ATAR Notes: Forum
General Discussion => General Discussion Boards => Technology and Gaming => Topic started by: kenhung123 on November 05, 2012, 01:51:14 pm
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Is there any particular place where one should definitely get their laptops at? E.g. officeworks?
I am look for a fairly good one that would last.
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I wouldn't go to Officeworks since their prices aren't normally as good as others. JB HiFi are good, in my case anyway.
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only go officeworks to pricematch a better offer elsewhere, 5% off! MLN is an ok place and so is JB HiFi if u can haggle.
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Oh that's a good idea!
How is MSY?
Also, does anyone actually upgrade notebooks?
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MSY is cheap but I personally refuse to buy there because they have terrible customer service and shoddy business practices.
For a laptop go somewhere local. If you don't want the absolute best deal, JB are pretty good. MLN, Computercom, Scorptec and PCCaseGear are pretty robust dealers and have stores around melbourne.
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MSY haha what a laugh. If you go on a Saturday morning expect to be waiting outside on the train tracks. There's always some guy running around on a cordless phone shouting in the store. The line to be served is a single file line.
I've done business with them before and even though the motherboard was faulty, they replaced it no problems. However, for a laptop I really wouldn't recommend MSY.
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What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
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If you want prices almost always good and sometimes better than MSY and actual good customer service, try out centrecom: http://centrecom.com.au/
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any laptop besides dell is not worth buying so dell.com.au
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MSY cops a lot of shit, but for what they are, they're actually not that bad, if you want cheap prices, you're going to have to pay somehow, and if you decide to go to MSY, you'll be giving up customer service and quick queues for a little reduction in price. It's like choosing whether to fly JetStar or to fly QANTAS, for example.
For some people, such as myself, I really like MSY because it's pretty hassle-free, I don't really care about customer service, as long as I get my product and I'm paying less for it then I'm happy, I don't mind going on weekdays...etc. to skip the weekend queue either. But that's because I know exactly what I want.
Honestly though, you could always buy overseas, you generally skip over GST, which is like instant 10% off and on top of that base prices in the US are generally cheaper, of course there's always Warranty issues...etc. but I have never, ever, in my life have to deal with Warranty (and I own quite a fair bit of tech) - I will admit, on multiple occasions, I have had to open things up and use my soldering iron. So buying from the US might actually turn out pretty cheap.
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JB have specials every now and then, but Centre Com usually have specials. If you wait till Xmas there will be a lot of sales and you could snag a pretty powerful laptop for an awesome price! But yeah there are lots of places to get laptops/pcs, keep an eye out for sales there will be plenty heading towards the end of the year :)
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Yeah, recommend Centrecom. I bought the components for my PC there for a good price then assembled it at home. Wait for the xmas sales, you'll normally get a good $100-150 off normal price :)
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any laptop besides dell is not worth buying so dell.com.au
Hahahha surely you're trolling?
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Thanks a lot. Is there any particular brand that is more reliable than another or do you guys just look for the best value for what you pay for?
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Like a couple of other people have mentioned, timing counts for just as much as the place you choose to purchase from.
Your best bet in terms of timing are generally post Christmas sales, or end of financial year sales.
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Thanks a lot. Is there any particular brand that is more reliable than another or do you guys just look for the best value for what you pay for?
It depends some models of laptops have problems with them, I bought a little HP laptop earlier this year for uni and it heats up pretty quickly when it's being heavily used - I think it's cos of how the fan vent thing is designed. I bought a pretty damn good Asus laptop on boxing day last year, at the time the specs on it would've easily cost $1,500. but because it's a bigger laptop and xmas sales I got it for $999.! Bargain and it's still better than most of the laptops in the $1k range atm :P stores will start releasing sales soon so when you see them, start looking at laptops that you like and compare them. In the end, the design of the laptop will make a difference as well - whether you want it to be a slim one, or more powerful but bulkier etc that does affect the price too!
From my experience and from people that I know, Toshiba, Asus are pretty reliable. I assume Acer/Dell/Lenovo are decent/good. HP is ok. Stay away from Compact they're crap. There are heaps of brands and pros and cons for each, when you've fallen in love with a laptop do a google search on it and you'll find heaps of reviews and stuff so that will help make up your mind! :)
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Yeah my last 2 laptops are Toshiba and both has had no-minimal problems. I am leaning towards Toshiba for that reason. Although it seems that Asus is a very good brand because I see in catalogs most laptops are Asus so they seem to be focused in this area of production? Also, I know their tablets/transformers are very good.
Seems like a good guide:
http://www.cnet.com.au/21-things-you-need-to-know-to-buy-the-perfect-laptop-240054282.htm ?
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i've bought a lot of Asus products in the last couple of years and find them to be quite good. they replaced a screen on a laptop for free (18 months after i bought it) because it was flickering occasionally and posted it back to me for free, so yeah.
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Im using an ASUS laptop atm and its working fine. My only complaint may be the noise it produces and it does also heat up really quickly whilst I am gaming.
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Or should I just get the surface? Haha
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It depends some models of laptops have problems with them, I bought a little HP laptop earlier this year for uni and it heats up pretty quickly when it's being heavily used - I think it's cos of how the fan vent thing is designed.
Mine does the same. Is your a HP Pavilion? I find it helps if I elevate it off the table. Either get a laptop cooling pad or just prop it up old school with a book or something. The fan blows downwards, so if the laptop is directly on the table, the fan can't efficiently blow out air, thus the heating problem. Since figuring all that out, I've had no dramas.
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I swear by Dell. Never ever let me down. And the service in my opinion, is the best. Hands down.
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What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
MSY is horrible in regards to customer service. There are always tonnes of customers and this has been the case for years, yet they still don't consider expanding their store and maybe opening a new line. I just don't see the logic in their business besides being greedy. The people running the place are also quite cynical and only talk to you properly if you know absolutely everything about computing.
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It depends some models of laptops have problems with them, I bought a little HP laptop earlier this year for uni and it heats up pretty quickly when it's being heavily used - I think it's cos of how the fan vent thing is designed.
Mine does the same. Is your a HP Pavilion? I find it helps if I elevate it off the table. Either get a laptop cooling pad or just prop it up old school with a book or something. The fan blows downwards, so if the laptop is directly on the table, the fan can't efficiently blow out air, thus the heating problem. Since figuring all that out, I've had no dramas.
Or you can get one of those cheap laptop fan things that you stick under your laptop which elevates and cools your laptop
I swear by Dell. Never ever let me down. And the service in my opinion, is the best. Hands down.
notsureifsrs
What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
MSY is horrible in regards to customer service. There are always tonnes of customers and this has been the case for years, yet they still don't consider expanding their store and maybe opening a new line. I just don't see the logic in their business besides being greedy. The people running the place are also quite cynical and only talk to you properly if you know absolutely everything about computing.
Yeah jeez, obviously quite a bit problem, they should just get 1 or 2 people to listen to phone calls. But then again, they probably rather avoid the problems that they have to deal with!
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What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
MSY is horrible in regards to customer service. There are always tonnes of customers and this has been the case for years, yet they still don't consider expanding their store and maybe opening a new line. I just don't see the logic in their business besides being greedy. The people running the place are also quite cynical and only talk to you properly if you know absolutely everything about computing.
Yeah, there's a reason why they were so cheap. And I say were... The price differences don't justify the lack of service... I'd only ever buy small under $10 items there. I'd much rather give my money to those more deserving like centrecom or PCCG.
I bought a 975x motherboard from them off clearance. I didn't know much back then. But it wouldn't work. I was too excited to know that the plastic packaging was opened and that there was no socket cover on the CPU...
Only got $30 of my $130 back.
Then I got a video card off a friend who never used it, who had bought it recently from those clowns under clearance.. Didn't work, had to RMA $15 postage..
Moral of the story. Don't buy clearance MSY products. Better yet, don't shop at MSY. I'd love it see them go out of business after the way they treated me and other customers, the sole reason their still in business..
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What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
MSY is horrible in regards to customer service. There are always tonnes of customers and this has been the case for years, yet they still don't consider expanding their store and maybe opening a new line. I just don't see the logic in their business besides being greedy. The people running the place are also quite cynical and only talk to you properly if you know absolutely everything about computing.
Yeah, there's a reason why they were so cheap. And I say were... The price differences don't justify the lack of service... I'd only ever buy small under $10 items there. I'd much rather give my money to those more deserving like centrecom or PCCG.
I bought a 975x motherboard from them off clearance. I didn't know much back then. But it wouldn't work. I was too excited to know that the plastic packaging was opened and that there was no socket cover on the CPU...
