, quien sabe?

I know you expressed concerns about the "refurb" -- the Dell Store can provide very good value. my 3 laptops and two desktops have all come from the store as refurbished machines. I haven't had issues with the hardware. Just some very recent IE 8 issues - which isn't Dell and isn't Refurb - it's me downloading too soon.

They recertify everything before it leaves, so it's like going thru full QC twice - maybe even more intensely than the original QC, since they don't expect the original issues, and have to make damned sure they don't reoccur in the refurb. Full warranties, too.

At least use the store as a way to see how the various machines are packaged, put together.

 

[PabloZed]

I just copied this from "angelicvoices." I would buy this right now.

Mainstream Gamer's Desktop - Around $1000

MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

* P45 chipset from a dependable name
* x8 x8 Crossfire support
* If you'd rather have extra PCI slots and have no wish for crossfire, take a look at the GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R.
* Sometimes the ASUS P5Q Pro is less expensive. Both boards have frequently changing combo discounts with various CPUs and GPUs.

PROCESSOR - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

* It's a quad core!
* Great overclocking potential
* If you don't plan on overclocking get Q9400 instead and nix on the Arctic Freezer cooler.
* This CPU often has combo discounts with various motherboards and GPUs. Be sure to check them out at time of purchase.

GRAPHICS CARD - Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5

* Fantastic price/performance ratio
* Able to handle any game on the market
* Closest nVidia card to the 4870 would be the GTX 260 216 core - top performance spot varies by game. 4870 used to be a good chunk less expensive, but costs are really narrowing down.

POWER SUPPLY - PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W

* Strong and reliable power supply from well respected company
* Plenty of connectors for everything in this build, including PCI-E connector for the video card.
* This PSU is 80 plus certified and has one single strong rail instead of several weaker rails like many budget psus.
* More power than needed but right now the price tag makes it less expensive than PSUs of comparable quality, but with lower outputs. The Corsair 550w was one highly recommended psu in the past, but the price is currently too high to recommend right now. Sometimes the the Corsair 650w goes on sale and is less than both, but not ATM.

MEMORY - G.Skill 4GB PC6400 (DDR2-800) RAM

* 4 GB of very dependable ram w/lifetime warranty
* CL4

HARD DRIVE - Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache

* Western Digital Quality
* Cheap but still fast

CPU COOLER - Arctic 7 Freezer Pro

* Best bang for your $ cooler available
* Not needed if you do not plan on overclocking! (Get Q9300 instead)

THERMAL GREASE - ARCTIC COOLING MX-2

* Works very well and is easy to apply
* Won't cause short like AS5 can

OPTICAL DRIVE - Pioneer 20x SATA DVDRW

* This one drive will both read and write to CDs and DVDs

CASE - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Mid-Tower

* Rear, front, and side 120mm fans plus extra vents provide excellent cooling/airflow
* Well built quality case at a budget price
* Roomy and easy to work in

LCD MONITOR - SAMSUNG 933BW 19" LCD

* Nice low mid-tone response times; no ghosting in games based on reviews
* DVI output and actually comes with a DVI cable
* Unfortunately, at even this price point, there are so many things to improve that a huge screen is last thing I would think about. If you really want that 22" LCD then don't get a monitor now. Take the 19" out of the above build and put the $130 towards your savings.

Total Price: $1003.93

I went to AVADirect.com, but I could not find this set up.

 

[DonQuixote]

Re: Mac Botnet attacks -- As I mentioned, I use PC Doctor Suite of A/V, Anti-malware, etc. I received this e-mail from them April17th. I'm not selling their product - though I do use it. This wasn't the first time I'd heard of Mac viruses, though. WHAM 1180 Radio has SoundBytes, a Sunday AM call-in show (it's available on the web, too). The hosts include a Systems Manager from Rochester Institute of Technology, which has a large PC AND Mac installed base on campus -- between the Engineering and the Imaging/Press schools, they have a large graphics artists element in addition to Computer Engineering (and all the other engineerings, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, too), and the proprietors of the local Mac store, so there's a seasoned PC base and a big love affair for Macs - and I believe they've mentioned viruses starting to hit Macs on the show in the past.

Here's the text of the e-mail. I make no representations about it, other than I believe it did come from who it says it is, and they are a responsible maker of Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, Shredding, etc. products.

PC Tools
From: updates@email.pctools.com
Reply to: css.reply@pctools.com


Mac Threat Alert Know anyone that's a Mac User?

Then let them know that malware researchers have discovered what appears to be the first Mac OSX botnet, aka MacBot or iBotnet and its receiving a substantial amount of industry and media interest.

Early estimates suggest that thousands of people have unknowingly downloaded the infected files. Don't let yourself be one of them...

In a nutshell the botnet is launching a number of malware variants inside pirated copies of popular Mac based software in order to take control of the infected Mac machine.

First and foremost make sure that you and your fellow Mac users, exercise caution, have Mac specific security software installed and that your existing version of iAntiVirus is up to date - there's a free version or you can purchase a version with full functionality and support for only $29.95. It's also vital that you enable and install the latest Mac security updates.
Regards
PC Tools Team

Note: PC Tools is offering a Free version to scan your Mac. IF it finds something, it then allows you to purchase the software in order to actually clean your system. But, they are real, not a come on.

