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Geek Culture / Buying a new PC - thoughts

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Philip
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 13:33
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Well, its been 2 years since I bought my current PC and that means its time to buy a new one.

Normally at this time I go out and buy lots of 'puter magazines, work out exactly what I want, and go for it. But this time I thought I'd make it a spectator sport.

So, assuming I have a budget of, say, £1,300 inc. VAT what do people think would be a reasonable spec?

My priorities are: CPU, memory and GFX card. I don't need a new monitor.

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
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himynameisali
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 14:00 Edited at: 25th Feb 2006 14:07
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Check this out...

OR you've got a choice...
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soapyfish
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 15:59 Edited at: 25th Feb 2006 17:38
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Have you thought about building one yourself?

I'd like a new pc before vista appears (whether or not I'll put vista on it is another matter) but would like to start off with a decent spec. As I see it this could be done quite a bit cheaper if I built it myself but seeing as I've never even upgraded a comps ram before I think it's unlikely I'll get anywhere with it.

If you do decide to go down the DIY path then you might find some of the info here helpful:http://www.extremetech.com/category2/0,1695,644478,00.asp

I AM A MORON
and won't change my sig until I get off my oversized behind and finish a project.
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Mike Johnson
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 18:04 Edited at: 25th Feb 2006 19:53
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My advice is to stay away from pre built options like Dell and make your own. Will save money and this way get exactly what you want.

Here's what I suggest. Slightly over budget but I reckon a very good machine. All from http://www.overclockers.co.uk -

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4600+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4600BVBOX) (CP-128-AM)
Price: £329.95 (£387.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
Price: £104.95 (£123.32 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-094-CS)
Price: £129.95 (£152.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Asus ATI Radeon EAX-X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-086-AS)
Price: £329.95 (£387.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Maxtor MaxLine III NCQ 300GB 7V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-096-MD)
Price: £80.95 (£95.12 Including VAT at 17.5%)

OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Silver (CD-001-AP)
Price: £5.95 (£6.99 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Asus DRW-1608P2 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige) - Retail (CD-017-AS)
Price: £26.95 (£31.67 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Silverstone Temjin TJ05 - Silver (No PSU) (CA-006-SV)
Price: £69.95 (£82.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
Price: £63.95 (£75.14 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (OS-002-MS)
Price: £81.95 (£96.29 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Total = £1438.79

* edit - you might want to consider switching to a CrossFire motherboard if you want to go that route further down the line but if not the ASUS motherboard is a good choice
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ionstream
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 18:33
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One thing I did was load up Microsoft Excel and make a spreadsheet that calculates the price with tax of all the computer parts. It helped me out when I was picking out parts.

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Matt Rock
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 18:37
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If you don't build your own computer, and you buy a pre-fab one, DON'T BUY A DELL! Seriously, they're wastes of money. The best system they make for gaming is the XPS, and that's crappy too. Your best bet when going with pre-built computers is to spend that money on a PC that'll last, like a Sony Vaio or an Alienware Area 51, either of which you can get within your price range. But that's just my opinion... I'm sure there's people who hate Vaios and alienwares. I dunno, I have a Vaio and it rocks the house

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 20:27 Edited at: 25th Feb 2006 20:28
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The problem will a DIY thing, is if it goes wrong - who do you send it back too...

Might be worth having a look at Mesh Computers - the desktop machines are pretty good value (although their laptops aren't).

Acer desktops aren't good value, but their laptops are...

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Smoke me a computer chip, I'll be baking breakfast.
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 20:30
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I like Acer's monitors but I haven't toyed with their PC's

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
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Me!
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 20:48 Edited at: 25th Feb 2006 20:48
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the advantage of a DIY thing is it costs less and you can replace parts easily since you know just what you want, I regret ever having my "proper" 3.1ghz machine, they where quite new at the time with lots of contradictory advice on the net and I thought I would be better off buying a "proper" PC, but it`s been more trouble than any eight of my "homebuilt" machines, and they put in slow ram, skipped the case fan (realy required for mini ATX) and the power switch is realy cheap and tacky and sticks down if you press it wrong, oh and the second memory slot is so close to the drive bays that the card would be leant over and pressed up against the corner of the bay if you tried to use it, and the TV card is also the modem , I can make better, cheaper, in my sleep.