Only got $30 of my $130 back.
Then I got a video card off a friend who never used it, who had bought it recently from those clowns under clearance.. Didn't work, had to RMA $15 postage..
Moral of the story. Don't buy clearance MSY products. Better yet, don't shop at MSY. I'd love it see them go out of business after the way they treated me and other customers, the sole reason their still in business..
I always buy my hardware from Centre-Com because I simply just don't like travelling to North Melbourne for such rude people. Also what annoys me about them is their awful website! I haven't seen such an unappealing website before, and they are in the I.T union you think they could develop something that is actually visually acceptable. Remember when it was that god awful PDF?
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Oh god MSY's old website brings back memories. It looked like a monkey was given access to notepad and a basic html cheat sheet.
I must admit it was a good laugh though.
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It depends some models of laptops have problems with them, I bought a little HP laptop earlier this year for uni and it heats up pretty quickly when it's being heavily used - I think it's cos of how the fan vent thing is designed.
Mine does the same. Is your a HP Pavilion? I find it helps if I elevate it off the table. Either get a laptop cooling pad or just prop it up old school with a book or something. The fan blows downwards, so if the laptop is directly on the table, the fan can't efficiently blow out air, thus the heating problem. Since figuring all that out, I've had no dramas.
Yeah I figured that out! 8-) I put it on top of a textbook to let the fan blow the air out hehe we're too good ;D Yeah Pavillon mine is a smaller one, DM1 but still pretty solid, a lot better than some of the laptops in the $500-600 range and I only got it for like $350 in April. It's good, I don't have to worry about damaging my main laptop when taking it to uni :)
Some of these new tablets look pretty sweet like the Asus Transformer. Have a look at the tablets if you want something for uni, pretty convenient but I guess it's good to have a laptop that functions well rather than the tablet where it's a little restricted in some aspects. - Which is the main reason I went with buying a smaller laptop.
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What the hell is the guy doing with a phone, nobody ever answers when you call MSY
MSY is horrible in regards to customer service. There are always tonnes of customers and this has been the case for years, yet they still don't consider expanding their store and maybe opening a new line. I just don't see the logic in their business besides being greedy. The people running the place are also quite cynical and only talk to you properly if you know absolutely everything about computing.
Yeah, there's a reason why they were so cheap. And I say were... The price differences don't justify the lack of service... I'd only ever buy small under $10 items there. I'd much rather give my money to those more deserving like centrecom or PCCG.
I bought a 975x motherboard from them off clearance. I didn't know much back then. But it wouldn't work. I was too excited to know that the plastic packaging was opened and that there was no socket cover on the CPU...
Only got $30 of my $130 back.
Then I got a video card off a friend who never used it, who had bought it recently from those clowns under clearance.. Didn't work, had to RMA $15 postage..
Moral of the story. Don't buy clearance MSY products. Better yet, don't shop at MSY. I'd love it see them go out of business after the way they treated me and other customers, the sole reason their still in business..
I always buy my hardware from Centre-Com because I simply just don't like travelling to North Melbourne for such rude people. Also what annoys me about them is their awful website! I haven't seen such an unappealing website before, and they are in the I.T union you think they could develop something that is actually visually acceptable. Remember when it was that god awful PDF?
Yup >:(
They don't show any acknowledgement or respect to their customers.. They would be better off being just an online store with such appalling customer service.
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Nobody should ever buy anything from MSY, this is a self evident principle.
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any laptop besides dell is not worth buying so dell.com.au
Hahahha surely you're trolling?
No no, dell trumps all. This is why businesses always rely on DELL computers. Some use Lenovo but that's because they are cheap and dumb.
I just don't see the reason of settling for an inferior product.
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It depends some models of laptops have problems with them, I bought a little HP laptop earlier this year for uni and it heats up pretty quickly when it's being heavily used - I think it's cos of how the fan vent thing is designed.
Mine does the same. Is your a HP Pavilion? I find it helps if I elevate it off the table. Either get a laptop cooling pad or just prop it up old school with a book or something. The fan blows downwards, so if the laptop is directly on the table, the fan can't efficiently blow out air, thus the heating problem. Since figuring all that out, I've had no dramas.
Or you can get one of those cheap laptop fan things that you stick under your laptop which elevates and cools your laptop
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Businesses buy Dell because they can get large numbers at a cheap price.
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Businesses buy Dell because they can get large numbers at a cheap price.
Also because the quality and performance of DELL computers are superior, businesses can't risk computer malfunctions, that's why they go with DELL.
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Businesses buy Dell because they can get large numbers at a cheap price.
Also because the quality and performance of DELL computers are superior, businesses can't risk computer malfunctions, that's why they go with DELL.
lol, are you working for dell??
Dell is the first choice for many businesses because of bulk discounts as Russolini said and their onsite service is also unmatched as far as I know. Generally, they have a great balance between form and function.. Something HP and IBM/Lenovo seem to lack imo.
Asus, especially their ROG line, is great, even Acer is catching up!!
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I need to buy a laptop for uni, I was thinking of grabbing an Alienware, but i don't want to look like a wanker with neon lights everywhere haha. Think I could build a custom laptop at Centre Com or will that just cost way to much?
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I need to buy a laptop for uni, I was thinking of grabbing an Alienware, but i don't want to look like a wanker with neon lights everywhere haha. Think I could build a custom laptop at Centre Com or will that just cost way to much?
Custom laptop? :o Clevo?
Again, I'd be biased and say get a Dell XPS/XPS Ultrabook. I'd also suggest ASUS ROG laptops.
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To everyone who has laptop overheating issues
The culprit is dust.
When you first had the laptop, it wasn't nearly as hot, right?
That's because dust has built up in the exhaust channels, naturally this reduces cooling and your laptop begins to heat pretty quickly.
Spend an afternoon with a screw-driver and open the laptop up. You'll find the dust is usually quite easy to clean after you've taken off the plastic panels. This alleviates a lot of the problems.
Macs aren't immune either. Same principle applies.
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I need to buy a laptop for uni, I was thinking of grabbing an Alienware, but i don't want to look like a wanker with neon lights everywhere haha. Think I could build a custom laptop at Centre Com or will that just cost way to much?
Custom laptop? :o Clevo?
Again, I'd be biased and say get a Dell XPS/XPS Ultrabook. I'd also suggest ASUS ROG laptops.
Yeah i was looking at the ASUS G74SX. At Centre Com it's only $1,499 which is a pretty awesome price for its specs:
- Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2Ghz (Turbo 3.1G)
- 8GB DDR3-1333
- 1.5TB HDD
- 3GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M
- 17.3" LED FHD (1920 x 1080)
Looks like a really solid laptop, doesn't look too bulky either (a lot smaller than Alienware).
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If it's for uni, don't get a gaming laptop. Get one of the new ultrabook range that are the windows equivalent of a macbook air (or get an MBA if you like apple). I use the Asus one and it's brilliant. The HP one also looks decent.
A laptop for uni requires two things; long battery life and light weight, which is basically the polar opposite of something with a powerful CPU/GPU
(that laptop above is 4.3kg, mine is 1.3)
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I advise not getting a alienware or clevo etc if you intend to carry them around to and from uni.
They are the heaviest s.o.bs ever and you will get a broken shoulder.
I recommend ultrabooks which are both light and look nice plus they aren't the best for gaming so you don't get tempted to play a game of starcraft 2 while you are studying.
If you just want one for casual purposes or for gaming I don't see why you cant just get a desktop computer.
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Does anyone have a guide as to what price I should be looking at for certain specs? Or do you basically just fix your eye on one model and look at every store to compare the prices?
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I need to buy a laptop for uni, I was thinking of grabbing an Alienware, but i don't want to look like a wanker with neon lights everywhere haha. Think I could build a custom laptop at Centre Com or will that just cost way to much?
Custom laptop? :o Clevo?
Again, I'd be biased and say get a Dell XPS/XPS Ultrabook. I'd also suggest ASUS ROG laptops.
Yeah i was looking at the ASUS G74SX. At Centre Com it's only $1,499 which is a pretty awesome price for its specs:
- Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.2Ghz (Turbo 3.1G)
- 8GB DDR3-1333
- 1.5TB HDD
- 3GB DDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M
- 17.3" LED FHD (1920 x 1080)
Looks like a really solid laptop, doesn't look too bulky either (a lot smaller than Alienware).
2nd gen cpu, we're on 3rd gen atm, that laptop should be discounted more imho
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If it's for uni, don't get a gaming laptop. Get one of the new ultrabook range that are the windows equivalent of a macbook air (or get an MBA if you like apple). I use the Asus one and it's brilliant. The HP one also looks decent.
