Good Computers

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
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19,885
What is the point in having a good computer? i.e spending £1000

I see lots of people with good machine in their signatures on here and wonder if its just for bragging rights or because they genuinely need it.

Other than working in huge photoshop files, or needing large screens for programming i cant see what a good computer is needed really. My 4 year old computer plays all latest games bar maybe one in high settings (just not massive AF/AA)
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Aug 2008
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4,936
Location
Manchester.
I play games so it always gets used. I previously had a Core2Duo quad core, went wonky so had to upgrade. was not needed but wasn't much more expensive. i plan to sell/use the odl CPU at some point.

My old graphics card was a 8800GT, it won't play the games I play now on my 24" monitor so yes it was needed. this 4870 handles everything apart from Crysis. :)

I am just about resisiting a 5870 but that is because it would literally be for Crysis. The price needs to go sub 250 for me.

I spend a lot of my free time infront of it so might aswell have a good one. more time than I spend in my car yet I don't use a old banger either.

Yes I could live in a 1 room flat aswell and eat bread and water but you know.
 
Associate
Joined
9 Apr 2009
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Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Well enthusiasts build to make the best out of what they can afford. we gamers/competitive have performance pcs to have the best playing experience possible out of their hardware. tbh it rly varies, you can ask people this questions and most will have different opinions
 
Caporegime
Joined
8 Nov 2008
Posts
28,997
The power is for gaming at quite a high resolution though obviously not a top rig but pretty powerful I'd say. I want as much of the settings turned to the max as possible. I'm willing to allow the odd drop in maybe one or two things like AA but not much else.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Oct 2004
Posts
4,955
Location
Sacramento, CA, USA
What is the point in having a good computer? i.e spending £1000

I see lots of people with good machine in their signatures on here and wonder if its just for bragging rights or because they genuinely need it.

Other than working in huge photoshop files, or needing large screens for programming i cant see what a good computer is needed really. My 4 year old computer plays all latest games bar maybe one in high settings (just not massive AF/AA)

How much did your computer cost when you bought it 4 years ago? :p
 

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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99,994
Location
South Coast
You don't need a Mac for sound/video/photo work these days, those days are long gone in the past.

What is the point in having a good computer? i.e spending £1000

I see lots of people with good machine in their signatures on here and wonder if its just for bragging rights or because they genuinely need it.

Other than working in huge photoshop files, or needing large screens for programming i cant see what a good computer is needed really. My 4 year old computer plays all latest games bar maybe one in high settings (just not massive AF/AA)

You don't need to have spent £1000 to have a "good computer"

Example being my computer, it is very good but is not £1000 - well ok, my screen may be almost half that figure bringing the total above 1k but then again Photography is my profession so I need the image quality, a gamer would be perfectly happy with a VA based screen that costs half that or better.

Q9550 @ 3.6GHz = £170
8GB DDR2 = £80~
GTX260 216 = £105
EP45 mobo = £75
Lian Li case = 69 dude!
Essence STX soundcard: £130
OCZ M600 PSU = £80
2.5TB HDDs = £150
= £759

I don't count the screen as part of the price because these are specifically individual on needs but...

Hazro H-IPS screen = £460


You also have to remember many people gradually upgrade so the cost is spread out over a number of years, my RAM is 2 years or so old for example, my mobo is only a bit less and the GFX likewise. The majority of people won't have spent 1k on one day but gradually upgraded when good deals etc come about.`
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Sep 2008
Posts
10,448
Location
Edinburgh.
I spent £350 on my tower and it pretty much steams through most of the games I've played. Because the HD4850 is cracking card. At 1980x1020. If I had £1000 I would have spent that though as it would get a lot more things done and play games even better. Just if you can afford it, why not? :p
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2004
Posts
18,423
In ye olde days it was important to have a top of the range machine for more reasons than gaming. These days however it's a little pointless to spend that much money unless you're seriously rich.

Top end machines these days are purely for gaming nerds who think a few extra FPS adds a few virtual inches to your member.
 
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