The computer and electronics super geek superthread...

[Poonman]

I've had my iphone for awhile now and I can't imagine how I'd get around without it.

I'd already been using ipods for awhile and I needed a cellphone so getting one was a no-brainer for me.

its saved my butt from getting lost when I was out of town, I use it daily to find restaurants, barbers, post offices, department stores etc.

the map search and directions feature is probably what I use the most on it. its like having google and mapquest in your pocket.

I also use the internet all the time on it. you can't imagine how handy it is until you've had real web at the touch of your fingers. I do a lot of ebaying and its really handy for when I get to the post office and forgot to print out someones address or to check what they paid me for shipping.

all the new apps are awesome too. I downloaded "remote" which lets me use my iphone as a remote for my itunes on my imac so I can be sitting on the couch and browse my library and play music.

theres lots of nay-sayers who say "well my nokia can do that blah blah" but until you've owned one and used it for awhile you just won't "get it".

theres soo many little things about it that make it great like being able to pull pics of your friends off their myspace page and use them as avatars for their phone numbers and being able to just touch addresses in emails and have a satellite view of where its at or touch phone numbers in text message and emails and have the phone automatically dial it.

theres a reason more and more PC stuff is going touch... its just very intuitive.

[Dante74]

I have an HTC Touch that can do all of that stuff at less than half the cost.

[Poonman]

suure

[Oihan]

While waiting for Newegg to restock the EVGA 9800GTX+ that was the first 9800GTX+ they were carrying, a second one popped up; a BFG, and one of their overclocked editions. Yeah, it was $10 more than the EVGA, but it was in stock, so I ordered it. I arrived today, and I installed it tonight. It was a royal pain to install... the card is so big that I had to move my hard drives. The SATA went into a lower bay (my case, an Antec P182, has a bay for hard drives in the usual place, where mine were, and another in a lower chamber), but I had to put brackets on my IDE and stick in into a 5.25". Absolutely worth it, though. My computer is still whisper quiet, and I ran Crysis at 1024x768, 4x anti-aliasing, textures set to Very High, and everything else set to High. I checked several games at the System Requirements Lab Can You Run It site. My computer now not only exceeds the recommended requirements for every game I checked, in pretty much every case it hit the far right end of the meter.

In short, yeah, it might not be up to a GTX 280 or a Radeon 4870, but it didn't cost $500, either. At $200 ($210 for the overclocked one), the card's a bargain for anyone looking to upgrade their video.

What are your system's specs if you don't mind me asking? Do you happen to play Supreme Commander by any chance? I ask cause I really enjoy playing it...but my Core 2 Duo 6420 and GeForce 8600 GTS struggle to play it when I increase the amount of units per player (my machine can only handle 500 per player). I'm starting to wonder if going to a Quad Core and the 9800 GTX+ will enable me to have more units.... The more units out there the more chaos there is...the more fun I have.

[mikeszekely]

What are your system's specs if you don't mind me asking? Do you happen to play Supreme Commander by any chance? I ask cause I really enjoy playing it...but my Core 2 Duo 6420 and GeForce 8600 GTS struggle to play it when I increase the amount of units per player (my machine can only handle 500 per player). I'm starting to wonder if going to a Quad Core and the 9800 GTX+ will enable me to have more units.... The more units out there the more chaos there is...the more fun I have.

I don't mind.

I've got a 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 (Wolfdale) (Stock cooler)

3GB Kingston Hyper X PC2-6400

BFG GeForce 9800 GTX+ OC

DFI P35 Lanparty Dark mobo

Antec TruPower Trio 650w PSU

Antec P182 case

The only time, and I mean ONLY time, my system chugged at all was late in Crysis, which I'd been running at 4xAA and a mixture of High and Very High settings, when I got to some kind of snow level. The particle effects were a strain. Everything else (Heroes of Might & Magic V, Portal, Mass Effect, Hellgate: London, F.E.A.R, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Bioshock) that I've been playing I've set at the absolute maximum settings and I haven't had even a hint of slowdown. If you get a 9800 GTX+, though, I can't stress enough: make sure you can fit it in your case. I'm not sure how big the 8600s were, but the 8500 I used to have was maybe a third the size of the 9800 GTX+. In fact, the 9800 GTX+ is bigger than the 8800GT or the Radeon 3850. My case is huge, and I still had to remove a hard drive bay.