A laptop for uni requires two things; long battery life and light weight, which is basically the polar opposite of something with a powerful CPU/GPU
(that laptop above is 4.3kg, mine is 1.3)
Yeah I agree with you there, however i need a laptop with a decent GPU and CPU to run programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge and perhaps 3DS MAX simultaneously. If I could find a lightweight laptop that could handle these programs that'd be awesome. However I could leave my memory and graphically intensive programs for when i'm not at uni, but I live in rural Melbourne so i'd spend a lot of my time in town.
I advise not getting a alienware or clevo etc if you intend to carry them around to and from uni.
They are the heaviest s.o.bs ever and you will get a broken shoulder.
I recommend ultrabooks which are both light and look nice plus they aren't the best for gaming so you don't get tempted to play a game of starcraft 2 while you are studying.
If you just want one for casual purposes or for gaming I don't see why you cant just get a desktop computer.
I have a very decent desktop which I have been using for all gaming, programming, graphical and film purposes. I need something that could semi-replicate the capabilities of my PC. But, like you said, it would be a bitch to carry around.
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Does anyone have a guide as to what price I should be looking at for certain specs? Or do you basically just fix your eye on one model and look at every store to compare the prices?
Not only the specs but also the build quality because there is a real danger in getting a laptop with high specs but with a flimsy plastic disgusting feeling case that will break upon hitting carpet from a 2 foot drop.
The business quality laptops from companies like lenovo may be a bit on the expensive side when it comes to the specs but they have a roll cage which prevents major damage from falling.
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If it's for uni, don't get a gaming laptop. Get one of the new ultrabook range that are the windows equivalent of a macbook air (or get an MBA if you like apple). I use the Asus one and it's brilliant. The HP one also looks decent.
A laptop for uni requires two things; long battery life and light weight, which is basically the polar opposite of something with a powerful CPU/GPU
(that laptop above is 4.3kg, mine is 1.3)
Yeah I agree with you there, however i need a laptop with a decent GPU and CPU to run programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, Bridge and perhaps 3DS MAX simultaneously. If I could find a lightweight laptop that could handle these programs that'd be awesome. However I could leave my memory and graphically intensive programs for when i'm not at uni, but I live in rural Melbourne so i'd spend a lot of my time in town.
I advise not getting a alienware or clevo etc if you intend to carry them around to and from uni.
They are the heaviest s.o.bs ever and you will get a broken shoulder.
I recommend ultrabooks which are both light and look nice plus they aren't the best for gaming so you don't get tempted to play a game of starcraft 2 while you are studying.
If you just want one for casual purposes or for gaming I don't see why you cant just get a desktop computer.
I have a very decent desktop which I have been using for all gaming, programming, graphical and film purposes. I need something that could semi-replicate the capabilities of my PC. But, like you said, it would be a bitch to carry around.
G74 looks sweet!
What I'd say is go small and mighty then. You'll have great portability but when you need the power and screen size, you could hook it up to an external monitor. (At home or even at uni)
I'd say 15" is a good compromise, what about this? http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-l521x/fs
GTX 640M, no slouch in terms of performance I guess.
I also strongly suggest an M14X, pretty good bang for buck? I think it's great, 14" 650M and it will have a huge battery too.
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G74 looks sweet!
What I'd say is go small and mighty then. You'll have great portability but when you need the power and screen size, you could hook it up to an external monitor. (At home or even at uni)
I'd say 15" is a good compromise, what about this? http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-l521x/fs
GTX 640M, no slouch in terms of performance I guess.
I also strongly suggest an M14X, pretty good bang for buck? I think it's great, 14" 650M and it will have a huge battery too.
The XPS 15 looks like the best option! Brilliant specs and very affordable. It's really thin as well which is awesome.
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G74 looks sweet!
What I'd say is go small and mighty then. You'll have great portability but when you need the power and screen size, you could hook it up to an external monitor. (At home or even at uni)
I'd say 15" is a good compromise, what about this? http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-l521x/fs
GTX 640M, no slouch in terms of performance I guess.
I also strongly suggest an M14X, pretty good bang for buck? I think it's great, 14" 650M and it will have a huge battery too.
The XPS 15 looks like the best option! Brilliant specs and very affordable. It's really thin as well which is awesome.
I have a last gen XPS 17 and it is brilliant.. Most outstanding part, is the speakers. You will not believe that they're laptop speakers, unless you've heard JBL equipped laptops before :P
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G74 looks sweet!
What I'd say is go small and mighty then. You'll have great portability but when you need the power and screen size, you could hook it up to an external monitor. (At home or even at uni)
I'd say 15" is a good compromise, what about this? http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-l521x/fs
GTX 640M, no slouch in terms of performance I guess.
I also strongly suggest an M14X, pretty good bang for buck? I think it's great, 14" 650M and it will have a huge battery too.
The XPS 15 looks like the best option! Brilliant specs and very affordable. It's really thin as well which is awesome.
I have a last gen XPS 17 and it is brilliant.. Most outstanding part, is the speakers. You will not believe that they're laptop speakers, unless you've heard JBL equipped laptops before :P
Oh really? I'm seriously considering purchasing one soon!
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G74 looks sweet!
What I'd say is go small and mighty then. You'll have great portability but when you need the power and screen size, you could hook it up to an external monitor. (At home or even at uni)
I'd say 15" is a good compromise, what about this? http://www.dell.com/au/p/xps-15-l521x/fs
GTX 640M, no slouch in terms of performance I guess.
I also strongly suggest an M14X, pretty good bang for buck? I think it's great, 14" 650M and it will have a huge battery too.
The XPS 15 looks like the best option! Brilliant specs and very affordable. It's really thin as well which is awesome.
I have a last gen XPS 17 and it is brilliant.. Most outstanding part, is the speakers. You will not believe that they're laptop speakers, unless you've heard JBL equipped laptops before :P
Oh really? I'm seriously considering purchasing one soon!
Next time, you go shopping, see if you can find a Dell with JBL speakers! Also, if you get the TV tuner option with built in antenna, don't expect the built in antenna to pick up anything ;D
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Are you guys trolling or?
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Are you guys trolling or?
Who?
What?
Where?
When?
Why?
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I don't think they're trolling, but whether getting an m14x is a good idea is a different matter.
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I don't think they're trolling, but whether getting an m14x is a good idea is a different matter.
It's subjective... It has good specs, is gaming oriented and has a nice battery size as I'm aware...
Find me another 14" at that price with those specifications? I'm happy to be proven wrong of cour.. Provided there's evidence.
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Looks like if you want a 2nd gen i7, 8GB+ RAM, dedicated graphics 2GB, ~500GB HDD 5400RPM you are looking at 900-1000
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I was looking at the wrong pricepoint, I googled it and thought it was $1400, which is the m14x r2 apparently. Yeah for $1000 it's a decent buy, even if it's not my personal choice.
I'd personally go for no i7 (what are you planning on doing with the PC?) and a faster HDD (7200RPM) though kenhung
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Why not i7? As in i5 is better? Yeah I was trying to look for 7200RPM but seems like even the top end gaming ASUS laptops don't have them? Not sure why.
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I think i'm leaning more towards the XPS series of ultrabooks. Mainly for these specs/reasons:
- 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3517U processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz)
- 14.0" HD+ (900p) Truelife Infinity Display
- 8GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
- NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M with 1GB GDDR5 VRAM
- 4.6 lbs ( a little bit heavier than some, but 2kg is pretty awesome given the specs)
- 11-hour battery life
At the moment this is $1399 (online australian price, $400 off), which I think is fairly reasonable given it's portability and strength. If anyone can find some better that would be awesome :)
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2kg ultrabook? O.o
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2kg ultrabook? O.o
Well most Intel Ultrabooks are around 1.2kg, but really 2kg isn't going to kill me. The problem I have with the lighter Ultrabooks is they use Intel® HD Graphics, and i'm not sure whether that would suit what I want to do.
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2kg ultrabook? O.o
Well most Intel Ultrabooks are around 1.2kg, but really 2kg isn't going to kill me. The problem I have with the lighter Ultrabooks is they use Intel® HD Graphics, and i'm not sure whether that would suit what I want to do.
I dont think a graphics card should increase the weight by like 800 grams, there should be some lightweight performance laptops too... probably expensive but hey, you wont break your back
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Why not i7? As in i5 is better? Yeah I was trying to look for 7200RPM but seems like even the top end gaming ASUS laptops don't have them? Not sure why.
