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But the integrated card? Should I replace it if I find one that has it?

If it's integrated then you can't remove it.

EDIT: OKAY. After much consideration and research, as well as keeping my budget as low as possible, what do you all think of the Dell Studios XPS 7100? It's right in my budget range, and it doesn't look like anything too fancy or anything, and I've looked up reviews which said that it'd a good deal for a mid-range gaming pc that can still handle other stuff. I think it might be worth the buy and what I'm looking for. Thoughts?

EDIT: OKAY. After much consideration and research, as well as keeping my budget as low as possible, what do you all think of the Dell Studios XPS 7100? It's right in my budget range, and it doesn't look like anything too fancy or anything, and I've looked up reviews which said that it'd a good deal for a mid-range gaming pc that can still handle other stuff. I think it might be worth the buy and what I'm looking for. Thoughts?

Yea it's fine if you're on a budget. Go for it, though have fun waiting.

Oh lol, didn't know that's what it meant. I guess it'll be fine anyway.

Yea it's fine if you're on a budget. Go for it, though have fun waiting.

What? You mean it'll take long to arrive? :S

What? You mean it'll take long to arrive? :S

I mean that's with all prebuilt computers. Look at when it's shipped then expect a 2 week wait.

[COLOR="blue"]Ok, so these are the computers I plan on buying, just for playing DFO, and maybe some other games that aren't very 3D,

http://www.cdw.ca/shop/products/Toshiba-...46.aspx#TS Source Price: 499$

http://shop.amd.com/CA/_layouts/shop/Pro...gion=ca-en Source Price: 369(lol)$

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/S...CatId=4928 399$



I'm guessing the Desktop is the best choice, even comes with an HD 6250 graphics card, and it's cheaper. [/COLOR]

What is your current budget?:
$500 for the desktop, have a monitor/keyboard/etc.

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
Looking for a desk top to stream live video online, would need to be able to run League of Legends on at least medium settings. From another source, I know that quad core is highly recommended. Fiel I know you play SC2, I would imagine the requirements would be similar if not less than that of SC.

What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
Nothing pre-built or pre-existing.

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
Main purpose is for streaming, so it would need to be able to run the game(league of legends) and stream the live video, via xsplit.

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
In the US.

Thanks for any help, if I need to provide more information let me know and I will do my best, I am a pretty big computer noob.

edit: pineapple was talking about http://www.dell.com/us/p/studio-xps-7100...o-xps-7100 and i know he plays LoL as well, would this fit with my needs? I guess I forgot to mention that both pre-built or a build your own set up are fine. Getting the most out of the $500 is the goal.

What are your guys thoughs on AMDs new A8 APU series?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103942

Basically it's a new CPU that caters to the integrated GPU user base. It's a pretty good buy for its price. The only downside is that you need to buy an entirely new motherboard just to use it.

What are your guys thoughs on AMDs new A8 APU series?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6819103942

Basically it's a new CPU that caters to the integrated GPU user base. It's a pretty good buy for its price. The only downside is that you need to buy an entirely new motherboard just to use it.

I think it's cute but only really for a certain niche of people. The CPU (portion?) seems to score similarly but slightly lower than my 955 BE on 3dmark vantage. Similar (same?) architecture for the chips and similar clock speeds explain most of that. Side note: evidently that a8 2.9ghz can be cranked up to 3.6ghz and I realize there is a difference in caches between the products.

I've seen plenty of videos of the GPU portion of the a8 apus playing games and these seemed to run nicely enough. The IGP is still an IGP, even if it may be the best IGP out there right now. I bet it plays maplestory well enough. Side note: the IGP can work with certain stand-alone GPUs using something called "dual graphics"; I think that's kinda cool.

I think $140 is a good price for something that offers CPU 3dmark vantage scores similar to the 955 BE, and has a kick-ass IGP, for an IGP. The processor performance from a8 stuff has got to be worth $100 and another $40 for the IGP sounds reasonable. I hear they will release a BE of the a8 stuff eventually, too.

If I only had $140 to spend on CPU + GPU, and I only wanted to use 100w, then the a8 stuff isn't a bad choice. Besides, a nice board for these is like ~130.

I need an opinion.


What is your current budget?:
$100-150, I typically spend this much on an upgrade at a time, incrementally upgrading my computer month after month. If I need more money, I'll wait until my next available paycheck.

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
I'm thinking I need a new Motherboard, CPU, and ram. These are the oldest parts currently in my computer.

I'm thinking of upgrading my motherboard to an AM2+ Socket with DDR3 ram support, so I can till use my old processor while I save money from the folllowing paycheck to buy a CPU.

tl;dr order of attack:
>Motherboard
>RAM
>CPU

What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
Heregoes:
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Socket AM2 (2.41 ghz, 1 core, single threading)
Total RAM: 3.5 GB DDR2:
Crucial CT25664AA800K16F 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
OCZ OCZ2G800512 512MB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-15 4-22-6-3)
Samsung M3 78T2863DZS-CE6 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-5300U DDR2-666 (5-5-5-15 3-20-5-3)

ATI Radeon HD 5450 (80 SM5.0 650MHz, 512MB DDR3 2x400MHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Storage Devices
WDC WD1600BB-00RDA0 (160GB, ATA100, 3.5", 7200rpm, 2MB Cache)
MAXTOR STM3320620A (320GB, ATA100, 3.5", 16MB Cache)
WDC WD800JD-00JNA0 80GB (SATA150, 8MB Cache)
(Also an external 1TB via Firewire, exact specs weren't available as of this post, sorry. :/)

Powersupply - 550 watt GenericBox

I think that's everything that will indicate my performance.

