Need some computer advice

[Flammehav]

Almost 3 years ago I bought a computer, where the highest restrains would be for gaming. This is now in repair shop for the third time(with 3 differents problem) in less than 1,5 years. The 2 first times it took over 3 weeks to get it back, and from the looks of it it might take that if not longer this time too. So they say that if it takes more than 3 weeks, I will be able to get another computer from them instead. So now I'm browsing their shop for computers in the same price range my old one was in(or a bit below since they might give me one based on performance and not the exact money).

I don't remeber what prossesor my old machine had, but the Grafikk cards was NVIDIA Ge (something) 9800*2 ,( I had 2 of them), dedicated RAM is unknown and I can't chech since the repair shop has it. Total RAM is 4GB, but I plan on adding another 4 if they can fix the computer in time.

On their shop I found 2 computers who both had the 3GHx Intel Core i5 - 2320 prossesor and 8 GB RAM, but the cheapest one had a NVIDIA GeForce GT 545 with 3072 dedicated memory, while the one that costed a bit more had a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550TI with 1024 MB dedicated memory. What is the difference between these 2 and is dedicated RAM so little importent that it even with 3 times the amount the other one is more expensive? And how are thsoe compaired to my old computer?

I'm also looking at one slightly more expensive(almost the same as I paid for my old computer 3 years ago). This one has a 3,4 GHz Intel Core i7- 2600 prossesor. A NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560TI with 1280 dedicated RAM and a total of 12 GB RAM. It also has support for Direct X 11.


I relise this might not be the correct forum to ask these questions, but I don’t know where else to ask, and I have absolutly no ide what all these letters and numbers means expet big numbers is probably good and I know about RAM and storage.

So if anyone that understand this gibberish could help a girl out with some input, I would be very greatfull

[Buladelu]

If you're not a hardcore gamer that thing with i5 will be more than enough for you. You'd be able to run every modern game on mid to max graphic settings. And no problems at all with paradox games.

That i7 model has much better CPU, but otherwise it's almost the same. GPU is almost the same and 4 more Gb of RAM won't be even noticed till we get programs that use so much RAM. And by that time you'd need better hardware anyway. Also nowadays powerful CPU is not so essential as you'd propably only use it in utilitary application like archiving, sound compression etc, or more fast day changing in EU3 (which is pretty fast as it is) So my advice is to go with i5.

[asgersikker]

First, what's your rights as a consumer? I reckon your rights most likely are close to the ones in Denmark. Seeing you've had so many problems with your pc you should be able to get all your money back (nullifying your buy). But, most companies does everything to fight consumer rights so don't ask the company about it. Try to find out yourself. Look for similar cases that has been to court. Go to the homepage of your "Forbrugerombudsmanden" in Norway http://www.forbrukerombudet.no/ or something similar to find cases you can use as argument.

The difference in GT545 vs GT550ti is how fast the memory is and how fast processor/chipset is on the graphic card. GT550ti delivers way better performance so that's the one you want out of these two.
But your 3rd choice is much preferable as it has a faster processor and much faster graphic card compared to the first two.

But the real question is: "What kind of games do you play?" If you only play strategic games you wont notice a difference between any of the graphic cards. And I doubt you'll notice much of a difference regarding the processor. On the other hand the better the equipment the longer your computer needs are satisfied

[Flammehav]

I already cheched that. And if I either have the same problem 3 times or a different problems 4 times I can either get the money back or a new computer that is equally good or better. This is the third time, but with 3 different problems(one of the times it crashed so bad they wasn't even able to get a backup), so I guess it needs to crash one more time before I can get the money back, unless they use over 3 weeks this time. Don't know if there is any age limit on the computers though, as this one will be 3 years somewhere this month if I remeber correctly.

I really, really want to keep atleast the backup from the old machine though. The time they was unable to get the backup I was in 1720 going for a WC, now I'm in 1738 with the same goal. I've been trying to do a WC since EU2, but I kinda get bored after a while and quit and get back to it later, and every single time I either get a corrupt save game, I change the computer or the computer just crashed really bad, like the last attempt. I really want to be able to say I did one, but I'm not sure I can go through all that yet again. It's so much micromanaging when you get that late in the game.

Yeah, well my last computer held 5 years, before I decided to exhange it(8 years ago now). I bought this one (that I use for my backupcomputer, while the other one is at the repairshop) wich was a total bummer. I wanted XP, but even if I bought it seperatly there was some sound drivers that they couldn't install or something, so I got stuck with Vista on a computer with 1 GB RAM. That is NOT enough. It can take over a minute to open a heavy internet page like a newspaper with all their adds. It lasted 3 months before I bought the one that is in the repairshop now.

