I'm not going the cheap route unless it's a non-critical item(like for me, gaming related). I want this to last a long time, only making upgrades when need be. I don't mind spending $250 on a nice tower to get a nice and quiet system. I plan on going the SSD route, etc. so I expect to spend some money there as well.

Thanks for the input.

In general, buying a very expensive computer to last a long time is a bad idea. You're much better off spreading the money out and purchasing systems more often. This is because you'll spend exponentially more money to get marginal returns at any given time. Additionally, you rarely can perform any meaningful updates on a computer once it is around 3 years old because the new cpu's will require different motherboard chipsets and RAM.

Buy 2nd-best type processors (i5 vs i7 in this case), and upgrade in 2-3 years instead of buying the top of the line i7 and trying to make it last 5 years.

About the only high-end things you should probably buy for long-term are monitors and a good pair of headphones.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133188
My friend actually has this case and it isn't that loud at all.. Plus it comes stock with four fans This is what I will personally be getting next, it's so great! Awesome cable management, fan speed control, solid, expandability, Connectivity array. Four USB 2.0 ports are conveniently located on the front bezel including a pair of audio ports. Two USB 3.0 ports and one eSATA port located on the top.

If you look at the case from the front, focus your attention to the left front side and you will see a darker piece of plastic against the vents; A headphone hanger/holder can go there so you don't have to lay them on the desk.

z28dreams Speaks the truth.

I just don't run into many people doing a lot of video editing or running super thread-heavy apps, which is really where those X6 processors shine the most (in real life and in benchmarks). It's still a good value I think, but it stands out a little more for a select minority and less for gamers and general purpose users that I see more often.

Intel has price cuts & a refresh coming in this month for their i5 line, and AMD figures to do the same with something, esp if they get Bulldozer out (which they probably won't). If I were window shopping right this second I might slow down for 2 weeks or so, maybe focus on the case and your drives and other stuff in the meantime.

Spot on for both points. What benchmark do you think would be best for users running more general purpose applications?

I'm very curious to see the new chips coming out as well.

What I always find most useful are the individual benchmarks for applications related to the person in question (say Photoshop, 3DSMax, frame rates for this game or that) or at the minimum composite benches where you know how the numbers are scored and that they reflect your uses at least somewhat.

Something like an i3-2100 wouldn't score that well in doing compression benchmarks like 7Zip which can use , but if someone just plays Warcraft all day it'll outperform several (otherwise superior) chips. But then, how many folks really spend a lot of time compressing stuff with compression software that will use those extra cores? I know lots of Warcraft people though, we have a forum for them around here somewhere.

Then there are all of the other considerations like does it need to run cool, will you overclock it, do you want on-die graphics, how sensible are the associated chipsets. Really right now the Turbo Boost/Turbo Core end of things is way more relevant than tacking on more and more cores and hyperthreading, the occasional workstation guy aside. For others you might as well be adding two more wheels to their car. It seems like core count is going to be like what GHz speed was years back.

More than I wanted to type for this thread but what I'm saying is that those all-in-one numbers are hard to rely on for more than a rough idea, unless the main purpose of your computer is to run that benchmark.

If you're not gaming at all and working on one monitor there's no real point in buying a card. Integrated graphics are low-end video cards these days. When set up with one display there was no observable difference between integrated HD 3000 and a GTS450 card. Movies didn't look better or anything. More demands and more monitors, that could be a little different, but I would default to integrated graphics and add-on later if needed.

Of course the P67 chipset doesn't allow that, so z68 or H67 (if you won't overclock) boards is what you'd want.

On AMD's side the Llano chips I was just looking at did a great job with their integrated graphics, which are better than Intel's top IGP by a good bit. It doesn't have the raw computational power of the i3 at many things but would suit plenty of plenty of users who could use more graphics muscle and less do fewer CPU-intensive tasks and the prices are about the same. Again this is another case where a raw benchmark score might not tell the full story.

Cases, I'd just start looking at the options I mentioned before. I probably spend as much time case shopping than for any other part. I like quieter cases, hate dust, and don't have heavy cooling demands. I try and aim for under $100 or so and I like a simple elegant type of design. Someone else might like massive cases that light up like a Vegas casino and have 20 fans in it. You really have to pick your own, read up on reviews and so forth.

Hi Im lookin to buy a new desktop to play poker . Im a total comp noob and have no idea what kind of comp i need .
Im looking for somethin that allows me to 30 table on pokerstars with hem and tableninja runnin without lagging . I would like to have itunes running aswell and perhaps a movie runnin while playing.
I currently have a HPG70 laptop with a 23" HP2310e monitor connected . I have had it for a few years and it laggs a lot when i play anymore than 18 tables with hem and tn running.
I would like have 2 of these monitors connected with new comp.
Im will be buying in the uk off shelf with a budget of up to £500.

