Seria
PC Cutie ^_^
- Messages
- 553
Hey everyone! I'm getting ready to build my mother a new computer but i've been out of the computer world for a lil while and, of course, everything has completely changed.
I was wondering if I could get some advice from some of my old friends... so, here I am ^_^
I'd be really grateful for your help and guidance with this. I'm not afraid to do research and I need to get caught up in the computer world anyways.. but I just don't know where to start. I feel like I have a pile of Lego's and Mega Block in front of me, I know that I'm supposed to build a computer out of them but I don't have an instruction book... and... worse than that.... when I look into that pile, I can't even tell the difference between the Lego's and the Mega Blocks.
I'm not sure where to start but I've got some info that will get the ball rolling.
Its gonna run Vista Ultimate and ima get Office 2007 for her (time for word perfect be retired)
I know your first question is gonna be "whats your budget?". and my answer is "$1200 (not including vista and I don't need a keyboard, mouse or monitor.)".
Then your second question is gonna be "What is she gonna do with it?". to that, i'd have to answer with the following:
Direct answer: "She's gonna work with Word, Excel, browse the net and a few other misc tasks."
Informative answer: "If all I wanted her to do, was work in a word processor & browse the net, i'd buy a Dell or, heaven forbid, a mac. but I do have Adobe CS3 that I wanna load up on there, she wants to play around in Adobe Elements and I'd like to be able to load up a few games on there[like WOW and StarCraft II whenever that comes out] so, I need more that a crappy 'bundle buy' but I don't need 'the ultimate gaming machine' either (I'll build that for me later ^_^). somewhere in the middle would be good."
Here is a list of what I need to gather for this PC... I just need help finding the right brands, type's and models for what I'm looking for.
1) Case (don't really care about looks[simple and black will do, but it cannot have a drive cover])
2) PSU (Preferably not included with case, I need more power and a good brand... but whatever)
3) CPU (I hear Intel is the way to go at the moment [I've always been an AMD-girl m'self]. and when it comes to CPU's im still running on my old AMD Athlon XP 2400+, so, i've got not ideas here.)
4) Motherboard (I've got no idea what company is the big dog anymore -_-; [on-board sound and NIC are fine] I've always used MSI and ASUS... but... im easy)
5) RAM (Preferably 3Gigs. I've always liked Kingston but that's merely a side-note)
6) Optical Drive (all in one. do they even make single drives anymore?)
7) Video Card (I've always had EVGA and I like 'em... but if they're not as awesome as they were, I could go for a change)
8) HD (I would like 2, one for the OS[100gig ish] and another for data[200gig ish]. [I don't even know what is a good setup for the HD's anymore, I know we're not using IDE's anymore and sadly, I've got no experience with anything else. once you start talking SATA and RAID, you've lost me.)
I'd like to go OEM for everything I can, I don't need to pay for the books and the pretty box that i'll just throw away anyways.
Thank you in advance for your help. *^_^*
Ok, here's my idea for the CPU.
It's an Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
Newegg.com - Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
*) I picked it because I would like to build the machine to be a quad-core and apparently AMD's quad-core's are currently a no-no.
*) I like the 6MB of L2 Cache ( I was noticing that AMD's quads didn't even come close to that)
*) I assume it has hyperthreading, even though it doesn't come right out and say it, because its all I can tell as the difference between these : Newegg.com - $200 - $300, 1333MHz, 2.5GHz - 2.99GHz, Core 2 Quad, Intel, Processors - Desktops, CPUs / Processors, Computer Hardware
Here are a few questions I have:
1) What does the “Q9400" refer to? I noticed there was an “E8600". What do the letters mean and what does the number reference?
2) I picked this CPU over the other one in the link above because it was only $20 more and it has hyperthreading(I assume). Would I be right in saying the following: “Not only can this processor do 4 times as much as single-core processor, but it can also think about it twice as fast(per each core?)â€
3) What is the LGA 775 95W? The only thing I can think of, is that it's a socket 775 and it uses 95Watts. Is this an accurate hypothesis?