Back then I wanted a new one to up my performance in WoW(It increased my DPS with 50% and I instantly stopped dying from stupid things, going form beeing closed to be kicked from the raid team to be one of the best from one fight to another thanks to the new PC ). I don't really play much WoW and AoC anymore, but I do play some MMORPG on occation and is thinking of trying out some of the new once that is still in develompment, like Secret world and a few others I'm keeping my eye on.

For my current situation my old computer is still good enough and I figure with an extra 4GB of RAM it will probably hold for another 2-3 years or so, so I'm not buying a new one if they can fix it in time, but if I'm going to buy a new one I want one that might hold up for 5-6 years from today. This computer made me learn the hard way not to skimp on the money when I'm buying a computer. It's absolutly crap. I tried running EU3 on it, it took 20 min to load up and around 10 seconds to show the picture of the province I clicked one. So I gave up before I got to January 1400. And that was with graphics turned all the way down. ( This computer costed around the same 3 years ago as the cheapest of those 3 machine does now)

[Flammehav]

It looks like the repair is going to take a while so I'm hoping it will lead to a new computer. Meanwhile I got a little annoyance with my backupcomputer. Apparently I had forgot to turn off automatic update and it updated IE8 to IE9, and I can't stand IE9. I don't like a single aspect they changfed from IE8. So I decided to get it back.

The first thing I tried was to restore the computer to a time before the update was made. Apperently that was easier said than done, becouse it kept failing. I tried to restore it to 4 different saves before giving up. No ide why it didn't work. Next thing to try and find IE8 on the net and install that. I found it easy enough, but it wouldn't install becouse I had a newer version running. So I installed Firefox, made it my primary user and was planning on uninstalling IE9, so I could install back IE8.

Again easier said than done becouse I can't seem to find the program. I first looked into the "program and functions" tab, but while I found firefox, I didn't find EI9. I tried and search for it, but I only found shortcuts, and not the program itself. Is there anyway to uninstall IE9 so I can get back to IE8, or is that impossible when I can't get the computer to restore itself to an earlier save? Firefox is kinda growing on me after I manged to tweak it a bit so I might keep it, but learning how to uninstall a program I can't seem to find, is probably a nice thing to learn anyway. So if anyone know how to uninstall IE9 I would really appriciate it.

Also, while I managed to import all my favorites and all my internet history, all my coockies was gone.Is there any way to make sure tehy get transfered over to the new server too. I have several different usernames and passwords I alternate between when I need to log in to sites and there is no way I remeber wich name and password I used on all the spesificc sites.

[Wimar]

It looks like the repair is going to take a while so I'm hoping it will lead to a new computer. Meanwhile I got a little annoyance with my backupcomputer. Apparently I had forgot to turn off automatic update and it updated IE8 to IE9, and I can't stand IE9. I don't like a single aspect they changfed from IE8. So I decided to get it back.

The first thing I tried was to restore the computer to a time before the update was made. Apperently that was easier said than done, becouse it kept failing. I tried to restore it to 4 different saves before giving up. No ide why it didn't work. Next thing to try and find IE8 on the net and install that. I found it easy enough, but it wouldn't install becouse I had a newer version running. So I installed Firefox, made it my primary user and was planning on uninstalling IE9, so I could install back IE8.

Again easier said than done becouse I can't seem to find the program. I first looked into the "program and functions" tab, but while I found firefox, I didn't find EI9. I tried and search for it, but I only found shortcuts, and not the program itself. Is there anyway to uninstall IE9 so I can get back to IE8, or is that impossible when I can't get the computer to restore itself to an earlier save? Firefox is kinda growing on me after I manged to tweak it a bit so I might keep it, but learning how to uninstall a program I can't seem to find, is probably a nice thing to learn anyway. So if anyone know how to uninstall IE9 I would really appriciate it.

Also, while I managed to import all my favorites and all my internet history, all my coockies was gone.Is there any way to make sure tehy get transfered over to the new server too. I have several different usernames and passwords I alternate between when I need to log in to sites and there is no way I remeber wich name and password I used on all the spesificc sites.

If you're running Win7 uninstalling it through the updates seems to be the only option.

[Flammehav]

I'm useing vista. I found it though and is unistalling the update now