Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Don't drink in the morning...

...it makes you sleepy in the afternoon. That is probably a widely known truth, but I have only discovered it today.

There might be another side to the story, however, and that is that I only feel sleepy and my eyes tend to close on their own accord when I sit down above the study materials and try to focus :)

Anyway there's not much to write about right now, I'm thinking of getting a new desktop for gaming purposes, the current setup I'm considering is something along these lines:
Processor Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2,66GHz 6MB 1333MHz 775pin BOX http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=51827
HDD Samsung Spinpoint F HD753LJ - 750GB SATA II http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=51152
RAM A-Data DIMM 2048MB DDR II 800MHz Extreme Edition http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=43143
Power source
 Eurocase SuperSilent (PFC) 450W http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=28702
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-S3G - Intel P35 http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=52014
Graphic card
 Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3870 Blue PCB 512MB, PCI-E http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=52007
Case Acutake ACU-Target (ROHS version) http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=49406
Mouse Acutake Sky-O-Mouse 3D, 800DPI http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=53973
Keyboard KME 2201 silver-black http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=23932
Monitor Acer AL1716F - LCD 17" http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=45712
DVD Lite-ON LH-20A1S-15C OEM black http://www.czechcomputer.cz/product.jsp?artno=44859

Which would total for about 17500 CZK. That is a lot and I'm very apprehensive of spending so much money. Please share your opinions in the comments.

So long for now,
A*
Posted by at

14 comments:

  1. Martin The Great10 June 2008 at 19:16

    That's not a bad gaming rig at all. Good call on the Radeon 3870; it's cheaper than a 8800GT, yet from what I heard it actually surpasses it in terms of gaming performance - and that says a lot.

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  2. Anonymous10 June 2008 at 19:57

    Why are you building new PC from scratch? You really don't have any part's you can recyle?

    And 17'' Monitor is awfully small. Go for 19'' or even more. Your eyes will apprecite that when you will be working with documents.

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  3. Martin The Great10 June 2008 at 20:09

    I don't know, I have a 17" LCD and I find it sufficient.

    Don't you have a CRT monitor, Al? Because those tend to have worse resolution than equivalent LCDs.

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  4. Anonymous10 June 2008 at 20:22

    Nope. I have a Hyundai B90A and I'm in love with it.

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  5. Martin The Great10 June 2008 at 21:49

    I stand by what I said - 17" is sufficient.

    That is not to say I would mind getting a 19" or a 21" for myself; I only fear I wouldn't be able to fit it on my desk.

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  6. Adam10 June 2008 at 22:10

    The Radeon 3870 is said to be a very good piece of hardware and the price is also quite pleasing, so I thought that could go. Of course, there is the 4xxx generation coming out at the end of June or when, but I don't expect the prices to drop even lower.

    Al, yes, I am building it from a scratch. The last desktop I had was bought 8 years ago and gradually fell apart. Nothing usable was left and I think even the remains were given away. Hence I need everything, even the case and screen.

    Talking about the screen, I was thinking 17" or 19", because I really don't have that much money to blow. That being said I'm used to my laptop's 15" and therefore even 17" seems rather big to me. I also think that anything >19" gets unpractical for gaming purposes - it's like "you down here on the left (click) go up here (move the mouse across the whole table) to top right (ouch my neck hurts)". I don't think that I could handle 20+ inch screen visually.

    Also I was thinking widescreen×classic. What do you guys think?

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  7. Anonymous10 June 2008 at 22:34

    >(move the mouse across the whole table)

    Problem of yours mouse setting.

    >(ouch my neck hurts)

    You have some obscession that forces you to lick monitor? Even if when it is LCD, you shouldn't be so close to the screen.

    >Also I was thinking widescreen×classic. What do you guys think?

    I always consider widescreen as a form of cunning sadism.

    Also, Radeon 3870 is now only for 3k CZK with VAT? That's....wow.

    (ftftavbf)

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  8. Martin The Great10 June 2008 at 22:52

    Classic, all the way. Widescreen takes way too much desk space with little benefit.

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  9. Adam10 June 2008 at 23:16

    Well, I will still think about the widescreen option (heh, everytime I use this word it reminds me of Honziq and one of our English lessons), but honestly I'm rather anxious - how is it compatible with all the programs/games/videos/shit.

    -> "Problem of your mouse settings" Well, I don't know about that. If I set the cursor to be a swift little bitch then I'll lose precision withing small movements.

    -> "...lick the screen" Nope, I don't do that. When using this laptop I usually watch the screen from a secure ~40-50cm distance, I think it'd be even more when using static LCD. But still 20+ inch screens are, in my opinion, outside the range in which the eyeball movements are not stressing. I just feel like I'd have to move either my head or my eyes too much. But...I get your point. It's awesome to have this personal wall-screen ;)

    -> "Radeon 3870 for 3k VAT included" Yepp, it's awesome :)

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  10. Martin The Great10 June 2008 at 23:26

    > how is it compatible with all the programs/games/videos/shit

    Not very much. Oh, watching movies with no blackspace is kinda spiffy, but games do have compatibility issues (I'm looking at you, Bioshock). And since you are so worried about straining the orbital muscles, widescreen may not be for you.

    21-inchers are fine, it's just that to get most out of them, you have to bump your resolution way the hell up, which plays merry hell with your performance. Then again with HDR, even 800x600 looks awesome.

    > Well, I don't know about that. If I set the cursor to be a swift little bitch then I'll lose precision withing small movements.

    Huh. I can sweep across the screen with less than 5cm of movement, yet pixel precision is not a problem, even at 1280x1024.

    Not that you need such precise movements, unless you're playing LucasArts adventure games.

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  11. Anonymous11 June 2008 at 15:14

    It also seems that your PC will miss a network card.

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  12. Martin The Great11 June 2008 at 17:09

    Those are usually integrated into the motherboard, just like sound cards or USB links.

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  13. Adam11 June 2008 at 20:05

    What Martin said.

    For a moment I thought about getting a special soundcard because I plan on using the pc with my future imaginary 4+1 (or more) repro system - only after I get my own room, of course. But I decided not to - even the built-in card supports up to 6+1 channels and I don't think the difference in sound quality would be that huge. Also I can easily buy it later on.

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  14. Unknown11 June 2008 at 21:53

    Yeah, today you can buy motherboard with everything but processor and memory integrated in it. However if you want a gaming PC, you should definetely get a graphic card.

    Processor you want to buy seems nice, but I'd maybe consider buying Quad Core for slightly higher price (Q6600 - but be aware that this processor is made using 65nm technology instead of 45nm used in your E8200).
    I'll also ask you to reconsider the Acer monitor. I know that they have bought Acer monitor at our school and it was broken... I think Acer saves money on every detail of their products.
    Finally I have to agree with Al that 17" monitor seems small. With the great graphic card you could enjoy a bigger screen.

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