will i see a big performance boost?

[aymank]

i currently have a pentium 4 3.2ghz, 300GB HD 1gb ram and an ati x600 radeon

i have been looking at a pc with the following specs - Q8200, 4gig ram, 2x500gb HD. 256mb ATi radeon 3450 , its been offered at a v cheap price (i think about £270)

i wont really be looking to overclock just run at stock speeds.
i do a lot of video encoding high def stuff.
dont really play games but i may update the graphics driver at a later date.

its a dell vostro pc.

what i want to know is ive never used a quad core pc, is that a good price and will i see a good worthy performance increase , there is a similar spec'd with a q6600 processor but for £50/60 more

 

[Razor]

If your not gaming then you will see a massive boost. Especially for video encoding.

Buy a 4770 (£70) as a cheap card and your gaming will be in a different league.

The price offered is ok.


I know you say you dont want to overclock but I thought you should know. You probably wont be able to overclock at all as its a Dell pc and they are known for shutting off the bios overclocking controls.

 

[aymank]

thanks for your reply razor

i thought the price was ok too, i was thinking of building my own but it doesnt work out cheaper these days? the last time i build one a good 5 or 6 years ago you could save a fortune by builiding it yourself, i guess you can be assured that your putting in quality components in it.

shame that dell do that in the bios however not such a big problem as i wouldnt be fiddling with it anyway but it would of been good to havethat feature.

would you reccomend any other type pc's with in that price range (300 to 400) which might better for me?

 

[Razor]

Its a very tight budget once you factor in pc case, psu and operating system.

Do you already have these? If so you could build a nice pc for £400. The main difference would be a mobo that could overclock and a better graphics card.

 

[anothadave]

it will definately be faster. the pentium 4 isnt even really a match for a regular core2duo let alone a quad core 8x00! the q6600 is slightly quicker at stock speeds and overclocks well. i think id lean towards the q6600 and avoid the dell....

i just put together an i7 system for £580... but i used quite high spec parts... if you reuse some parts from your existing pc you might be able to squeeze it under your budget.

the asus p6t se board is around £160 mark, gigabite and msi do a budget board too for that kinda price. the msi x58 pro is about £150 and has very good reviews. ddr3 ram is dirt cheap. £40 no problems for 3gb of triple channel stuff. you can get an i7 920 cpu for £165 on ebay, (theres a couple sellers right now with that price) or £219 brand new. if you reuse your graphics card, case and drives and that should all come to well under £400! the i7 will slaughter anything else for video encoding. ok it wont be a top of the line i7 but you can always add on bits in the future as funds will allow. youll have a very solid base to start with...

 

[aymank]

wow, great help there guys

i been reading reviews for the i7 , and to be honest thats really what i want(amazing results in media encoding), unfortunatly i will need a case as the one im using now is slim one.

i guess im willing to stretch my budget a bit

can i ask where you bought your mobo from anothadave?

ive seen a couple i7/mobo bundles on scan but i dont think they are doing that now so could you reccomend one for me?

also why is it so hard to just find a professional looking pc case? all the ones i have looked at have crazy colors, weird shapes etc

i just want a mid sized tower, black or silver thats well constructed.

 

[mbell]

The Hiper Osiris case is a fantastic product at a really good price. I put together an i7 system with one of these cases around Christmas and I'm very happy with it indeed.

HIPER - PRODUCTS - HIPERCASE - OSIRIS

The i7 mobo goes like a rocket, but really comes into its own when you use programs that make good use of all the available CPUs, for example, Adobe Lightroom 2 whizzes through a file export process like a Ferrari.

 

[aymank]

The Hiper Osiris case is a fantastic product at a really good price. I put together an i7 system with one of these cases around Christmas and I'm very happy with it indeed.

HIPER - PRODUCTS - HIPERCASE - OSIRIS

The i7 mobo goes like a rocket, but really comes into its own when you use programs that make good use of all the available CPUs, for example, Adobe Lightroom 2 whizzes through a file export process like a Ferrari.

where are the prices/where can i buy this case? possibly bigger than what i need?

 

[mbell]

where are the prices/where can i buy this case? possibly bigger than what i need?

I got mine from Amazon for £79.99. It is a full-size tower.

 

[anothadave]

i actualy got an asus p6t deluxe got it this morning and very excited lol. but the msi x58 pro is meant to be a good board and the retail price is £150ish so any decent supplier should have it. the asus p6t se is really good too and should also be fine for your needs thats got a rrp of £160ish. and theres a cheap gigabyte board (ex58-ud3r) in the same price range.

the msi pro is on special offer at aria. £139, id snap it up!!

MSI X58 PRO Intel X58 Socket 1366 Motherboard - Aria Technology

good idea about the case upgrade, youre gona need a reasonable psu as the i7 is a hungry lil bugger.lol you wont need a huge case, i got a thermaltake aguila for £69. you just need a regular atx case. the motherboards are standard size and you dont have a big graphics card.

aria do the i7 920 D0 stepping for £228. and ram for about £40 so thts £410 for the lot if u get the msi board. id still be tempted pick up the cpu from ebay for £165 and save £60. if youre not overclocking it then the standard cooler will be fine and youll only need regular 10666 ram.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...ltage+Triple+Channel+(3x1GB)+?productId=34295