It depends on what you're going to be using it for. If it's not video editing or compiling stuff where the extra cores from hyperthreading on the i7 is actually useful, then it won't make a difference.
And yeah laptops won't, sorry, I instinctively saw 5400RPM and said "no bad"
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Yeah true, I heard only new games make use of 4 cores otherwise they are gone to waste. My only concern is that if I'm not a regular laptop shopper (every 1-2 years) then if I get a better CPU it can still be decent for like 4 years +? Or is that logic flawed?
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Many laptops do come with 7400RPM drives, but I think you have to go larger in size. My XPS 17 has two 750GB 7200rpm drives... If I were to raid 0 those beasts... ;D
Yeah true, I heard only new games make use of 4 cores otherwise they are gone to waste. My only concern is that if I'm not a regular laptop shopper (every 1-2 years) then if I get a better CPU it can still be decent for like 4 years +? Or is that logic flawed?
Future proofing is a good idea, but an i5 will be just as future proof as an i7 in many respects. Not to mention the increase in power usage too! Although it's very minute, it's still there.
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Future proofing is a bad idea, always, just on general principles
If you buy an i5 today, you'll be fine in terms of CPU for basically everything until you get your next laptop. Assuming you want to game, don't bother with an i7.
RAID 0 is risky, don't do it with any data you actually need safe.
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Then what would an i7 be good for then? O.o
I think 5400rpm is good enough, it basically just determines how fast you load files right? I don't seem to have too much problem with my current 5400rpm. I do have lag in games and other stuff though but that's not related to the spin speed.
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Then what would an i7 be good for then? O.o
I think 5400rpm is good enough, it basically just determines how fast you load files right? I don't seem to have too much problem with my current 5400rpm. I do have lag in games and other stuff though but that's not related to the spin speed.
Gaming and intensive work. Higher speeds basically improve load times like you said and also seek times, to actually find the data.
Future proofing is a bad idea, always, just on general principles
If you buy an i5 today, you'll be fine in terms of CPU for basically everything until you get your next laptop. Assuming you want to game, don't bother with an i7.
RAID 0 is risky, don't do it with any data you actually need safe.
Each to their own, I always try to future proof my computer parts, this way I can pass on my old stuff to my parents.
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Lmao, get an i5 and spend the extra $$$ saved on an SSD, they improve your quality of life so much, because the thing with computers is that latency isn't actually due to the CPU, but rather the hard disk drive. An i7 is good in situations where you need the extra cores - i.e. extreme circumstances of multitasking, virtualisation, video editing and rendering, to an extent graphics editing as well, especially if you are using complex filters and especially anything to do with mathematical or floating point operations. So for someone like me, I tend to require a quad-core, which I have on my desktop (i5 2310 - i5's are quad-core for desktops). I have a dual-core i5 on my laptop and it runs my day to day things such just fine.
However, both my computers have SSDs and I will honestly testify that they have improved the experience so much. And also, get a lot of RAM, 4GB is standard, but you can't go wrong with 8GB. Most people tend to buy computers based on CPU only, but in the end, most mid-range CPUs will be good enough for most people.
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Does more RAM improve performance after 8GB?
So it is the HDD that reduces the lag not the number of cores?
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Does more RAM improve performance after 8GB?
So it is the HDD that reduces the lag not the number of cores?
1) Not really, unless you do stuff which will require that amount of RAM. For me, I have 8GB and at it's peak, I usually use around 70 - 80% of that, so essentially having more RAM will not help me (as an example).
2) Yes, HDDs are lag-central, get an SSD and you'll have a much smoother experience.
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4GB is fine for most things, it's just that RAM is cheap so there's not much reason not to throw 8GB in and never worry again.
In terms of lag, it depends on what you're doing. It's not correct to say that an SSD will speed everything up, since there are things it won't.
Lag in a video game (low framerate) will tend to be CPU or GPU bound. Loading screens tend to be HDD bound and SSDs speed them up. Booting is faster on SSD vs. HDD for example. But if you were an amateur movie maker and you wanted to encode a movie to upload to youtube, then SSD vs. HDD makes no difference since it's CPU bound.
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I know, but what I'm saying is that installing an SSD will reduce general latency whilst using the computer. I'm not a gamer, so when I say latency I mean stuff like when I click on the icon for Microsoft Word, how long does it take for Word to actually start up, similar for bigger programs such as Photoshop. How long big graphic files take to save and how long it takes them to load, how fast my computer boots up...etc. and I think that the whole feel of a computer relates closely to how much latency there is whilst doing tasks and an SSD makes it feel that little bit more instant.
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An SSD will improve almost everyone's computer experience. If you're just browsing and watching movies, your whole system will feel snappier. Applications will load with immense speed. You can open many things at once really quickly.
If you're a gamer, obviously load times will improve as well as the loading of textures in game.
With windows 8, boot time on my western digital black is very very quick to be honest. But SSD's are getting very cheap, I'd suggest having a small SSD for your boot disk.
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With windows 8, boot time on my western digital black is very very quick to be honest. But SSD's are getting very cheap, I'd suggest having a small SSD for your boot disk.
Windows 8 takes less than 5 seconds to boot up from the POST screen on my comp ;) beat that :p
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With windows 8, boot time on my western digital black is very very quick to be honest. But SSD's are getting very cheap, I'd suggest having a small SSD for your boot disk.
Windows 8 takes less than 5 seconds to boot up from the POST screen on my comp ;) beat that :p
:O
That's awesome!!
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SSD's are way too expensive though..
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Awesome, really considering this now. So should I get a laptop then buy an SSD and install it myself? I mean mid ranged laptops don't even have 7200RPM as an option.
And how about when I'm watching movies, you know how sometimes you want to skip a section, and it takes like a few seconds to process, does an SSD improve that?
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No, installing things into laptops is a massive pain if you don't know what you're doing and voids your warranty. Buy a laptop with an SSD in it (if it's not in your budget I wouldn't stretch to reach it, if all you want is a general use laptop for word processing and net browsing).
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SSD's are way too expensive though..
That depends, as I said, as a primary drive, they are too expensive, but as a boot disk, they are coming down pretty well.
a 128gb Samsung 830 is $95, pretty good for the benefits.
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You can also buy those hybrid ones where the bulk of the storage is on a disk hard drive and has a small ssd (around 32gb) which the operating system is located on so it still boots fast.
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No point buying an SSD just to see faster boot speeds imo.. if you're gunna get an SSD you have to install your OS + have your most frequent programs/files on it to really notice an increase in speed (which is where the price/storage issue comes in). If all your main files are located on your regular disk hard drive due to the small storage in SSDs, you won't really notice much of a speed increase..
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I built my computer ~3 and a bit years ago. It cost me ~$1800 including case, mouse and keyboard but not including the screen. It still plays video games with a really good FPS, still boots fast and I can't see myself needing to upgrade it for at least another 2 years, and I use my PC pretty heavily for gaming.
If you're a gamer, find a balance between cost and future proofing, because in the long run it's cheaper to spend a little bit more now then it is to have to upgrade your computer later on so you can play that "next game".
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What did you buy 4 years ago for that little that you're going to get another 2 years at high FPS with high quality?
I never future proof, upgrading in the price/performance tradeoff is always cheaper
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No, installing things into laptops is a massive pain if you don't know what you're doing and voids your warranty. Buy a laptop with an SSD in it (if it's not in your budget I wouldn't stretch to reach it, if all you want is a general use laptop for word processing and net browsing).
I've changed my LCD and added RAM before, it wasn't too difficult, you essentially just unscrew the part, unplug and replug the new device.
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What did you buy 4 years ago for that little that you're going to get another 2 years at high FPS with high quality?
I never future proof, upgrading in the price/performance tradeoff is always cheaper
XFX HD 4890 graphics card, it still does pretty well. 8GB of pretty high performance RAM (forgot it's details), an AMD Phenom X4 955 quad-core processor at ~3.2 GHz... The biggest bottleneck right now is my hard drive, I think I'd have a solid performance boost if I got an SSD but haven't had the time/motivation to do so this year. I also have a Thermaltake V9 case and I'm confident that if I wanted to, the PC could be overclocked pretty easily especially if I bought some more fans... just ceeb atm.
And sorry, I got it in Term 3 year 9, so it's not been 4 years yet, just 3 and a bit.
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Hard disk, RAM, wifi-bluetooth and optical drivers are usually a cinch. But it can be a bit daunting for some people I guess!
