It's been a while since the i7 has been out, and i found myself looking through the Yoyotech website to see how much a whole system would cost; not for me, noo, but for a friend who, long time ago asked me how much would a new pc cost, and where to get it.
So, i'm looking at new 24" tft's, and XFX 260's, trying to figure out a way to spend less than a grand. And i came up with some interesting ideas:
1)The i7 is a waste of money.
Hey, i'm all for new technology, but this new triple memory channel thing just doesn't strike me as smart.
Tom's has done a piece on the trimem a few months back and a i7 runs just fine on a single, 2Gig stick of ddr3 1000! the increase in efficency with the full monty, 6 gig ddr3 16k (2000mhz) is, like, 8%. The Motherboard to support that is no less than £150, and the cpu itself £220.
Now, Netburst was oooold socks, but a full package Core i7 is about 25% more efficent, in real life, than my C2D, E6600-based 4gigs of corsair blah blah pc. and about 50% more expensive, for a new build. for an old pc, the upgrade cost can be as little as £65. if you have a socket 775 motherboard, just buy a cheap E7300 and a cheap graphics card. Which brings me to my second point.
2)Cheap Graphics cards are good.
My 8800gts (640mb) is again in the shop, beign fixed. this means shipping it to holland (it was free this time around, tnx creativecomputing , you suck (dont buy asus stuff if you live in the UK), and somehow i had to plug my monitor into my pc, so i bought a cheap HIS4350. it was, like, £30 (i like the word "like", gives the impression of a pause during speech), and for 30 quid it works perfect. I discovered that: i can play any and all games with it (i mean even fallout 3 at 1680x1050), frame rates are reasonable, or, at least, i haven't experienced any terrible gameplay with it, and finally its completely silent. and since my £270 asus 8800gts is now worth about £50, i recon that with the depreciation it's more conveninet to buy cheap, efficent cards and replace them when they become obsolete, so about every year instead of every other year.
Buying more cards more often also has the added bonus of giving you more hands-on experience of hardware, gives you more bragging rights, lets you look cool as you hand-down your crappy cards to your friends, and always leaves you with the possibility of selling them on on ebay. or whatever.
Anyway, since the post is entitled "everything", here's the rest.
3)Windows 7 is looking to be excellent. Almost as good as WinXp, but more 2007-ish. of course it's not 2009-ish, not MacOSX-ubercool (macs suck) but for those in the know, this is what you want.
4)Monitors, cases and power supply are what really breaks the bank on build-your-own pc's.
learn to live with crappy ones and you'll be happy. Hansspree makes amazing monitors for the price (22" widescreen is perfect, and 1680x1050 is better than 1900x1200). a £28 case is not the end of the world, and a 500w power supply will power anything.
5)hard disks, it's the spinpoint f1 1TB you want. for about £55 plus £5 shipping, get 2 and die happy, with still plenty space unused.
6)core i7 is really... uninspiring. core i5 looks like it's going to be even less appetising.
7)never, ever pay for software.
8)gigabyte makes the best motherboards, the 965p-ds3, at £63, (it's old now) it's a majestic piece of perfection. sony makes the best dvd rw, coolermaster the best cases (cheap ones, that is), macs suck, corsair has the best ram (xms), intel pwns amd, intengrated audio is good, integrated graphics are shit.
9)laptops are rubbish.
addendum, 9b)there is this guy, he's called abraham. he's 60,white, successful. works as a designer for a company that manufactures heavy equipment, excavators, giant drills, stuff like that. he's always busy, has a fantastic career, and often travels to speak with potential customers to promote his products, i mean, we're talking contracts worth millions. now, this guy has a great laptop, and he sure uses it. he's working on something new, almost all of the time.
Abraham belongs in a class of people that is less than 1% of the population
then there is this other guy, he's called Bob. he's got a desk job in a company that basically, does management. other companies bring their problems in, and these guys sort them out. there is absolutely nothing special about Bob, he's not a senior manager or anything more than a just-above-the lowest level employee. Bob has a laptop too, it's actually a very expensive piece from Alienware, cuz' he likes to play games, expecially on the train. Bob's a commuter.
I recon that Bob fits within about 2% of the population.
Christine has a job in a low-key shop,but she got promoted already twice. owns a dell laptop, wich she keeps at home, and most of the time it's kept switched off. she turns it on when she gets home, to do some homework on, write emails, and buy the occasional Ryanair ticket (Easyjet is better, tough). she's in the top 10% of the population
David (yep, you guessed it) works as a fishmonger. and has a stolen sony vaio, that he uses to play games on and watch youtube. he's in the top 40% of the population.
Ed is a kid. he's got a desktop.
lets take another look at these people:
A works in a place where they have desktops that cost £5000 each, needs a laptop, has a laptop, and probably should get a better laptop. and he needs a fucking 16gig corsair voyager usb key.
B does not need a laptop, he needs a fucking PSP playstation. he's wasting the battery because he got himself a machine that's way too powerful (cpu&gpu) for a battery, he's frying his nuts when he plays with it on his lap, and he's gonna get it stolen, broken, or damaged. difference between these last two, is, that computers when used, become hot. laptops become even hotter. and the worst thing you can do witha hot computer, is move it. a laptop is not to be used on your lap, notwhistanding the name. it is to be carried to a desk, fired up, used, then allowed to cool down, and only then moved.
C does not need a laptop, she needs an internet cafe'. also, computers are made to work. if you buy one, for fuck's sake, at least learn how to use it. my pc is never turned off. it's always doing something, even while i'm not there.
D needs a desktop, needs to get himself some ripping games, and needs to learn how to play QuakeLive.
E already has a desktop. a kickass one too, probably.
There is hardly anyone, in the world, who really *needs* a laptop(while on the other end everyone needs a good desktop); you can probably do well enough with a usb key, and your iPhone (or Android, or whatever) if you are really desperate to jolt down some notes in that 5min subway ride or to check an address on Googlemaps. at most, you might need a netbook, but again your PDA should suffice.
10)everyone NEEDS a usb key. that is the name of those little things that carry data, like a small hard disk, and you can get a 4gig one for about £6. not having one (or several)is criminal.
11)blueray is pants. (for the non-uk speakers, pants means "not very good").
12)softwares you cannot live without, revo uninstaller.end. will cover more later, now i'm tired.
13)you know, that gripper i bought has worked miracles. reccomended.
14)wired mouse, wired keyboard, both ps2 if possible. not wireless.
15)wired internet, not wireless.
16)macs, really suck.
17)water cooling is fucking stupid. just get one of these.
18)and last, but not least, a bit of philosophy: computers are something we have to live with, they cannot be avoided; so learn to do this: set your mind on what you want to do with your computer *before* you sit in front of it.. then do it, get up, and stop using the pc when you are finished. or it! will! ruin! your! life!.
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