went out to bestbuy and picked up this pc for $599. give me your honest thoughts if you think i should keep it. main use will be for general use, photo editing, and of course games. i did a search about the video card and found this site which said it sucks severely. if you do recommend me keep this pc, what would you recommend as a good graphics card to buy under $200 and a PSU under $100? http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&lc=en&dlc=tr&cc=tr〈=tr&product=3820307 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=pcmprd101700050002 Hardware Base processor Phenom-9500 (A) 2.2 GHz (95W) * 2000 MHz HyperTransport 1.0 * Socket AM2+ Chipset GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 Motherboard * Manufacturer: Asus * Motherboard Name: M2N68-LA * HP/Compaq motherboard name: Narra3-GL8E Power supply * 300W Memory Component Attributes Memory Installed 6 GB Maximum allowed 8 GB (4 x 2 GB) (64-bit OS) 4 GB* (4 x 1 GB) (32-bit OS) *Actual available memory may be less Speed supported PC2-6400 MB/sec Type 240 pin, DDR2 SDRAM Hard drive * 640 GB SATA 3G (3.0 Gb/sec) * 7200 rpm 16X DVD(+/-)R/RW 12X RAM (+/-)R DL LightScribe SATA drive * Must use Double-Layer media discs in order to take advantage of the DL technology * Must use LightScribe-enabled media discs and supporting software in order to take advantage of the LightScribe technology Function Maximum speed DVD-RAM Up to 12X DVD-R DL Write Once Up to 8X DVD+R DL Write Once Up to 8X DVD+R Write Once Up to 16X DVD+RW Rewritable Up to 8X DVD-R Write Once Up to 16X DVD-RW Rewritable Up to 6X DVD ROM Read Up to 16X CD-R Write Once Up to 40X CD-RW Rewritable Up to 32X CD-ROM Read Up to 40X Modem PCIe internal modem Video Graphics Integrated on motherboard (see motherboard and chipset) Sound/Audio High Definition 8-channel audio * ALC 888S chipset Network (LAN) Integrated 10/100 Base-T networking interface Memory card reader * Supports the following cards: o Compact Flash I o Compact Flash II o IBM Microdrive o Secure Digital (SD) o mini-SD o MultiMediaCard (MMC) o Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC) o MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus) o MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile) o Memory Stick o Memory Stick Pro o Memory Stick Duo o Memory Stick Pro Duo o SmartMedia o xD Picture Card (xD = extreme digital) External I/O ports I/O ports on the front panel Port type Quantity 15-in-1 (4 slot) One 1394 One USB Two Headphone One Microphone One I/O ports on the back panel Port type Quantity PS/2 (keyboard, mouse) Two VGA One USB Four 1394a One LAN One S/PDIF out (coaxial) One Audio (side speaker out, rear speaker out, center speaker out, line-in, line-out, microphone) One Each Expansion slots Slot type Quantity PCI One (One available) PCI Express x16 One (One available) PCI Express x1 Two (One available) Drive bays Bay type Quantity 5.25" Two (One available) 3.5" Three (Two available) Keyboard and mouse * HP multimedia keyboard * HP PS/2 optical mouse
I have a phenom 9750 and it works great at video editing, so your phenom should serve you well. Most of the video editing programs I use don't even use all 4 cores at 100 percent, some of my video editor will use 1 core at 30 percent and some will use 4 cores at 40 percent each, but it will finish a lot quicker than a dual core. Incidently I only have 1gb of ram on my xp system and it starts quick and don't notice any slowdown, I also have a onboard video card but do have a available pci-e slot and will be upgrading eventually but not really needed for video editing. All onboard video cards are basic quality, none will play the latest video games, but your motherboard does have the pci-e slot to upgrade to the latest video cards. I have a 400 watt ("works" brand $40.00) power supply, I use these power supplys on all my computers and they are very reliable for the price. I have 4 hard drives installed in this computer and have had no power issues. In your case I would recommend you get at least a 400 watt power supply or higher but only if you will be upgrading your video card (the video card you want to buy will state what size power supply you will need). Otherwise the power supply you have right now is matched to the current configuration you have. Many people recommend the intel quadcore over the phenom but since I've been using my phenom it runs extremely well and have been very happy with it. For playing video games the video card will be more important than what brand cpu you have.
thank you for your response. ive done a little research and it seems like the radeon 4850 is a nice upgrade for $150-200. i see theres so many different brands of 4850 on newegg. is one better than the other? this one looks to be very popular: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102770 what are your thoughts on these PSU assuming they work with my case... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153023 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2235424&Sku=O261-2005 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002 im leaning towards the saphire 4850 and corsair 620hx.