Any help is appreciated.

Hi guys im looking for a new desktop pc setup with monitors if possible.

Are you looking for a notebook or desktop PC?
Desktop PC

What specifically will you use the computer for?
I will use it for mainly playing poker, around 20 tables and University work.

What software programs do you run? Poker, HEM, Photoshop, Video Editing, etc. If you just need it for email and web browsing, say so.
While playing upto 20 tables I would also have open HEM, skype and some websites, possibly documents open too with spreadsheets on and stuff.

What kind of computer was your last or current one (give specs). How did it work for your needs? Did it lag on you, did it not have enough space, was it fine until it died?
My current computer is a laptop 17" screen. (yes i do try and run 15 tables and it gets laggy.) The processor is an amd athlon x2 Dual Core ql-65 2.10ghz. i have 4gb RAM and the OS is windows 7 64bit. Hard drive is 149GB

What kind of storage space do you need? Do you store a lot of large games, movies, and so on.
I might download movies now and again but not a lot of them and once ive watched id probably delete them anyway.

What is your budget range?
As low as possible for something that does all the above but, upto £1,000.

What country are you in/buying from?
UK

Do you do any gaming?
A little but not much.

What type of monitor(s) do you have, and how many? Give resolution, not just size in inches.
I don't have monitors at the moment this is what I was going to include in the price. I want dual monitors that i can play 16-20 tables on. If this isnt possible within the budget for what I want then just do the full amount for just the Desktop, just to give me an idea of what I need.

Are you strictly looking to buy something off-the-shelf, or would you be open to assembling the parts yourself? (It's not too hard).
If its cheaper I guess I could do it myself I wouldn't say I know nothing about pcs because I do but, Im not too sure how to put one together and I would rather buy one straight off the shelf if it's possible.

Is noise, case size or something else a special consideration for you?
I want a case that keeps cool because the laptop I have at the moment overheats a ton so I would definitely want that. I would like to keep noise down if I can, size doesn't matter.

Anything else that might be important.
Nope, think thats all.

Excellent, just what I needed.

Looking for a small laptop (needs to be able to be shoved into a handbag) for myself.
Will use it for video editing (64 bits), skyping and other various interneting, music blasting and a bit of photo manipulation probably. No idea if I need a graphics card? I take a lot of photos so will need good memory although I have am external hard-drive for long term storage.
It will be replacing my 2003 desktop.
Er other stuff. Not looking to build it at all, needs a decent battery life because I will need it for travelling and a dvd drive would probably be helpful. Oh and I'm UK based.

Any vague points in a direction would be most welcome.

This is pretty typical of what is asked for here. I'm not too down with UK prices but just seeing what Dell UK's prices are at a glance, you might be a little thin if buying off the shelf (but if you shop around you can probably find one).

A PC with a newer mid-range quad core in the i5-2xxx line will cover your multitasking needs. 4GB or more of memory, Windows 7 64-bit, and a fairly basic video card which you buy and install separately if needed (that has the needed outputs for your PC).

For reference, Dell.uk has a model called the Inspiron 620 MT that covers all of those bases at £549 including a reasonable enough video card. I would use that as a starting point and start shopping around. You could possibly drop the processor down depending on what you find, but I'd stick with a quad-core or maybe triple-core, depending on price.

I do think there's a good chance you could skate by with a dual core i3 CPU or one of those AMD new ones (and maybe do without the need for a video card in that case), but since you're doing a lot of **** at once maybe put a little more performance distance between your Pentium dual-core. A lot of on the shelf PCs fit what you're looking for, just start deal hunting.

Hey anyone who shops computer stuff in the UK feel free to help point these guys in the right direction

Hey man could you give a little budget money to the guy I just responded to? Your budget's too high and his is borderline.

That Athlon X2 was a nice chip in its day but showing it's age.

I'm going to give you more or less the same advice as the above guy, a relatively recent midrange quad- or six-core is a very safe bet and well within your price range. The Phenom X6 series and i5-2xxx chips are in lots of store PCs. You're all but assured of getting 4GB+ RAM in the deal.

It's going to sound like a normal PC, kind of how it is with a store bought.

****

But, if you build one, you could take care of all of your concerns without really spending more. You don't have to worry about overheating in a desktop, just choose a case appropriate to the level of cooling you need and invest $30 in a decent aftermarket CPU fan which is both better at cooling and quieter than the stock piece of crap they come with.

Some of your savings will go into that fan and more reliable parts then you'd ordinarily get from a store computer. Your power supply will be of better quality and more likely to last a while, and you'll buy 8GB of memory for close to free if you do it yourself.

But in either case, that money should definitely cover two modest monitors (2x Dell ST2320L on sale maybe? I'm sure there are many choices in the UK for this) and the PC if you shop well. Probably even a solid state drive.

