Poll: Would this be good for gaming?

[dsmops2003]

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

A normal win XP install fully patched is only between 4-6 GB so if you have nearly 300GB of games you have a problem there... If your factoring music movies pictures etc your missing the point. You simply use the SSD for the OS and apps and the rest of the data stays on a separate HD. As for the speed its more than just the boot time thats improved. You're talking overall lower latency the constant improved read performance and lower power and cooling requirements for the drive itself. SSD's in performance are far superior to normal HDD's.

 

[dsmops2003]

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

Quite. You could get a fast terabyte hard drive for that much.

The fastest 1TB drive is 7200RPM. Which is slow...

 

[Gasaraki]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks later though?

 

[dsmops2003]

If you're looking for a faster desktop drive thats not SSD you can get a Western Digital Velociraptor which is 10,000 RPM and is SATA-II.

 

[Cookiemonster27]

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

A normal win XP install fully patched is only between 4-6 GB so if you have nearly 300GB of games you have a problem there... If your factoring music movies pictures etc your missing the point. You simply use the SSD for the OS and apps and the rest of the data stays on a separate HD. As for the speed its more than just the boot time thats improved. You're talking overall lower latency the constant improved read performance and lower power and cooling requirements for the drive itself. SSD's in performance are far superior to normal HDD's.

I know how big a windows (7 in my case) install is and i was not factoring in music and videos, i just have alot of games.

More to the point, while I agree that SSds do offer far greater read/write performance than HDDs my point was that, even if all of your games were installed on the fastest SSDs out there it would not match the perfromance increase of a new graphics card and would cost twice as much.

In my opinion an SSD isnt a worthwhile investment until you have a high end 5*** card and i7 or top end phenom processor and 4gb+ ddr3 ram. However at levels bellow that a 10,000 or 12,000 rpm hardrive could be a good upgrade.

 

[dsmops2003]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks though?

You're still missing the form factor of you're case that you picked is too small to accommodate a large fan/heatsink like suggested above. Also this is a case built by a manufacturer and was not intended to be modified they way you want. You will find out that adding things to this case will be hard or impossible.

 

[Arcticflame]

I don't know anything about acer's in terms of purchasing them but...
Are you sure that PC doesn't have the integrated graphics fused onto the mobo, or there is a video card slot at all? I couldnt find what mobo that PC had.

I'm a noob at pre-built PC's, I always build my own so I don't know what it's like nowadays, but back in the day dell used to make it impossible to upgrade graphics cards, don't want to get caught out like that.

It's a pity that (I assume) you don't have any really techy friends, because the bst bet is usually get a friend to help you build your own, you really get the bang for your buck in that case.

 

[Gasaraki]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks though?

You're still missing the form factor of you're case that you picked is too small to accommodate a large fan/heatsink like suggested above. Also this is a case built by a manufacturer and was not intended to be modified they way you want. You will find out that adding things to this case will be hard or impossible.

Well what would be a good size for a case?

 

[dsmops2003]

[youtube=Elujjdo_8XU

 

[dsmops2003]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks though?

You're still missing the form factor of you're case that you picked is too small to accommodate a large fan/heatsink like suggested above. Also this is a case built by a manufacturer and was not intended to be modified they way you want. You will find out that adding things to this case will be hard or impossible.

Well what would be a good size for a case?

Any ATX Mid Tower case would be fine.

 

[Cookiemonster27]

I don't know anything about acer's in terms of purchasing them but...
Are you sure that PC doesn't have the integrated graphics fused onto the mobo, or there is a video card slot at all? I couldnt find what mobo that PC had.

I'm a noob at pre-built PC's, I always build my own so I don't know what it's like nowadays, but back in the day dell used to make it impossible to upgrade graphics cards, don't want to get caught out like that.

It's a pity that (I assume) you don't have any really techy friends, because the bst bet is usually get a friend to help you build your own, you really get the bang for your buck in that case.

If you're talking about the second link he posted i checked and it was listed to have 1 PCIeX16 slot.

 

[Gasaraki]

I don't know anything about acer's in terms of purchasing them but...
Are you sure that PC doesn't have the integrated graphics fused onto the mobo, or there is a video card slot at all? I couldnt find what mobo that PC had.

