Is this a good computer?

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I already have a 50 inch Plasma TV that acts as a computer monitor. This computer I bought is a clone with name brand components as I do not like off brand. It is replacing a dell P4 system. I do plan on purchasing another three 4GB RAM modules for the PC listed below within 30-days. I need it for graphics design and to last a while and also can be upgraded unlike dells.

CAS: CoolerMaster HAF 912 Mid-Tower Gaming Case w/ Adjustable HDD Cage (Black Color)
CASUPGRADE: None
CD: Sony 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
CD2: None
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-950 3.06 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366
CS_FAN: Default case fans
FA_HDD: None
FAN: XtremeGear Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA)
FLASHMEDIA: None
FLOPPY: None
FREEBIE_CU1: Civilization V Full Version Game
FREEBIE_CU2: Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Game
GLASSES: None
HDD: 640GB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM HDD (Single Hard Drive)
HDD2: None
IEEE_CARD: None
KEYBOARD: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard
LANSURGE: None
MB_ADDON: None
MEMORY: 6GB (2GBx3) DDR3/2000MHz Triple Channel Memory Module (Corsair)
MONITOR: None
MONITOR2: None
MONITOR3: None
MOTHERBOARD: (2-Way SLI Support) Asus Sabertooth X58 Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3 FCLGA1366 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB3.0, SATA-III, SATA-II RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 1 PCI
MOUSE: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse
MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
OVERCLOCK: No Overclocking
POWERSUPPLY: 800 Watts - XtremeGear Gaming Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready
RUSH: RUSH!! ! READY TO SHIP IN NEXT BUSINESS DAY
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOFT1: Free Microsoft® Office® 2010 STARTER EDITION (Reduced-Functionality versions of Word and Excel that include advertising)
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: None
TEMP: None
TVRC: None
USB: PPA External 7-Port USB 2.0 Aluminum Hub
USBFLASH: None
USBHD: None
USBX: NZXT Internal USB 6-PORT Expansion Module
VC_PHYSX: None
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)
VIDEO2: None
VIDEO3: None
WNC: None

It really depends on what you want to do with it, but for the most part, sure, it's a good computer.

The only thing I would really question is, does the motherboard have enough of the type of PCI slots you want, and I recall hearing something about one i7 was better than a similar one for some reason or another so you might want to check on that.

An i7 powered machine with 6GB RAM? Hell yeah that's a good computer.

I will replace the master hard drive with the new solid state drives when the prices go down. However yea the motherboard is perfect for what I need and the video card as well which this one I can add up to 2-3 video cards which is way overkill.

This reminds me of old social nerdy chat when 486's were standard and the first Pentium came out. The envy of P-90.

Nathan Young.

It must be 10x faster bigger and better than anything I have.
I'd get an upgrade to windows 7 professional or Ultimate if I could but it looks like a fine pice of hardware .

I am more of an AMD person but you still have a really good setup.

I would have gone with dual HDs. One for OS files and the other for archiving and whatnot. Either that or set them as a RAID array.

that card is already outdated BUT still good. If you have the room I would have gone with a second card for an SLi Setup. Plus if you are using that screen as a monitor and run games at max resolution with just that card on it, you will have issues.

I would look into USB 3.0 if you have the chance. MUCH FASTER THAN 2.0

Go with win 7 ultimate. Quite a bit more expensive but the features are worth it IMO.

If you're taking OS suggestions, OSx86 or any sort of Linux is what you need. Don't waste such a computer by just running Windows.

This is one of the latest Intel CPU models. It should work fairly well. 3.06 GHz is relatively fast.



Never heard of SATA-III. Still, SATA is the latest thing, so it should be fairly up-to-date. Though it may be replaced by Light-Peak at some point.



My computer has 4GB of memory.



Sounds good. ATX is fairly standard, though BTX is better.



AAAAAHH!! !! ! KILL IT!! !! KILL IT WITH FIRE!! !! !



Good. Overclocking basically means a few seconds of higher performance at the expense of ruining your PC. It's highly overrated.



It's probably a 90 day trial. At least it was on my HP laptop (which came with Windows 7 Home Premium).



Sounds pretty standard.

Or you could just install Linux, which is usually more fully-featured than any version of Windows.

1GB video is fairly standard and this is a DDR5 memory based card with 2GB video memory. There is a new 4GB video card that came out but the cards are $1,000.00+. Even if I had $1,000 extra I would not buy one because buying just released technology is a waste.

AMD Phenom II kicks the crap out of Intel i7 in terms of value. For less than the price of that i7,you could get a 6-core AMD Phenom II 1100T at 3.3GHz. Or get a 3.5GHz quad-core AMD for about $100 cheaper than the 3.06GHz Intel.

I was going to get that but none of the motherboards took 24GB's of RAM or had 6 RAM slots. I deal with marketing images like posters above 5000 or 10,000 by 5,000 - 10,000. I figure when the i7's go down on price when the next technology is released I can upgrade to the best i7 cheaply. With this computer case I can replace the motherboard and everything as well and put the old one into another PC to make another workstation for the disability skills and employment center someone is helping me setup.

Through PC liquidations sources I can get P4 3.0ghz systems for $120 that are liquidated dells and other major brands due to recession. This PC is my graphics hot rod I just purchased after saving from working making candles for 4 years. It's a business expense.

yeah but the thing is if you don't want to have to put up with annoyances when trying to run games. Its sounds like he was trying to make an all-around rig. I would suggest linux but no idea on how knowledgeable he is about it. That said, I don't care for Mac though at all. Yeah it may be secure and s**t but apple is just as bad as microsoft IMO, company wise anyways.

That said

If you know your way around linux then go for it. At least your rig is good enough for windows emulation for games. Could go that or do what I did and go 1 hard-drive for each OS.

and I will say the hex-cores rawk, from personal experience. Especially when paired with 8GB DDR3 and Dual Nvidia GT580s. Yeah the memory may not match up beause of no tripple channel memory capability for AMD processors yet, but it runs awesome.


I know he said he didn't see many boards with the ram setup he wanted out there, but they are there if you take the time to look around. However, as I said, no tripple channel AMD yet because of the fact their memory controllers are on-die unlike Intels.

How does dual video cards work? You just plug another card in that is the exact same as the other one and it dual processes video? Also I do not know linux. In about a month the PC will have 18GB of DDR3 2000 RAM. The dual video card thing does that help with graphics development or is it just for games?

It depends what he needs it for. When I got my new laptop, the first thing I did was stuff a Linux CD into the optical drive (it has never booted into Windows) but some people need/want Windows.

I would definitely go for 7 Ultimate if you're sticking with Windows. This looks to be a high-end machine; may as well give it a matching OS.