4) Is this a good CPU to work with? How does it rate? What are your experiences or opinions?
I was wondering if I could get some advice from some of my old friends... so, here I am ^_^
I'd be really grateful for your help and guidance with this. I'm not afraid to do research and I need to get caught up in the computer world anyways.. but I just don't know where to start. I feel like I have a pile of Lego's and Mega Block in front of me, I know that I'm supposed to build a computer out of them but I don't have an instruction book... and... worse than that.... when I look into that pile, I can't even tell the difference between the Lego's and the Mega Blocks.
I'm not sure where to start but I've got some info that will get the ball rolling.
Its gonna run Vista Ultimate and ima get Office 2007 for her (time for word perfect be retired)
I know your first question is gonna be "whats your budget?". and my answer is "$1200 (not including vista and I don't need a keyboard, mouse or monitor.)".
Then your second question is gonna be "What is she gonna do with it?". to that, i'd have to answer with the following:
Direct answer: "She's gonna work with Word, Excel, browse the net and a few other misc tasks."
Informative answer: "If all I wanted her to do, was work in a word processor & browse the net, i'd buy a Dell or, heaven forbid, a mac. but I do have Adobe CS3 that I wanna load up on there, she wants to play around in Adobe Elements and I'd like to be able to load up a few games on there[like WOW and StarCraft II whenever that comes out] so, I need more that a crappy 'bundle buy' but I don't need 'the ultimate gaming machine' either (I'll build that for me later ^_^). somewhere in the middle would be good."
Here is a list of what I need to gather for this PC... I just need help finding the right brands, type's and models for what I'm looking for.
1) Case (don't really care about looks[simple and black will do, but it cannot have a drive cover])
2) PSU (Preferably not included with case, I need more power and a good brand... but whatever)
3) CPU (I hear Intel is the way to go at the moment [I've always been an AMD-girl m'self]. and when it comes to CPU's im still running on my old AMD Athlon XP 2400+, so, i've got not ideas here.)
4) Motherboard (I've got no idea what company is the big dog anymore -_-; [on-board sound and NIC are fine] I've always used MSI and ASUS... but... im easy)
5) RAM (Preferably 3Gigs. I've always liked Kingston but that's merely a side-note)
6) Optical Drive (all in one. do they even make single drives anymore?)
7) Video Card (I've always had EVGA and I like 'em... but if they're not as awesome as they were, I could go for a change)
8) HD (I would like 2, one for the OS[100gig ish] and another for data[200gig ish]. [I don't even know what is a good setup for the HD's anymore, I know we're not using IDE's anymore and sadly, I've got no experience with anything else. once you start talking SATA and RAID, you've lost me.)
I'd like to go OEM for everything I can, I don't need to pay for the books and the pretty box that i'll just throw away anyways.
Thank you in advance for your help. *^_^*
Ok, here's my idea for the CPU.
It's an Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
Newegg.com - Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops
*) I picked it because I would like to build the machine to be a quad-core and apparently AMD's quad-core's are currently a no-no.
*) I like the 6MB of L2 Cache ( I was noticing that AMD's quads didn't even come close to that)
*) I assume it has hyperthreading, even though it doesn't come right out and say it, because its all I can tell as the difference between these : Newegg.com - $200 - $300, 1333MHz, 2.5GHz - 2.99GHz, Core 2 Quad, Intel, Processors - Desktops, CPUs / Processors, Computer Hardware
Here are a few questions I have:
1) What does the “Q9400" refer to? I noticed there was an “E8600". What do the letters mean and what does the number reference?
2) I picked this CPU over the other one in the link above because it was only $20 more and it has hyperthreading(I assume). Would I be right in saying the following: “Not only can this processor do 4 times as much as single-core processor, but it can also think about it twice as fast(per each core?)â€
3) What is the LGA 775 95W? The only thing I can think of, is that it's a socket 775 and it uses 95Watts. Is this an accurate hypothesis?
4) Is this a good CPU to work with? How does it rate? What are your experiences or opinions?
