Who could afford over £4,000 for a PC!?

Mr Mister · 31 May 2006 at 09:24

sjohal2006 said:
Well back to the question "WHO COULD AFFORD OVER £4,000 FOR A PC!?"

Here is a small list :

Robson Walton
Bill Gates
Warren Buffet

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,29049,00.html

LOL look at the guys name in third place on the richest asians. Anurag Dikshit. Hahahahahaha.

Also in that £5k spec, £1100 of HDD's?!?!!? are you nuts.

Mikey1280 · 31 May 2006 at 09:37

Kizz no watercooling for the graphics cards? I'm disappointed

NeilF · 31 May 2006 at 09:38

lemonkettaz said:
its hard to describe somebody that spends anymore than £2000 on a pc.

idiot

To think that's how much my first PC cost me! A 486!!! And that's when £2000 was £2000!!!!

FrankJH · 31 May 2006 at 09:46

semi-pro waster said:
FrankJH it all comes down to your definition of capable and what you intend to do with your PC. You could also fairly easily get that way closer to the budget without losing any significant performance. I'd also disagree about prices being better before, I don't know how long you have been into computers and it does slightly go in cycles but I'd say that now in real terms you get far more performance for your money than you ever have done before. Nowadays even the most basic PC you can specify new can run any office application and browse the internet, watch films and create media(CDs, DVDs etc) without breaking a sweat, about 4-5 years back you would be looking at high-end systems for at least some of those tasks.

It all comes down to the law of diminishing returns and does with pretty any hobby/subject(computers, MTBs, cars, radio models etc etc ad infinitum) you care to name. The final 5-10% is what really costs the money, for say £2,000 you can build a PC that will come within 5-10% of the one that costs £4,000 but to reach the ultimate you have to spend the £2,000 extra or whatever it may be.

Going for what is effectively mid-range is the way I keep myself happy, last time I bought a PC was just over 18 months ago and was around £1,500 including a monitor but it is still a passable specification for what I do(A64 3400, 1gb Ram, 6800gt etc) so there is no point in upgrading just yet.

Not that you were to know but I have been building computers since around 1989 lol - so quite a long time

But yes of course you can build them for less, but with requirements for ripping cd's, normal games (not even the likes of FEAR etc) and Windows Vista et al increasing all the time, to spend 20% more will allow your investment to last that bit longer - which is always a good thing (imo)

Upto 18 months ago, while it was advisable not everyone thought it necessary to have av software, firewall, and other background apps working all the time (let alone itunes or something playing music etc) all these are nigh on essential now - baring mp3 playback of course, because of the huge increase in broadband and the speed of people being able to access your pc unless you really lock it down.

Thats why now imo a dual core (because of the relative cheapness of them) are basic essentials when NOW speccing a pc - obviously a 3400 18 months ago was a very decent cpu, but now i dont think many would go single core unless strictly necessary.

Remember all the tasks you or i mentioned could have been done as you stated, however it would have taken the majority of the horsepower of any pc a year or two ago to do one or possibly two of those tasks, people now expect to do three or more things at once without requiring to wait (ie writing a word document while researching for info on the web, listening to background music while always having either av and/or firewall running etc) and thats just the basics - possibly msn or skype) we now live in such a fast world we all require so much more a few years ago all theese tasks would have been done seperately and by different devices.

This is just my opinion, but its pretty reasonable dont you think?

I completely agree that you pay a huge percentage (maybe not double though) for the last 5% or so of performance.

danceMB · 31 May 2006 at 09:52

I wont name names, but this uber pc im talking about comes from something like outer space. So much liquid cooling that looked nice, but what when it comes to more updating, kind of makes you wonder if it deems what it was currently cooling would be supported, if not it then becomes a very expensive waste of money doesnt it

KizZ · 31 May 2006 at 09:55

Mr Mister said:
Also in that £5k spec, £1100 of HDD's?!?!!? are you nuts.

Lol. Thats 3TB of storrage. Just noticed that board has 8 SATA ports which means 4 more HDDs and another 3TBs of extra storrage. And maybe you could hook 2 more on the IDE channells.

