Choosing a new PC

January 17, 2009 | 3 min

My current PC is nearly 3 years old now and is getting a bit past its use-by date. I'm planning on buying or building myself a new PC over the next couple of months.

Here are my current system spec:

  • Cheap mid-tower black case with blue LED case fan
  • Pentium 4 CPU, 3.0Ghz with Zalman AlCu Blue LED flower CPU fan
  • CoolerMaster Real Power 450W power supply (with blue LED)
  • 1GB RAM
  • 2x 160GB Seagate Barracuda HDD
  • GeForce FX5200 GPU with 128MB
  • Leadtek WinFast PVR2000 Tv Tuner Card
  • CD Writer
  • DVD Writer

It's not bad for my normal everyday stuff (30+ browsing tabs, multiple msn windows, a couple of notepad instances, maybe a Word or Excel or MS Money or so), but sometimes has trouble playing higher quality videos and some games, and it takes ages to compile a Visual Studio application. Plus, it's too noisy to sleep in the same room with it on.

I have upgraded my monitor to a Dell UltraSharp 22inch already, and have awesome Altec Lansing speakers and a Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard, so basically all I need is a completely new box. The only thing in the new system that I would consider keeping is the power supply, DVD writer and perhaps the TV tuner card. Everything else needs an upgrade. However, I'm probably going to sell it, so it will be easier to leave it intact and buy an entirely new system.

My primary considerations are that I want a PC that is quiet and fast. Even though I upgraded my current CPU fan, power supply and case fan with quietness in mind, the cheap case with lack of soft hard drive mounting means that there is quite a bit of vibration noise. Now that I have the computer in my bedroom, quietness is a priority.

Obviously, price is also a factor. I was kinda hoping for around about $1200 or so, no more than that. However, my first wishlist was significantly higher than that...

Higher-spec system (with indicative pricing from PriceSpy):

Total cost: $1,955

Lower-spec system (with indicative pricing from PriceSpy):

  • Antec SOLO Quiet ATX Mid Tower Case, Silver/Black ($160)
  • Antec NeoPower 500, 500W ATX PSU, Active PFC, SLI Ready, Gun Metal Grey, Retail ($130)
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.0 GHz, Socket AM2, Retail pack with fan ($195)
  • Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 Motherboard, Socket AM2+, 2000MHz FSB, 4xDIMM, DDR2, PCIe-16, 2xPCI, 4xPCIe-1, 10xUSB2 ($155)
  • Galaxy GF9600GT Silent Heatpipe with XTREME Tuner Video Card, GeForce 9600 GT, 512MB, DDR3, PCIe-16, TV out, DVI, HDTV, SLI ready, Silent Heatpipe ($209)
  • Corsair XMS2, TWIN2X4096-6400C5, 2x2GB, DDR2-800, PC2-6400, CL5, DIMM ($122)
  • Western Digital VelociRaptor WD750HLFS Hard Disk Drive, 75GB, 10000rpm, 16384KB Cache, SATA-2 ($235)
  • [No second hard drive - will keep my old 160GB for now and upgrade later]
  • Asus DRW-20B1LT DVD Writer, DVD 16R/20W/8RW, CD 40R/48W/32RW, Internal, SATA, Black, Retail, LightScribe ($45)

Total Cost: $1,251

I know the 10,000rpm VelociRaptor drive is a bit pricey, but by all accounts having a fast drive as a boot drive makes a huge difference. It doesn't actually need to be big as it will just house the OS and apps, all data will be on a second drive, so my compromise is a smaller drive rather than switch to a cheaper 7,200rmp drive.

As an alternative to building my own, I can get a Dell Inspiron Desktop with the Intel E8400 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB Ram, 250GB HDD, DVD burner & ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB GPU for about $1400. It comes with an unnecessary version of Vista, and I'd want to put a VelociRaptor drive in it for an extra $230.

Does anyone who knows something about this want to comment on these systems? Are my specs OK? Which things should I compromise on and which should I go with the higher spec? Is the Intel really $200 better than AMD? Should I bother building my own at all?

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