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LOL, people actually use AMD processors? :O
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whats wrong with AMD? It's not THAT bad + its a lot cheaper :P That being said, all my computers are running on intel chips
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LOL, people actually use AMD processors? :O
good value for money.
i5's weren't out when I was building my PC, and the cheapest i7 was like $400, and the AMD quad-core processor was better then the similarly priced intel quad core processor.
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whats wrong with AMD? It's not THAT bad + its a lot cheaper :P That being said, all my computers are running on intel chips
these days AMD processors are actually "that bad" - if you compare an AMD processor to a similarly priced Intel processor, generally the Intel CPU offers better all-round performance.
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AMD CPUs are good if you are on a budget but they are lower in processing power compared to the flagship intel processors
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AMD CPUs are good if you are on a budget but they are lower in processing power compared to the flagship intel processors
Even if you looking at a budget, Intels pentium and i3 line are still tremendous for the dosh. I don't think AMD has a place anymore (or at least now..), I mean, they're for sale for a reason.
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AMD has been stuggling a bit lately.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3646698/what-happened-to-amd
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AMD has been stuggling a bit lately.
http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/15/3646698/what-happened-to-amd
Interesting read :)
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Lmao, let's back that up with some benchmarking evidence, which I believe I have.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/700?vs=677
This is the Intel Core i3 3220 ($119) vs. AMD FX-4300 which is better and hence more expensive than the AMD FX-4170 ($134). The FX-4300 should be around $160.
For two very similar CPUs (Intel's even has the slight edge), I think AMD has no chance really in the budget arena.
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Lmao, let's back that up with some benchmarking evidence, which I believe I have.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/700?vs=677
This is the Intel Core i3 3220 ($119) vs. AMD FX-4300 which is better and hence more expensive than the AMD FX-4170 ($134). The FX-4300 should be around $160.
For two very similar CPUs (Intel's even has the slight edge), I think AMD has no chance really in the budget arena.
Well I've been out of the tech world for a good 2-3 years, but back then I remember AMD was fairly competitive in the CPU market.. not to mention they were dominating nvdia in the graphics department. I guess they have fallen of now.. but what happened to them?!
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yeah like I said I made my PC before i3/i5 came out, so yeah AMD was a viable option back then (and in fact when I was looking at benchmarks my chip was really the best value for money in terms of performance vs. cost). If i was building a PC today I'd probably just go i5...
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Don't confuse AMD CPU's and GPU's!
AMD/ATI make very good graphics processors, still very competitive, it's just the CPU sector that's letting them down at the moment.
Lmao, let's back that up with some benchmarking evidence, which I believe I have.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/700?vs=677
This is the Intel Core i3 3220 ($119) vs. AMD FX-4300 which is better and hence more expensive than the AMD FX-4170 ($134). The FX-4300 should be around $160.
For two very similar CPUs (Intel's even has the slight edge), I think AMD has no chance really in the budget arena.
Well I've been out of the tech world for a good 2-3 years, but back then I remember AMD was fairly competitive in the CPU market.. not to mention they were dominating nvdia in the graphics department. I guess they have fallen of now.. but what happened to them?!
I remember when the Phenom 2 X4 was the stuff haha.
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Why all the AMD bashing? At the lower end of the spectrum ($CPU<$100) for HTPC purposes, AMD 'APU's are much better bang for buck than Intel alternatives (e.g. A6-5400K vs i3-3225).
AMD at the moment doesn't have a place in gaming or high performance, but for lower-end purpose-built rigs, it is still a very competitive option.
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The Phenom 2 X4 was never really "the stuff" - it was just a cut-price chip - good performance for the dollar. AMD were happy making small profit margins on their Phenoms to compete with Intel chips at that time. The Phonom 2 X4 never really held a candle to Intel's first generation i7, it was just priced at a lower price point, mind you the Phenom 2 X4 was AMD's top chip, either way, it's plagued by stability issues.
The last time AMD really had dominance was in the days of the AMD Athlon x64 and AMD Athlon x64 X2. The top single core Athlon model (the 4000+) was really dominating Intel's top single core chip at the time, the Pentium 4 (Prescott revision) in everything except video encoding, really. The dual core Athlon was better than the Pentium D in areas relating to power consumption and heat dissipation. Essentially it was this which forced Intel to end its Pentium series and move its focus onto the "Core" line of processors (remember Core 2 Duo) - which was a new architecture based on Intel's Pentium M - which in turn was based on the Pentium 3 microarchitecture, thus Intel returning to computing more per clock cycle rather than increasing the number of clock cycles per second (which generates heat and inefficiency).
Most of you younger kids probably wouldn't know much this far back because you probably would have been too young at the time, but that was AMD's heyday. Before that AMD's Duron processors didn't really match up to the Pentium 3 and after that, AMD never really caught up when Intel took off with the Core line, which evolved from Core 2 Duo to Core 2 Quad and now the Core i3/5/7 lines.
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The Phenom 2 X4 was never really "the stuff" - it was just a cut-price chip - good performance for the dollar. AMD were happy making small profit margins on their Phenoms to compete with Intel chips at that time. The Phonom 2 X4 never really held a candle to Intel's first generation i7, it was just priced at a lower price point, mind you the Phenom 2 X4 was AMD's top chip, either way, it's plagued by stability issues.
The last time AMD really had dominance was in the days of the AMD Athlon x64 and AMD Athlon x64 X2. The top single core Athlon model (the 4000+) was really dominating Intel's top single core chip at the time, the Pentium 4 (Prescott revision) in everything except video encoding, really. The dual core Athlon was better than the Pentium D in areas relating to power consumption and heat dissipation. Essentially it was this which forced Intel to end its Pentium series and move its focus onto the "Core" line of processors (remember Core 2 Duo) - which was a new architecture based on Intel's Pentium M - which in turn was based on the Pentium 3 microarchitecture, thus Intel returning to computing more per clock cycle rather than increasing the number of clock cycles per second (which generates heat and inefficiency).
Most of you younger kids probably wouldn't know much this far back because you probably would have been too young at the time, but that was AMD's heyday. Before that AMD's Duron processors didn't really match up to the Pentium 3 and after that, AMD never really caught up when Intel took off with the Core line, which evolved from Core 2 Duo to Core 2 Quad and now the Core i3/5/7 lines.
I never specified what "the stuff meant" :P
I only really got into computers in 07, so around the Q6600 era.
I never knew I'd find someone on ANotes with this much interest in computers though!
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LOL I'm running Q6600! :D
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I never specified what "the stuff meant" :P
I only really got into computers in 07, so around the Q6600 era.
I never knew I'd find someone on ANotes with this much interest in computers though!
Yeah, the days of the Athlon 64 4000+ would have been in 2005, so around 2 years before the Q6600, which was Intel's third generation of Core chips for the desktop - so the first C2Qs (if I remember correctly, which I don't always - model numbers are a pain :P).
Haha, interest in computers goes a long way for me, I knew how to type before I knew how to write and I was using all the common DOS commands like "dir" and "cd ...etc." before I was in primary school - it's actually really interesting to see how much DOS has carried onto modern day Windows, for example, before mice were involved, the way to access file would be Alt-F, which (surprisingly) is still there. If you're good with a keyboard you can essentially get by without even having to touch your mouse ;P
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I never specified what "the stuff meant" :P
I only really got into computers in 07, so around the Q6600 era.
I never knew I'd find someone on ANotes with this much interest in computers though!
Yeah, the days of the Athlon 64 4000+ would have been in 2005, so around 2 years before the Q6600, which was Intel's third generation of Core chips for the desktop - so the first C2Qs (if I remember correctly, which I don't always - model numbers are a pain :P).
Haha, interest in computers goes a long way for me, I knew how to type before I knew how to write and I was using all the common DOS commands like "dir" and "cd ...etc." before I was in primary school - it's actually really interesting to see how much DOS has carried onto modern day Windows, for example, before mice were involved, the way to access file would be Alt-F, which (surprisingly) is still there. If you're good with a keyboard you can essentially get by without even having to touch your mouse ;P
I remember the day when I first got into computers. I was in the motherland, and dad told me that he wanted to build a new computer for the family. So curiously, I asked him how much he wanted to spend and he said 3k!!!
So everyday until our return to here, I went onto various websites and kept adding to cart, trying to prioritise where to spend my money :D Was so fun, learnt so much about computers there. Now I'm actually building them!
Here's my current computer anyway!
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8489/8228617651_6500eb645d_c.jpg)
It's a sheep in wolfs clothing if you know what I mean :P
I'll create a show your man cave thread tomorrow :)
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Looks like a beast brah
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:O what case is that? looks so good!