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Phaelax
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Posted: 25th Feb 2006 22:57
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Quote: "I like Acer's monitors but I haven't toyed with their PC's"

Speaking of Acer, I shoved my katana through one cause it was really starting to piss me off. (was only a socket 4 anyway)

I've come across a real annoying problem with athlon 64 cpus. Was working on one last night, and to unlock the cpu from the socket, you have to remove the heatsink to get to the lever.

Here's my outline, all from Newegg
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI - $167

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core - $297

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR400 Dual Channel Platinum - $220

MSI NX7800GT-VT2D256E Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 - $290

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3250824AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA-II (OEM) - $100

ASUS Black E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner 5X DVD-RAM Write Model DRW-1608P2S BK - $47

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - $10

Antec Solution SLK1650B Black Computer Case (350w psu)- $63

Antec NeoHE 500 500W Power Supply - $100

Total: $1294 = £741.25 = 1089.55(euro)

If an extra 100-200mhz on the cpu is really that important, just double its price. (not worth it in my opinion)

I little less power than Mike's, but at half the price.


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Philip
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 12:30
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Lots of good advice and great hardware tips above. I'm not adverse to building a PC (I built my second ever PC - that was a 486 dx2 66!) but my problem nowadays is time. I don't have any. So I really have to go with a pre-built option. :-(

And, yes, I will avoid the likes of Dell. I'm no fan of theirs either.

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IanG
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 12:42
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Quote: "my problem nowadays is time. I don't have any. So I really have to go with a pre-built option. :-("

building a computer usually takes me a morning, by the afternoon the os is intstalled; and by the evening i'm ready to install all my programs on it. But i do suppose the picking of parts is the hardest, making sure you get a good deal whilst trying to make sure it will all work together properly


amd athlon xp 2600+,1280mb,FX 5200 128mb,200gb,xp pro sp2
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Phaelax
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 13:01
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Putting it all together shouldn't take more than an hour. The OS is another story.


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MiR
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 13:23
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Quote: "ut my problem nowadays is time. I don't have any."

You know. It doesn´t take that long. Surely you have some spare time, like Sunday night for example? I mean it really is better to do it yourself than trust a pre built one to have the right power supply and fans for the job. They always cut corners somewhere. And those new chips get hot. Might not be such a problem in England though.

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OSX Using Happy Dude
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 13:29
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Quote: "Surely you have some spare time"

He's a lawyer - too busy serving writs, or selling jugs of orange juice for crimnal amounts of money, to have any free time

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MiR
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 13:34
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True.....
Shame really. Mike´s choise looks faster than a nun´s first curry.

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Philip
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Posted: 26th Feb 2006 23:39
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My other problem with buying components is that if the company doesn't deliver, you've got to drive to see them before you get the component.

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
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JoelJ
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 06:30
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I must laugh:
Quote: "If you don't build your own computer, and you buy a pre-fab one, DON'T BUY A DELL! Seriously, they're wastes of money.
...
Your best bet when going with pre-built computers is to spend that money on a PC that'll last, like ... an Alienware Area 51 "

BAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH

have you ever gone to newegg.com and copied Aleinware's computer specs?
try "Saving 1000s of dollars for 500 please Alex"
seriously, DON'T EVER BUY AN ALIENWARE!

actually, In my personal experience, and I have done a lot of research on this, is this:
Low end computer (for school, writing papers, and just surfing the web), buy a prebuilt (Dell, HP, etc) $300 machine.
you can't build one with those specs for that price.

for a mid-spec to high-spec computer, you will save hundreds (roughly $300-$700 depending on sales and such) if you just spend the time and grab your own parts and plug it in.
Look around, you really don't have to buy everything from one place, check the sunday ads, and see who has rebates, check different sites and such. Companies go in a patern for their sales, one week RAM, next HDD, the next something else.

or if you are seriously going the lazy route, and want a mid-spec to high-spec system, I would think about buying a Dell Refurbished machine. My friend bought a computer with a 3.2ghz Intel P4 and 1g Ram and a 120gb Hard drive(i think, might've been 160). And you can't beat the dead silence of a dell case.
After you get the machine, buy yourself a nice video card and pop that in.

letme get you some links perhaps...


