The I5 isn't as fast as the I7, and the I7 920 is the same price as the I5 comparable processor. A 500W supply is barely adequate for a medium end graphics card, for a high end you'd need at least 700W if not 1000.
Sorry, just didn't want you to end up with something you'd be disappointed with.
Mind you it comes with a lot more of course. The barebones packages are the most affordable. I imagine the I5 will do everything I need, but thank you just the same FL. By the way, how much faster will the I7 be than the I5?
Okay, maybe I don't need a high end graphics card.
By the way, how much faster will the I7 be than the I5?
But the only I7 starts at about twice the price.
The CPUS themselves costs about the same, around $289 (goes up and down each day practically). It's the motherboard for the I7 that costs more, it does more things and is more capable than the I5 motherboard. It also uses triple channel memory rather than dual channel.
As far as speed, it depends on what sorts of applications you plan on running. The I7 not only has 4 physical cores, but also has hyperthreading, allowing the operating system to treat each physical core as two logical processors, where your system runs as if it had 8 CPUS.
The I5 doesn't have hyperthreading, so only runs as 4 CPUS.
In certain applications, such as video encoding (if you want to edit and produce videos from a camcorder for instance), the more CPUS the faster everything runs.
In terms of upgrade paths, the I5 uses a socket which will not be supported by the newer processors coming out, whereas the I7 uses a socket which will be used by the newer processors.
As far as graphics the 8400 is practically obsolete. I'd get at least a 8800 GT, or a 9800 GT, which is a newer card and a tad bit faster.
Depends what you want the graphics card for as well. If you want to do some serious gaming with the newest games maxed out on a wide screen high def 24 inch or larger monitor, you need something like a GTX 295 or something similar (the GTX 280, 285, and 275 cards were almost as good but a LOT cheaper, but are now largely discontinued), then you're talking over $500 for the card.
If you want to play the newer games at acceptable settings on a 22 inch widescreen or smaller monitor, then the 8800GT would be fine, the 9800GT a bit better.
I want the graphics card for such things as compiz fusion, watching movies etc.
I never do any gaming.
Then you don't need a discrete graphics card, and you certainly don't need an i5 or i7. The i5 retails for $199...
You can get a quad core AMD cpu for $99 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706
It's not an i5, but if you don't game or spend all day processing images or video it's more than enough.
A good motherboard for $90 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128397
This board has integrated graphics that can playback HD video and run compiz fusion very well.
A case and power supply for $110 here: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129024&CMP=OTC-TechReport&ATT=11-129-024&nm_mc=OTC-TechReport&cm_mmc=OTC-TechReport-_-NA-_-NA-_-NA
The quality of this case and power supply are far superior to the system on ebay.
DDR3 memory prices have gone up recently, so 4 GB will cost you about $100: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134718
A very good 500 GB HD for $55: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181
And another good Samsung product in thins DVD burner for $31: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175
And you're pretty much done for about $500. The quality will be much better than the ebay system and you'll have the satisfaction of putting it together yourself. There are numerous guides on the net for building your own PC. It's easier than it looks.
And you're pretty much done for about $500. The quality will be much better than the ebay system and you'll have the satisfaction of putting it together yourself. There are numerous guides on the net for building your own PC. It's easier than it looks.
I've had trouble with this Radeon 9600 card I got second hand for $20 and getting a driver with linux so I can get the compiz fusion to work. I've been told it's because the 3d accelerator isn't working and I'm thinking of getting a NVIDIA card instead. Would a NVIDIA card work with the AMD desktop?
I would be hesitant in buying something like that, not because it won't meet your computing needs, but because the power supply you get with it will be extremely inefficient. You'll be throwing away 40% of the watts it sucks out of the socket. And it's probably not very reliable either. Don't be surprised if it fails within a few months. The quality of the case looks very suspect also.
The case and power supply are the foundation of a good system, and in my opinion it's worth paying a little extra for quality.
nVidia has a reputation for better driver support for linux, but AMD is improving in that regard, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Yes, you can plug an nVidia card on an AMD motherboard.
If you feel building your own isn't for you, go here once a day: http://dealnews.com/ and look for desktop deals from HP or Dell. I wouldn't buy one of them either for the reasons stated above, but in the next couple of weeks you're liable to run into a good deal for an HP or Dell for under $500.
From what I've seen Intel processors have consistantly blown AMD out of the water.
My old E6850 dual core outperforms the latest AMD quad cores in actual performance. Ok, I've overclocked it to 3.6GHz and have some high performance memory, but still...
Running the SETI software, and comparing the actual computing times for Astropulse (which takes a LONG time to run), my times beat any AMD processor out there.
From what I've seen Intel processors have consistantly blown AMD out of the water.
I know. The i5 will beat AMD's best processor handily, and I wasn't even suggesting he get AMD's best.
He's shopping on ebay because he wants to meet his needs on a budget, and from what he said he doesn't need a system based on Intel's top shelf processors. I'd like a Maserati, but I make do with a Corola cause, you know, I'm poor.
Buying a system like that on ebay is just asking for trouble from a reliability and future expandability standpoint. He's much better off slapping together components himself, or, failing that, buying a budget system from HP or Dell.
One thing about HP though, some of their machines have inherent problems with the motherboard causing them not to recover from sleep mode. I think I'd settle for a Dell if I had to buy a prebuilt machine.
(using the Maserati/Corolla comparison) I bought a car off this site a few months back.
A 1989 Ford Tempo with only 149,000 km on it. That's about 100,000 miles of course. Which is very good for a 20 year old car. I had to change the water pump which cost me $50. It was a bit of a chore because it's amazing how much they can cram under the hood of a front wheel drive. Anyway, I paid $450 for it. Pretty good deal. It has power windows and all that.
Here's a HP with an I5, 8GB of RAM, 1TB disk, a mid range graphics card, memory card reader, DVD burner, wireless networking card builtin, and Windows 7 installed...
I now have a Pentium 4 2 ghz processor with 1 Gig ram and a 250 Gig harddrive and another 250 Gig external hard drive.
I have vector linux and it's pretty fast.
I got sick of windows xp.
I don't know if I would be spending anywhere over $500 for something new. Probably not this year.
I bought this one I have now for $120 and spent another $40 on an extra 512 mb ram and two 250 gig hd for $60 bucks each used. The graphics card I got for $30.
I think maybe if I could get something like the used HP I posted, that it would be good because it's got everything including a monitor and 3 gb ram. I dunno, I certainly don't know near as much as you do about it and do have time to think about it though. If I could, I'd just dish out a few grand and get the best, but I can't.