I hope I'm not violating any of the JUB tenants with this info, since it could be construed as selling - which I'm definitely not. I was just pointing out that Macs are not as completely immune to attacks as people have come to believe.

They have a fine product. I happened to grow up from the PC in days of the 5.25" floppy - dual drives - one for the system, one for the application. My dad had a TRS80 - paid big bucks for it, had a special desk, 4 drives. My Sis in law had a Commodore 64. My one engineering Science course was Fortran IV - complete with punch cards and 24 hour turnaround on the compiles.

We've come a looooonnnngg way, baby. My current laptop has more power than NASA probably had in Houston and on the Apollo when we sent the first men to the moon.

I haven't read all of our host's last post - I saw the request for more info on the Mac Attack, thought I'd be responsible and get it posted for you. Now I'll go back and see what Pablo's dilemma of the day is. I play on the Dell website virtually every day for a few minutes -- easy to see what's currently on offer, how technology is advancing - e.g. why I know the current XPS is older tech now.

 

[Corny]

The bot *spreads* through pirated software. Quite a difference. Any legally obtained software usually does not spread bots - for any OS.

 

[PabloZed]

Well, the cake is baked - I bought a system this weekend and I got the email this morning saying it has been shipped (makes me paranoid that it was already built for someone else).

Its kinda crazy when I compare what I have to what I bought. My current harddrive is 30 gigs; the new one is 640. I have 100 mhz; new one is 2.66 ghz. I say that only to suggest anything I bought was going to be better. Let's just hope it lasts 10 years like this one has (and the only thing I've replaced is the harddrive). That is why I stuck with a pc.

 

[DonQuixote]

Ain't technology grand?
AND, that 2.66GHz isn't like the 2.4GHz I have in my Dimension 8200 from 7-8 years ago.

No mere 16Bit systems -- 32 or 64 bit = 2 to 4 times the raw power TIMES the increased processing power.

Of course, our friends at Microsoft work very hard to suck up as much of the extra power the pc's have as possible -- but with your 6MB cache on top of everything else you've got coming, I think you will be very happy.

Just make sure to get your Anti-virus, Malware, Spyware installed Early and scan often to keep your new playtoy clean.

 

[PabloZed]

Will do. It comes with Norton for 15 months.

One of the cool things about having a 10 yr old pc is that I don't get bugs. I don't even have an antivirus program or a spyware program.

 

[DonQuixote]

You're just plain lucky - or, you may think it's dieing because it really is infected.

AS for Norton - full suite, or just A/V? My wife has a Latitude laptop fro work - they have A/V, but never installed spyware or malware protection -- they did today -- her machine's been real sluggish. A/V doesn't prevent Malware, Bots, etc. from populating your PC.

Security Tango.com is a well recommended place. You can download some of the software for free to run checks. If you wind up needing to clean, then you can decide to buy to clean.

 

[DonQuixote]

PabloZed,
It's been over a week since you dropped your order w/ Dell.

Has your new power house arrived?
Have you had a chance to assemble all of the pieces and start to play?

Welcome to VISTA, whether you wanted to go there or not!

Just curious to see how things are going -- whether you're still enjoying the honeymoon, or if you're frustrated with the set up and getting everything ticked and tied just so, and ready for a trial separation! LOL.

 

[PabloZed]

Hola DQ,

It arrived but I have not assembled it because there are things I need to do on my old pc first. There is no easy way to transfer stuff so I am also saving what I can to discs. But I am pretty anxious to see what the new machine can do.

I suspect I will be one of those people who do not have a problem with Vista. Windows98 has served me well for these 10 years. IE is a different story, but there are other browsers to choose from if I have a problem there.

I will update once I cross the new frontier.

 

[DonQuixote]

PabloZed,
There are cross-patch USB cables and software packages like Ditto Intellimover that you can get - Dell actually sells Intellimover, that can help you move your old files over.

That shouldn't stop you from setting your new system up, getting your basic web Id info loaded, so you can start using your new equipment for current mail, etc.

Depending on what you use for mail -- did you keep web based, or use Outlook/Outlook Express? If you used something on your PC, you can export your address book to a csv comma delimited file (will look like a variant of Excel), e-mail it to yourself at a web-based e-mail address, then you can log into the web-based mail from your new, pc, forward it to your mail based e-mail, download onto your new eqpt, and import into Mail on your new XPS. It works fairly easily - easier than trying to describe it like I just did.

The sooner you start using your new XPS as your main PC, the less you will have to move over, and the less important the older stuff starts to get.

I think there is file transfer software inside Vista, too, for that matter -- I haven't used it, I still have access to my year old laptop and the older Desktop, it hasn't been urgent need.

Good luck. VISTA is a big change from 98. I moved thru NT/Win 2000/XPPro and up into Vista. I also went from (DOS, Win 2.11, 3.1, etc. LOL) Office 95, 98, 2000, I now have 2003 at work and 2007 on my home VISTA equipment -- 03 to 07 is a major wake up and try to get used to in the Office arena.