EDIT: Sorry, I don't play Supreme Commander. I've heard it's really good and one of my friends really wants it, but his computer won't run it. I'm lousy at strategy games, though. I guess you can see from my list that I prefer FPSs and RPGs.

Edited August 22, 2008 by mikeszekely

[Uxi]

That's just it. i see no reason to get it to replace my Nokia N95. To me, its worlds better than the iPhone.

Give me one reason to choose the iPhone over the Nokia N96 when I upgrade.

I've been comparing N96 against iphone myself. Biggest reason: few hundred dollars. Likely as many as 5 or more.

[Vince]

how much is a n96?

if you use ipod, then iphone is a logical choice. it's a ok phone, but a top of the line ipod.

you can't upgrade the memory in an iphone, neither could any ipod.

the minimum bill for iphone is around $100 a month, the device itself is not expensive at all.

only way to find out if it is for you is to go to the store and check it out.

[azrael]

I'm starting to wonder if going to a Quad Core and the 9800 GTX+ will enable me to have more units.... The more units out there the more chaos there is...the more fun I have.

Quad core systems should be able to handle it.

The only time, and I mean ONLY time, my system chugged at all was late in Crysis, which I'd been running at 4xAA and a mixture of High and Very High settings, when I got to some kind of snow level.

Crysis makes most systems cry.

how much is a n96?

around $800 MSRP

[emajnthis]

i wouldn't get an N96 but i wouldn't get an iphone either, not much my style, but i think other countries may have it branded to a carrier which would put it at a closer price point to the iphone than the US. I'm not crazy about all in one phones, mostly because a jack of all trades is a master of nothing, so you get a mediocre phone, with a crappy camera, EDGE instead of 3G, no enterprise support, and an awesome music player (or any variation), instead of getting an awesome phone/camera/music/3G/enterprise support/etc. Admittedly the gap is slowly closing, but just when i think a device has it all, it's missing something to make it perfect (like phones going back to LED flash instead of Xenon flash for cameras, interface bugs, price, business options, lack of 3g, no a2dp etc.). I'd rather own a phone that is a great camera/music/phone and then leave the rest up to a high quality netbook like the new Lenovo S10.

Edited August 22, 2008 by emajnthis

[kensei]

I've had my iphone for awhile now and I can't imagine how I'd get around without it.

I'd already been using ipods for awhile and I needed a cellphone so getting one was a no-brainer for me.

its saved my butt from getting lost when I was out of town, I use it daily to find restaurants, barbers, post offices, department stores etc.

the map search and directions feature is probably what I use the most on it. its like having google and mapquest in your pocket.

I also use the internet all the time on it. you can't imagine how handy it is until you've had real web at the touch of your fingers. I do a lot of ebaying and its really handy for when I get to the post office and forgot to print out someones address or to check what they paid me for shipping.

all the new apps are awesome too. I downloaded "remote" which lets me use my iphone as a remote for my itunes on my imac so I can be sitting on the couch and browse my library and play music.

theres lots of nay-sayers who say "well my nokia can do that blah blah" but until you've owned one and used it for awhile you just won't "get it".

theres soo many little things about it that make it great like being able to pull pics of your friends off their myspace page and use them as avatars for their phone numbers and being able to just touch addresses in emails and have a satellite view of where its at or touch phone numbers in text message and emails and have the phone automatically dial it.

theres a reason more and more PC stuff is going touch... its just very intuitive.

Ok had a go with it for a day. Took it the night before, set it up as best I can for myself, and used it for a day, till the next morning. My friend let me have it to use up the credits as he is in the eastern states for a week, but after only 1 day, I gave it back to his sister.

First, iPods never interested me. Why? Cause it's just an mp3 player. My N95 did the job better. PLUS, I have the added advantage of A2DP, which allows me to go wireless with my Logitech Bluetooth headphones, instead of using lame corded ones.

Internet on a Symbion OS handles much better than the iPhone. There's not much I can do on it, but I'd rather use my Tablet PC with Active for browsing the internet anyway. Internet on a phone is only when i'm stuck without my laptop. I very rarely use such a feature.

