Hi We'll...I've only recently noticed the outburst of all this new technology. I only recently came to realise that P4 are not even sold in stores anymore lol. Anyhow, I was thinking about building a new computer and had afew questions before i scope out on what parts i want. 1) DDR2 / DD3 and Mhz - What is the benefits of DDR3 over DDR2? Right now DDR3 is quite expensive...oh and what does different Mhz levels mean? (in terms of me using a computer) I was thinking of getting 8GB's of ram...(4x2 DDR2 Kingston)...is this a good idea? And would this allow me to do many things at once aka. burn 2 DVD's at once off 2 different DVD burners? Whilst watching a .avi or listening to music? 2) PCI-e...wow, so much for AGP lol. I hear that you can have 2x graphics cards at once? Is that true? I'm not much of a gamer anymore but I still want a decent card that can play most of the new games with no lag...what card do u recommend? I was thinking about getting duel-monitors. But I only want this if it's possible to transmit the image off ONE monitor to my LCD (which has a VGA input). This would be useful if i wanna browse the net while my friends wanna watch a TV show off the comp. Is this possible? 3) Core2Duo and Quad-core...much difference? I will probably get a quad-core just so i don't have to upgrade for awhile. 4) Lastly....i like my system cool...currently i have my home fan blowing into my computer lol. What are some good cheap cases with massive fans? Thanks for all the help.
Hi there Akamura, and welcome to the latter half of the decade! 1. DDR3, new though it is, offers very little in the way of performance gain and is exceptionally expensive even now. DDR2 will be here to stay for a long time yet, so I see no reason why you should even consider DDR3. As for having 8GB of RAM, in my opinion it's unnecessary. I can't name a reasonable task (that isn't needlessly showing off) that uses more than a touch over 3GB, so 4GB will be ample. Burning two DVDs at once, or listening to music with a film running (even if its high definition) won't even require more than 1GB - the real users of RAM are programs like Photoshop and 3DS Max, and games. 2. PCIe's been around since about 2004. You can actually have up to four graphics cards working in unison (Quad crossfire or Quad SLI) with reasonable performance gains - generally, however, the reliability of such methods tails off the more cards you use - Two cards at once work with the majority of newer titles, in the case of AMD Crossfire offering very close to double the performance in some cases. Triple Crossfire and Triple SLI isn't quite so efficient, but does still work. Quad Graphics is very restricted, and usually isn't a very cost-effective method at present. As for what you require for games, unless you use a very large monitor, you will probably get by with just the one card, especially if you buy something like a Geforce GTX260 or 280. 24" and larger monitors put a lot of strain on the graphicscard if you use their full resolution, and with maximum detail playing some titles may prove a performance problem, but if you're not going to use a large screen like this, then a single card will be fine. I am a little unclear as to what you wish to do with your second screen, but it can be done either way. You can use the two for entirely separate purposes, or you can display the same image on each. 3. If the system is going to last you a while (and by the sounds of it from how far behind you are) then you should go for a Quad core CPU - they're finally starting to become useful, and that will improve with time. 4. There are loads of cases out there that offer plentiful cooling nowadays. Generally the ones with fans as wide as your arm is long aren't so great, because they're designed quite poorly. What you want are intelligently designed cases with lots of 120 or 140mm fans, cases like the NZXT Tempest and Coolermaster RC-690. Ultimately almost any case will cool a PC sufficiently for it to work without overheating, so it's primarily down to personal taste. Some, however, are better than others at dealing with high performance components, overclocking and so on, and some can do the job far more quietly than others, if that's in your interest (it certainly is for me).
thanks for all that info mate. What i meant with the duel screen thing is.....ok heres a scenario. I have a mate over that want's to watch the new ep of the simpsons i downloaded, yet i want to browse the net. If i have duel screens and i have simpsons playing on 1 screen, and browsing the net on the other.....is it possible to transmit the image from one screen to my LCD TV? Or even better...is it possible to have duel screens, and use the LCD as 1 of them....but like, is there a option to turn duel screen off...so i can just use my normal monitor?
Oh also...so it's possible to burn 2 DVD's with 2 different DVD writers at the same time with no burn errors? Whilst listening to music or watching a movie...? I didn't think that was possible 0_0
As I understand it then, you will have one PC monitor and one LCD TV hooked up to your PC - playing, for an example an episode of the simpsons, whilst your PC monitor displays your desktop with you browsing the web, that's certainly doable. If you wanted a second PC monitor and a large TV showing the same video that would also be doable. You could disable the second screen in windows whenever you like. As for burning two DVDs at once, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do it, but I don't know what the software limitations are - not having recorded a CD or DVD for many months I wouldn't be the best person to ask about that.
At the moment im using some china-ware VGA splitter cord from ebay, it makes my current monitor alot dimmer when i use it with my TV. Which is sort of a good thing since its pretty bright normally. Hrm...I might get duel LCD monitors just for the sake of it...I usually do quite alot of stuff anyhow, just gotta measure my desk and such. If not..would a graphics card that has DVI and VGA be able to output to both my PC and my LCD. (So 1cord from DVI from my LCD monitor to the card, and 1cord VGA from my TV to my card). But in saying that...will it be able to act as a duel screen, so 2 different things on the different screens? Gosh im even getting confused lol. I was looking towards the GeForce 8500GT...it's not too expensive and should be able to play most new games are reasonable rates.
No, the 8500GT is a very poor performing card for modern games. Aim for at least an 8600GT, if not something like a 9600GT.
