How is my gaming rig?

Ziggy wrote:
A good quality gaming laptop with specs similar to AJ's shown in the OP will cost upwards from $3000-$4000.

A good quality gaming desktop will cost upwards from $1500-$2500. With that, you can throw in a netbook that's perfect for college. They cost around $500. Not sure of the pricing in America but I can imagine it'd be even less.

hardly, that laptop costs between $1500 and $2500 MAX. and thats even factoring in it being a Boutique brand like Alienware.

plus why would someone want two computers? especially in college where you'll be sharing a room.

just get a laptop and you're good to go.

Wow, they are pretty cheap in America. I don't know how much a good gaming desktop costs in the US, but I'm sure it wouldn't be much more than $1-1500 for something mid to high-end, considering that an Alienware laptop costs $2000. Netbooks cost nothing, and they do everything you would need them to do at college, such as browsing and word processing. Plus, they're amazingly portable. I have a netbook on my desk next to my keyboard, and it takes up less room than my keyboard, so it wouldn't take up much space in a dorm.

Also remember that AJ is 16, not 18, so he's not living in a dorm.

I agree. The desktop/netbook combination makes a lot more sense.

A desktop can also be fitted with a good sized screen, and can be used as the media center of a room or dorm.

A good netbook can be found for prices as low as $300, and they do everything you need for classes, whilst being very small and portable with great battery lives.

Why are you arguing US prices when he lives in Canada?

I think I just found the solution to the "some games wont run on quad core" issue:

Never had a problem with new or old games on my quad.

That being said, I could see some potential problems, which would be fixed by simply going to the Processes tab of the Task Manager, right clicking on whatever your game is, click Set Affinity, and disabling some cores. Then your quad turns into a tri, dual, or single-core CPU for just that game. Problem solved.

I guess I'll be going for a quad core then.

FINAL VERDICT:

Intel Core2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)

or this

Intel Core2 Quad Q9000 2.0GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB)

I'm just making sure here, even with the lower GHZ, will the quad core still be much faster than the duo core?

And factoring this in:

"Never had a problem with new or old games on my quad.

That being said, I could see some potential problems, which would be fixed by simply going to the Processes tab of the Task Manager, right clicking on whatever your game is, click Set Affinity, and disabling some cores. Then your quad turns into a tri, dual, or single-core CPU for just that game. Problem solved."

Im guessing that I could run any game I wanted on the quad core with the necessary tweaking? I still have not heard an answer from anyone on any website concerning the PSU for the graphics card.

well be careful... as I recently had to buy a new power supply for my GTX 260 because the one they sold me was the absolute minumum to run the card... which is a STANDARD practice for computer companies

KrAzY wrote:well be careful... as I recently had to buy a new power supply for my GTX 260 because the one they sold me was the absolute minumum to run the card... which is a STANDARD practice for computer companies

Yeah I know. Im not going to order it until I get a clear answer from someone. I busted my ass all summer (instead of going on vacation with friends) in order to get the money for this thing, and Im not going to fuck it up just cause I was lazy in the information department.

Isn't it a laptop? If it's a laptop, then you can't do anything about the power supply. They will obviously provide you with one that is adequate.


Also, stop worrying about the quad core. There is no cause for concern at all. The processor doesn't decide what will and won't run. You can't really have compatibility issues with a processor. As I said, even if it isn't optimised for quad cores, it'll still run, it just won't utilise all four cores fully.

Again, another reason why desktops are better for gaming is that you can simply update the parts. That dual core will be faster than the dual core by quite a bit, so I'd go with it for now, then upgrade to a better quad core further down the track. But then again you can't do that with a laptop.

Ziggy wrote: That dual core will be faster than the dual core by quite a bit, so I'd go with it for now, then upgrade to a better quad core further down the track. But then again you can't do that with a laptop.

Excuse me?

Oh yeah the PSU is 750 watts.

One more thing before I purchase it. Now Im just looking for FINAL CONFIRMATION here.

Is the quad core that I posted before, faster than the duo core that I compared it to?

Like will the strength of 3-4, 2.0 GHZ cores be faster than a 2.8GHZ duo core?

EDIT: When it says 2.0GHZ, does it mean that the strength of all 4 cores combined equals 2.0GHZ, or does each of the 4 cores run at 2.0GHZ as opposed to the Duo core whose total strength is 2.8GHZ?

Ascendant Justice wrote:Oh yeah the PSU is 750 watts.

One more thing before I purchase it. Now Im just looking for FINAL CONFIRMATION here.

Is the quad core that I posted before, faster than the duo core that I compared it to?

Like will the strength of 3-4, 2.0 GHZ cores be faster than a 2.8GHZ duo core?

EDIT: When it says 2.0GHZ, does it mean that the strength of all 4 cores combined equals 2.0GHZ, or does each of the 4 cores run at 2.0GHZ as opposed to the Duo core whose total strength is 2.8GHZ?

I'm pretty sure that it means that each core runs at that many GHZ.

yup, and ghz isn't strenght, its speed. just like rpm

Then what's strength? *is computer noob*