No MMS. What the hell? How can I send music and pics and GPS locations to my mates without this feature? No excuses that the iPhone can do that via the internet, most of my friends don't HAVE internet on their phones (or rather, they won't pay extra for such services).

N95 and 96 both have integrated GPS. iPhone doesn't. It's just Google Maps with A-GPS. No network or other cellphone with GPS? No workee.

Of course the N95 and 6 still has applications that it can download and I can also use it as a wireless presenter for my presentations, as well as save my work documents, presentations and spreadsheets so that i can look and study on the go.

Pulling pics of friends myspace pages? Please. Both models have a 5 MP camera. Get a proper pic of them and use it on the calling profile instead. Oh, and plus, record some memorable video moments with DVD-quality, something that is completely missing on the iPhone.

People say that the Nokia Smartphones are bricks, well, the iPhone may be slim, but don't forget that its also longer and wider. Something that suits a woman's handbag. No advantage there.

Also potential for bigger capacity for memory too, AND swappable batteries. I bought a set of five off ebay shipped to my door for $10 USD. If pushed, I have five+ days of power without charging.

So I've "blah blah'ed" and then put out some other points too. I still don't see why an iPhone should be better for me. The only thing that is "cool" is the touch screen. As a user of Tablet PCs, that novelty wears off very quickly on me, under a day in fact.

I've been comparing N96 against iphone myself. Biggest reason: few hundred dollars. Likely as many as 5 or more.

Sure thing, but as mentioned before, what about carrier costs? Man, there's no way I would pay that much for similar services. I'm paying extra for the other features that I use a lot more. To me, it warrants justification buying an N96, or remaining with my current N95.

if you use ipod, then iphone is a logical choice. it's a ok phone, but a top of the line ipod.

you can't upgrade the memory in an iphone, neither could any ipod.

the minimum bill for iphone is around $100 a month, the device itself is not expensive at all.

only way to find out if it is for you is to go to the store and check it out.

That's it. it's just an iPhone in the end to me that can take calls. But when I saw the costs per month for an iPhone, I thought frak that. I only spend $30 a month on $250 call caps.

Edited August 22, 2008 by kensei

[mikeszekely]

i wouldn't get an N96 but i wouldn't get an iphone either, not much my style, but i think other countries may have it branded to a carrier which would put it at a closer price point to the iphone than the US. I'm not crazy about all in one phones, mostly because a jack of all trades is a master of nothing, so you get a mediocre phone, with a crappy camera, EDGE instead of 3G, no enterprise support, and an awesome music player (or any variation), instead of getting an awesome phone/camera/music/3G/enterprise support/etc. Admittedly the gap is slowly closing, but just when i think a device has it all, it's missing something to make it perfect (like phones going back to LED flash instead of Xenon flash for cameras, interface bugs, price, business options, lack of 3g, no a2dp etc.). I'd rather own a phone that is a great camera/music/phone and then leave the rest up to a high quality netbook like the new Lenovo S10.

Which is fine. Seriously, if everyone had an iPhone, they just wouldn't be cool anymore (not to mention there'd be no push for innovation).

Personally, I like the idea of having a the internet in my pocket. Mobile Safari blows away pretty much every other mobile browser out there. And if my phone can double as my music player, great, but I think most "music phones" including LG's Chocolate have been garbage. And I could honestly care less about GPS or camera or anything else like that.

Basically, I have an iPod touch. An iPod touch that I can make and receive calls on, and can access the internet on a data network when there's no wi-fi around? Sounds like a good idea to me.

I just wish it wasn't AT&T only. Not that I mind switching carriers, but AT&T's iPhone plans are nuts. $30 for data, and texting's not even included? If carriers were competing to have the most attractive iPhone plans, the consumer wins.

[CoryHolmes]

I think most "music phones" including LG's Chocolate have been garbage.

Why do you say this?

[mikeszekely]

Why do you say this?

The need for special adapters to connect headphones (this is true of even the first gen iPhones), poor software for syncing songs to the phone (this is especially true of Verizon), limited storage (the KRZR didn't support larger than 2GB Micros SD cards, and at least the first-gen Chocolate was limited to 4GB), poor interface on the phone for calling up your music (again, this is especially a problem with Verizon), etc.

I suppose that some of those issues are true of dedicated mp3 players, though. My brother used to have a little Rio that sucked horrendously.

