New computer questions

[Jamez]

Hey peeps,

OK, I'm planning to get myself a new computer. The one I'm using now I've had since 2002 and it's one of those dreaded packaged ones from PC World.

The spec on my current computer is:

128 RAM
1.7 Ghz (Celeron)
35GB Hard-Drive
DVD Drive
CDRW Drive
Noisy fan (I'm sure it never used to be this noisy!).
SiS Onboard graphics (which is shite, but I don't play games so it's not much of a big deal)
Onboard soundcard (which is also shite - especially when you want a crystal clear recording from the microphone).

So what I want now is something along the lines of:

3.0 Ghz or more of processing power
1Gb RAM
40GB HD (At least - porn vids take up a hell of a lot of space! lol!)
DVD/RW drive
Quiet fan (but noiseless costs!)
Decent soundcard

There is not a chance in hell I'm going to be buying my next computer from a high street shop, so I've found a great site http://www.thepcmanuk.com, where you can build and customise your own system for a lot less money than PC World etc. would charge (and this is without all the crap they pile on top!).

So, my question is about processors:

What is the difference between Intel, Athlon & Sempron? Which is the best processor for me? Bear in mind I want a fast computer and I'm only familiar with Intel and it's 1.7 Ghz, 2.5 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc. so if someone can explain the pro's and cons of Intel, Athlon and Sempron to me, I would be very grateful.

Oh, and don't tell me to get a Mac. They are simply over-priced and over-hyped pieces of shite in my experience. Plus, I don't like the look of it's dodgy interface. Sorry to any Apple fans here!

[marksi]

Have a look at http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk - you can customise and built it as you please there too.

[Cheese Head]

with regards to processors, you should be able to read reviews all over the place - and maybe find some comparison style pages, similar to the pages for mobiles...

[Dr Lobster*]

What is the difference between Intel, Athlon & Sempron? Which is the best processor for me? Bear in mind I want a fast computer and I'm only familiar with Intel and it's 1.7 Ghz, 2.5 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc. so if someone can explain the pro's and cons of Intel, Athlon and Sempron to me, I would be very grateful.

The Sempron is much the same as Intel's Celeron line of processors; designed at the budget market. These processors have a smaller internal cache, and may have other code optimizing features removed. In my own (rather unscientific tests), the difference between Celeron and P4 processors of a simular clock speed isn't noticable in desktop applications that we use (ie, office, corel draw, macromedia etc etc)

these is huge debate over whether the intel or athlon had the lead in performance, truth is, they're both very close and seem to perform better in different types of test, and your deciding factors should really be the overall features of the pc, although overall, Intel processors (especially the pentium 4 extreme edition) do have the lead, although expect to pay big bucks for the extreme series of processors.

and then, there's 64 bit.....

[Neil Jones]

The spec on my current computer is:

128 RAM
1.7 Ghz (Celeron)
35GB Hard-Drive
DVD Drive
CDRW Drive
Noisy fan (I'm sure it never used to be this noisy!).
SiS Onboard graphics (which is shite, but I don't play games so it's not much of a big deal)
Onboard soundcard (which is also shite - especially when you want a crystal clear recording from the microphone).

Bearings may have gone on the fan, or may be clogged full of dust. Clean it and/or replace it. That system, with some more memory, will be a nice system for somebody somewhere so consider passing/selling it on.

So what I want now is something along the lines of:

3.0 Ghz or more of processing power
1Gb RAM
40GB HD (At least - porn vids take up a hell of a lot of space! lol!)
DVD/RW drive
Quiet fan (but noiseless costs!)
Decent soundcard

So what's your budget?

There is not a chance in hell I'm going to be buying my next computer from a high street shop, so I've found a great site http://www.thepcmanuk.com, where you can build and customise your own system for a lot less money than PC World etc. would charge (and this is without all the crap they pile on top!).

Two things to remember when you buy from PC World that bump the price up:

1) The systems they sell come from established manufacturers who make complete systems and bundle a load of software with it. The software alone pushes up the price. Then they have to make money themselves on the system.

2) PC World's own markup on this price as they obviously can't sell it for nothing.

