How's this computer?
polycounter lvl 18
http://www.mdg.ca/en/products/aptondesktop_line.asp
I don't know much about computers so I came here to ask.
How is it?
Ok,great,good,bad,ect?
I'll use it for modeling max and maybe zbrush,painting with photoshop and opencanvas, playing a few games like qauke wars and gears of war and internet.
How's the price also?
I don't know much about computers so I came here to ask.
How is it?
Ok,great,good,bad,ect?
I'll use it for modeling max and maybe zbrush,painting with photoshop and opencanvas, playing a few games like qauke wars and gears of war and internet.
How's the price also?
Replies
Plus the graphics card isn't nearly up to snuff if you want to play anything like quakewars. It just, isn't. It looks to me most of what you're paying here is for the monitor and the spiffy case it comes in.
For doing the stuff you want to do, I'd suggest more ram and a better graphics card, and its overpriced.
Edit: from what it looks like, a lot of the price is also in the hard drive... are you ever going to need 500 gigs?
Newegg is a good suggestion though. My only concern is he may not know now to put one together. It's pretty easy these days, but can be intimidating when it's your first time.
As for that computer, they are both pretty good, but they are lacking in the video card department, like PfhorRunner suggested. I'm honestly suprised at what else they put into those computers, and then they pop in an x300 Radeon. I'm not sure on the x300's specs right now, but I'm pretty sure they could have done much better with it.
Personally, I consider those prices very high, but only because I know how to build the same thing for about $900 (with maybe a few unnecessary things missing). If you don't know what to buy to put one together, use the computer's specs to guide what to buy. For each of those components, look them up on newegg or zipzoomfly.com and see what your total would be
Sure it can be a scary thing "building" your own but once you have that first system under your belt you'll wonder why anyone ever pays for a name brand computer. You need atleast 1024mb of ram if you are even thinking of playing games. I doubt the min spec for gears of war will be 512mb.
Do you plan to buy it out right or are you going for the payment plan? Because you end up playing MUCH more than its already overly inflated price. More than likely the 0% interest only applies to 1% of the people that actually pass the "OAC" (on aproval of credit). So hows your credit score? Paying $2,000-$3,000 for that PC even if it is over the course of 5 years is still wrong.
So if you do plunk down the cash for that beastie, you'll end up upgrading ram and the video card. Which will run you another $300-800 and you are still cracking your case open and playing DR. Might as well bite the bullet build your own. You'll be more happy with what you have in the long run and your wallet will thank you also.
If you have a system that works you could use it as practice. You could break it down, reformat the drive and put it back together. Also if you don't have the cash to buy all the pieces for a new computer you can start with a few pieces and that will give you the time to make sure you install them right as you buy it.
LOL, are you seriously asking him if he'll ever need 500Gigs?
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Yes and no. He is mostly asking him does he need to pay for 500gb right now? or can he spend less, get still get more than he needs. If he needs more space later, he can add it? having all your stuff on one phsical drive is kind of like putting all your eggs in on basket.
I'm sure some day 500gb will seem small but really do you want to play finance charges and way too much money for something you really might never need?
I'm sure flying cars will be standard in the future but you won't see me trying to get one now. The chances of him never using half that space before he junks the PC are really high.
are you ever going to need 500 gigs?
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I believe that statement right there says EVER. Not in the near future, but ever. It just reminds me of the classic quotes by others who suggest that you'd never need more than 256K of RAM.
Your points are valid about a single drive, but it seems pretty rare these days to have a drive fail. Personally, I've never had a single drive failure. I've seen them, but it was on extrememly old harddrives.
Anyways, if the system comes with it, I don't see why it would be an issue just because he doesn't need that much space now. If he were building one, I would suggest a smaller drive, just for the cash savings (which I know is what the 500G reply was about
Building a custom rig is terribly easy these days, fiddling with jumpers is a thing of the past. These days it's pretty much "plug things into corresponding ports on mainboard, power on, reinstall Windows". The mainboard manuals are very easy to understand and describe everything in detail. If you've managed to assemble furniture bought from Ikea you will be able to assemble a computer (and even if Ikea is too complicated for you, you can still build a computer).
Making sure that components fit together is as easy as typing component names + review into Google, that'll usually tell you everything you need to know including possible alternatives. Buying the components in a PC store will also allow you to ask questions about the components and get recommendations from the clerk (of course that's going to net better results at better stores). Buying online can cause unexpected trouble and delays (e.g. ordering a new chip can result in getting a piece of paper "we apologize but some components were not in stock, we will ship those when new stock arrives" in addition to the mobo, RAM and everything else), with stores you get immediate feedback and no delivery times.
will it be worth it after the shipping and canadian goverment fees?
The guys are right, you'd be better off selecting your own components and building your own system.
Space is always good. My dad recently had his entire CD collection ripped and encoded into MP3-- about 40 gigs worth, then my brother gave him about 35 more of his own taste in music.
Of course there are always people who don't need the space, but 500 is not 'more than you'll ever need' even by today's standards.
</devil's advocate>
That's all, no useful information here, sorry
The "ever" was a typo.
If you think you need 500 gigs right off the bat, then go for it, all i'm saying is that HDs do fail, i've had several go out on me, and its no fun to lose 80 gigs, let alone 500 all at once.
Oh yeah, and the shipping costs might be pretty high for canada from newegg.
A little bit of video editing, and you'll run out of space in a hurry. 13 gigs per hour of video for DV. And just wait until HDV hits mainstream.
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Lets not forget a gig a minite for raw video
What I liked about is this:
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FREE LEXMARK Photo Printer
FREE LEXMARK All-in-one Printer
FREE WIRELESS ROUTER
FREE COREL SOFTWARE BUNDLE
FREE BELL Sympatico High Speed Internet for 3 months
FREE 3 months Unlimited AOL Internet Service
TRY 3 months of AOL Total Talk VoIP Telephone Service
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My current printer is 7 years old.
Corel software sounds nice too.
The free wireless router is nameless? That makes me think it won't be worth it. Again, they are cheap if you look carefully (like $50-$70).
I find it funny that they offer High Speed internet free for 3 months, then they also offer 3 months of AOL for free.
Might I add AOL = Don't EVER install. I'm sure you already know that though
So the only thing on that list that might be worth while (IMO) is the Corel Software. To be honest, I question it also. I'm not familar with their software of recent years, so I can't say anything about the software. What I wonder about is if the software will come gimped. Just something to keep in mind.
Honestly, if you want help picking out hardware and prices, let us know and I KNOW people will give you several option lists
As for warrantees on custom made computers, are you refering to building it yourself? Or TigerDirect's custom made machines. I wouldn't buy one of those necessarily. Just buy the parts and put it together. It's like stacking legos these days. The parts would have their own individual warrantees.
Never bother with "free" crap.
We meant you use tiger direct to buy the individual parts and you build it yourself. Not you using their building service. At this point you would be better going to a local mom and pop computer store and having them build one for you.
If you think you'll be getting corel draw or painter. You wont.
Never bother with "free" crap.
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Do you know this software package specifically? I know Painter has come free with Wacom Tablets in the past, so it's not like it never happens.