[siddharth]

Hi guys,

I'm new on here and looking for assistance. I am in the market to buy a PC and have narrowed my options down to 4 computers. I have provided links to each of their specifications below:

1) Gateway SX2800-01 Desktop PC: http://www.jr.com/gateway/pe/GTW_SX2...ductTabReviews

2) HP NP192AA Pavilion p6140f Desktop PC: http://www.jr.com/hp/pe/HP_P6140F/

3) HP NP195AA Pavilion Elite E9140F Desktop PC: http://www.jr.com/hp/pe/HP_E9140F/#productTabReviews

4) Acer Computer Aspire AM5800-U5802A Desktop PC: http://www.jr.com/acer-computer/pe/A...ductTabDetails

I am currently leaning towards the Acer, but realise I have nowhere near the knowledge required to make an informed decision. I am not a gamer, but expect to use my computer for entertainment purposes and to run some engineering software. Price is not a major issue, but value for money is.

Any help I can get - even in the form of suggestions for other computers - is much appreciated. Thanks in advance !

[Carbon]

Any way to avoid prebuilt (is having some local place build it for you an option)?

[Razer]

I'm going with Carbon on this one. Those computer will be quick and such but it'll come with a shed load of junk you don't need.

If you can buy one that's built in a store for you and not built to try and suit everyone then you'll save money and not get inundated with burning software, crappy chipsets and associated drivers, adware and other tat. Getting one built gets you a clean OS which you can install the stuff *you* want.

[siddharth]

Thanks for your posts guys. I obviously don't know enough to build my own computer, so having one built for me is obviously a good option. Still, I wouldn't know what parts to get. Based on my requirements, and the specifications of the computers listed, would you be able to suggest what I should be buying ? I hope that's not asking too much !

[Carbon]

By "entertainment" do you mean gaming or just home theater kind of stuff?

[siddharth]

Home theater kind of stuff :)

[Carbon]

Oh duh, you even said that in the OP. Sorry.

Assuming your engineering programs are heavily threaded, something like this would be a very drastic step up from those prebuilts both as far as raw performance and price/performance.

These are all on ncix, there might be better deals on newegg.ca but they're having some free shipping thing until the 30th on all orders with that processor and you can't pick up parts directly from NewEgg like you can so I figure any savings on the Egg would be offset by shipping.

Motherboard: P55-UD2
CPU: I7 860
RAM: 4GB DDR3-1333
PSU: 400CX
HDD: WD 1TB
Video: 3650 (overkill but cheapest on ncix)
Optical: Samsung DVD (assume you're not using Blu-Ray, let me know if you are)
Case: Centurion 534

Of course, that comes to $870 without a Windows license which tacks on another annoying $150. Sure, you have a rebate on a couple things, but it's still over the top of the Acer minus what you'd pay for someone to build it.

The prime suspect here is the (expensive) i7 860. The reason I picked it here is because its hyperthreading does amazingly well in heavily threaded applications. However, if what you're doing isn't threaded well, you don't use it often, or it's not very demanding of a program, the i5 750 is $110 cheaper so parts are $760. Replace the i7 860 with that and you'll lose HT but still come way ahead of the quads in that HP/Acer/Gateway. I mean the difference is pretty staggering since these chips were built for these sort of tasks.

I think if I was building a workstation PC the above with the i7 if I could afford it or the i5 if I wasn't doing those tasks too much is what I would get because as far as value is concerned both of these processors are going to smoke all of the prebuilts' enough to justify the price. However, if this is too pricey, let me know and I can do something similar to the ones in the OP..even that (imo) is a better way to go about buying.

And if none of that is up your alley, as far as the prebuilts go, I'd recommend the Acer as well. The thing about that last HP with the Phenom X4 920 is that it's not all that much faster than the Acer's Q9400 - you're essentially paying about $100 for a very slight, maybe 2-5% performance increase at best, a little less heat and power consumption, and a slightly larger hard drive.

And finally, if this engineering software isn't very processor intensive, you could get away with a lot cheaper of a system. Depends on what it is, really - I mean, in massive AutoCAD projects or something you'll want as much processor as you could throw at it.

[TechdepotG]

Based on personal and business experience, I wouldn't recommend the Acer. their customer services and after sales support in the UK is terrible.