Cheapo PC opinion

[Buzzard]

My current surfing unit sounds like it's on it's last legs. It's been a good ol' gal....pushing 7 years now, but I think I might have squeezed just about as much out of it as I can. I don't use a computer for much. Mostly internet, email, etc. so I don't need much in a new machine. I saw this one on sale at BB. Seems like a decent deal....12GB ram?? That's like 6X what I have now!

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...f62ef6a06den02

Anyhow, any reason to stay away from an Asus? Pros...Cons?

[PsYcNeT]

That ain't bad for $450, at all. Unsure how upgradable it will be and yeah, 12 GB does seem like a bit much, but I wouldn't look a gift horse etc. etc.

If you never intend on using it for much more than email/browsing etc, it should be fine. I would recommend upgrading it to an SSD at some point, because SSDs are what make modern PCs "feel" modern.

[rbochan]

For that price I'd do it in a heartbeat. ASUS makes nice stuffs.

[Rathji]

Probably suitable for your needs.

Looked at Dell and it is better price than what they have right now on Desktops

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

That ain't bad for $450, at all. Unsure how upgradable it will be and yeah, 12 GB does seem like a bit much, but I wouldn't look a gift horse etc. etc.

If you never intend on using it for much more than email/browsing etc, it should be fine. I would recommend upgrading it to an SSD at some point, because SSDs are what make modern PCs "feel" modern.

Sorry man....my curiosity has got the best of me. I've been staring at that for 10 minutes trying to figure out what auto-correct musta done there, and I cant get it!

[ken0042]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/d...the-mouth.html

[photon]

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/d...the-mouth.html

EDIT: Lol...

[Buzzard]

Well I'll be damned!

LOL, 40 some odd years and I don't think I've ever heard that one.

Thank guys!

[Buzzard]

So from what I gather then, that's a pretty run of the mill, if not lousy video card in that machine. Does having that 12 gigs of ram negate that quite a bit.
Does it work that way?

I'm pretty out of touch with ram and GB anymore, not to mention ye ol' English proverbs.

[ken0042]

For internet and email I don't find a use for a high end video card. I have a Dell PC with an onboard video card. The only consideration is it uses some of your RAM; so in that regard you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/r...-pay-paul.html

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by ken0042

For internet and email I don't find a use for a high end video card. I have a Dell PC with an onboard video card. The only consideration is it uses some of your RAM; so in that regard you are robbing Peter to pay Paul.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/r...-pay-paul.html

Yeah, I know I have a minimal need for any kind of skookum video card...but in case the need ever arises or whatever, will that bunch of ram compensate for a pretty low end video card?

[PsYcNeT]

Yeah you won't be able to do much gaming on that thing, at least nothing 3D. The problem with pre-builts is you have no idea what the motherboard or PSU can handle, and those are often where the builders skimp on parts. It likely has something abysmal like a 300watt PSU and the motherboard might not even support PCI-E (effectively crippled for GPU upgrades).

Originally Posted by Buzzard

Yeah, I know I have a minimal need for any kind of skookum video card...but in case the need ever arises or whatever, will that bunch of ram compensate for a pretty low end video card?

No. Not at all.

You could in-theory build a similar PC for about the same price, however it would be more upgradable and likely have better parts. I'm pretty sure I priced something out for someone recently RE an HTPC and it was ~$400 without a GPU.

[burn_this_city]

Asus makes good machines, I've had no issues with my 4 year old Asus ROG Laptop.

[PsYcNeT]

Just looked at it's specs, yeah 300Watt PSU (would need to be upgraded to install a video card), surprisingly has 2x PCI-E slots so you're okay there.

Basically, if you wanted to play games, you'd need to spend $60 on a new PSU just to use a $200 video card.

[Rathji]

You could likely install any card that didn't require additional PCI-E power, without upgrading the PSU, but it wouldn't be suitable for anything but low end games, or extreme low settings.

I actually do this on most of my builds that are not using top end (or new) parts, just to make watching videos and multi-tasking a bit less painful due to RAM sharing. With 12 GB of RAM though, it might not have much of an impact.

[sa226]

You guys are far more knowledgeable (nerdy) in the realm of computers than I, but I have always found the PSU thing interesting.

Isnt the wattage thing while under full load? For example if you have a mid to low end computer that you just want to play some old games via steam, why would you need a higher wattage PSU? With steam, you eliminate the power consumption of the optical drive, an SSD draws less than a mechanical, so do you really need a better PSU?

I say this as someone who always recommends a PSU upgrade. Its silly to put the life of your 1000$ system in the hands of a 50 dollar generic PSU. But I would bet for a lot of peoples needs a basic PSU is just fine. Good quality, but basic.

[PsYcNeT]

Firstly, a 300 watt generic bare minimum PSU may be missing:

A large enough 12 volt rail to handle a decent GPU
PCI-E connectors, forcing you to use legacy converters
Not enough connectors for upgrades (if you add more drives etc.)

Also, gaming can cause load spikes, and if you use something like an at-the-wall meter like a Kill-A-Watt, a PC with a 600 watt PSU and a 250 watt using GPU (under like, a furmark load) might only top out at ~500 watts of usage, but you always want to leave headroom. At-the-wall measurements don't really tell the whole story either.

Higher end PSUs also offer electrical conditioning, which are vital to a PCs longevity.

[Rathji]

You are technically right, but why would you buy a video card that needs more power to be able to reach its full potential and then have the only thing from preventing your PC from trying to use more power (and blowing your PSU/Board/etc) being your 'guess' than the game you are playing won't make it use too much.

One thing you need to consider, is power supplies wear out over time, which impacts its efficiency, so the max load is reduced. Even if something works now, it might not in 2 years.

Another thing, is some PSUs, either don't come with any PCI-E power connectors or don't come with enough of them to power some cards.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Firstly, a 300 watt generic bare minimum PSU may be missing:

A large enough 12 volt rail to handle a decent GPU
PCI-E connectors, forcing you to use legacy converters
Not enough connectors for upgrades (if you add more drives etc.)

Also, gaming can cause load spikes, and if you use something like an at-the-wall meter like a Kill-A-Watt, a PC with a 600 watt PSU and a 250 watt using GPU (under like, a furmark load) might only top out at ~500 watts of usage, but you always want to leave headroom. At-the-wall measurements don't really tell the whole story either.

Higher end PSUs also offer electrical conditioning, which are vital to a PCs longevity.

this + increased efficiency

[Ozy_Flame]

Why not just put a basic Linux OS on your current machine? It's a good way to recycle old PC's and increase their longevity.