EDIT: Im bored so did a second attempt. AM2 this time:

CP-173-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core FX62 2.80GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-173-AM) 1
£629.95 £629.95
MB-142-AS Asus M2N32-SLi-DLX nForce 590 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-142-AS) 1
£119.95 £119.95
MY-109-CS Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-109-CS) 1
£289.95 £289.95
GX-073-XF XFX GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDER/YDPR) (GX-073-XF) 2
£329.95 £659.90
HD-077-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB ST3750640AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-077-SE) 6
£252.95 £1,517.70
CD-030-PL Plextor PX-716AL Dual Layer Slot Loading 16x16 DVD±RW ReWriter - Retail (CD-030-PL) 2
£69.95 £139.90
CA-033-LL Lian-Li PC V2100 PLUS Black Aluminium Full-Tower (No PSU) (CA-033-LL) 1
£174.95 £174.95
CA-010-TG Tagan TG1100-U95 1100W ATX2.01 Turbojet Quad SLi Silent PSU (CA-010-TG) 1
£199.95 £199.95
WC-033-VP Vapochill LightSpeed Cooling Unit - Silver (Socket 478/754/939) (04-L-1010) (WC-033-VP) 1
£474.20 £474.20
WC-041-VP WaterChill Xtreme CPU/VGA/Chipset Cooling Kit - Triple 120mm Radiator/6 Fans (03-L-1319) (WC-041-VP) 1
£273.95 £273.95
SC-031-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro - Retail (SC-031-CL) 1
£159.95 £159.95
KB-016-RA Raptor K1 Professional Gaming-Grade Keyboard - Retail (KB-016-RA) 1
£71.95 £71.95
KB-002-RA Razor Viper 1000 mouse(KB-002-RA) 1
£55.00 £55.00
GS-009-QP Qpad XT-R Gaming Mouse Pad - Black (GS-009-QP) 1
£19.95 £19.95
SP-027-CL Creative GigaWorks 7.1 S750 THX® Speakers - Retail (SP-027-CL) 1
£224.95 £224.95
MO-042-HY Hyundai Vvuon Q421S 42" HD Plasma Includes Freeview/Stand/Speakers (MO-042-HY) 1
£895.95 £895.95

Subtotal £5,908.15
VAT £1,033.93
Total £6,942.08

Could be pushed further if XFX GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB XXX Edition cards were in stock

semi-pro waster · 31 May 2006 at 10:28

FrankJH said:
Not that you were to know but I have been building computers since around 1989 lol - so quite a long time

That was why I put that I wasn't sure how long you have been building PCs for because I didn't want to pre-judge your knowledge but as Infinity points out £2,000 was fairly average for a 486 at one point. I just think that now a basic PC will be far more competent in almost any area than the equivalent of 10 years ago and like I say cost less in real terms i.e. in comparison to a loaf of bread it won't cost as much % wise. To save space I'd cut the rest out because I'd agree with the gist of it.

FrankJH said:
This is just my opinion, but its pretty reasonable dont you think?

Yes it is reasonable, if I was building now I'd go dual-core without a shadow of a doubt but most people (like me) who post in General Hardware are likely to be enthusiasts and will spend a disproportionate amount of their income compared to most others as it is a hobby. I can understand what you say about some of the tasks taking up all of a single cores power but I have on several occasions been encoding a film, playing music and playing a (relatively undemanding I suppose) racing game.

danceMB · 31 May 2006 at 11:04

I know what you mean. I think the future will be made of (at least) duel core, possible more as the future goes on, as there was no way that single-core could go on forever due to the heat and wattage elements slowly rising all the time.

It just depends how much you are prepared to spend, as you always know that it will always be time to buy something newer than you have a few months later, but I suppose that at some point in the future all of these technological advancements will start to slow down when they cant shrink the processors anymore etc.

They need to make advancements in the HDD market to a no-moving-parts solution that is a lot faster than it is today.

pc-guy · 31 May 2006 at 11:14

anything more than £600 is overkill if its base unit alone. fineu get 60 fps in all the lastest games but 30fps-60fps...hmm i personally dun see the differences in gaming experience nowadays, days of fast First Person Shooters such as Quake Arena etc is over, even Quake 2004 etc are slow in comparison so FPS is not important as long as it doesn't jerk

fenderbass86 · 31 May 2006 at 11:20

pc-guy said:
anything more than £600 is overkill if its base unit alone.

It's only overkill if you've got a small monitor. I'm gonna be getting a 20" widescreen when Conroe comes out and gonna be spending about £1200-1300 on the base unit + monitor.

pc-guy · 31 May 2006 at 11:31

i did say 600 on baseunit...if u are getting a conroe is that for trendy overclock bandwagon or u REALLY need that bit more processing power

question is can your PC do all the things u want to do (not asking if it can do it faster or better cos u can always get faster better things there is no stop to it)

quadboi · 31 May 2006 at 11:36

Mr Mister said:
LOL look at the guys name in third place on the richest asians. Anurag Dikshit. Hahahahahaha.

