A few things:
1) Sim Lim is cheap, gives u great satisfaction when things work well and u get to mix and match all the dream parts that you want (or can afford).
Downside, when the system doesn't work, is unstable or wonky, u get major headaches.
Careful about the shops that say "Harddisk 3 yrs warranty", "Motherboard 1 yr warranty" etc. even though many of them say so.
If you buy parts from all over, when that single component fails, they may not honour the warranty for each specific part by using the lame excuse that you did not pay them the service charge to assemble them, i.e. u screwed the parts urself.
So look for the reputable ones. I heard some of the real cheap Indian ones are notorious for this.
Exercise the common sense to check your receipts. If it does not even state the serial number of the item u bought (if it does not come with a warranty card for instance)... how can they give you the warranty?
2) Dell or Compaq gives surprisingly good value. Though not always top notch specs (usually they skimp by giving u ridiculously little RAM), consider that you get Windows OS licenses, new drives, etc. bundled in.
Tech support may not be that great, but at least there is tech support to scream at.
With Sim Lim, u can only blame yourself.
3) That said, my past 3 systems were DIY.
You can also consider letting a good reputable shop assemble and test for you. Try Kudoz on the 4th floor. Look for Calvin. Good man him, thru my personal experiences etc.
Typically $30 bucks or so. Saves u a lot of time and heartache.
4) U got an LCD monitor, so u can re-use it and any other high value parts. LCD prices have gone up.
The others like RAM and graphics cards may or may not be compatible with the motherboard depending on BIOS, drivers etc. so check first.
5) I find P4 Hyper Threading CPUs (2.6GHz or better) much better performing than the Athlon XP ones (my previous). The latest AMDs might be better, no experience with those though. Allows you to multitask really well. I seldom find it maxing out at 100% CPU utilisation even when running batch jobs in Photoshop, ACDSee etc. But that could be because I have 1GB dual channel DDR400 RAM.
The importance of (FS)Bus speed is often underestimated.
6) Its not true that u need a fantastic graphic card. Those stuff are expensive & the best easily cost more than CPUs. More for gamers.
If u use photoshop mainly, its 2-D work only. CPU, RAM, FSB speed, hdd speed will be more critical.
7) For performance, overclocking etc. Asus, MSI, Gigabyte etc. have a good reputation among hard core performance/gaming users. Check around to see which models has got garnered good feedback for reliability. Some fail after 1 or 2 years. For gamers, its not an issue cos they change motherboards as often as they change underwear (every few weeks) but for more normal ppl who use it for more mundane work, motherboard reliability is everything.
For the best stability, buy the original Intel P4 motherboards obviously. Typically 3 yrs warranty as compared to 1-2 for the ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte etc., though remember that Point 1 applies.
Fewer or no overclocking options. Since u said that you dun do gaming, I would recommend this.
Its what I use after experiences with wonky systems. I no longer am that free or energetic to troubleshoot and make multiple trips to Sim Lim.
Age may make one gravitate towards the Dells and what nots.
Lastly, good luck.
"The best PC is one that works all the time when u need it."
funksoulava said:
I'm torn between getting a new PC or upgrading my old one.
Currently, I'm using a system with the following specs (roughly):
Pentium 3 - 450
256mb ram
Integrated graphic card on motherboard
Yamaha 16x CD Burner (without Burn proof technology)
LCD Monitor
I mainly process photos in Photoshop and don't play games or watch movies with this PC. It takes a very long time to open RAW files and saving them to jpeg takes longer. Opening jpeg files are slightly faster than Raw but saving them also takes a long time.
My freind said that the problem lies with the onboard graphics card. When processing large files, there isn't enough memory so it draws from the motherboard, thereby slowing all processes to a crawl. He has recommended that I buy a GForce 128mb graphics card and a RAID card (I have 2 brand new pieces of Seagate Barracuda ATA IV harddisks). He says that running both harddisks with the RAID card and the new graphics card will speed up my system somewhat and that I can install Windows XP (I'm currently running Window 98). He mentioned that if this solution isn't good enough after installing, I can still buy a new system without the graphics card.
Based on my photo processing requirements, can you guys recommend a solution for me? If I buy a new system, what should I get and how much will it cost? (I hope it won't cross the SGD1K mark) I think I can still use the LCD, maybe the harddisks, but I'd love to hear from you tech savvy people.
Any help and advise will be greatly appreciated.
