Help with looking for New Desktop
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Hi all, this is my first time posting and I like help with buying a new desktop for gaming mainly for playing Dragon Nest(China) and multi-tasking. Make & model and where to get?
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I have a Asus K42Jr notebook with ATI graphic card, going to be 3 years old in about 4 months which I bought for attending Polytechnic. Now it is getting old and just discovered that the fan at the side (unsure if it's the graphics card), unable to start spinning by itself now. I have an idea to fix it, going home to try later. It usually gets hot very rapidly as far back as I can remember though. I am very satisfied with it given that I use about 16hours every non-working days. Currently, just reformatted it and run the game in lowest setting. Appearance and performance set to no ticks except for fonts, yeah if anyone try, it's like win 98.
As I have heard from many, Asus products is known to be good for gaming so I do prefer my desktop to be Asus too unless there really is a better deal I guess. And graphic card could be Nvidia since I heard it's suppose to be better than AMD. Don't know about dedicated RAM, can run at 1920x1080, probably i5 Ivy bridge ones. Any option to add SSD? Since I didn't find models with it on the web, can be separate cost from my budget here. Well, it may do fine with current specs but just for the future when plan on upgrading
I just need it to be average about $1000 for the tower. The most recent IT show was on Nov and I missed it, thought it was suppose to be Dec.
Most importantly, where to buy, I live near AMK hub. Initially intended to custom build my own, but heard that Sim Lim got scams and Funan there are more expensive. A friend of mine had 2 custom build ones by his brother and both are dead.
I'm an introvert which rarely goes out, my friend says those furniture store like e.g Best Denki,Courts plus Challenger can find some o.0
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Tl;dr Buy new desktop, tower with average specs for gaming $1000~1200
Any recommendations?
P.S Have never seen a Asus tower before irl, any idea why?
P.P.S Should I just be patient till March for the next exhibition?
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Hello. In DIY PC, there are usually 7 sets of item(s) that comes together.
1. Motherboard(mobo) and CPU
2. Ram
3. Graphics card(GPU)
4. Harddisk(HDD)
5. Power Supply Unit (PSU)
6. Casing
7. DVD Drive
As you seems to be an Asus fan, i have come up with 2 configurations that uses more Asus products.
But as you may know, asus is a good brand and thus the price may cost more than other brands.
I will list down the configurations according to the "7 sets of items" above for easy reference
Configuration 1:1. Asus P8Z77-M Motherboard and Intel Core i5 3470 CPU --- $ 422
2. G-skill RipJawX 1600MHz CL9 Kit RAM -- 8GB(2 x 4gb sticks) --- $65
3. Asus GTX660 DC II 2GB DDR5 Graphics card --- $385
4. Seagate 1TB 64MB SATA3 Harddisk --- $91
5. & 6. Corsair Carbide Series 300R Mid Tower Casing & Corsair TX650W Power Supply Unit --- $240 [Fuwell is selling this bundle at this price]
7. Asus DVD Drive --- $30
Total cost about $1233.
I know it is a bit out of budget, because i feel that it is more worth it to get the newer motherboard chipset with the new ivy bridge processor.Configuration 2:
1. Asus P8B75-M Motherboard and Intel Core i5 3470 CPU --- $368
2. G-skill RipJawX 1600MHz CL9 Kit RAM -- 8GB(2 x 4gb sticks) --- $65
3. Asus GTX660 DC II 2GB DDR5 Graphics Card--- $385
4. Hitachi 500GB 16MB SATA3 Harddisk--- $63
5. & 6. Corsair Carbide Series 300R Mid Tower Casing & Corsair TX650W Power Supply --- $240 [Fuwell is selling this bundle at this price]
7. Asus DVD Drive --- $30Total cost $1151.
In this configuration i changed the motherboard to a B75 Chipset, and changed the hardisk to a hitachi 500gb instead of a 1TB seagate. The others remain the same.The difference is about $82.
Both the set up uses Nvidia Graphics, and they are manufactured by Asus(there are other brands available also).
SSD:
The 2 set up above does not come with SSD.
A Corsair Neutron 120GB SSD will cost about $169.