But hey, like I said, that's my impression of most music phones. If you've got one that works well for you, more power to you. Personally, I liked my 5G iPod, and I like my iPod touch, so I'm inclined to consider getting an iPhone. But like I said, if everyone had an iPhone, it'd lose its cool. That's true for everything, really... variety is cool.

[Vince]

The need for special adapters to connect headphones (this is true of even the first gen iPhones), poor software for syncing songs to the phone (this is especially true of Verizon), limited storage (the KRZR didn't support larger than 2GB Micros SD cards, and at least the first-gen Chocolate was limited to 4GB), poor interface on the phone for calling up your music (again, this is especially a problem with Verizon), etc.

I suppose that some of those issues are true of dedicated mp3 players, though. My brother used to have a little Rio that sucked horrendously.

But hey, like I said, that's my impression of most music phones. If you've got one that works well for you, more power to you. Personally, I liked my 5G iPod, and I like my iPod touch, so I'm inclined to consider getting an iPhone. But like I said, if everyone had an iPhone, it'd lose its cool. That's true for everything, really... variety is cool.

I did not notice kensei is not in the US. We need to understand cell phone tech implementation in the States is behind the rest of the world.

Only music phone I had were java base, the jvm start up are generally very slow, so I usually the phone, a mp3 player, and my blackberry. I'm happy the iphone cut that down to two, and if my work place decide to use the iphone instead of blackberry (there is a rumor going around), I'll be carrying only one device, and that will be very nice.

iphone v2 does have build in gps, however turn by turn navigation is not available yet because apple has not decide on using tomtom or garmin to provide the software. That's why appstore does not allow turn by turn gps addon.

mike, if you're interested in an iphone, I suggest wait about six months to see if they would add more memory to it. there is a 32Gb ipod touch right?

[Oihan]

Thanks for the replies in regards to the Quad-Core/9800 GTX+ question(s).

I have another question (or two) now. I'm looking to replace my 4.1 Altec Lansing computer speakers...but I'm not sure what to get. I'm looking for either 5.1 or 7.1 and spending no more than $200. I was browsing Newegg for speakers, sorting by best ratings, and I've come across some Logitech X-530/540 5.1 speakers for a good price. However, I keep reading about this "Matrix Mode" that "creates 5.1 surround sound from 2-channel stereo sound sources such as music or legacy games," with mixed reviews. Apparently it's supposed to be used for certain sources...otherwise everything sounds horrible. It's really confusing the hell out of me. Does this mean that I'll need this mode enabled to hear music/movies/games from all of the speakers, even though my card supports up to 6.1 channels? I can't seem to find much information about it on the web.... With my current speakers...I don't need any kind of "Matrix Mode-esque" feature to hear sound from all four speakers...regardless of source.

...Would you guys have any recommendations for speakers? Thanks!

[azrael]

I have another question (or two) now. I'm looking to replace my 4.1 Altec Lansing computer speakers...but I'm not sure what to get. I'm looking for either 5.1 or 7.1 and spending no more than $200. I was browsing Newegg for speakers, sorting by best ratings, and I've come across some Logitech X-530/540 5.1 speakers for a good price. However, I keep reading about this "Matrix Mode" that "creates 5.1 surround sound from 2-channel stereo sound sources such as music or legacy games," with mixed reviews. Apparently it's supposed to be used for certain sources...otherwise everything sounds horrible. It's really confusing the hell out of me. Does this mean that I'll need this mode enabled to hear music/movies/games from all of the speakers, even though my card supports up to 6.1 channels? I can't seem to find much information about it on the web.... With my current speakers...I don't need any kind of "Matrix Mode-esque" feature to hear sound from all four speakers...regardless of source.

The Logitech 540s would have been my choice. "Matrix Mode" basically takes 2-channel sound and mixes it so that it becomes 5.1 channels. I really don't know why you would even want to do that. You're basically guessing what 5.1 audio would be like from a 2-channel source (ex. music or movie). Your sound card supports 6.1 sound so you are fine and you shouldn't worry about that.

[Oihan]

The Logitech 540s would have been my choice. "Matrix Mode" basically takes 2-channel sound and mixes it so that it becomes 5.1 channels. I really don't know why you would even want to do that. You're basically guessing what 5.1 audio would be like from a 2-channel source (ex. music or movie). Your sound card supports 6.1 sound so you are fine and you shouldn't worry about that.

