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  1. #1
    With milk. With love
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    Computer Advice Needed

    Now that I have a reasonably paying job. I'm considering getting a new system here in the next 3 or so months. Found a couple good systems for fair prices... but I would like some opinions first.

    http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0233281 <--- AMD system, bout 1500 here

    http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0233284 <--- Intel system, same specs as the AMD, but a couple hundred less.

    Any advice on this is helpful.

  2. #2
    CoP Dynamis
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    I'm not an Intel person, but I'll try to be as unbiased as possible. >_>

    First, you need to decide what you're going to be doing with the computer. If you're going to be doing processor intensive tasks, you'll want to go with Intel. If you're going to be doing more gaming, internet browsing, and overclocking, then you'll want to go with AMD. Pretty simple.

    Also, if there's a way to swap out the video cards, do it.

    ATI > Nvidia. <_<

  3. #3
    Relic Weapons
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    AMD is always better than Intel and nVidia is always better than ATI. (Go ATI if you want to have to upgrade your drivers every fkn week)

  4. #4
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    As long as you get a decently new setup you'll have more than enough to run most of the stuff out there. Don't bother with the uber expensive stuff unless you're wanting to play Doom III in super hi-def or do some heavy video editing or something. As you can see from the posts above its mostly personal preference and what you're looking for. Also prolly depends on whether you're looking to buy pre-made (like you listed) or make it yourself. At least youre looking at nice comps and not Compaq or something lol. Both of those systems look awesome, and you probably wouldn't even notice a difference 99% of the time (and only in the most demanding of applications, neither would probably get phased by video games for a couple years).

    Also depends if you want to shell out top dollar for a high end system now and wait 5-6 years to get another upgrade, or pay about half what those systems look to be and upgrade in 3. For most apps I'd say the difference noticeable (unless you're benchmarking) would be negligable.

    Personally I've always gone AMD processors(my first was an original Pentium 100, and it couldnt handle FFVII pc, so I said no more Intel lol), Abit motherboards, and ATI video cards. I usually take a hit on the video card power for functionality, getting the All-in-Wonder so I can use dual monitor displays and video in/out.

    Bottom line those both look like good systems, you probably wont notice a difference between them for anything anytime soon. Good luck! :D

  5. #5
    Relic Horn
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meilyn
    As long as you get a decently new setup you'll have more than enough to run most of the stuff out there. Don't bother with the uber expensive stuff unless you're wanting to play Doom III in super hi-def or do some heavy video editing or something. As you can see from the posts above its mostly personal preference and what you're looking for. Also prolly depends on whether you're looking to buy pre-made (like you listed) or make it yourself. At least youre looking at nice comps and not Compaq or something lol. Both of those systems look awesome, and you probably wouldn't even notice a difference 99% of the time (and only in the most demanding of applications, neither would probably get phased by video games for a couple years).

    Also depends if you want to shell out top dollar for a high end system now and wait 5-6 years to get another upgrade, or pay about half what those systems look to be and upgrade in 3. For most apps I'd say the difference noticeable (unless you're benchmarking) would be negligable.

    Personally I've always gone AMD processors(my first was an original Pentium 100, and it couldnt handle FFVII pc, so I said no more Intel lol), Abit motherboards, and ATI video cards. I usually take a hit on the video card power for functionality, getting the All-in-Wonder so I can use dual monitor displays and video in/out.

    Bottom line those both look like good systems, you probably wont notice a difference between them for anything anytime soon. Good luck! :D
    My first Video Game was Warcraft on my P100 w/ 1mb of Video Ram. I've used intel/nVidia for a long time now, I have lost 2 fans on my old nVidia card, but that wasn't necessarily nVidia's fault.