There are other models which are cheaper, like the Corsair Force 3 120GB for $131.Future Upgrades:
Both the motherboard have 2 ram slots, so it is impossible to add extra ram unless you change the current ones to those with bigger capacity, i.e. from 2 x 4gb to 2 x 8gb sticks. However I don't think there is a need as 8gb should be enough for normal use. There are also motherboards with more ram slots but they will cost a little more.
The config 1 motherboard has 2 x SATA 3 port and 4 x SATA 2 ports. You can still use SATA 3 hardisk in the SATA2 ports, but they will not run at sata 3 speeds
The motherboard in config 2 has 5 x SATA 2 ports, and only 1 x SATA 3 port.
If you were to take this board and intend to get a SSD, i think it will be better to plug the SSD in the SATA 3 port, and leave your storage harddisk in the SATA2 ports.From what i see when repairing computers, some of the difference between branded and DIY PCs are as follows:
1. Power Supply in some branded PCs are installed just nice for that system's intended usage.
How it may affect us: Upgrading to a very power hungry graphics card will not be possible unless we change the power supply as well. However adding more hard disk should not be much problem.
2. Some motherboards use in some branded PCs are custom built to fit the PC specs, eg. only 4 sata ports.
How it may affect us: Adding a few more harddisk may be a problem as there are no more ports
3. Not enough expansion ports in the motherboards.
How it may affect us: We cannot buy a sound card/tv card and plug it in. Some do come with 1 or 2 expansion ports, it really depend on the manufacturer
4. The casing is hard to dismantle/designed to fit that motherboard only.
How it may affect us: We may have problem reusing that casing.
Then again, branded gaming computers nowadays seems to be designed to be easily upgradable....so it really depends on what you are getting.
Also not all the sales person who sell the computers know the exact part and model of components used in the PC. One of the reason is they manufacturers didn't state it out, or they have too many models of PC to remember
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This may affect us if we want to buy more ram from sim lim square, and the sales person present us with many rams with different speed, and we have problems deciding if the faster rams will work with my current PC or not. -
Haha, thank you. I know my demand is a bit too high. Checking for price in sg can be a chore if I ever decide to let sim lim scam me. I can use your config as reference, thanks a lot.
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You're welcome.
Actually i am also demanding when buying things, i wan the cheapest and fastest.
To be honest buying computers in Sim Lim Square isn't scary la, i use to work as a computer technician & sales person in sim lim. Just compare around, and usually you will find that prices for computer is around there, not much diff.
The shop i used to work gives 1 year service warranty, warranty for parts are determined by the distributor.
You can always ask the shop for their warranty scheme before buying.
Yes you can use my config as a reference, or other people's config as reference, or even the configs in the pricelist from simlim square as reference. Just refer around before buying, and ask the salesman questions, most of the salesman in simlim are well versed computer techs as well. -
Originally posted by MyPillowTalks:
You're welcome.
Actually i am also demanding when buying things, i wan the cheapest and fastest.
To be honest buying computers in Sim Lim Square isn't scary la, i use to work as a ...http://itfairsg.com/sitex2012/asus-desktop-pc-rog-cg8565-cm6830-ivy-cm6731-price-list-flyer-brochure-10222/
Found something!!! CM6830-Ivy i5
I don't think those Ivy cores(i5-34XX) and graphic card(GT6XX) models difference by 10-30 is too different right?
Btw, will adding SSD myself void the warranty?
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If you look at the CM6830, asus uses a GT630 graphics card, which may not perform so well if you go into intensive gaming, compared to the GT660.
The GT630 is a lower performance card of the Nvidia GT6XX series.
The GT660 is the higher performance card of the Nvidia GT6XX series.
That's why you see the price of the Asus-CM 6830 cost cheaper than the one configured above.
But The Asus computer comes with windows 7 while those built at simlim usually requires you to buy windows 7.
It depends on what types of games you will play, and how high you want to set the "graphics" setting to, and decide whether on a graphics card that suits your expectation.
For normal use and slight gaming/multimedia/office/home computer, i don't mind getting the asus, however for heavier gaming, adding parts, configuring, future upgrading i will still go for DIY.
Yes, On paper, usually warranty will be voided if you open the casing of branded computers.
Their stickers will say "warranty void if open". Some of their sticker are of better quality such that in an event if you open the sticker/tape(with certain amount of force), the tape will show "warranty void".
Thus, logically it will mean voiding the warranty because u need to open the casing to add in the ssd.