Thanks for the list, I have one question. What do you think of using the CPU + Motherboard native video capabilities on this combination?

Intel CPU Core i5-2500 3.30 GHz Box (1155)
Asus M/B Intel P8H67-M LX B3 A/L/V (1155)

I read some reviews that said the performance was very impressive, with no extra video card cost.

Never use integrated video unless you want only to browse the internet!

Get a dedicated card if you ever want to be able to play modern games at above 15 FPS on minimum settings.

I agree with BTGbullseye here. Even if the integrated video on that certain motherboard might be impressive, you will always get much better performance with dedicated video cards.

Although BTG is greatly exaggerating on that last point he is right, these integrated solutions are not meant for gaming, they are meant for media playback and other low profile usage.

I'd say this one mainly because of the dedicated graphics:

Notebook HP DM4-1190LA SKU 30241
Windows® 7 Home Premium original 64 bit
Intel® Core™ i5-450M 2,4 GHz (Turbo Boost 2.66 GHz)
14" (1366 x 768)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470
500GB HD
RAM 4GB (exp 8GB)
Price: USD 1105

But is that i5 a dual core or quad core? some mobile i5 as well as desktop versions are only dul core... ussualy the ones with low numbers...

Dual with HyperThreading. Perfomance benchmark here: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_lookup.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i5+450M+%40+2.40GHz
I have an i5-450M in my laptop, it is very capable.

The only part I'd be concerned about is the 14" screen... Awfully small screen there.

Ok, ok. Don't give yourself an aneurysm, I was trying to see If I could save a few corners, remember I don't have a lot of time on my hands to play games, so I won't be using this at it's maximum capacity very often. Also, since I live in a far away country, some things are not available here and if they are, they cost a lot more than in the states.

How about this?

Intel CPU Core i5-2500 3.30 GHz Box (1155)
M/B Intel P8P67-M B3 A/L (1155)
Video PCIE GTX460 1024mb DDR5


It's a dual core... Mhmm. If you want to see the site I'm looking at, is this one for the notebooks and this one for the desktop components.


I'm not worried about that, I have a semi-new 20" LED monitor laying around. So you think this could be a good choice or would you go with the desktop? By the way, I found this one, it looks better than the last one

Notebook HP Mod ENVY 14-1195LA SKU 31221
Windows® 7 Home Premium Original 64 bits
Intel® Core™ i5-460M 2.53 GHz, Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650, 1024 MB DDR3 up to 2714 MB total
14.5" LED HD DE (1366 x 768) BrightView
Ram 4GB DDR3
HD 500 GB Sata (7200 RPM)

Unless you're planning on taking it with you elsewhere, desktops will always be better value and quality for the price.

What country are you in? (need to know for a more localized pricing of the components)

I'm in Chile. Thing, long and far away from everything.

If you want to see what I have to work with, this is my friendly components store. Here you've got your CPUs, here the motherboards and here are the video cards. The chilean peso is at about 475 per USD, so just to give you a sense of the prices, the setup I posted would go for this.

Intel CPU Core i5-2500 3.30 GHz Box (1155) - USD 297
M/B Intel P8P67-M B3 A/L (1155) - USD 180
Video PCIE GTX460 1024mb DDR5 - USD 295

EDIT: this is an open question: what do you do with power comsumption with a machine like that? Should be around 600 or 700 W. That's a lot for, let's say, having it on all night serving CP and FM.

That wattage rating is the absolute maximum power draw. If you're just having it idle with a blank screen, and seeding a torrent, it'll likely be around 125-200 watts. (laptops usually 50-100 watts if you're using a good laptop cooler)

As far as Chilean computer sites go, that is probly one of the better put together ones, but it still doesn't have anything decent... I would highly suggest getting from Newegg and paying a little extra for shipping if it isn't too much. (better selection, likely much better service, almost the same prices)

Thanks a lot for you help. Ordering it directly from Newegg is not really an option: they don't ship internationally and using an intermediate courier service is very expensive (between taxes and shipment, I'm guessing more than 40% total increase).

Now I'm going to take an inner trip and weigh all the options. I feel strongly towards a laptop, I do like the mobility, but that would mean compromising in processing and graphics. On the other hand, I could build a much more powerful desktop, but I fear I wouldn't use it a lot (my free time is scarce or already occupied by other activities) or end up using my old laptop and a remote desktop connection, as a friend told me he was these days.

I'll post my new setup here, once it's up and running.

My pc is piss poor at the moment i've got 3gb of DDR2 ram, a shitty celeron E1600 processer over clocked at 2.1GHz and ive got a Radeon HD 5450 graphics card.

Ill upgrade as soon as I stop being lazy and get a job.

If you are a PC gamer, at this point an update is mandatory.

Up until last week I had:
A black macbook with 4 gigs of ram
Some rather nice HP laptop with 3 gigs DDR3
A PC with 1.5 GB of ram DDR, a 9800 ATI All in Wonder (128) AGP, Pentium 4. Most of the stuff was from before 2003.

This week I have
Gefore 9800 GTX+, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+ 2.21 GHz and 2 gigs DDR2. Free with nice case, i love it when my friends have old stuff and feel sorry for me!

Indeed i plan to upgrade eventually

At least it ain't that crap Mac...



How soon is this "eventually" you speak of?

What's it going to be next week then?

That entire system could use an upgrade, especially the processor.

Here is a link to my system specs in HTML format: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=35TQPTNK

(the actual physical memory for the video card is 2GB, not the listed 1GB)

[EDIT] Here is just a straight link to a webpage with my specs: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1795385

CPU: Intel quadcore i7 920 2.67GHz overclocked to 3.2 GHz.
GPU: Nvidia GTX 560ti DCII Overclocked to 971MHz
RAM: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz
SSD: 90GB ~ 250MB/s Write and read.
HDD: 1TB @ 7200 RPM
USB 3 HDD: 1TB (speed unknown)
PSU: 650W
Keyboard: Logitech G15
Mouse: Alienware Tactx
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
And I think that's it.