Ah, okay. I was getting the impression that this mode was required with some sources, like music, to hear sound from all four speakers. Thanks for the clarification!

Edited August 23, 2008 by Oihan

[mikeszekely]

mike, if you're interested in an iphone, I suggest wait about six months to see if they would add more memory to it. there is a 32Gb ipod touch right?

Oh, I'm definitely waiting that long. I've decided that I'd rather Apple works out the kinks on the iPhone 3G, and it really isn't worth breaking my contract with Verizon. Contract's up in March, so it'll be at least that long. I actually wanted to wait and see if another carrier would get the iPhone, since it seems logical that Apple would want to sell as many as possible, but I'm hearing that AT&T locked it up for a few more years (I guess that's why the plans are so damn expensive).

Storage honestly isn't an issue with me, though. I got the 16GB iPod touch the day Apple first started selling them, and it's currently half full or so. If you take out videos, which honestly are easier to just sync a few, watch them, then dump them from the iPod, my music library is about 5.5GB. As someone who grew up listening to 80's music only to realize how dated it is, and who hated the grunge movement of the 90's, I've found that I've had to recently start a new music collection from scratch. And since I only buy a few CDs a year, it'll honestly be awhile before I have to worry about filling 16GB.

On the other hand, if they do have a 32GB phone later...

[Uxi]

I think it's guaranteed by Christmas that there will be a 32GB iphone, as well.

[Vince]

iphone plans are expensive because of the new equipments for all the 3G stuffs and to make up for the cheaper phone, it'll eventually come down.

Are there still only two gsm carriers in the U.S.? unlocked iphone don't have problem using t mobile as long as the phone is not updated after jail break.

unless Verizon gone gsm and 3G, with all the money invested in their tdma (or cdma?) it's gonna be a while, ATT is the most logical choice to carry iphone in this country.

[mikeszekely]

iphone plans are expensive because of the new equipments for all the 3G stuffs and to make up for the cheaper phone, it'll eventually come down.

Are there still only two gsm carriers in the U.S.? unlocked iphone don't have problem using t mobile as long as the phone is not updated after jail break.

unless Verizon gone gsm and 3G, with all the money invested in their tdma (or cdma?) it's gonna be a while, ATT is the most logical choice to carry iphone in this country.

Everyone but Verizon and Sprint are GSM. And the most logical choice to carry the iPhone is every carrier possible. Look what it did for the RAZR. The phone was crap, but everyone owned one. AT&T might be glad to be the only carrier so they can take us for all we're worth on iPhone plans, but from Apple's point of view, the more people with iPhones (and the more people buying apps from the App Store) the better. More carriers will lead to more competitive iPhone plans and a larger pool of potential customers.

[emajnthis]

I think that's kind of the point, everyone except verizon and sprint are GSM, even globally GSM is the general standard, not to say that CDMA doesn't exist, but it's always in smaller capacity compared to GSM (The US and Canada are the only slow adopters to GSM). Which is usually why GSM gets all the cool phones before CDMA, and most of the cool CDMA phones are adapted GSM phones. The hardware research and manufacturing to turn a GSM phone into a CDMA phone isn't cheap, and historically takes awhile. Apple probably wants the iphone adapted to CDMA, it could just be (like with the RAZR) they want to do it without compromising its inherent feature set and more importantly QC. If anyone can recall the RAZR debut for Verizon, that phone was 10x more problematic than the GSM model, and that's saying a lot 'cause the GSM model was CRAP (then again Moto's in general are crap). I think for the CDMA iphone it's more of a matter of when than why.

[azrael]

Apparently 3G reception in the USA is not the iPhone's problem. It's AT&T's.

http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=444&a=440573

http://www.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=400&a=441105

I've heard the Blackberry Bold is also having 3G issues with AT&T.