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beast beast case ;D
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any laptop besides dell is not worth buying so dell.com.au
You can't be serious?! Dells are a POS.
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any laptop besides dell is not worth buying so dell.com.au
You can't be serious?! Dells are a POS.
I second that
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It's a CM Storm Stryker :)
Great case, bought it this week, costed a fair bit :'(
But it's worth it!
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I still believe that cases are a waste of money, generally I just go for good parts inside and get whatever case I can with what I have left over, currently on a Thermaltake V4, which is a nice mid-tower, it'll last until my next upgrade, I'm thinking my next upgrade would be an MB/CPU upgrade, but I am on Sandy Bridge, so I'd like to wait at least until the one after Haswell to upgrade.
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I still believe that cases are a waste of money, generally I just go for good parts inside and get whatever case I can with what I have left over, currently on a Thermaltake V4, which is a nice mid-tower, it'll last until my next upgrade, I'm thinking my next upgrade would be an MB/CPU upgrade, but I am on Sandy Bridge, so I'd like to wait at least until the one after Haswell to upgrade.
Agreed. When you use your computer you look at the screen.. not the case :P
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I cant wait to build another PC haha. I'm probably holding out until the end of financial year though :P
I went with buying another keyboard/mouse rather than buying a pretty case this time around. Hoping to have the best of both worlds next time around!
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Reasons I got my case was...
1. My GPU was hitting 105 degree's when the ambient was around 28. Not too high. Lets not even think about what it would've reached yesterday :D
2. I want to upgrade to an E-ATX motherboard sometime, and this gives me adequate space for such an upgrade, the expansion slots etc..
3. I plan to incorparate a watercooling loop in my system in a bit of time. This will involve multiple radiators, which the Stryker can definitely fit. And with a bit of modding, a few more radiators can be squeezed in too!
4. Look at it.
Normally, I'd by a case at around $130 but this was around 190 so really, for $60 I could definitely see the value in it. So many useful features in there that aren't always seen!
Bottom line is that it's very versatile. Among many cases I agree, but I just like the way this one looks.
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my case is like $60 :D
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And we are computer enthusaists here so I can say this with no shame.
Sometimes, we buy cars based on how they look. But you only sit inside, so why not go for the car with the better features and interior. Same kinda thing here :P
Another thing I noticed was with these video cards these days and the designs... the damn things face down!!!!!!
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3. I plan to incorparate a watercooling loop in my system in a bit of time. This will involve multiple radiators, which the Stryker can definitely fit. And with a bit of modding, a few more radiators can be squeezed in too!
I can honestly tell you that incorporating a watercooling loop into your system will give you minimum benefit. I can expand further, but to be honest, it's more trouble than it's worth, you'll be spending a fair bit of cash on a watercooling system, up to like $300 not to mention the watercooling fluid you'll have to keep spending on, not to mention it's a nightmare to install and it makes your system like a fair bit heavier. I would honestly just stick with air cooling.
If you really want to overclock, I'd suggest getting an i7 3770k, it's the CPU I would really recommend (I usually recommend the i5 3750k or the i7 3770k) and pair it with a good air cooler - such as the Noctua NH-D14 or the Thermaltake Frio Extreme - both are under $100 and will cool your system probably just as well as an entry level water cooler. Remember to pair them with good quality fans and do your research on setting up your case fans - if you're going to be moving THAT much air, you need to have a push-pull configuration (so you need to have intake fans as well as output fans).
The only real benefit I can see from water cooling is noise - I'm not sure about you, but I don't mind noise so much, like using another car analogy here, wouldn't you like to hear your car engine scream? :P
Anyways, that's just my opinion, watercoolers look and sound cool and will defs put you on the cutting edge, but in terms of price:performance ratio, they still can't beat the best air coolers out there, you'll be able to reach 5.0 GHz easily with any of those air coolers - but remember that if you're overclocking, it's for general speed and stability, not to pump out as many GHz as you can and be left with a fried CPU in the long run :P
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3. I plan to incorparate a watercooling loop in my system in a bit of time. This will involve multiple radiators, which the Stryker can definitely fit. And with a bit of modding, a few more radiators can be squeezed in too!
I can honestly tell you that incorporating a watercooling loop into your system will give you minimum benefit. I can expand further, but to be honest, it's more trouble than it's worth, you'll be spending a fair bit of cash on a watercooling system, up to like $300 not to mention the watercooling fluid you'll have to keep spending on, not to mention it's a nightmare to install and it makes your system like a fair bit heavier. I would honestly just stick with air cooling.
If you really want to overclock, I'd suggest getting an i7 3770k, it's the CPU I would really recommend (I usually recommend the i5 3750k or the i7 3770k) and pair it with a good air cooler - such as the Noctua NH-D14 or the Thermaltake Frio Extreme - both are under $100 and will cool your system probably just as well as an entry level water cooler. Remember to pair them with good quality fans and do your research on setting up your case fans - if you're going to be moving THAT much air, you need to have a push-pull configuration (so you need to have intake fans as well as output fans).
The only real benefit I can see from water cooling is noise - I'm not sure about you, but I don't mind noise so much, like using another car analogy here, wouldn't you like to hear your car engine scream? :P
Anyways, that's just my opinion, watercoolers look and sound cool and will defs put you on the cutting edge, but in terms of price:performance ratio, they still can't beat the best air coolers out there, you'll be able to reach 5.0 GHz easily with any of those air coolers - but remember that if you're overclocking, it's for general speed and stability, not to pump out as many GHz as you can and be left with a fried CPU in the long run :P
Yeah, I think you're right too, I forgot to mention one thing about my case and that was that I'd be taking it to "LAN Parties" :P.. And having a wc loop would be a huuge pain and risk!
Yet another story.
My original computer had a 930 i7, I went to the motherland (more recent) and received an e5504 (2ghz) and two X5560's (2.8).
I ended up using one of my x5560's and I wanted to sell my 930 and one of the x5560's as well as that crappy e5504.
Someone bought my 930 and my x5560. Then about 3 months before, my x5560 committed suicide. So now I'm stuck with the e5504 :'( I just want to cry.
At this stage, I'm looking at trying to find a 920 or a 930 for under 100. It would improve my system immensely.
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Haha, to be perfectly honest, I think Xeon CPUs are a big, big waste of money. I'm surprised you swapped your i7 930 for an X5560 though, considering they are essentially the same CPU inside, but the Xeon just has extra server features, such as support for ECC RAM...etc. which are of no use to you anyways.
If I were in your situation, I would have bought a dual CPU board and chucked the two X5560s on and see how they perform, that would actually be jizz-worthy, but oh well, you can't now, so oh well :P
To be honest, I don't think the E5504 is THAT bad, like it's the same Nehalem microarchitecture as the rest of the i7s and Xeons in that range, it's just a cut down, low GHz, low cache version, so you'll get extra zip with an i7 920/930 (which is the same CPU, except the 920 multiplier is set one step lower) but it won't be as much extra zip as you're thinking :P I'll assure you that.
But anyway, I think you're a little unlucky to be stuck on the LGA1366 platform, as much as I like it (things such as triple channel RAM is nice), I think it's really a server platform and hence it really limits your options in terms of CPUs. The LGA1155 platform is probably the better one to be on, but even now, if you get an i7 920 or 930, you'd still be 3 generations behind (4 generations when Haswell comes out next year) - so really, you'll be running a CPU that's 4 years old.
I reckon, if I were in your position, I'd just spend around $300 to get an i7 3820, considering it's probably more economical to stick with the LGA1366 platform for now.
You see, I'm on LGA1155 (Sandy Bridge at the moment) - so upgrade paths are a lot simpler. :P
To be honest, get an SSD, you can get a 120GB SSD for $99 - it'll be a good $99 ;)
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A good case is pretty important imo, it'll keep your PC a lot cooler and if you're serious and plan on Overclocking a good case is essential!
EDIT: also are you upgrading your PC just for the sake of upgrading it? You shouldn't really be changing CPU's/GPU's until you find a game you can't play anymore or you start using it for some serious shit (which you probably won't). If you're spending that much money on just changing CPU's for the sake of moving to the next level you have too much money to waste lol.
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Haha, to be perfectly honest, I think Xeon CPUs are a big, big waste of money. I'm surprised you swapped your i7 930 for an X5560 though, considering they are essentially the same CPU inside, but the Xeon just has extra server features, such as support for ECC RAM...etc. which are of no use to you anyways.