Thanks gonso appreciate it. I guess ill get to work on sorting it out.

Cheers

Thanks a lot gonso I think I will splash out a few hundred more to be on the safe side.

ForestFairy you need some kind of price range - yours will require some thought since you actually do video editing and image processing and could use a heftier CPU, but you need something light w/ good battery life also, which work against each other a little bit. You could be looking at a MacBook Pro budget or a $600 budget for all anyone can tell

So tired of recommending the i5 for 85% of builds, they need to put some new **** out or move prices around. Or at least change the name next batch

Anybody here a busto crackhead with a $250 budget, who doesn't play much poker, and wants to try out Linux instead of Windows? Where's the guy who just has to spend $2,000

I'll provide a little variation:

Intel CPU i3 2100 Sandy Bridge Dual Core Processor

G-Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600mhz Ripjaws Memory Kit CL9 (9-9-9-24) 1.5V

Asus P8H67-M-LE Rev3 Intel H67 Express Socket 1155 Motherboard

OCZ Agility 3 Series 60GB SATA III 2.5 inch Solid State Drive

Coolermaster 460W eXtreme Power Plus PSU - already owned (as is case and Samsung F3 1TB HDD)

At most I use Skype + iTunes + HEM + TableNinja + Stars + Firefox. I don't play games but I do watch 720p movies. I also have dual 24" monitors at 1920x1200.

Thoughts please? I don't want to spend more than I need to, considering I doubt it will last any longer.

Having a prob with the direct link from where I am but is that memory the £19.65 4GB kit? Another £15 will get 8GB in two sticks if you're interested. Not that you really need it just saying.

The i3-2100 should be fine unless you really get out of hand multiasking a ton of apps, even then it should be mostly ok. I'm not convinced that the HD2000 graphics are up to handle two WUXGA monitors so a modest card with the correct outputs might be in order. You can build it and try it out first if you like.

With that Agility 3 you should check out OCZ forums to see if they have a handle on the firmware issues yet. The M4 is another option, similar problems you'd need to get up to speed with. Or, just wing it and hold on to your receipt.

Fairly sure it's these. But they're reduced to £25 now. I could certainly pay more for the 8gb...

Regarding the SSD and gfx card, I just want an SSD that works well. It all seems really confusing and I don't have a clue what's good :/ It's similar with the gfx card, if I don't have to spend it, I don't want to. If I do, I wouldn't know where to start looking to get just what I need...

The kit I saw was £19.65, same thing but 1333 speed not 1600. Don't ask; it's fine. But yeah if 1600 is there at same price or a little extra cash sounds good for 8GB just do it. That board only has two slots for memory so you can't add on later.

Any SSD will seem amazing so long as you don't run into a faulty one. Find a deal on a popular one with good ratings and take a shot. NewEgg is a major US seller, you can't buy from them but they have good customer reviews you can look through. The two mentioned are options for sure.

For a video card at that ebuyer shop, This one is one sale and has the muscle. Has HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI which should cover your connectivity needs. It might be overkill a bit, but there are so many combinations of monitors and resolutions and video cards to say by how much it overshoots what you need. It's enough though, and looks cheap relative to others I was looking through. Maybe get a second option from another UK guy.

Currently have an Dell XPSM1530, which is not keeping up with COD Black Ops, and is running at 100% with Chrome/Stars/HEM/iTunes when I use them at the same time so am looking to upgrade soon:

Are you looking for a notebook or desktop PC?

Don't really need the portability of a laptop, so desktop it is

What specifically will you use the computer for? What software programs do you run? Poker, HEM, Photoshop, Video Editing, etc. If you just need it for email and web browsing, say so.

Current use - internet browsing (Chrome), Poker (4-8 tabling), HEM (& may upgrade to HEM2 when its released), PT3, iTunes, watching training videos, photo editing (basic), watching some movies in HD, & gaming (I want the system to be ready for BF3 & COD MW3).

What kind of computer was your last or current one (give specs). How did it work for your needs? Did it lag on you, did it not have enough space, was it fine until it died?

Currently have a Dell XPSM1530 (laptop) - which is about 3.5 years old now:
- Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2.40Mhz
- RAM 4GB
- currently using Windows Vista (with a 'performance score' of 5.1

Starting lagging in the past year or so .... especially when playing COD Black Ops (multiplayer).

Current HD is 300GB (Samsung HM320JI)- am at the limit at the moment, so will need something bigger (I backup to an external 1TB).

What kind of storage space do you need? Do you store a lot of large games, movies, and so on.

Have about 10,000 music files, 1,000 photo's, 4 games, both PT3 and HEM databases. Movies are saved for a short while then moved to DVD or external HD due to needing to free up space on laptop.

What is your budget range?

