Got a new computer..

[SoccerMom2]

And i love it! Hubby and I went to best buy and got a Gateway DX4840-03e for $699. It has windows 7,Intel Core i3 540 processor, 8gb, 1TB HDD, Intel HD Graphics, and more. Now i can really fix up my picture without running out of space and taking so long.

 

[Mongo53]

Intel HD Graphics, sounds like built into the Motherboard Graphics. If you're kids play games, that might be a little weak, BUT, if you're NOT playing cutting edge graphics games, those graphics should serve you very well, CONGRATS.

If its a Desktop, you can always add a better graphics card later to upgrade for better game playing, if you have sons older than 10, they often want to play the kinds of games that need the more powerful graphics.

 

[Floyd2004]

Seems everyones getting new PCs now. It should be quite a bit faster if you came from something as old as a pentium 4.
I agree, it sounds like your only using the onboard graphics. It should be fine for most small games and such but if you play any games its going to need an upgrade.

EDIT: looked it up and low and behold its onboard: Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD8

 

[TWL]

Intel HD Graphics, sounds like built into the Motherboard Graphics. If you're kids play games, that might be a little weak, BUT, if you're NOT playing cutting edge graphics games, those graphics should serve you very well, CONGRATS.

If its a Desktop, you can always add a better graphics card later to upgrade for better game playing, if you have sons older than 10, they often want to play the kinds of games that need the more powerful graphics.

Actually the i3 and i5 CPUs have the GPU integrated with the CPU. Very good for HD video; OK for games.

 

[Floyd2004]

Some i7s have the GPU on the CPU also from what ive read. But who the heck would buy an i7 and use onboard video... NO ONE.
i3 and i5 are "general" use CPUs and most people picking up one of those is not planning on doing hard tasking.

 

[SoccerMom2]

Some i7s have the GPU on the CPU also from what ive read. But who the heck would buy an i7 and use onboard video... NO ONE.
i3 and i5 are "general" use CPUs and most people picking up one of those is not planning on doing hard tasking.

I am using it for my pictures. I have so many saved on disk that i would like to touch up.

 

[Mongo53]

I am using it for my pictures. I have so many saved on disk that i would like to touch up.

You'd be surprised, some moderate graphics power will pay off with working with pictures, it does speed things up. You've got more than that with on-board Intel HD graphics, it should work great for those purposes.

If you have boys, as they get older, they may complain the game they like doesn't run, or runs really slowly or at poor graphics level. A screwdriver, 30 minutes and a $75 Graphics card can fix that.

If you have girls, get good Internet Security Software, boys do it also, but girls seem to destroy a computer with malware and viruses from social networking and internet browsing. The latest Norton 360 seems to do a great job preventing that, if you have COMCAST, you can download it for free as benefit of COMCAST Internet.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

Seems everyones getting new PCs now. It should be quite a bit faster if you came from something as old as a pentium 4.
I agree, it sounds like your only using the onboard graphics. It should be fine for most small games and such but if you play any games its going to need an upgrade.

EDIT: looked it up and low and behold its onboard: Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD8

my 18 month old Core 2 Quad still works well

 

[Floyd2004]

my 18 month old Core 2 Quad still works well

I have a few Q6600's around
Thats what in my current gaming PC clocked to a mild 3.2

 

[Hazel]

Just out of curiousity - what did you do with the old one?

My kid's school is always looking for hand me down computers.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

Just out of curiousity - what did you do with the old one?

My kid's school is always looking for hand me down computers.

what school ?


we are going to surplus 155 Dell GX 280's and a few GX 620 next yr ...

 

[huntr1]

Just out of curiousity - what did you do with the old one?

My kid's school is always looking for hand me down computers.

what school ?


we are going to surplus 155 Dell GX 280's and a few GX 620 next yr ...

Hazel,
SMARTCO in Lexington Park donates computers to the schools. Give them a call.

ETC,
If your company give the computers to SMARTCO, they will #1 give you the tax write off receipt, then turn the computers around to a school after cleaning/refurbing them, while teaching people how to do that. 3 steps of good out of 1 donation.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

#1 give you the tax write off receipt, then turn the computers around to a school after cleaning/refurbing them, while teaching people how to do that. 3 steps of good out of 1 donation.