What is the difference between Intel, Athlon & Sempron? Which is the best processor for me? Bear in mind I want a fast computer and I'm only familiar with Intel and it's 1.7 Ghz, 2.5 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc. so if someone can explain the pro's and cons of Intel, Athlon and Sempron to me, I would be very grateful.

Athlon and Sempron are one and the same to all extents. The Athlon XPs are a performance rating compared to the Pentium 4 and the Semprons are performance rating compared to the Intel Celeron. So an Athlon XP 2400 performs as well as a P4 2.4Ghz despite the fact that this AMD chip has a two 2Ghz clock speed.

The Semprons are slower clock-speed wise than their Athlon counterparts BUT they are on the whole good for those who don't want to game a lot (if so, the Athlon XP is a better bet). The Intel P4's are all about raw clock speed but faster isn't always better plus they're usually twice as expensive.

So far as cost goes, the AMD XPs/Semprons are better value for money. Couple them with a decent board, graphics etc and it'll be every bit as good as an Intel P4.

[Chris]

40GB HD (At least - porn vids take up a hell of a lot of space! lol!)

I think you'll find that 80Gb is the bare minimum you can get nowadays. So, yes, Jamez - more room for your porn collection.

What OS do you run Jamez?

XP WILL struggle on 128Mb - run a few programs and it will slow to a crawl - there are computers in college that run XP and some antivirus software at college and they take ages to do anything - examples being it takes a good 10 minutes to log onto the network (on other better machines around college it takes about 3 at most). Opening up word and outlook at the same time takes a good minute or two. Windows loves lots of memory, so the more you can get the better.

If you are on a shoestring (which I suspect most students at uni are), then the best things to do would be to add more RAM, put another hard drive in or replace the current one, change the fan and get a decent soundcard.

[iSon]

40GB HD (At least - porn vids take up a hell of a lot of space! lol!)

Ignoring the fact I do a lot of DV editing and have an enormous porn .. i mean music collection, I'm running two 250G drives (a total of 470Gb after formatting and OS etc) and find it hard to find space occasionally. 40G is a surprisingly small amount, suitable nowadays only for laptops or "second" computers which aren't going to hold your life's supply of bits.

Good point - I've recently upgraded my laptop's hard drive to 100Gb from the 40Gb it came with as I need more space for my "music collection".

Threw 1Gb of RAM in there as well and never realised Windows could be this quick (always ran a bit of a slow system - I get very behind with technology because I can't afford it...but as you may have guessed when the student loan comes through - that means upgrade my laptop time!!)

[Jamez]

My current system I'm going to give to my sister as her computer right now really is shite.

I'll clean this one up a bit by formatting the HD, have a look at the fan (see if I can quieten it a bit) and get a new case for it.

The computer I'm using now has a new 17" CRT silver monitor, Optical mouse & Labtec Internet keyboard, so this machine will be fine for my sister as she only uses a computer for the Internet & word processing.

My budget for a new system is £300, but I am willing to go to up to £400 if need be. I know £300 doesn't sound much, but I don't have money to burn.

[Nick Harvey]

Definitely get the Betamax processor. Those VHS ones are an anagram of carp!

[Jamez]

How do I increase the RAM?

I thought about over-clocking my CPU, but the last time I did that, my motherboard started to physically melt!!! :roll:

[Dr Lobster*]

How do I increase the RAM?

I thought about over-clocking my CPU, but the last time I did that, my motherboard started to physically melt!!! :roll:

two ways to do this:

1) physically install another module in your PC

2) remove any unnecessary services and utilities from the startup group and registry keys and from the services.msc console.

with regards to the first option, you'll need to look in your motherboard manual to findout what kind of memory your pc takes, and any rules for pairing etc. if you haven't got it, do a search on google for your motherboards model number (usually found printed on the circuitboard, or sometimes it flashes up when your pc starts when it's doing the post - counting the memory, grunting the floppy drive etc etc).

and with number 2, there are hundreds of guides on sites like tweakxp.com which have a really good rundown of all the services you can set as disabled or manual depending on what you use your pc for. i've done this, and i've saved a good 30mb or so of ram by disabling things i don't need. it really is worth doing because my laptop starts up a lot faster than it did.