If I were in your situation, I would have bought a dual CPU board and chucked the two X5560s on and see how they perform, that would actually be jizz-worthy, but oh well, you can't now, so oh well :P
To be honest, I don't think the E5504 is THAT bad, like it's the same Nehalem microarchitecture as the rest of the i7s and Xeons in that range, it's just a cut down, low GHz, low cache version, so you'll get extra zip with an i7 920/930 (which is the same CPU, except the 920 multiplier is set one step lower) but it won't be as much extra zip as you're thinking :P I'll assure you that.
But anyway, I think you're a little unlucky to be stuck on the LGA1366 platform, as much as I like it (things such as triple channel RAM is nice), I think it's really a server platform and hence it really limits your options in terms of CPUs. The LGA1155 platform is probably the better one to be on, but even now, if you get an i7 920 or 930, you'd still be 3 generations behind (4 generations when Haswell comes out next year) - so really, you'll be running a CPU that's 4 years old.
I reckon, if I were in your position, I'd just spend around $300 to get an i7 3820, considering it's probably more economical to stick with the LGA1366 platform for now.
You see, I'm on LGA1155 (Sandy Bridge at the moment) - so upgrade paths are a lot simpler. :P
To be honest, get an SSD, you can get a 120GB SSD for $99 - it'll be a good $99 ;)
Got all of em except for the 930 for free :) haha
I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.
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EDIT: also are you upgrading your PC just for the sake of upgrading it? You shouldn't really be changing CPU's/GPU's until you find a game you can't play anymore or you start using it for some serious shit (which you probably won't). If you're spending that much money on just changing CPU's for the sake of moving to the next level you have too much money to waste lol.
Not necessarily, it's actually quite economical to stick to a solid upgrade cycle, you'll actually find that in the end, you're spending the same amount as a complete upgrade every 4 years, for example, but you will, on average have a better system. For example, I bought my computer in April 2011, these were its original specs:
- i5 2310 (2.9 GHz, quad-core, LGA1155)
- GB H55M-D2-B3
- 8GB RAM
- 2TB 7200RPM HDD
- 23" LED LCD Monitor
- All the other usual stuff like optical drives...etc. (non-important stuff)
I usually like to upgrade my computers every 4 years, but this time, I thought I'd try something different and plan out a structured upgrade cycle, where every 6 months, I'll make a modification/upgrade to the system, with a major upgrade every 2 years. This is how it's panned out:
April 2011 - start
October 2011 - added extra 23" monitor
April 2012 - added 120GB SSD, added UPS
October 2012 - added GT630 GPU + upgraded 23" monitor to 27"
My next upgrade will be a sound card upgrade, and my next upgrade after that will, hopefully be a motherboard upgrade, with a RAM upgrade to 12GB and a processor upgrade coming after that. I'm not a gamer, so GPU isn't important to me and as long as it can drive my monitors smoothly, I'm happy. When I've amassed enough spare parts, I'll probably just put together a small server or 24/7 torrenting machine, which is something I've been holding out on for a while.
Anyways, that's just my opinion, of course, you can stick to a "major upgrade every 4 years" cycle if that suits you more, but I generally like making minor upgrades every now and then and I like being able to sort of solve my little problems every 6 months!
I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.
Hmm, I've always thought the GPU is what bottlenecks at high resolutions, what's your GPU anyways? But yeah, if you invest in a good quality platform, it should last you at least 6 years. Like my old i7 860 (LGA1156) system is still going strong and that's from back in 2009! I've given it to my dad now, but it'll easily last another 2 years, I reckon, after which an i7 880 or 875K should bring it up to date (they're the best LGA1156 CPUs), but that should extend it for at least another few, so 6 years is possible, given how slowly the CPU market is moving.
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EDIT: also are you upgrading your PC just for the sake of upgrading it? You shouldn't really be changing CPU's/GPU's until you find a game you can't play anymore or you start using it for some serious shit (which you probably won't). If you're spending that much money on just changing CPU's for the sake of moving to the next level you have too much money to waste lol.
Not necessarily, it's actually quite economical to stick to a solid upgrade cycle, you'll actually find that in the end, you're spending the same amount as a complete upgrade every 4 years, for example, but you will, on average have a better system. For example, I bought my computer in April 2011, these were its original specs:
- i5 2310 (2.9 GHz, quad-core, LGA1155)
- GB H55M-D2-B3
- 8GB RAM
- 2TB 7200RPM HDD
- 23" LED LCD Monitor
- All the other usual stuff like optical drives...etc. (non-important stuff)
I usually like to upgrade my computers every 4 years, but this time, I thought I'd try something different and plan out a structured upgrade cycle, where every 6 months, I'll make a modification/upgrade to the system, with a major upgrade every 2 years. This is how it's panned out:
April 2011 - start
October 2011 - added extra 23" monitor
April 2012 - added 120GB SSD, added UPS
October 2012 - added GT630 GPU + upgraded 23" monitor to 27"
My next upgrade will be a sound card upgrade, and my next upgrade after that will, hopefully be a motherboard upgrade, with a RAM upgrade to 12GB and a processor upgrade coming after that. I'm not a gamer, so GPU isn't important to me and as long as it can drive my monitors smoothly, I'm happy. When I've amassed enough spare parts, I'll probably just put together a small server or 24/7 torrenting machine, which is something I've been holding out on for a while.
Anyways, that's just my opinion, of course, you can stick to a "major upgrade every 4 years" cycle if that suits you more, but I generally like making minor upgrades every now and then and I like being able to sort of solve my little problems every 6 months!
I will probably spend money on a newer platform though. My E5504 is bottlenecking my system for sure. NFS Mostwanted 2012 only gets 32 fps on lowest settings at 1920x1200. I think higher resolutions beg for CPU power.
Hmm, I've always thought the GPU is what bottlenecks at high resolutions, what's your GPU anyways? But yeah, if you invest in a good quality platform, it should last you at least 6 years. Like my old i7 860 (LGA1156) system is still going strong and that's from back in 2009! I've given it to my dad now, but it'll easily last another 2 years, I reckon, after which an i7 880 or 875K should bring it up to date (they're the best LGA1156 CPUs), but that should extend it for at least another few, so 6 years is possible, given how slowly the CPU market is moving.
I'm running a single GTX 465 at the moment, I'm scurrying for a second in the used market. I'm definitely going red next time because you can use cards in the same series in CrossFire unlike SLI.
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Ahh, it would probably most definitely be your CPU then, but yeah, that's one of the benefits of CrossFire, using unlike cards, I still don't understand why SLI doesn't allow that.
One argument for SLI, however, is that you generally get a greater improvement with an added second card compared to CrossFire.
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Ahh, it would probably most definitely be your CPU then, but yeah, that's one of the benefits of CrossFire, using unlike cards, I still don't understand why SLI doesn't allow that.
One argument for SLI, however, is that you generally get a greater improvement with an added second card compared to CrossFire.
Yeah I have heard that scaling works better with SLI.
With regards to why, I really have no clue. But do both systems work in the same way in that each card renders alternating frames? But if SLI worked this way, I could understand this because each frame would need the same computing power to work.
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Yeah, scaling does work better with SLI, I've seen benchmarks from Anandtech and elsewhere which show that. But anyways, umm, in terms of how the cards actually work together - well it's something like this.
The CPU will, first of all, tell the GPU what to draw (render), so the mathematical calculations will be calculated by the CPU, then sent to a GPU which will take that data and convert it into a frame.
SLI works similar to a dual core CPU, there are three methods which it can use:
- SFR (split frame rendering) - this method will split each frame into two parts, one GPU will render each part
- AFR (alternate frame rendering) - this method will have each GPU process alternate frames, so one GPU will take care of the odd and one will take care of the even
- SLI Antialiasing - this method will have one GPU dedicated to antialiasing and will improve picture quality, but not frame rate
I'm not sure how CrossFire works, but I'd say it's the same principle, SLI scales better probably due to a better architecture and more experience with dual GPU setups (nVidia have been doing SLI for quite a while now).
If you're intending to run a multi-GPU setup, you should be aware of issues such as micro stuttering, which will reduce the frame rate instead of increase, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering
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Yeah, scaling does work better with SLI, I've seen benchmarks from Anandtech and elsewhere which show that. But anyways, umm, in terms of how the cards actually work together - well it's something like this.
The CPU will, first of all, tell the GPU what to draw (render), so the mathematical calculations will be calculated by the CPU, then sent to a GPU which will take that data and convert it into a frame.
