Les Paul or New Computer?

waylay00 · #1 03-12-2008, 01:15 AM

Well, I'm getting a job this summer. Two things I've been wanting a while are a Les Paul and a new computer.

I'm an avid PC gamer, so building a new rig would be great. However, as with all technology, they always lose value and performance over time. It would cost around $1500.

I've also wanted a Les Paul badly for a long time. However, I already have guitars that I can play, so I'm not sure if I actually need one. The Les Paul I'm eying would cost around $2000.

Maybe I should get the computer and put the leftover money towards a Les Paul. Then I could see where I stand. What would you buy?

Thanks

supermau · #2 03-12-2008, 01:23 AM

Games or guitars? Guitars every time.

Dee · #3 03-12-2008, 01:28 AM

I have a couple of guitars that work OK. Since I haven't built a new rig since 2004, I'd build a new computer possibly based on an Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition. Put it on a decent board, buy an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro HSF. Overclock the crap out of it (at least 3.6Ghz). Get a decent gaming card, not super high end, but just below. Great sound cards can be had for not much money these days. 500GB Samsung or WD SATA II drive. BenQ DVD writer. Lian Li V1000 case. Tagan modular PSU. 2 GB Crucial Ballistix RAM.

Not exactly sure how much that lot would cost, but it shouldn't be loads. This system would last a good few years.

bammbamm · #4 03-12-2008, 01:35 AM

Get the robot Les Paul and combine the best of both

waylay00 · #5 03-12-2008, 01:40 AM

Dee, I'm thinking:

Lian Li PC-A17B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

ASUS P5K PREMIUM/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

eVGA GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB VGA

Corsair 620-HX Modular 620w PSU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorktown LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme Heatsink

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000rpm SATA 2.5GB/s Hard Drive (boot drive; carried over from previous system)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200rpm SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N - OEM

Operating System (either XP Pro or Vista...)

Now obviously, by the time I earn the cash, things will have changed, but this would be my base system now. I'll edit it as the times change.

Do you frequent any hardware sites?

Dee · #6 03-12-2008, 01:54 AM

^^ Nice. That thing would fly. Is the PC-A17B the one with the removable top cover?

I haven't been on many hardware sites for ages Wade. Used to be very active in a few of the bigger forums but this was a couple of years back.

I think XP can't use more than 3 GB RAM, btw.

waylay00 · #7 03-12-2008, 02:06 AM

Yeah, I used to be all over the Anandtech forums before I got into guitar.

Yeah, XP tops out at 3.5GB. Would it be worth getting Vista for the ability to use 4GB?

And yeah, the PC-A17B has the removable top. Did you know that off the top of your head?!

Dee · #8 03-12-2008, 02:23 AM

Yes, I was looking for a new case a while back and saw a short review of the A17B. Looks like a nice quality case, as with most Lian Li stuff.

I am using a Wave Master case (black) which is pretty good but it's getting quite noisy now. I love the layout of the Lian Li V1000 but I realize there's a few niggles. I could work around those, though. To be honest I'm slightly out of the loop as far as hardware is concerned. You can take a break from it all for a short time, come back and everything has changed drastically! It's so cheap to build a nice computer nowadays. My old AMD Athlon64 3200+ is so outdated man. Oddly enough it still performs like a champ.

Regarding Vista, I'm still not convinced by it. I have played around with it on my dad's laptop (my girlfriend is also about to buy a Sony Vaio with Vista installed) and it can be a pretty good OS, it just needs a whole load of tweaking; reconfigure and disable a lot of the services, remove most of the useless startup programs, disable the silly GUI effects, disable indexing, etc, etc. After these kind of tweaks it seems pretty good, though it still doesn't feel as fast and responsive as an XP prepared with nLite and masses of tweaks!

**Ayrton** · #9 03-12-2008, 02:29 AM

I have been eyeballing the Cooler Master Stacker 810 for my next build...

Dee · #10 03-12-2008, 02:32 AM

Those are HUGE!

**Ayrton** · #11 03-12-2008, 02:36 AM

I need storage....lots of storage.

I passed on all the jokes that quoting you would brought to mind.

waylay00 · #12 03-12-2008, 02:37 AM

Yeah, it seems like yesterday that my 3700+, 7800GT system was the champ! Which it still is pretty good I guess, but the two series of games I play the most - the Battlefield series (mainly its mods, the stock game isn't great) and the Total War series - are coming out with new installments later this year. I want to be ready for them!

But yeah, the CM Stackers are mammoth sized,

.

Dee · #13 03-12-2008, 02:37 AM

Is the porn getting out of hand, Chris?

How many drives do you want / are you planning on buying?

Dee · #14 03-12-2008, 02:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waylay00

Yeah, it seems like yesterday that my 3700+, 7800GT system was the champ! Which it still is pretty good I guess, but the two series of games I play the most - the Battlefield series (mainly its mods, the stock game isn't great) and the Total War series - are coming out with new installments later this year. I want to be ready for them!

But yeah, the CM Stackers are mammoth sized,

.

Ugh... I'm still on a GeForce 6800 here. It's unlocked to 16 pipes and 6 vertex shaders, but it's no good for recent games at all. I feel so... 2005...

**Ayrton** · #15 03-12-2008, 02:44 AM

Well what I really need/want is room for the OS drive and then 4 storage drives. Two for data and two for back up. However, I want the case to been clean looking, and black. I don't want see through windows or blinking lights.

Eventually this will become the entertainment server, so it has to be quiet and run cool.