The Desktop Computer & Configuration Thread

RiO · 12th September 2007, 10:15

He's not the only one having this issue... I've seen a couple guys on XS with dual cores also experiencing a similar problem.

bill1182 · 12th September 2007, 10:26

Config of my comp is;

Intel Core 2 Duo - 2 Ghz
Intel 82945 Chipset - Asus Mother Board
1 Gb DDR2 Ram
160 SATA HDD
Dual Layer DVD writer - Samsung
17" wide screen Viewsonic LCD

Now, Has anyone tried running Mac OS on PC - something like the above mentioned configuration? Can this be done? If Yes, How?

Nikhilb2008 · 12th September 2007, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amey

15k for 2 cards ? you sure man ? Looks too low. Compared to this, my so called 'Pathetic' card isn't that bad

Sounds like someone is trying to look at the bright side of a not-so-good purchase

rofl....

j/k.

BTw, when you buying your Barcelona ??

@Rio, Chaos --- I am opening bets as to how long it will take Amey to respond with "I am broke" r

vabs78 · 12th September 2007, 23:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

How times change....I cant believe I called my puny centrino + 512 MB RAM as lightning fast three years ago!! It pales in comparison to my brothers spanking 2 GB RAM laptop running on dual cores.

Completely agree.

Not long back I used to have a Intel 486 with 4Mb RAM and 480 Mb of HDD. We even successfully run Win95 on it.

Sad part is that, even with a 2GB Dual Core machine on VISTA we have to wait for WindowsMedia player to start and stop.

gulgulumaal · 13th September 2007, 00:07

My line of thought on computers is like this. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, or a computer geek who's crazy about the latest hardware, always stick to low end, but good quality components.

I've seen so many people spend 40k+ on computers where they could have bought one that serves their purpose for less than half the cost!! They typically do some browsing, watching movies, and opening word and excel files.

For such purposes, they end up buying PCs with latest Core2Duo processors, 2GB RAM, massive hard disks..etc...all high end stuff. They think of buying the latest stuff as some kind of future proofing..to make sure they can run the latest software after say 2 years also.

What they dont realize is that, with the extra 20-25K they are spending at the moment to (supposedly) make their comps future proof, they could buy another much better PC after 2 years which will be newer and have warranty also.

How I wish I could make people understand!!

BTW my config is

Pentium D 2.8Ghz
1 GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard disk
LG DVD Writer
XFX Nvidia 8400GS
17" LG TFT Monitor

reignofchaos · 13th September 2007, 02:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulgulumaal

My line of thought on computers is like this. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, or a computer geek who's crazy about the latest hardware, always stick to low end, but good quality components.

How I wish I could make people understand!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulgulumaal

BTW my config is

Pentium D 2.8Ghz
1 GB DDR2 RAM
250GB SATA Hard disk
LG DVD Writer
XFX Nvidia 8400GS
17" LG TFT Monitor

Unfortunately those two statements don't gel together. Pentium D 2.8 GHz is not a good cpu... its one of the crappiest CPUs every made. If you wanted to not spend money, an Athlon X2 or a Pentium 21x0 would be a far better choice. Other than that your PC is nice.

Also wanted to mention even for a puny job like watching movies, if they are 720p or 1080p i.e. High Definition, it'd need a hell of a lot of CPU power... something that a low end CPU won't be able to provide.

low_bass_makker · 13th September 2007, 11:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Unfortunately those two statements don't gel together. Pentium D 2.8 GHz is not a good cpu... its one of the crappiest CPUs every made. If you wanted to not spend money, an Athlon X2 or a Pentium 21x0 would be a far better choice. Other than that your PC is nice.

Also wanted to mention even for a puny job like watching movies, if they are 720p or 1080p i.e. High Definition, it'd need a hell of a lot of CPU power... something that a low end CPU won't be able to provide.

The Pentium D is a very bad cpu I agree but it does a nice job.

About the High Def movie the cpu power is required but a good display card is also required.

abhibh · 13th September 2007, 13:21

A friend needs to a buy a new dvd writer with lightscribe technology. Requirements are:

1. lightscribe
2. good quality writing. speed doesnt matter much coz he writes the cd's and dvd's at the lowest speed.
3. dvd writer should not blow up within a year or so.

Monthly use of it will be around 10 - 20 dvds. For writing cds he got another writer.

reignofchaos · 13th September 2007, 14:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by low_bass_makker

The Pentium D is a very bad cpu I agree but it does a nice job.

About the High Def movie the cpu power is required but a good display card is also required.

Any card with 128megs of dedicated memory is good enough for 1080p if you use a software h.264/x264 decoder. If you want hardware decoding, then the new gen graphics cards are a necessity.

About the Pentium D, well its hot, eats tonnes of power and is rather slow. As long as you are sitting on the desktop, browsing, chatting etc its okay. But in any CPU intensive task with the stock heatsink it throttles as temperatures go thru the roof.

Nikhilb2008 · 13th September 2007, 16:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Any card with 128megs of dedicated memory is good enough for 1080p if you use a software h.264/x264 decoder. If you want hardware decoding, then the new gen graphics cards are a necessity.

Is hardware decoding better than software decoding ?

And what softwares decode HD ?? WMP10 ?? Or stuff like Win DVD Platinum ?

gulgulumaal · 13th September 2007, 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Unfortunately those two statements don't gel together. Pentium D 2.8 GHz is not a good cpu... its one of the crappiest CPUs every made. If you wanted to not spend money, an Athlon X2 or a Pentium 21x0 would be a far better choice. Other than that your PC is nice.