It handles OK, just some compatabilities issues.

 

[andysayshi]

What converter? VLC for example will convert some of them, but not all.

I'm referring specifically to WMV streaming files.

As for your other point, I think some of the posters might be referring to graphics work requiring oodles of computer power, which really need the use of a Power Mac instead of an iMac.

Just for the record, as I know PabloZed has a shiny new PC (congrats and enjoy!! ) I just want to correct the suggestion that WMV or any other conventional video formats have problems on Mac. This is incorrect - I have encountered maybe 2 video codecs in the past 3 years that weren't Mac compatible. In fact, there are a lot more codecs that work on Mac OS but not Windows!

Flip4Mac, provided free from Microsoft, provides complete and current WMV compatibility on Mac OS.

The Perian codec package covers most other common formats:

• File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
• Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
• Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
• AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
• Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT

RealMedia, Flash, AVID Media, all fully supported on Mac and Windows.

I move files and formats between Macs and PCs almost every day, and these days I encounter compatibility issues maybe a few times a year.

 

[placez]

you should build 1 from the bottom on up

 

[DonQuixote]

Placez and BW:

You missed the REAL excitement. The goose is already cooked!
He's got a brand new XPS desktop.
HE just has to get it set up and running.

No build from scratch or MacBook in this immediate future, I'm afraid.

 

[PabloZed]

Just an update.

I waited about a week to set up my new system because I had business I had to finish from my old pc. I had no trouble setting everything up, but I did want some software advice and realized I did not have a software plan. Really don't need it though given all the forums (like this one). The advice I wanted was about partitioning my HD.

W/r/t the harware, its pretty nice and sleek. The monitor, is huge if not too big. I had a headache the first two days. I still have not figured out how to reach maximum resolution, however. Everything came out of the boxes pristine.

Performance-wise its not surprising its a huge leap from my old pc. I could not watch a video and download anything at the same time before and I was always running out of memory. Well I watched a bio lecture this morning while downloading two other vids. That is nothing to most of you, but a big improvement for me. Most pages load fast too.

Hiccups: I completely understand the frustrations with Vista, mostly for two reasons. One, for me its a big change from 98 because many of the prompts and functions are different. So it took me three days to figure out how to pull up task manager. I still don't quite know how to use the media player. The second reason Vista annoys is that there are a lot of roadblocks that are nonsensical. For example, almost every download is blocked. Its as if security is on steroids. Maybe that's just the world we live in. Also, my old copy of AofE froze on me. Have no idea why.

Part of it is also IE, which is also different. For example, I am used to the menu in the toolbar that allowed me to monitor downloads and figure out where it went. I have no idea how to do that now and have downloaded at least two things that I can't find (anyone know where the new download monitor is? Its kinda nice to be able to check the progress of a download). (Yes, I have Firefox as well and its more user friendly).

Some of the mac guys are probably wanting to say "see, told you so", but I think it all takes time to figure out and get used to. I was probably confused when I first started using 98. Also, the two biggest problems from my vantage point with a mic were price and universality, which obviously still exist. The Mac pro with core i7 costs over $2000. At least right now, I don't consider the extra cost a good investment.

One final point. Technology and innovation are about efficiency and productivity. For me, this investment will make me much more efficient and productive if for no other reason that I can do more faster.

Now I just need to get a free copy of Office and Word.

 

[TheHeraldMage]

Now I just need to get a free copy of Office and Word.

You should try Open Office. It's free and you can use your Word documents with it. The interface is different, so you will have to get used to that. But you have been a trooper with your new system, so I dont think that will be much of a problem. You can find it here: http://www.openoffice.org/

 

[PabloZed]

Nope. It came with Wordpad.

 

[LukiusCurtiss]

I know it stinks that they never bundle full MS software with the price you paid for the system. Did it come with at least word, b/c my xps laptop with dell i got a couple of months ago came with it. But to my displeasure it did not have excel which I needed as well. Thank god my brother had a "copy" of MS Office 2008.

Just a suggestion, I'd switch over to Firefox browser on your PC; I never liked the way explorer updated since.

 

[zaknafein]

ok, as a 2k-dollar pc, what you should have
intel core i7-920 + X58 motherboard (asus or gigabyte) + 6G ddr3 ram (2G x 3, triple channel)
24 inch IPS or PVA monitor with 1080p resolution (dell 2409? i couldn't remember, but monitor brand is not important as long as HDMI supported, there do have some arguments on must-have functions)
graphic card could be two amd 4770 to have crossfire (if you are really into games, otherwise, single card would be fine) or 260 if you favor nvidia
other parts are not that important, wd green 1TB, dvd-rw or bluray, keyboard mouse set (the set with logitech mx revolution worth noting) and other accessories like bluetooth / wlan support

what you should avoid
amd cpu, they are totally rubbish if you have this high budget
nvidia chipset, but they do not permitted to build i7 chipsets, what a luck

try to fetch an oem copy of system through amazon or newegg