[Uxi]

So with the final release specs of N96, and it's price I'm almost certainly NOT getting it. I like it, but with no US carrier offering it there aren't any discounts and I just don't think it's worth 6 hundred more than an iphone. I might consider an N82... or a 16GB iphone.... or I'll just continue to wait with P990

[emajnthis]

I've read different accounts of the 3G issue. I think it's a mix of network but also band switching, and I say that because when i had a BB it was HORRIBLE at band switching. I would always drop calls and lose my network connection because it couldn't switch its EDGE and GSM bands properly when driving between towers. I have a coworker who moonlights for Erricsson and his job is to literally do what the Verizon guy does in the commercials (can you hear me now?) except using software of course (TEMS, i have it flashed onto my phone, it's very cool). Him and i were talking about the 3G issue and he weighed in on it being the same thing, some phones when they're caught between towers have trouble switching bands and channels from one tower to the next so it may look like you have bars when you don't or your connection will abruptly drop out for no reason.

[Dante74]

I'd like your opinions on this set-up. I'm planning to use it for 3D Studio modelling and rendering.

Power; Be Quiet Straight Power, 700 Watt, Retail

Case; 3RSystem R202 Be Quiet

Processor; Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, Socket 775

Screen; Acer AL2416WB 24”

Motherboard; EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI 775 A1, Retail

HD 1; Hitachi Deskstar T7K500, 500 GB, 7200 RPM (storage drive and scratch disk for Photoshop)

HD 2; Hitachi Deskstar T7K500, 320 GB, 7200 RPM (system drive)

Videocard; 2x EVGA GeForce 9600GT SSC, 512MB, GDDR3

RAM; Corsair TW3X4G 1600C9DHX, DDR3, PCI12800

CD/DVD; Asus DRW-2014S1T

Remember this setup I put together some time ago?

It seems that setup was basically for gaming/overclocking and I'm not looking for that kind of system so, after shopping around, I made some changes.

Power; Cooler Master Real Power M620,Retail, 620Watt

Case; Cooler Master CM 690

Processor; Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550

Screen; HP LP2475w 24-inch

Motherboard; GigaByte GA-EP45-DS3R

HD 1; Samsung Spinpoint F1,7200RPM, SATA II, 32MB,

1000GB (storage drive)

HD 2; Samsung SpinPoint F1,7200RPM, SATA II, 32MB, 750GB (system drive)

HD 3; OCZ Core OCZSSD2-1C32G,SATA, 32GB (scratch disk for Photoshop and OS swapfiles)

Videocard; PNY Quadro FX3700 512MB

RAM; Kingston KVR800D2N5K2/4G,4096MB, DDR2, PC6400, 800MHz, 2x meaning 8GB total

CD/DVD; Asus DRW-2014L1T

Good choice?

Edited August 28, 2008 by Dante74

[azrael]

HD 3; OCZ Core OCZSSD2-1C32G,SATA, 32GB (scratch disk for Photoshop and OS swapfiles)

A SSD? I'm not sure you really need this.

[Dante74]

A SSD? I'm not sure you really need this.

I was told that SSD's are the fastest HD out there so it'll be perfect for swapfiles. This one isn't even that expensive. I'll have to admit though, I could do without it, it's just that I have a rather large budget that needs to be filled. (company is paying for it )

[kensei]

So with the final release specs of N96, and it's price I'm almost certainly NOT getting it. I like it, but with no US carrier offering it there aren't any discounts and I just don't think it's worth 6 hundred more than an iphone. I might consider an N82... or a 16GB iphone.... or I'll just continue to wait with P990

Actually, I'd rather wait now till the beginning of next year....I just saw the Nokia N98

[emajnthis]

If your budget is paid for by the company why not go with the most money can buy? Get a Radeon HD4870 x2, a Blu-Ray Drive, Better PSU, etc. And i see your point with the SSD use for swap files, i don't think there are any benchmarks to support it being faster, but logically it should be.

[Dante74]

If your budget is paid for by the company why not go with the most money can buy? Get a Radeon HD4870 x2, a Blu-Ray Drive, Better PSU, etc. And i see your point with the SSD use for swap files, i don't think there are any benchmarks to support it being faster, but logically it should be.

I chose the Quadro FX card because it's specifically made for 3D modelling and rendering, and it uses a lot less power than any gaming card. (the system will be at my home and I'll be paying the electric bill myself ) At nearly €800 it doesn't come cheap but, from what I've read, it'll do the job better and cheaper than any gaming card. I'd love to get a Blu-Ray drive and have thought about including it, but I'd have to explain to my boss why I'd need one for the work I'll be doing on it. I can allways get one when they become cheaper.

What PSU would you recommend?