I'll file that for future notice ....


could you go back to the Avatar of the Guy with the Drink .........

 

[FromTexas]

Some i7s have the GPU on the CPU also from what ive read. But who the heck would buy an i7 and use onboard video... NO ONE.
i3 and i5 are "general" use CPUs and most people picking up one of those is not planning on doing hard tasking.

You can still put an i5 and a good graphics card (Radeon 5700+) and max out almost all games... :shrug:

You shouldn't be doing an serious video work or design, but it would survive most gaming. Gaming hasn't really 'stepped up' over the past couple years. Most gaming doesn't make great use of multi-threading which is missing on the i5, but it is still quad core and can utilize what the games do.

 

[Floyd2004]

What games are you playing lol.
Most games dont benefit from anything more than a dual core but even the i7s are 8 core CPUs (4 physical 4 virtual)
Heck, people are still using floppys and IDE drives!

 

[TurboK9]

What games are you playing lol.
Most games dont benefit from anything more than a dual core but even the i7s are 8 core CPUs (4 physical 4 virtual)
Heck, people are still using floppys and IDE drives!

You can game well on a higher clocked P4 with a current gen GPU and your OS leaned down. Heck, most games will perform way better on a single core 3.8 than a quad core 2.4 any day of the week, as long as your mobo has PCIE.

Of course, a quad or 8 core 3.8 is a different story, but I don't have 12 grand to blow.

 

[Floyd2004]

Of course, a quad or 8 core 3.8 is a different story, but I don't have 12 grand to blow.

12 grand on what?
You can build a budget rig for about a grand with a quad and some killer hardware now a days.

 

[TurboK9]

12 grand on what?
You can build a budget rig for about a grand with a quad and some killer hardware now a days.

I was thinking a Xeon 3680 and 24 GB of ram, 2.5 GB Nvidia Quadro 5000, 2 X 2TB drives, 6X Blueray, etc. That only works out to about 8K nowadays.

I was being silly.

Point is, even now, a lot of the games run just as well on an older but fast single core as long as you have a good GPU and lean down your OS. Most don't take advantage of multiple cores. That's starting to change though... (finally)

A couple years back my old desktop (single core 3.2) was outperforming the heck out of friends dual and quad core systems (2-2.6 ) for gaming. That has waned a bit the last couple years though.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

I was thinking a Xeon 3680 and 24 GB of ram, 2.5 GB Nvidia Quadro 5000,

Maximum PC has tested Workstation Graphics Cards in a gaming environment ..... they suck

the drivers are not written to max FPS .... which is what gamers a after .... it may use the same GPU, but the architecture is different

12 grand was always my "let me check every box under customize on Alienware's Web Site "

I built my box, all Maximum PC 9 Kick Ass ratings in the fall of 08 and it cost about $ 2500 .... add a 24 inch LCD and a Logitech 500W 5.1 speaker setup

and I was just over 3k

I play a lot of Eve Online .... I can run 5 clients at the same time, tabbing from one to the next .... I used to run 2-3 dif characters in Anarchy Online as well

Asus Striker II Extreme, Q9550 2.93, GTX-280 6 Gb Ram, 2 DVD Burners , 2 Mirrored 500's for booting and a 1.56 tb data drive ... Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro HAF case and a 1000w PSU for when I move to SLI ... too bad GTX 280s are no longer in production

 

[Floyd2004]

Asus Striker II Extreme, Q9550 2.93, GTX-280 6 Gb Ram, 2 DVD Burners , 2 Mirrored 500's for booting and a 1.56 tb data drive ... Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro HAF case and a 1000w PSU for when I move to SLI ... too bad GTX 280s are no longer in production

Asus Striker II NSE, Q6600 3.2, GTX 275 in SLI, 4 gigs of ram, about 2tb of HDD space.
Should be good for a few years before I upgrade again.

Instead of wanting another 280, get some 460s in SLI, they are the best bang for the buck these days.