Typing error i presume

*They were jealous*
hahahaha

BUT WHAT ABOUT THIS SPEC CHECK

CP-146-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core FX60 (Socket 939) - Retail (ADAFX60DAA6CDBOX) (CP-146-AM) 1
£589.95 £589.95
MB-019-DF DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR RD580 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-019-DF) 1
£129.95 £129.95
GX-123-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X BLIZZARD 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-123-SP) 2
£349.95 £699.90
HD-077-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB ST3750640AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-077-SE) 2
£252.95 £505.90
CD-034-PO Pioneer BDR-101A 2x BD-R/RE Blu-Ray DVD Writer (CD-034-PO) 1
£527.95 £527.95
CD-036-PL Plextor PX-760A 18x18 Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter - (Beige/Black) Retail (CD-036-PL) 1
£50.95 £50.95
HS-017-TR ThermalRight XP-120 (Socket 754/939/478) Heatsink (HS-017-TR) 1
£26.95 £26.95
SP-083-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music + Inspire T6060 5.1 Speakers - Retail (SP-083-CL) 1
£89.95 £89.95
CA-090-CM CoolerMaster Stacker 830 - Silver Trim (No PSU) (CA-090-CM) 1
£139.95 £139.95
CA-010-TG Tagan TG1100-U95 1100W ATX2.01 Turbojet Quad SLi Silent PSU (CA-010-TG) 1
£199.95 £199.95
WC-033-VP Vapochill LightSpeed Cooling Unit - Silver (Socket 478/754/939) (04-L-1010) (WC-033-VP) 1
£474.20 £474.20
MO-000-AP Apple 30" Cinema HD LCD Monitor (MO-000-AP) 1
£1,599.00 £1,599.00
KB-077-LG Logitech G15 Gaming-Grade Illuminated Keyboard - Retail (UK Layout) (KB-077-LG) 1
£59.95 £59.95
KB-070-LG Logitech Cordless G7 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-070-LG) 1
£44.95 £44.95
SP-021-LG Logitech Z-5500 THX® Certified 5.1 505 Watts Speakers - Retail (SP-021-LG) 1
£179.95 £179.95
GS-005-IC Icemat - Grey 2nd Edition (GS-005-IC) 1
£19.95 £19.95
MY-008-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit (F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ) (MY-008-GS) 1
£124.95 £124.95
Subtotal £5,464.35
VAT £956.27
Total £6,420.62

Mikey1280 · 31 May 2006 at 12:06

Doesnt fit together (DDR2) and I only see one gfx card?

quadboi · 31 May 2006 at 12:07

Mikey1280 said:
Doesnt fit together (DDR2) and I only see one gfx card?

How about now

- Rushed first time

semi-pro waster · 31 May 2006 at 13:00

sjohal2006 said:
How about now - Rushed first time

You just aren't trying are you

The Ram is one of the cheaper 2gb kits available you can add at least £100 to that. The graphics cards need to be a Master card and an ordinary X1900XTX unless the RD580 really can allow no Master card to be used in which case you do have the most expensive available right now. You haven't picked the most expensive DVDRW drive either but your most shocking omission is not including the Zalman No Noise case as that is near £800 on its own

I also note you didn't see fit to go for an AM2 system based on the FX62 with the more expensive memory, the Lightspeed doesn't have a socket 940 chipset adapter on OcUK yet so that might be fair enough.

FrankJH · 31 May 2006 at 13:28

sjohal2006 said:
How about now - Rushed first time

still rushed I would guess - as one of those gfx cards is required to be a Master Card

Little difference in cost though

All this uber cold temp gear is getting ridiculous though imo, yeah you get a few hundred mhz, but for the cost involved never been totally convinced its worth it.

johneva · 31 May 2006 at 13:45

That is crazy money for a rig, but yeah it shows just how quick it all adds up if you want the top of the range gear for every item.

Joke of it is you spend that money then in less than a few months it is already been bettered and is not the best on the market anymore.

I think to be paying for the very top of the range seems a bit silly to me for that very reason, you pay big money for the small diffrence between the top of the range and top end of middle range but yet the performace diffrence dont really justifie it. You are paying for the fact it is the newest around and the best not for its performance so much.

But hey if you got the money.

pc-guy · 31 May 2006 at 13:59

DONATE YOUR MONEY TO ME COS I NEED IT MORE THAN YOUR PC

the above springs to my mind if anyone has the cash to burn on the above spec!

quadboi · 31 May 2006 at 14:14

semi-pro waster said:
You just aren't trying are you The Ram is one of the cheaper 2gb kits available you can add at least £100 to that. The graphics cards need to be a Master card and an ordinary X1900XTX unless the RD580 really can allow no Master card to be used in which case you do have the most expensive available right now. You haven't picked the most expensive DVDRW drive either but your most shocking omission is not including the Zalman No Noise case as that is near £800 on its own

I also note you didn't see fit to go for an AM2 system based on the FX62 with the more expensive memory, the Lightspeed doesn't have a socket 940 chipset adapter on OcUK yet so that might be fair enough.

Lmao, so it could get to £8000 easy hahah

mojojoejo · 31 May 2006 at 14:37

Can't see why you skimp on the memory KizZ - when you've got no budget why not just fill all the slots and have something worthwhile