Besides doing 3D work I'll be doing Photoshop work with it using files of up to 3 GB. My current workstation at the office is giving me lots of problems constantly freezing up because of the swapfiles of up to 20GB which is why I want a seperate disk for them. an SSD HD doesn't have a needle that needs to get into position on the disk which would suggest that its a lot faster than a traditional HD.

I've been thinking about waiting for a Nehalem processor along with DDR3 RAM but I expect it to be very pricey and there's allways something faster and better on the horizon. What do you guys think, should I wait? I'm pretty sure this current setup will do the job and keep on doing it for a couple of years right?

::EDIT spelling

Edited August 30, 2008 by Dante74

[OmegaD3k]

Hi guys, need some help here.. Sorry if this has been asked before, but:

The PC I use for work is well over 5 years old and I've decided to go get a new one - built from scratch. The big question is: What is the most current up-to-date parts for PC's these days?

Are there any good websites one can follow, to learn about all the parts and pieces in more detail?

The PC I on planning on building will be used for everything: Graphics, Photoshop, Flash, Animations, Movies, and also some gaming.

Also... How do laptops compare to PCs these days? Are they at an equal level, or are PCs generally more advanced?

Any help would be most welcome!

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 30, 2008 by OmegaD3k

[Oihan]

Hi guys, need some help here.. Sorry if this has been asked before, but:

The PC I use for work is well over 5 years old and I've decided to go get a new one - built from scratch. The big question is: What is the most current up-to-date parts for PC's these days?

Are there any good websites one can follow, to learn about all the parts and pieces in more detail?

The PC I on planning on building will be used for everything: Graphics, Photoshop, Flash, Animations, Movies, and also some gaming.

Also... How do laptops compare to PCs these days? Are they at an equal level, or are PCs generally more advanced?

Any help would be most welcome!

Thanks in advance!

I generally visit TomsHardware.com and AnandTech.com for information on parts.

For what you want I'd stay away from laptops. You can't go wrong with a dual/quad-core CPU, at least 2GB of DDR2 RAM or better, a 500 watt PSU should be sufficient, and SATA II HDDs. As for video cards.... If you're going to go down the nVidia route, I'd at least get a 8600 GTS or better. If ATI...the equivalent to the 8600 GTS at least.... You may want to look at the ATI Radeon HD 4850.

My two cents.

[mikeszekely]

I generally visit TomsHardware.com and AnandTech.com for information on parts.

For what you want I'd stay away from laptops. You can't go wrong with a dual/quad-core CPU, at least 2GB of DDR2 RAM or better, a 500 watt PSU should be sufficient, and SATA II HDDs. As for video cards.... If you're going to go down the nVidia route, I'd at least get a 8600 GTS or better. If ATI...the equivalent to the 8600 GTS at least.... You may want to look at the ATI Radeon HD 4850.

My two cents.

Skip the 8600. Yeah, it's cheaper, but you shouldn't have anything less than an 8800GT for gaming these days. If you're box is big enough, spring for a 9800GTX+. If not, go for the Radeon HD 4850. The Q6600 is a good deal for a quad-core, or for dual core the E8500 is under $200 now.

I've been thinking about waiting for a Nehalem processor

I'd tossed around the idea myself for awhile. Nehalem, or the Core i7 as they're formally called now, looks to be a significant step up from the Core 2 family, and naturally that means a different socket so you can't just upgrade the processor, you gotta start from scratch.

Ultimately, I went with the E8400. All of the Wolfdale series Core 2 Duos offer a good amount of bang for your buck. Realistically, we're still 9 months to a year away from the Core i7s being commercially available, and longer before you have them reasonably priced with a decent selection of compatible mobos. And if I could wring 5 years out of a 2.6GHz Pentium 4, you can expect a few years from Intel's current crop.

[azrael]

For what you want I'd stay away from laptops.

Well, laptops are okay, but it would have to be a work-horse laptop. I know people who use a workhorse laptop for photos, movies, and animations. But it would either a Macbook Pro or a Dell XPS or equivalent system. So a laptop could work for OmegaD3k.

If you want to go laptop or plan on being mobile, I would suggest the Macbook Pro 17" or the Dell XPS 1730.

If you plan on staying stationary, then a desktop would be cheaper and more suitable to which others have already suggested parts for.