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TechSpot's PC Buying Guide - A Major Revamp

Discussion in 'Articles and Reviews Comments' started by Julio Franco, Dec 21, 2009.

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  1. ET3D TechSpot Paladin Posts: 787   +10

    Right, Matthew. Sorry, didn't notice that. Anyway, here are some more comments:

    First of all, I'd like to see peripherals (monitor, speakers, input devices) separated from the systems. While first time buyers will but them together, I find that I always but them out of step with the PC when I upgrade. Also, they don't go in step with the system budget, and vary based on your needs (also true for PC's, see below). I'd buy high resolution relatively expensive monitors, but I'm not an audiophile at all, and go for $10-$20 headphones and speakers. Listing peripherals separately will allow mixing and matching to people's needs.

    The second major point is the purposing of the systems. This is particularly important at the low end. A budget system for basic browsing / word processing or multimedia will be different than a budget gaming system. For non-gaming, you could easily move down to 2GB and a Celeron, and still have something that's good enough. For multimedia, a discrete graphics card or integrated AMD graphics may be a better solution, and a blu-ray drive may be a worthwhile addition. (And of course a 1080p monitor, as I said separating this would help.) Budget gaming might indeed want the 4GB and add a sub-$100 card.

    Same goes for the entry level rig. If you're more into video conversion than gaming, then a faster CPU and lesser graphics card might be the way to go (though GPGPU is changing that).

    Some nit picking:

    Why Caviar Black for the budget system? Caviar Blue should be good enough and save a little bit of money.

    Case with PSU combo is probably the best for the budget. Doesn't need to be a good PSU (i.e., one whose wattage is representative of real world use).

    For the entry level, I think that lower cost RAM (1333) would be enough.

    Lastly, you always go over budget. Either change the budget target or change the spec to fit it.
    ET3D, Dec 23, 2009
    #21

  2. Matthew TechSpot Staff Posts: 5,893   +53

    It is impossible to meet every potential demand (there are just too many component combinations). That said, we intend to increase the number of alternative "picks" in the very near future.

    The few extra dollars nets an additional two years of warranty coverage. That alone is worth it, excluding the performance differences.

    As noted in the article, we strongly disagree. Cheap power supplies are bad news.

    Pulled straight from the article: "Many outlets currently offer OCZ's Gold 2x2GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM kit with a $30 mail-in rebate, which effectively reduces the price to $79... With the rebate, the Gold kit is a bit cheaper than most pairs of DDR3 1333MHz RAM, which start at about $90."

    We aim for a ballpark target price on each build, and I think we've done well. It's worth noting that many of our component prices are *not* the lowest available, but a more "realistic" average of several vendors. The Budget build is $10 over, while the Entry-Level and Enthusiast configurations are over due to very specific and unusual market conditions.

    For starters, RAM is much more expensive now than it was a few months ago. We also squeezed in the Radeon HD 5000 series cards, as well as an SSD/Blu-ray drive for the Enthusiast build (and it was noted that these could be removed to meet the budget).

    I believe the prices on our builds should settle a bit over the coming months. If not, we will surely make adjustments to ensure the long-term accuracy of the guide.
    Matthew, Dec 23, 2009
    #22

  3. dividebyzero trainee n00b Posts: 4,101   +200

    On the Lux system why the P6T v2 over the P6TD ? Dump the useless IDE and (from all accounts) a little better in the OC dept.
    I have a TX750 PSU - good unit but those loooooooong fixed cables are a trial on the cable management.
    Prefer the LG W3000H-Bn over the Dell. I personally like the colour better and the height adjustment (if not the swivel) would put into bonus territory. A little cheaper as well, at least here.
    dividebyzero, Dec 23, 2009
    #23

  4. ET3D TechSpot Paladin Posts: 787   +10

    ET3D, Dec 24, 2009
    #24

  5. compdata TechSpot Paladin Posts: 604

    The links don't seem to be working right now from this page to the detailed system recommendations.
    compdata, Jan 7, 2010
    #25

  6. Docnoq Newcomer, in training Posts: 141

    Great guides, gentlemen.

    That being said, I will now take time to see if anyone is experiencing a similar problem as me. When I attempt to click one of your links for a piece of hardware in Firefox, it says the page cannot be displayed. If I click the same link in IE, it works fine. This has been happening for awhile now on several different versions of Firefox. Anyone experiencing this as well?
    Docnoq, Feb 8, 2010
    #26
     

  7. zyodei Newcomer, in training Posts: 30

    I find something humorous in the idea of a "budget" system having 4GB.