  6. #6
    Bagel
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    aurin, selective memory?

    ok, no problem, let me refresh your memory, *ahem* nvidia 5900

    nuff said

    lol, anyways, between ati and nvidia, ati has been on top from the 9700 series till the x800 series, when nvidia took over, and if your looking at single card solutions, ati has taken back the lead (sli > crossfire anyday though)

    BUT at the same time, if you are big into doom 3 and doom 3 based games, then you definitely want to go nvidia

    and on the flip side, if you are big into multimedia then the ati all in wonder series (high end only, the lowend sucks) cannot be beat

    and about the driver thing, from what ive heard, nvidia's drivers have made ati's drivers look like works of art as of late, (i havent had to upgrade my drivers in about 3 months, i prolly will when i get home just because) in 5 years of having nothing but ati cards, ive only ever encountered one bad driver set, *cough*wontmentionnvidiagettingcaughtcheatingonben chmarks*cough*

  7. #7
    netz
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    Quote Originally Posted by Surealistic
    and about the driver thing, from what ive heard, nvidia's drivers have made ati's drivers look like works of art as of late, (i havent had to upgrade my drivers in about 3 months, i prolly will when i get home just because) in 5 years of having nothing but ati cards, ive only ever encountered one bad driver set, *cough*wontmentionnvidiagettingcaughtcheatingonben chmarks*cough*
    Oh, both sides are guilty of this at various points in recent history... just look up Quack3 for ATI's side.

  8. #8
    Relic Weapons
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    Quote Originally Posted by netz
    Quote Originally Posted by Surealistic
    and about the driver thing, from what ive heard, nvidia's drivers have made ati's drivers look like works of art as of late, (i havent had to upgrade my drivers in about 3 months, i prolly will when i get home just because) in 5 years of having nothing but ati cards, ive only ever encountered one bad driver set, *cough*wontmentionnvidiagettingcaughtcheatingonben chmarks*cough*
    Oh, both sides are guilty of this at various points in recent history... just look up Quack3 for ATI's side.
    Indeed.

    Eh I suppose it is all preference... when it comes to the ultra high end card, either side is great.

  9. #9
    Bagel
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    i did not know about that, >.> seeing as pretty much all i play is ffxi anymore

    is it "doom3 coded to run better on nvidia cards" kinda thing
    or "nvidia makes drivers to score incredible scores on 3dmark but runs like crap on everything else" kinda thing

    the first one isnt too bad, but the second one is inexcusable(sp)

  10. #10
    Black Belt
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aurin
    AMD is always better than Intel and nVidia is always better than ATI. (Go ATI if you want to have to upgrade your drivers every fkn week)

    ????????? A bunch of people (including me) would LOVE to see vid card companies release drivers on a weekly bases. It would fucking own.

    ATi and nVidia are both good, I love ATi's tech support and I've been a customer of their radeon series since it first came out and it's all been very good.

    so take your head out your ass plz

  11. #11
    Bagel
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    i got into the pc world kinda late (i grew up with macs), i started building my current pc in 2002 (work in progress, never ending lol) i put a 9700pro all in wonder in, this was when they first came out, havent even considered getting a nvidia card since, ati just plain rocks, my current card is a x800xt pe agp version, and i have a x700pro in the pci-e slot, loving every minute, being able to watch a full screen movie in one monitor while in a xp party in the other is as good as sex (>.> well maybe not, lol, but yeah, its really nice)

  12. #12
    Relic Horn
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    Quote Originally Posted by Surealistic
    i got into the pc world kinda late (i grew up with macs), i started building my current pc in 2002 (work in progress, never ending lol) i put a 9700pro all in wonder in, this was when they first came out, havent even considered getting a nvidia card since, ati just plain rocks, my current card is a x800xt pe agp version, and i have a x700pro in the pci-e slot, loving every minute, being able to watch a full screen movie in one monitor while in a xp party in the other is as good as sex (>.> well maybe not, lol, but yeah, its really nice)
    Same reason I've stuck with nVidia, I haven't bothered to look in to what ATI's cards can do (ignorace? maybe lol). The big thing with my nVidia card is I have s-video, DVI and 9-pin all on the back of the card and can run 2 at the same time from the same card. I have no pci-e slot so when I recently upgraded I just got a Geforce 6600 256mb. Works substantially better than what I used to run.

  13. #13
    Bagel
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    The big thing with my nVidia card is I have s-video, DVI and 9-pin all on the back of the card and can run 2 at the same time from the same card
    >.> thats standard on all but the lowest end cards, the only reason im running 2 seperate cards is because like i said, i like to watch movies while playing ffxi, and i found with one video card i was getting stuttering on the movie while playing, as it stands right now, i can have 6 total outputs going at once, 4 different images (2 mirrored of the first 4 going to tv)

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