Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[Slim_Shady]

So I wanted to play Civ City Rome today, so I inserted the disc and waited for the auto play to show up. Nothing. So I looked at my computer, it just says DVD RW Drive (E: ), meaning the drive does not recognize the CD, any CD. I have tried the Microsoft automated troubleshooting and that did not work, although it did tell me the drive failed to read a CD. So now I am lost and do not know what to try next, any help would be appreciated.

I am running Vista Home Premium.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

1) Try another disc in the CD drive.
2) Try the disc in another CD drive.

 

[CivOtaku]

Was this a good buy? (I got it 10 € cheaper than the original price)

 

[Turner]

That's about the going price. You could find it cheaper if you looked around long enough.

 

[GoodGame]

So I wanted to play Civ City Rome today, so I inserted the disc and waited for the auto play to show up. Nothing. So I looked at my computer, it just says DVD RW Drive (E: ), meaning the drive does not recognize the CD, any CD. I have tried the Microsoft automated troubleshooting and that did not work, although it did tell me the drive failed to read a CD. So now I am lost and do not know what to try next, any help would be appreciated.

I am running Vista Home Premium.

Right click on the drive, hit Explore, and then try to manually activate the software (e.g. hit a program labeled Autoplay, Civ City, etc...). There should usually be a way to trigger a manual start of the disc's software that way. Failing to autoplay shouldn't automatically mean the drive failed---it's a little bit faulty sometimes.

 

[civ_king]

I'm thinking of a new pimped desktop, specs:
2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.46GHz; Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores
16GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB
2TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
8x double-layer SuperDrive

price tag: $3,849

is this a good deal?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

3849 USD?!?!

Holy crap thats overpriced.
280$ for CPU, ~200$ for the motherboard.
You can save yourself some money and go with 8GB of RAM. I seriously doubt you need 16GB right now.
the 2TB is 150$, you can get a better GPU for about 200$.
In total, that kind of system should cost between 1000$ and 1500$

 

[Integral]

I'm thinking of a new pimped desktop, specs:
2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.46GHz; Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores
16GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x4GB
2TB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB
8x double-layer SuperDrive

price tag: $3,849

is this a good deal?

Horrifically overpriced.

2.8GHz i7 860: $280
Gigabyte motherboard: $210
G.Skill 8GB DDR3 1600 RAM: $200
Western Digital 2TB HDD: $200
ATI Radeon HD 5850: $310 [or HD 5770 @ $170]
Total: $1200

--

@Padma: Thanks for the link! That should do the trick.

 

[civ_king]

and a 27 inch screen plus 3 years warranty (covers pretty much anything), I'm looking at a desktop to game with for 6+ years
any place with computers better than this? I don't want to assemble it from bits and pieces because if something screws up I'm toast

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Good luck having that desktop game for more than 2 years. Even with the 27" the cost is still under 2000 USD.

You may want to learn how to assemble your own then, because the difference here isnt 10-15%, its nearly 200%

If you wanna waste money, thats your choice, but I cannot reccomend any prebuilt.

 

[civ_king]

Good luck having that desktop game for more than 2 years. Even with the 27" the cost is still under 2000 USD.

You may want to learn how to assemble your own then, because the difference here isnt 10-15%, its nearly 200%

If you wanna waste money, thats your choice, but I cannot reccomend any prebuilt.

Quadcore and 16GB RAM will be to weak to run games within 3 years?

 

[Cutlass]

http://www.newegg.com/ is a pretty good place to buy all of your components.

http://www.pricewatch.com/ is a pretty good place to compare prices and bargain hunt.

I'd plan on 4 years as a long lifespan, rather than 6, for a PC though.

 

[Integral]

Quadcore and 16GB RAM will be to weak to run games within 3 years?

Intel will be introducing six-core processors this year...

[On building or buying: building costs one-third to half as much and assembly is about as hard as putting together a Lego set.]

 

[Formaldehyde]

No computer is going to last 6+ years.

Check out http://www.newegg.com/, (as I now see Cutlass has recommended above).

You can get a 27" LG monitor for $399 and there are a ton of prebuilt desktop PCs to choose from if you don't feel comfortable building your own. But I wouldn't spend any more than $1200 or so for the desktop. Most of these prebuilt systems don't have 16GB, but you don't really need that much memory right now. And adding more memory is fairly easy to do.

But as Integral pointed out, building your own is really pretty easy to do, at least as long as you get a reputable mobo and PSU.

Then in 3 years time, you can use another $1600 you saved and do it all over again for a much better system than what is available now. And you will still be $600 ahead with 2 computers to boot.

My philosophy is to stay away from bleeding edge. You typically pay a huge premium and it is still going to be obsolete in 4-6 more months no matter what happens. It is far cheaper to buy what was bleeding edge 6 months ago, and the difference in performance typically isn't all that much.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Quadcore and 16GB RAM will be to weak to run games within 3 years?

CPU and RAM are the least of your concerns with games. There are only a handful of games that are limited by modern CPU's. Most have issues with the graphics card, which btw, with the one you have picked out, you will have issues as well. The HD4850 is getting long in the tooth and it cant do 1920x1200 games at high settings anymore, at least not with any sort of AA turned on.

Thats first off. Secondly, most games are still limited to 2GB of RAM and are not written to take advantage of more than 2 cores.

Thirdly, like someone else said, if you get yourself a 1600USD pc now, you can get another in 3 years. You'll end up ahead, and you will be more up-to-date.

Lastly: take a look at a pc from 6 years ago. They cannot run modern games at any playable level. Even a 4-year old pc will struggle. If you plan to keep a pc for 6 years and game on it, by 4 years in you'll be so far behind that minimum spec's will be too high for you.

 

[civ_king]

I decided to scrap that, but still looking for a gaming rig
What card would be best?
4 or 8GB RAM?
other stuff?

would this work if I stick XP on it?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5516872&sku=SYX-1027

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Wait, you were looking at an iMac? Why didnt you say so initially.

Also, WoW isnt exactly a modern game. Its graphics looked okay when it just came out, so its not the greatest of benchmarks.

 

[Turner]

The only way you're going to get a gaming machine that will last you six years is if you don't buy any new games once you've bought the machine.

 

[civ_king]

would the one I linked last 3 years?

 

[Cutlass]

Last, most likely. Become clunky on the very newest action games, most likely.