Ideally around the $1 - 1.2K AUD mark. In saying this, am happy to pay $200-$500 more if performance or longetivity improves by a material amount.

What country are you in/buying from?

Australia (Sydney)

Do you do any gaming?

Yes - currently COD Black Ops . Will need system able to handle with ease BF3 and COD MW3 when they get released in the next few months.

What type of monitor(s) do you have, and how many? Give resolution, not just size in inches.

1 x ACER B243H - 24inch, 1920 x 1080
Am thinking about getting 2 x 24" in the future when funds permit (not sure which ones but will likely go with a IPS model from Dell)

Are you strictly looking to buy something off-the-shelf, or would you be open to assembling the parts yourself? (It's not too hard).

Prefer off the shelf, or buying the parts separately and the getting the store to assemble it for me.

Is noise, case size or something else a special consideration for you?

Desktop will probably be located on top of desk (next to my monitor) so noise & heat dispersion will need to be considered.

Anything else that might be important.

System will need to have wifi included to access my home wifi connection to internet.


Thanks in advance !

I really like the a-Gamer on here.

You can get rid of the screen, and that will help the price even more, evne though it's within your budget. If you want to do anything better with it, i would suggest in this order:

-Upgrade to the Phenom X6 1090T
- Upgrade to 60GB Solid State Drive and then add a 1 TB something for storage
-Upgrade to the GTX 560

[*]Are you looking for a notebook or desktop PC?

desktop

[*]What specifically will you use the computer for?

Surfing the net, multi-tabling, PT3, skype, camtasia, table selection software, a little movie and music. For movies, I'd like a slot for a HDMI cable so i can connect it to my TV

[*]What kind of computer was your last or current one (give specs). How did it work for your needs? Did it lag on you, did it not have enough space, was it fine until it died?

Acer Aspire One netbook. The netbook was definitely not built to multi-table. It always lagged when I played poker and had a table selection running.

[*]What kind of storage space do you need? Do you store a lot of large games, movies, and so on.

I don't need alot of storage. I have a 120GB removable hard drive and my music library is less than 5GB and all movies are stored on my roommate's computer.

[*]What is your budget range?

I don't have an exact budget range. I just want something of good quality, but it doesnt have to be high end.

[*]What country are you in/buying from?

Taiwan

[*]Do you do any gaming?

No

[*]What type of monitor(s) do you have, and how many? Give resolution, not just size in inches.

Don't have any right now, but plan on getting 1 or 2

[*]Are you strictly looking to buy something off-the-shelf, or would you be open to assembling the parts yourself? (It's not too hard).

I want it assembled.

[*]Is noise, case size or something else a special consideration for you?

I'd like something quiet.

[*]Anything else that might be important.

Thanks for the help, u're a great asset to this forum

ducati:

Instead of giving you a specific recommendation I'm going to give you a plan of attack, you'll get more out of it and have a better eye for what you're buying. Couple of things you should read:

Since you're gaming + doing some general use stuff so you want a good gaming chip. Here's a recent article on best gaming chips for the money. Everyone else can guess what my recommendation will be I'm sure, but you can work it out.

The other major part you're concerned with is obviously the graphics card, which you should buy separately an pop in yourself (quick 2-minute job and much better value). Guess what? More homework.

4GB of RAM is still fine for gaming & common uses, but the more the better if you get it real cheap. Windows 7 64-bit will probably come with the system.

Your hard drive situation is pretty straight forward, you need some storage, so you should have a handle on that. 1TB+ sized drives are common in midrange PCs today.

If it's in your budget, a small solid state to run Windows and your programs off of will speed most things way up. Bulk storage and so on goes on the regular hard drive, all those photos, mp3s, movies things like that too (there's no real benefit to playing a movie on a fast drive vs. slow other than the access time at first). Even on a smaller 64GB SSD you could squeeze a couple of choice game or two for a little performance increase.

You'll get some noise from the machine and depending on which video card you choose, possibly a lot from that, the quieter thing is more for home builds and non-gaming things. Here you're definitely going to want to buy a PC with good ventilation and cooling and not some sealed up box. Fan up front, fan in back minimum, with any luck at least a space in the side to add a third (near the video card)

Man I just looked up Dell.au at the current incarnation of the XPS 8300 and almost **** myself when I saw the money they were trying to get upgrading memory and other parts. Dear lord don't do that if you buy from them.

Alright so that should get you going. Once you narrow down the CPU(s) you want you can dig through your local options easily enough to find a few models that fit the bill. You'll probably want to avoid a video card so you don't waste money since you're probably putting yours in. You can pay them for it but it's going to hurt.

Now if you have a local shop or something that you can bring parts to and have them set up for a fair price, or a handy friend, you could just buy the parts yourself and do it. But job one, hit those two articles and come up with the CPU and GPU that you want your system based around, the rest is pretty straightforward.