I'm a noob at pre-built PC's, I always build my own so I don't know what it's like nowadays, but back in the day dell used to make it impossible to upgrade graphics cards, don't want to get caught out like that.

It's a pity that (I assume) you don't have any really techy friends, because the bst bet is usually get a friend to help you build your own, you really get the bang for your buck in that case.

Yeah it has an available pci express slot.
Also i could build it myself, since i'm decently techy (I've installed ram and graphics cards for my friends in the past) but I'm afraid I might mess something up :/

 

[CaRnAge303]

The ssd are fast but not as reliable. They typically don't last as long as other drives.

 

[Gasaraki]

Right, so I've found something that doesn't have a tower the size of a tissue box.

This one [http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-amd-athlon-ii-x4-620-2-6ghz-computer-am3300-e1222-am3300-e1222/10137164.aspx?path=9d200f0c3c7d477058e5e9188233486een02]

Thoughts?

I dont know much about amd processors but it seems a little better and the DDR3 ram will certainly help out in ram intesive programs and the case, while not exactly a coolermaster looks big enough and cool enough for a low-mid end graphics card.

Can't I add some more fans or heatsinks though?

You're still missing the form factor of you're case that you picked is too small to accommodate a large fan/heatsink like suggested above. Also this is a case built by a manufacturer and was not intended to be modified they way you want. You will find out that adding things to this case will be hard or impossible.

Well what would be a good size for a case?

Any ATX Mid Tower case would be fine.

Just out of curiosity, i just noticed that the processor for the second PC that i chose is a quad core (thought it was a dual core), do they tend to heat up a lot?

 

[Kaymish]

no quad core CPU's are fine for heat ive still got the stock cooler on mine and ive over clocked it a bit also it currently running at 30 degrees and stable on the heat sink but my graphics card is adding to some of that heat i think since when im running my GPU at high load it gets pretty hot in there

 

[BritishWeather]

well, you don't really need a quad core as mine never gets used, just go for the best graphics card you can get. Posting how much your paying would help because it's alright getting a pc but price is the most important.

 

[Danny Ocean]

You dont want a normal HD. Get Solid State. Also thats a mini case...too small. You would have to get all low profile cards and such.

I hate to double post but if someone is buying a pc on the budget of a nvidia 250 do you really think it would be a sensible decision to upgrade to the money eater of pc gaming the ssd before upgrading any other component.

I dont see how adding one of these [http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227510] as your primary HD after the fact is a deal breaker.

Smaller SSDs may be a decent price but my installed games alone are nearly 10 times that size and I dont consider installing windows to an SSD to knock a few seconds off boot time to be worth $95

Quite. You could get a fast terabyte hard drive for that much.

The fastest 1TB drive is 7200RPM. Which is slow...

Fast enough. [footnote]It's not just spin speed. In terms of raw read/write speeds the 7,200rpm 1tb HD I have actually has quite a kick. [http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2009/10/06/samsung-spinpoint-f3-1tb-review/10]
[/footnote] Judging by your listed occupation you should know not to over-specify for the sake of it. The increased capacity and negligible (to the average user) speed difference still make HDDs the more cost-effective option. The fastest SSDs like the ones you often see videos of are the higher end ones which number into the hundreds or thousands of pounds for their performance, but even the largest, as far as I know, doesn't exceed 500GB.

The point is that, for most people SSDs still don't offer enough of a boost to justify their inferior cost/gigabyte ratio.

 

[Gasaraki]

RAM's fine, processor ain't too shabby, but the graphics card isn't great. You can get a 1GB GTX 260 for only a little bit more.

How big is the gtx 260? I'm starting to think that I'll need to completely assemble a computer from scratch in order to have a case that won't melt and want to be sure that the card'll fit.

 

[Danny Ocean]

RAM's fine, processor ain't too shabby, but the graphics card isn't great. You can get a 1GB GTX 260 for only a little bit more.

How big is the gtx 260? I'm starting to think that I'll need to completely assemble a computer from scratch in order to have a case that won't melt and want to be sure that the card'll fit.

That is something worth considering. It's not hard to put a PC together. All the bits only go in one way, and it's colour coded. Just make sure to double-check everything before you buy, and read the instructions. Peasy.

If you want the dimensions, google them.