Recommendations For New Pc (for Vista)

[Uncle_Ho]

Hello All ,

I am planning to buy a new PC before year ends and needs recommendations.

This is what i will be using the PC for - Video Editing , Photoshop, Flash, Games, Movies, Internet.

Budget : 40,000

I have few questions to ask:

1. Do you guys think its better to buy the new PC in Jan 2007. Considering the Baht is 35 against the dollar, will it make things cheaper? (cpus, motherboards, HDD)

2. For video editing and photoshop, do you think its ok to go for LCD screen now or to still stick with CRT ones?

3. I want the new PC to be future-proof for 3-4 years. Must be ready for Vista and its graphics.

* Do you guys think i should go for the Core 2 Duo now ? or wait for a while ?

* What motherboards do you think i should buy and its model ( i am an asus guy , but willing to go where quality is)

* Since a lot of video editing will be done , do you think 1 gig ram will be sufficient? Or should i go for 2 ? What kind of graphics card do i need ? I also need to be able to transfer movies from my DV camera.

*What kind of Power Supply / Case do you recommend. I heard that a good power supply is a must. HOw many Watts power do i need ? - Oh and please recommend a good cooling system for the PC. (Should i get the Cooler Master ones?)

* If you guys think i should go for LCD screen, can you recommend me a model ( 17 or 19 inch) . How do i check for dead pixels ?

I am asking too much now. Just hoping / wishing for a good recommendations because i have no idea with it at all - cant keep up with technology.

Thank you all in advance.

[The Coder]

Microsoft has something called the upgrade advisor. It will look at your machine specs and tell you where you need more goods to be up to snuff for vista. That will give lots of good info.

Based on my experience running vista, I'd go *minimum* 2 cores, 4gb ram, dx10 graphics card, fast sata 3g hard drive. You can build a new, but basic sys for 40K baht that will run vista, but it may not run as fast as xp does on your existing sys. I have been running the vista release candidate and been apalled at just how sloooow everything is compared to xp. I haven't even run the aero graphics.

[Crushdepth]

I have been running the vista release candidate and been apalled at just how sloooow everything is compared to xp. I haven't even run the aero graphics.

Similar things were said by Steve Gibson on a recent Security Now podcast (think it was this one) - however he came back in a later one and said that the RC version is *dog slow* because it has all sorts of debugging gunk running through it.

He later said the real deal compares favourably to Windows XP, he had it running well on some fairly outdated hardware no problem (without Aero, but then it was something like an old 800MHz machine).

Edited December 14, 2006 by Crushdepth

[francois]

hi'

just to confirm what Steve Gipson said, it's slooww

and I'm testing an rcm version of vista enterprise, running a prescott @ 3.8ghz, nvidia 7600gs, 2gb ram ...

I set it up on a seperate disk, and will soon will format this disk ...

XP well configured works twice better and faster

it looks to me that vista without aero is useless, and to use aero better have a big screen, 22" at least ...

pentium core2duo, pci express 16x with at least a card with 512mb of ram, a 8800 from nvidia would be the perfect match,

except the price of this card(directX 10 compatible) ...

if you want a new com running vista with all features, get the ultimate version ...

and a fast and prerforming rig, no budget cut for this

good luck

I stay with XP and Suse 10.1, for me vista is a cosmetic version of XP and not even better

imho of course

francois

[friend2]

cant keep up with technology

Don't, let the technology keep up with you instead.

I wouldn't put Vista into the equation if you wanna do real work at this time.

[Uncle_Ho]

SO you guys are saying its too early to adopt Vista.

Well how about a new computer for "Xp" but with core 2 duo and 2 gig ram ..

what mainboard do you recommend ? model ?

what is the difference between AGP and PCI ? what should i get as i will be playing games too. I am not looking for the top of the range ones but one that is good enough to play heavy games.

[The Coder]

AGP is obsolete. Take a look at the below link for ideas on parts for a $1000 USD gaming machine. You can deviate here and there; it has 1GB, but 2GB is the way to go for what you are doing.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/MVGSBG...cle.php/3633106

[Uncle_Ho]

thanx

[friend2]

Can you find Antec power supply's in Thailand ?