SLI works similar to a dual core CPU, there are three methods which it can use:
- SFR (split frame rendering) - this method will split each frame into two parts, one GPU will render each part
- AFR (alternate frame rendering) - this method will have each GPU process alternate frames, so one GPU will take care of the odd and one will take care of the even
- SLI Antialiasing - this method will have one GPU dedicated to antialiasing and will improve picture quality, but not frame rate
I'm not sure how CrossFire works, but I'd say it's the same principle, SLI scales better probably due to a better architecture and more experience with dual GPU setups (nVidia have been doing SLI for quite a while now).
If you're intending to run a multi-GPU setup, you should be aware of issues such as micro stuttering, which will reduce the frame rate instead of increase, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_stuttering
Yeah I've heard of micro stuttering, does that exist on dual core cards?
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Yep, it would, dual core cards are pretty much the same thing as SLI
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Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx
Any opinions ? And criticisms?
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Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx
Any opinions ? And criticisms?
Good ultrabook, but it looks like that site isn't australian. You may have to buy a new adapter (unless it's auto switching). And I've no idea what the deal is with warranty when you buy overseas.
I think Cnet complained about battery life and material quality. Various people complained about heat. I don't think it's much to worry about
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Hey guys, im thinking of buyinh this laptop.
http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/dell-inspiron-14z-ultrabook/41593.aspx
Any opinions ? And criticisms?
Criticism - it's a Dell.
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My recommendations:
http://flingshot.com.au/collections/computers/products/asus-ux31a-r5006h-coming-soon
http://flingshot.com.au/collections/computers/products/samsung-np900x3c-a03au
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Criticism - it's a Dell.
It's not a mac, you can't hate Dells like that!
Either way, you'll find people with different experiences. I've had no issues at all with dell. Dad had a problem with his work laptop and they came to our house and replaced the hard drive. Easy stuff, but that's a business thing I believe (onsite service)
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It's not a mac, you can't hate Dells like that!
Either way, you'll find people with different experiences. I've had no issues at all with dell. Dad had a problem with his work laptop and they came to our house and replaced the hard drive. Easy stuff, but that's a business thing I believe (onsite service)
I don't hate Macs to be honest. I hate/like a product based on its merits and Dell tends to have a bad reputation for reliability, plus the warranty are horrendous to deal with. Apple on the other hand, tend to have very good quality control, low DOA rates, and the Macbooks are solidly built. I might not like them, but I make recommendations based on quantifiable grounds.
Your dad's situation is different because, as you say, onsite support is a business thing.
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I don't hate Macs to be honest. I hate/like a product based on its merits and Dell tends to have a bad reputation for reliability, plus the warranty are horrendous to deal with. Apple on the other hand, tend to have very good quality control, low DOA rates, and the Macbooks are solidly built. I might not like them, but I make recommendations based on quantifiable grounds.
Your dad's situation is different because, as you say, onsite support is a business thing.
Yeah, we bought an m1530 back in 07 and it had the notorious G86 chip in it (8600M GT). They had this problem where apparently, because of heat, the soldering on the socket or something would expand and essentially disconnect the gpu.
Still works today. Dell must've gotten a good batch :P
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There's nothing wrong with Dell builds other than the fact that Dell as a company are a massive pain to deal with.
If you're going to buy a PC online, don't get it from OS unless you're willing to run the risk of not having warranty or part replacement etc. Paying to ship it back is a massive nuisance.
The Australian tech search engine is http://staticice.com.au/ if you want to search for ultrabooks on there
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There's nothing wrong with Dell builds other than the fact that Dell as a company are a massive pain to deal with.
If you're going to buy a PC online, don't get it from OS unless you're willing to run the risk of not having warranty or part replacement etc. Paying to ship it back is a massive nuisance.
The Australian tech search engine is http://staticice.com.au/ if you want to search for ultrabooks on there
I used to swear by staticice!
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There's nothing wrong with Dell builds other than the fact that Dell as a company are a massive pain to deal with.
If you're going to buy a PC online, don't get it from OS unless you're willing to run the risk of not having warranty or part replacement etc. Paying to ship it back is a massive nuisance.
The Australian tech search engine is http://staticice.com.au/ if you want to search for ultrabooks on there
Not if you have global manufacturer warranty
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Not if you have global manufacturer warranty
But do they?
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True, depends on the company though. Make sure you check that beforehand
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I know that if you buy electronics from Malaysia/Singapore, a lot of the time you get an International Warranty.
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But do they?
Does who? It depends who is selling and whether that is offered by the seller and manufacturer.
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Does who? It depends who is selling and whether that is offered by the seller and manufacturer.
That link he posted before.
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Doesn't staticice link you to the cheapest webstore for the item? So you can't really tell.
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Does who? It depends who is selling and whether that is offered by the seller and manufacturer.
What's the seller got to do with it? As long as it's not DOA then it's not the seller's responsibility at all. It'll be between you and the manufacturer.
If you're going to buy a PC online, don't get it from OS unless you're willing to run the risk of not having warranty or part replacement etc. Paying to ship it back is a massive nuisance.
I'm assuming you mean the US, cause I got confused there.
But in all honesty though, I've never had to use warranty and I own a lot of tech.
Well I guess I did with my phone, which had an antenna fault, but I tossed up the decision of returning it via Kogan or opening it up and working on it with a soldering iron myself. So, I chose the latter (cause I'm like a DIY sort of person anyways).
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What's the seller got to do with it? As long as it's not DOA then it's not the seller's responsibility at all. It'll be between you and the manufacturer.
I'm assuming you mean the US, cause I got confused there.
But in all honesty though, I've never had to use warranty and I own a lot of tech.
Well I guess I did with my phone, which had an antenna fault, but I tossed up the decision of returning it via Kogan or opening it up and working on it with a soldering iron myself. So, I chose the latter (cause I'm like a DIY sort of person anyways).
I never really thought about warranty that much, but when my 465 had to have an RMA, I started to pay more attention to it.
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I never really thought about warranty that much, but when my 465 had to have an RMA, I started to pay more attention to it.
Usually I find that if something isn't DOA and it breaks like a year down the track, it's always an excuse to open it up and try and fix it, if I can't then it's always an excuse to buy something new ;P that's my take anyways ;D
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Usually I find that if something isn't DOA and it breaks like a year down the track, it's always an excuse to open it up and try and fix it, if I can't then it's always an excuse to buy something new ;P that's my take anyways ;D
I had no idea how I could fix it.
It was weird as. When I installed the 465, it would boot into windows fine without drivers. But if I installed drivers, sometimes it crashes on the splash screen, sometimes on the boot screen, sometimes after it loaded. At that point, I swore that it would be my last green card haha. The frustration of failing hardware is quite a thing.
But yeah, $15 postage later it came back working again.
Bought it from MSY on clearance, go figure. It was also recognised as a Twin Frozr card (an MSI card btw) but it had the stock cooler. I'd burn down MSY if I could.
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How is it even MSY's fault that you got a dodgy card?
If anything it's MSI's fault - but the moral of the story is that you don't buy MSI cards, stick to ASUS and Gigabyte, both have superior quality control.
I think it has to do with the power management to be honest, because the drivers would have changed settings on the card...etc. otherwise there would be no reason why it wouldn't work on the POST screen.
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How is it even MSY's fault that you got a dodgy card?
If anything it's MSI's fault - but the moral of the story is that you don't buy MSI cards, stick to ASUS and Gigabyte, both have superior quality control.
I think it has to do with the power management to be honest, because the drivers would have changed settings on the card...etc. otherwise there would be no reason why it wouldn't work on the POST screen.
It was under clearance. It was a Twin Frozr card meaning it should've come with the twin frozr cooler. It came with the reference cooler instead.
Last time I bought a clearance product from them, the same thing happened, packaging was opened and the computer wouldn't POST. They're a dodgy business anyway. Never giving my money to them. PC case gear, Umart, Centrecom are great. Price difference these days is almost negligible and even if the other stores are more expensive, their support and friendliness makes me want to give my money to them anyway.
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It was under clearance. It was a Twin Frozr card meaning it should've come with the twin frozr cooler. It came with the reference cooler instead.
Last time I bought a clearance product from them, the same thing happened, packaging was opened and the computer wouldn't POST. They're a dodgy business anyway. Never giving my money to them. PC case gear, Umart, Centrecom are great. Price difference these days is almost negligible and even if the other stores are more expensive, their support and friendliness makes me want to give my money to them anyway.
Yeah man +1 for Centrecom, I've been comparing prices the past 2 years and they're usually exactly the same, and I've found Centrecom has been cheaper then MSY as often as MSY is cheaper then Centrecom. Their stores are better, the people working at Centrecom aren't (completely) socially inept retards and the stores have aircon. Fuck MSY, Centrecom all the way.