Is this a good deal? Computer bundle- - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Drunk Skunk · 02-22-2009, 11:29 PM

I'm in the market for a new computer, and ran across this deal on Tiger Direct tonight. Here's the link.. Basically, it's a Quad Core AMD Phenom processor, Asus motherboard with onboard GeForce 8300, 8 gig dual channel RAM, a SeaGate 500gb hdd, 750 watt power supply, and fairly plain but just fine for me black case, all for $400 bucks. Good deal?

Also, is there any way to find out of the motherboard supports both SATA and IDE hard drives? In theory, I'd like to plug in my current hdd as the master, so I wouldn't have to reload anything, then use the 500gd that comes with it as a slave drive.

Cliche · 02-23-2009, 12:11 AM

The processor is the only problem with it being the Phenom 9500. These processors had an problem with their L3 cache that would cause them to hang in certain circumstances. The default for the Bios had settings for a workaround for this, but it had a 10-20% performance penalty. So slower than a Core 2 Q6600, and lost out on some benchmarks to Athlon 64 x2 5600+

On the bright side, you can still drop in an AM3 processor into the board, and 8 gigs of ram isn't to be sneezed at. Requires 64bit OS though to use all that memory.

The board has 1 connector for IDE, so you can use up to 2 drives on it. Also you can't plug in your current HDD as master, as (if you are using Windows,) you would have to reload it anyways as the donor system would be too different than this. (there are ways of getting around that, but performance sucks to the point that most people were unhappy and paid for the OS reinstallation anyways.)

Also the display out is HDMI, so you would need either a HDMI capable monitor or a DVI capable monitor (for HDMI->DVI)+ cable, so figure that into your cost calculations as well.

Drunk Skunk · 02-23-2009, 12:13 AM

I have a DVI monitor now, so that wouldn't be a problem. So, the overall package isn't a bad deal, if I swap out processors?

Cliche · 02-23-2009, 12:37 AM

Yeah, it's a good deal. Heck, you'd just need to add a proper video card and you would have a system capable of playing Crysis at medium or high detail.

Yes it's a good deal unless you want to get into next year-itis.

Drunk Skunk · 02-23-2009, 12:41 AM

Well, I've had my current system, with almost no upgrades, since '00 or '01. I don't play computer games(360 and PS3 for that). Basically, I'm just looking for a system that I won't have to upgrade for awhile, and can handle heavy photo editing.

Rathji · 02-23-2009, 01:24 AM

If it was small enough, I would consider something along those lines for my living room computer.

Hack&Lube · 02-23-2009, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drunk Skunk

In theory, I'd like to plug in my current hdd as the master, so I wouldn't have to reload anything, then use the 500gd that comes with it as a slave drive.

In anycase, most of the time you cannot simply plug an old harddrive from an old computer that ran on completely different hardware into a new computer that runs on different hardware and have it work. Windows usually needs to be completely reinstalled on the new machines since it was installed based on your old hardware and and configures itself and drivers accordingly.

And seriously, for photoediting, practically any machine made in the last 2 years will do that for you. You don't need more than dual core and 2GB of ram for any kind of photoediting. That won't change in the foreseeable future unless we are taking gigapixel pictures.

I would not recommend Tigerdirect barebones for anything, but I'm unsure of what good resellers are in the U.S. aside from Newegg and they don't offer any combos like this. There was recently a special on a system for sale in Canada for about $320 US that was a smaller form factor, had all these features of yours, and even a blueray drive.

sclitheroe · 02-23-2009, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliche

The processor is the only problem with it being the Phenom 9500. These processors had an problem with their L3 cache that would cause them to hang in certain circumstances. The default for the Bios had settings for a workaround for this, but it had a 10-20% performance penalty. So slower than a Core 2 Q6600, and lost out on some benchmarks to Athlon 64 x2 5600+

Stepping B3 and above has the TLB bug fixed. I doubt you'd even find any of the old processors left in the retail channel so I wouldn't worry about it.

I use that motherboard in my current machine, and I think its excellent. Its hybrid SLI capable as well, so if you pick an appropriate Nvidia card, you can use the onboard 8300 to help boost framerates in games.

As for being slower than an x2 5600+, that would be on tests that don't throw a lot of threads at the cores. It's going to be faster on tasks that can take advantage of multiple cores, such as video encoding, etc.

It also has IDE onboard, no need to worry about that.

JohnnyFlame · 02-23-2009, 01:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliche

Yeah, it's a good deal. Heck, you'd just need to add a proper video card and you would have a system capable of playing Crysis at medium or high detail.

Yes it's a good deal unless you want to get into next year-itis.

I see that card also comes with a $30 rebate offer until Feb 28. So $142.99 after the rebate.