Purchase Dilema

allydm

allydm

allydm

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Joined
2 Feb 2007
Posts
17
Hey all,

I opened a question over on the Monitor forum and had some really good responses. After going over them though, I figured I'd probably been asking the wrong question.

I graduated from Uni last July and since then I've been doing some casual web design/programming work. I've been offered a contracting job and it so it's now my primary occupation. Whilst at Uni I got the Dell studio 1555

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6600 (2.20GHz/ 800 FSB/ 2MB Cache)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Memory: 3GB (1X1GB + 1X2GB) DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 320GB SATA Hard Drive
Display: 15.6” 720p WLED (1366×768) Display with TrueLife and Built-in 2.0MP Web Cam
Video Card: 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Optical Drive: 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
Integrated network connector 10/100/1000 LAN (RJ45)
Wireless Network Card: Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
Click to expand...

The laptop still runs well, I keep windows 7 clean and do a complete re-install every 6-8 months.

I originally was going to buy a new PC and monitor, a budget of £200ish for the monitor and £350ish for the PC. I like the laptop, but 1080p on a 15" screen gets uncomfortable after a while.

It seems though that I'm not going to get a brilliant monitor for £200, my question is would I be better spending more (say up to £400) on just a monitor and continue using the laptop. Or would I get better performance / experience spending £200 on a monitor and £350 on a new base unit.

My primary uses are web browsing, streaming tv (hd), programming (java & php mainly) which also includes things like local git repo's, larger builds (2,500 class programs), some basic image/video editing and spotify is pretty much always running in the background.

What are your thoughts? Essentially, £200 monitor + £350 on a base unit, or a more expensive monitor £400 ontop of my current laptop.

Thanks very much!

Alex.
 
Of course you can get a decent monitor for £200 - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-124-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

or a IPS screen monitor - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-076-VS&groupid=17&catid=1425&subcat=


So you can get this lot.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung P2450H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black £189.98
(£158.32) £189.98
(£158.32)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £429.37
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £88.37
Total : £530.24

the motherboard has an onboard gpu.
 
Last edited:
Would that setup give me much better performance than my current laptop for the kind of tasks I mentioned? Would I be better putting more towards the monitor, getting a 27" or a better quality one?
 
The choice between the Phenom 955 and the Sandybridge isn't a problem. The larger question is whether there would actually be that much of a difference between that and the laptop, or whether I should spend more on the monitor instead of getting a new base unit?
 
the resolution is the same, so things on the screen will just be a bit bigger, so I suppose there isnt much point.
 
anuraj said:
Cookeh you can be happy stulid posted phenom 955 over sandybridge i3 2110
Click to expand...

Of course he did.

He knows as well as I do that Phenom II is far better. Especially for the OPs uses.

That and the small matter of the 6 series chipset recall.

For a media centre the i3 is perfect, if a little pricey.

Gaming, multicore applications, things that make use of higher clock speeds then Phenom II is still the way to go.
 
stulid said:
So you can get this lot.

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung P2450H 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black £189.98
(£158.32) £189.98
(£158.32)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £109.99
(£91.66) £109.99
(£91.66)
Coolermaster Elite 430 Windowed Case - Black (with 500w Elite Power PSU) £64.33
(£53.61) £64.33
(£53.61)
Foxconn A7DA-S 3.0 AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £54.98
(£45.82) £54.98
(£45.82)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £41.99
(£34.99) £41.99
(£34.99)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Dual Channel (GVP34GB1600C9DC) £39.98
(£33.32) £39.98
(£33.32)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.98
(£11.65) £13.98
(£11.65)
Sub Total : £429.37
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £88.37
Total : £530.24

the motherboard has an onboard gpu.
Click to expand...

If there was an extra £60 to bring the max up to £600 would you upgrade / add anything or no point?
 
not sure, either.

8Gb ram kit.

Blueray drive that will still burn DVD disks too.

more harddrive space.
 
The 1TB harddrive space is more than enough, I rarely keep video's as most content is streamed, all of my "work" work is up on various cloud stores. I have a bluray disk player downstairs on the TV, realistically I'd only watch blurays on that.

The 8GB ram kit is an interesting shout, it'd be rare but it would come in handy.

I regularly have two windows open side by side ( coding panel and then documentation / website ), would it be worth getting the 27" you mentioned earlier as an upgrade for the money?
 
could well be, but like I said before.

the resolution is the same, the side by side windows will just be a bigger size, the physical pixels will be a touch bigger, so could be more legible if full of text.
 
I use the Samsung P2450H 24" as stulid suggested. Love the screen great quality had it for a about half a year now never had a problem great picture...

+1 for p2540
 
I ended up getting the spec above, it's been a good buy overall, I'm very happy.

Unfortunately one of the 2GB memory sticks is duff, I've given up trying to get a replacement as I just get sent round in circles. Due to new work commitments I need to be able to run java apps which take up 2-3 gb memory at runtime, so the 2GB I currently have in the computer won't suffice.

I've been browsing and found GeIL 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz VALUE PLUS Triple Channel ( link ), which appear to be the spec that I require and would give me 8gb total.

However when researching the motherboard to check that those sticks would work, I found on the Foxcon website under the motherboard description:

Dual channel DDR3 1333/1066/800 x 4 DIMMs, Max. 8GB

( Link , I hope that link is allowed, sorry if its not. )

Those clock speeds are lower than the memory I was originally spec'd and bought ( 1600MHz ). Is that problematic? Would it matter if I bought 3 new sticks at a different clock speed and put them in along side the 1600MHz?

My computer has been running without error for the last 6 weeks with just the one stick so there doesn't appear to be a problem, but could there be issues I'm not aware of?

Also should I buy those 3 other sticks, or do I need to look at some others? I can't link to the motherboard on overclockers as it appears they no longer stock it.

Thanks all
 
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