I've had a hard time locating any over here.

[bonsaimax]

Definitely go for a Core 2 Duo. From my experience, between the 1.86 GHz Core 2 Duo and the 3.4 GHz Dual Core Pentiums [priced similarly], there is a noticeable difference in speed especially in multitasking and graphics-intensive programs.

Here in LOS, I've had good results with Enermax and Coolermaster power supply units.

If you like ASUS, then go for the P5B motherboard.

I have no statistics to back these up. Just my own personal opinion.

[cdnvic]

I think this is the last year they'll make single core chips so no need to wait on dual core. A hyperthreading P4 will run Vista just fine. In fact a Celeron laptop will so long as you don't want the fancy Aero GUI.

[Richard-BKK]

Lots of people I speak are talking about the next thing they going to do now Windows Vista is available, many have indicated that they will stick with Windows XP or even Windows 2000.

Some are looking more serious at alternatives, Linux is a good alternative but that is a story for another time.

One Operating System people seem to like is MacOs X, which normally works only on Apple computers. Now I’m also a happy Apple user, or to be honest it is more my g/f who is the Apply lover. It seems more that I’m the Apple buyer.

As we have enough Apple stuff in the house and I read some stories on the Internet that some “hackers” are able to run MacOs X x86 on a regular PC. Before I get myself and this post removed, hacking of software sounds illegal, but how illegal depends on the software license involved, in this case most of the new Macintosh operating system X is Open Source.

The source code is easily downloaded from http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html (again still 100% legal)

I did not had the right hardware to get close enough to fool the MacOs installation that it was going to get on a x86 Macintosh, the early Apple’s with a Intel chipset where almost the same as the Intel 915G chipset. But for my tryout I used a Virtual Machine (from VMware) after some tweaking and pulling some hair out of my head I got it working. The PCMac Os x86 community have there own extremely helpful Wiki website.

Conclusion, it is possible to get a Mac in a box (post picture later, seems Thaivisa do not allow pictures anymore, see http://www.pai-nai.com/My-PCMacX86.jpg, you need at least a processor capable of running SSE2 and SSE3 code (from Intel Celeron D any processor from AMD and Intel capable running SSE2 and SSE3 will work), Mac’s come standard with more memory then I had available in my virtual machine, which made my Apple in a box pretty slow. The virtual machine had acceptable performance on an Intel Pentium 4 Presott 3Ghz E processor with1GB internal memory.

I have to say running the latest Mac OS X on a regular PC kicks anything Microsoft can offer for the next coming years, by the way it is also possible to run the Mac on a Linux computer as VMware is released for MS Windows and Linux computers. (Linux was probably the better choice, Linux uses less memory and resources for itself

Edited December 14, 2006 by Richard-BKK

[ourmanflint]

Lots of people I speak are talking about the next thing they going to do now Windows Vista is available, many have indicated that they will stick with Windows XP or even Windows 2000.

Some are looking more serious at alternatives, Linux is a good alternative but that is a story for another time.

One Operating System people seem to like is MacOs X, which normally works only on Apple computers. Now I’m also a happy Apple user, or to be honest it is more my g/f who is the Apply lover. It seems more that I’m the Apple buyer.

I have to say running the latest Mac OS X on a regular PC kicks anything Microsoft can offer for the next coming years, by the way it is also possible to run the Mac on a Linux computer as VMware is released for MS Windows and Linux computers. (Linux was probably the better choice, Linux uses less memory and resources for itself

The world is getting complicated isn't it?

For my two cents a great compromise would be to buy an intel Mac that dual boots Mac OS X and Windows XP, ( think iMac) and because of the different architecture of Mac computers, XP actually runs faster than it does on a PC. Like I said it's a weird new world. I think though that Microsoft knobbled Vista so it couldn't run on a Mac, I think they were terrified of the consequences to the Microsoft ecosystem.

[cdnvic]

The world is getting complicated isn't it?