    My daily computer is an AMD64 laptop with 512MB. I run Gnome Mint with all the compiz settings on, hardly a lightweight distro. I usually have at least five programs open. While I am planning on upgrading to 1GB, and am not able to edit video or play games, it really works just fine for 95% of my tasks...
    zyodei, Mar 13, 2010
    #27

  8. Matthew TechSpot Staff Posts: 5,893   +53

    I'm running Windows 7 and with what I perceive to be a standard amount of applications open, around 2GB is chewed up. 4GB is indeed excessive for very basic use, and the best alternative is a 2GB kit. This is mentioned in the article: "You may also find savings in opting for a 2GB kit, and for basic use, that's fine."
    Matthew, Mar 13, 2010
    #28

  9. Archean TechSpot Paladin Posts: 5,735   +27

    I ran win7 on an old P4 (3.2GHz) system with 1GB without any issue during any of the basic tasks etc for few weeks; just for testing purposes. I think the basic version may even get on alright with 512mb. So I will tend to agree there, 2GB will be good for having a very decently performing system. However, don't count the 1GB out yet from windows world yet ;)

    @Docnoq
    It will be ideal if you start a new thread about your issue. Regards
    Archean, Mar 13, 2010
    #29

  10. gwailo247 TechSpot Chancellor Posts: 2,105   +18

    The ASrock Mobo only has 2 memory slots. if you fill them both up with a 2 GB set, and then you want to upgrade to 4, you won't get to use the old memory. When you factor the extra cost of the memory over the extended lifetime of the computer with the extra memory, its probably a good deal.
    gwailo247, Mar 14, 2010
    #30

  11. ToastOz Newcomer, in training Posts: 59

    Theres room for another pc between Enthusiast and Luxury as it's to big a jump. The one in between would have a better GFX something like 2x 5770 and the option of raid 0 hdd's with an ssd.
    ToastOz, Mar 14, 2010
    #31

  12. Concorde Newcomer, in training Posts: 39

    Guides

    Great guides for all to keep up with the latest product news and what other computer
    users are up too building their rigs!
    Concorde, Mar 15, 2010
    #32

  13. UT66 Newcomer, in training Posts: 144

    hey you know whats sad? that my trusty old 3.2ghz E6600 + 4770 (ocd) are probable faster at games that system 1 and 2. No reason to upgrade for me, yet. not when intel forces me to ditch my perfectly fine memory and perfectly fine Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink to the garbage. ( stupid mounting holes, i cant get those brackets here btw)
    UT66, Mar 15, 2010
    #33

  14. rskapadia2294 Newcomer, in training Posts: 102

    i love techspot's pc buying guide! :p
    rskapadia2294, Mar 15, 2010
    #34

  15. vegasrez Newcomer, in training

    I don't know if I love it but it sure is useful
    vegasrez, Mar 15, 2010
    #35

  16. JMMD TechSpot Chancellor Posts: 1,178

    Thanks for the update to the buying guide. I use this quite a bit when people ask me what to buy for their particular budget. It's nice to be able to point them to something they can use as a reference.
    JMMD, Mar 15, 2010
    #36

  17. TuesdayExpress Newcomer, in training Posts: 22

    In the past I've only worked with Asus and Gigabyte mainboards (it's been a couple years since I built a system). Does ASRock have a pretty good reputation?
    TuesdayExpress, Mar 15, 2010
    #37

  18. Matthew TechSpot Staff Posts: 5,893   +53

    As far as I know, it's more or less the budget arm of Asus. I've used a few boards by ASRock and I've never been disappointed. They generally receive good reviews, and their products have a high performance to cost ratio, which (in my opinion) makes them ideal for the average system builder.

    You can read our recent 7-way P55 motherboard roundup for a comparison between products: http://www.techspot.com/review/214-intel-p55-motherboard-roundup/
    Matthew, Mar 15, 2010
    #38

  19. Souljacker Newcomer, in training Posts: 24

    You are aware that AMD make processors too, not just intel?!
    Souljacker, Mar 15, 2010
    #39

  20. ansarimikail Newcomer, in training Posts: 42

    Thanks, just what I was looking for. Need to upgrade my PC because of a busted motherboard.
    ansarimikail, Mar 15, 2010
    #40
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