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
I do a lot of video editing, Graphic design. I...really don't have much to add. I don't put much on here in terms of games, I usually just wait for the ps3 version to come out. I play classic RTS games like...Rise of Nations, and strategy games like civ.. and I did go out and buy Fallout New Vegas.

As of right now though...I can run Adobe AE, but it doesn't run very well. Same goes for Sony Vegas, but not to much of the same extent.

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
Nope.

Bought a new pair of RAM. I have 2 questions:

- Is Memtest86+ supposed to take really long for reliable results? I'm talking multiple hours. Yes, it is.
- My laptop seems to have 4 SO-DIMM slots, but apparently I don't know where to look. When I opened it up, I could only fit two modules in.

What is your current budget?:
$250~$300

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
1/ A reliable 60~120GB SATA-300 SSD.
2/ A reliable 500GB~1TB USB 3.0 External hard drive. Also accepting bare drive + chassis recommendations. I'm thinking a vanilla 2.5'' drive with SATA II - USB 3.0 interfaces enclosure. Can someone check what internal interface this box uses? I can't find the SATA connectors anywhere in that internal view picture.

What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
Acer Aspire 5750. I assume this will be more helpful.
Stock RAM replaced by these.

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
1/ Just typical boot drive for Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit and major apps. I'd tinker with dualbooting Ubuntu 11.04 if the space allows it.
2/ Data backup, OS image storage, general data storage, not a lot of heavy junk like movies, but not completely void of it.

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
Nope.

A 120GB SSD will most typically cost $200 at the lowest, so I'm willing to go for 60~80GB (as stated) for economical advantage. Speed is the second-most important factor, but I'd take something close to 200MB/s read/write as acceptable. I'd like the most reliable drive known in history, though. The failure rate scare the crap out of me.

I've also never done OS backup and restore (when things went bad enough, I just opted for a fresh reinstallation) so I'm not confident I'm doing this right. Is there a concrete fool-proof procedure for migrating all of my OS and data (or at least just the OS, since Acer didn't give me the installation disc) to a new drive?
I imagine an "Image backup" would do the trick, wouldn't it? I'm just not confident it does what I'm expecting it to do.
But in the case it does, some files that were previously fragmented to the end of the HDD would cause some problems, wouldn't they?

What is your current budget?:
£100-£150 (unless it's godtier on sale for more)

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
Graphic's card. Just need a new upgrade.

What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
Acer Aspire
4gb ram
750gb HDD
AMD Phenom 9650 Quad-Core Processor 2.30 GHz
32 bit
Nvidia GeForce GT 120

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
General browsing the internet, playing low-end games like TF2, Maple, other games. Nothing like Crisis, though.

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
United Kingdom

I've always had a sh'it graphics card but I recently got a new monitor and it can go up to 1920x1080 resolution, except my graphics card can only do 1600x1200 |:. Just because my limit is £100-£150 doesn't mean I HAVE to have a card that expensive, it's just that's the most money I would spend on one.

I don't know what other details I had to include :/.

sorry I'm stupid with the whole computer thing....

What is your current budget?:
$535000(USD)

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
A new laptop/netbook

What parts are in your current computer? B
I dont know I just want a pc that cant run maplestory.

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
I just want a pc that can run maplestory fine enough & facebook games too .

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
chile

I would like to get some ideas please yeah I know I'm poor but maybe I can get more money somewhere

sorry I'm stupid with the whole computer thing....

What is your current budget?:
$535000(USD)

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
A new laptop/netbook

What parts are in your current computer? B
I dont know I just want a pc that cant run maplestory.

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
I just want a pc that can run maplestory fine enough & facebook games too .

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
chile

I would like to get some ideas please yeah I know I'm poor but maybe I can get more money somewhere

Buy a super computer.

I'm not sure if this is true, but I have a faint feeling that the multicore processors aren't suitable for running Maple. One hypothesis is that Maple wasn't written to utilize all 8 threads, thus heavily strains a single one (which happens to run at a relatively low clock speed: 2.0 GHz is the highest I've seen in laptops). Since that particular CPU core does all the heavy work, the entire CPU gets rather hot as a whole (mine has reached over 90 Celcius JUST running idle Maple).

All that or laptops just really really suck at heat dissipation.

Buy a super computer.

oooh sorry maybe its like 535? >_>

sorry sorry

What is your current budget?:
600-1000

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
Everything. My laptop sucks and the cord (?) running thru where my screen is, has crapped out. Everything that should be black is now red. The wire broke or some pomegranate.


What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
HP Pavilion dv4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6834157881



How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?

I use it mostly for everyday browsing, school, graphic design programs, some gaming.

If you live anywhere other than the United States, please indicate your country.
united states

I guess I'm trying to find out which would be better at this point. A laptop or a desktop. I like the portability option but I also know I can find something as good or better in a desktop for cheaper.

Laptops nowadays are good enough to do most stuff on. Honestly, though, I have no idea what to recommend since I've heard bad things from all sides. Toshiba's quality going downhill, Acer simply sucking, HP losing their touch on hardware manufacturing (or having sucked all along), etc... Maybe Lenovo. Make sure you get one with a graphics card for those design programs, though (should be around $800+).

Be warned, though, that laptops are prone to breaking apart for "no apparent reason" at all and you can't really just replace the broken part. So if you factor that in, the desktop will be even cheaper than it seems right now.