For my two cents a great compromise would be to buy an intel Mac that dual boots Mac OS X and Windows XP, ( think iMac) and because of the different architecture of Mac computers, XP actually runs faster than it does on a PC. Like I said it's a weird new world. I think though that Microsoft knobbled Vista so it couldn't run on a Mac, I think they were terrified of the consequences to the Microsoft ecosystem.

No need to dual boot anymore now that you can just open Windows, Linux, or a ton of other OS's inside a window on your Mac.

Virtual machines rock.

http://www.parallels.com/

[Uncle_Ho]

iMac 17-inch : 2.0 GHz selling at Pantip for 49,900.

the same model selling at apple.com for US $ 1,199.00 ... considering thai baht now at only 35 to a dollar .. it comes to 41,965 baht .. nearly 8000 baht difference ... if its selling @ pantip for 41,965 i would def. buy it ...

8000 baht is a lot of money ..

Edited December 15, 2006 by Uncle_Ho

[The Coder]

iMac 17-inch : 2.0 GHz selling at Pantip for 49,900...the same model selling at apple.com for US nearly 8000 baht difference

Actually you can find them in the US for around $900 without too much difficulty and save in the order of 20,000 baht compared to Thailand. You will get comparable savings even if you are just buying parts. Thailand is not a good place to buy consumer electronics/computer stuff compared to US street prices.

[Uncle_Ho]

sadly i am in bangkok

is there a way to order an IMAC from the US with that price ?

[bubba]

sadly i am in bangkok

is there a way to order an IMAC from the US with that price ?

Mac prices in Hong Kong are roughly the same as in the USA. It might even pay to find a cheap ticket up to HKG for a day trip to buy an iMac.

http://store.apple.com/800-908-988/WebObje...;nclm=iMacIntel

[talatnat]

Before I get myself and this post removed, hacking of software sounds illegal, but how illegal depends on the software license involved, in this case most of the new Macintosh operating system X is Open Source.

The source code is easily downloaded from http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html (again still 100% legal)

You need a developer's license ($$) to legally use OS X on an Intel machine, and I was passed one along (they can be transferred) by a friend who had no more use for it. (The OS X MacIntel kernel was hacked and leaked -- in fact, it's sold in Pantip illegally.)

I built a pc last month with OS X in mind; it triple-boots XP, Ubuntu 6.06 and OS X (10.4.8), all legally. As of now, the only problem with OS X and my motherboard is that it outputs 2 channels of sound instead of eight (for home theater applications). Everything else works pretty much out-of-the-box with a few minor patches to the OS X kernel extensions. Ubuntu 6.06 is OK, but 6.1 didn't like my setup. XP, unfortunately, runs just fine, but I'm trying to abandon it since I'm reluctant to shell out more money for my fourth Windows upgrade to Vista.

But it's painful to keep rebooting for different OS's, so a better option, as someone suggested, is to use VMWare or Parallels, but this slows things down on my machine. Overall, I'm happy, but other than the eye candy of XP and OS X, I think I'll end up with a Linux machine.

[Uncle_Ho]

is it possible for me to buy a PC and install OS X into it ? do i need the right motherboard and the right hardware to get this done .. this is an interesting idea !!!

i am planning to buy a Intel CPU - Core2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz, An Asus Motherboard, 2 Gig Ram

which graphics card will OS X take ?

what are the necessary steps to take to ensure i can get OS X install in a Intel PC ?

thanks

[cdnvic]

is it possible for me to buy a PC and install OS X into it ? do i need the right motherboard and the right hardware to get this done .. this is an interesting idea !!!

i am planning to buy a Intel CPU - Core2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz, An Asus Motherboard, 2 Gig Ram

which graphics card will OS X take ?

what are the necessary steps to take to ensure i can get OS X install in a Intel PC ?

thanks

You need a developers license to do it legally as pointed out above. You also need to have alot of know-how and experience to make it work (more than you'll gain from a forum post). Then there's the issue of updates and if they will break your shoehorned configuration.

I don't think its worth it when for a couple hundred more you can have a core duo iMac which runs on excellent hardware, and has full warrantee and support.

Edited December 16, 2006 by cdnvic