Also wanted to mention even for a puny job like watching movies, if they are 720p or 1080p i.e. High Definition, it'd need a hell of a lot of CPU power... something that a low end CPU won't be able to provide.

Unfortunately, I never said I use my PC only for browsing and chatting

I just said that what most people use a PC for, is mostly browsing and chatting and watching movies. Also consider that my PC is almost a year old.

My PC's use would be like

40% - Normal stuff like browsing and chatting, downloading stuff etc.

40% Watching movies - 250GB is not massive by today's standards, but almost 1 year back when I bought my PC, it was huge - holds my rather big media library

10% - Video encoding - ripping DVDs to DivX, encoding videos to different formats..etc..need a powerful processor for this.

10% casual gaming - Ok..8400GS is not too good at gaming, but serves my purpose fine..does a good job for it's price.

Yes I agree, a Pentium D is a major power hog, but at the time of purchase Core2Duos were too damn expensive and the Pentium 21x0 series was not available. Yes AMD was an option, but I had an idea to upgrade to a Core2Duo down the line

, but till this moment my Pentium is doing fine for me.

Yeah for HD, having a better processor certainly helps(as does having a graphics card with HD decoding capabilities), but I'm sure it would take quite some time for HD to get popular in India. Geeks might use it, but I dont think the typical crowd would get to see HD movies anytime soon.

reignofchaos · 13th September 2007, 23:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikhilb2008

Is hardware decoding better than software decoding ?

And what softwares decode HD ?? WMP10 ?? Or stuff like Win DVD Platinum ?

CoreAVC is supposed to be the best software decoder. Hardware decoding is less CPU intensive as a significant chunk of the work can be offloaded to the GPU. NVDVD/PowerDVD support hardware decoding. Not sure about WinDVD.

gulgulumaal · 14th September 2007, 00:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by abhibh

A friend needs to a buy a new dvd writer with lightscribe technology. Requirements are:

1. lightscribe
2. good quality writing. speed doesnt matter much coz he writes the cd's and dvd's at the lowest speed.
3. dvd writer should not blow up within a year or so.

Monthly use of it will be around 10 - 20 dvds. For writing cds he got another writer.

Guys, any idea what's the price difference between a lightscribe and non-lightscribe DVD Writer?.
And do we get lightscribe media in India yet. If so does anyone know the price?

abhibh · 14th September 2007, 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by gulgulumaal

And do we get lightscribe media in India yet. If so does anyone know the price?

Lightscribe dvd's costs Rs. 100

sharathjeppu · 15th September 2007, 04:03

I am looking at buying a DVD writer. I have a Desktop with two free SATA ports. Any reccomendations?

12th September 2007, 10:15	#631
RiO Newbie Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 4 Thanked: 0 Times	He's not the only one having this issue... I've seen a couple guys on XS with dual cores also experiencing a similar problem.
	() Thanks

12th September 2007, 10:26	#632
bill1182 BHPian Join Date: May 2007 Location: Mumbai Posts: 165 Thanked: 312 Times	Config of my comp is; Intel Core 2 Duo - 2 Ghz Intel 82945 Chipset - Asus Mother Board 1 Gb DDR2 Ram 160 SATA HDD Dual Layer DVD writer - Samsung 17" wide screen Viewsonic LCD Now, Has anyone tried running Mac OS on PC - something like the above mentioned configuration? Can this be done? If Yes, How?
	() Thanks

13th September 2007, 00:07	#635
gulgulumaal Newbie Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Trivandrum Posts: 11 Thanked: 0 Times	My line of thought on computers is like this. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, or a computer geek who's crazy about the latest hardware, always stick to low end, but good quality components. I've seen so many people spend 40k+ on computers where they could have bought one that serves their purpose for less than half the cost!! They typically do some browsing, watching movies, and opening word and excel files. For such purposes, they end up buying PCs with latest Core2Duo processors, 2GB RAM, massive hard disks..etc...all high end stuff. They think of buying the latest stuff as some kind of future proofing..to make sure they can run the latest software after say 2 years also. What they dont realize is that, with the extra 20-25K they are spending at the moment to (supposedly) make their comps future proof, they could buy another much better PC after 2 years which will be newer and have warranty also. How I wish I could make people understand!! BTW my config is Pentium D 2.8Ghz 1 GB DDR2 RAM 250GB SATA Hard disk LG DVD Writer XFX Nvidia 8400GS 17" LG TFT Monitor Last edited by aah78 : 13th September 2007 at 07:57. Reason: multiple posts merged
	() Thanks

13th September 2007, 13:21	#638
abhibh Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Back in the HOOD near you! Posts: 2,768 Thanked: 39 Times	A friend needs to a buy a new dvd writer with lightscribe technology. Requirements are: 1. lightscribe 2. good quality writing. speed doesnt matter much coz he writes the cd's and dvd's at the lowest speed. 3. dvd writer should not blow up within a year or so. Monthly use of it will be around 10 - 20 dvds. For writing cds he got another writer.
	() Thanks

15th September 2007, 04:03	#645
sharathjeppu BHPian Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 159 Thanked: 4 Times	I am looking at buying a DVD writer. I have a Desktop with two free SATA ports. Any reccomendations?
	() Thanks