This just in: White lab coats cause cancer in mice. Details comming soon.
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JoelJ
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 06:37 Edited at: 27th Feb 2006 07:01
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check these out:
Dell refurbished Monitors
my friend's dad has bought (no lie, he's addicted to screen space) at least 8 19" refurbished monitors, and 2 20", and 2 24", and none have had a problem. And I just saw a 17"LCD for under $240 and a 19" for $280

Dell Refurbished Systems

you can narrow down the search there too, rather nice selection IMO.


and here's a nice system i threw together using only Newegg (also Excel spreadsheet attached):

CPU [href]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562 [/href]300 AMD Athlon 64 X2
RAM [href]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440 [/href]70 2x 512MB
MOBO [href]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131584 [/href]100 supports A64 and X2, so leaves room for upgrading and stuff
CASE [href]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811162030 [/href]80 just the first one that came up with a nice PSU
GFX [href]http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130261 [/href]135 nice video card, geforce 6800something or other PCIx16, so you can dual video card it up
HDD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144178 100 160gb
(href tags not working )


TOTAL --- 785 or 920 for 2video cards >


This just in: White lab coats cause cancer in mice. Details comming soon.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 10:43
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Quote: "Total: $1294 = £741.25 = 1089.55(euro)"
Yeah, if you are in the US. Unfortuantly we are massively ripped off in the UK. More like $1294=£1294 half the time, although lately it's more like $1294=£1000, depending on the tech. If it's a console then can easily be one dollar equals one pound, even though the conversion rate is normally almost two dollars to a pound. Sigh. And don't bother with the Euro, we don't give a monkeys here.

I just got a Mesh for £1250 (tax included and includes £59 for saturday delivery). Pretty good deal. Got an AMD64x2 4400, with 2gb RAM, 300Gb HD, 7800 GT, SLI motherboard, XP Pro, X-Fi soundcard etc etc. Didn't get a monitor as my current one is tops.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
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Phaelax
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 19:15 Edited at: 27th Feb 2006 19:15
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I checked on XE.com for the conversion rates.

Quote: " buy a prebuilt (Dell, HP, etc) $300 machine
you can't build one with those specs for that price.
"


I used to believe that myself, until I took the challenge.
I set my specs and price limit on a $369 Dell, including monitor.

Here's the Dell Dimension B110 specs:

- Celeron D 325 2.53GHz
- 512mb ram
- 80gb ata100
- 48x cd-rw
- 17" crt (dell does have nice monitors usually)


Graphics are probably integrated.

Now here's what I priced out.
Quote: "
2.53Ghz Celeron D 325 533 FSB _______ $72.00
MSI PM8M3-V mATX (S3 gfx) ___________ $49.50
Corsair ValueSelect 512mb DDR400 ____ $38.50
Seagate 80GB 7200RPM ________________ $53.50
BenQ combo drive ____________________ $22.00
ViewSonic 17" _______________________ $133.00

$235.50
$368.50 - /w monitor
"


Ok, so I forgot a case, but I've some around $30 with a psu. And I used well-known name brands.


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JerBil
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 19:15 Edited at: 27th Feb 2006 19:16
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I just got a Gateway GT5032. This is AMD 64 X 2, 1 gig mem, 250 gigb hd, and is a Media Center 2005 unit. US price is about $869
without monitor. Although I had no need for a media center,
it should be good for Windows Vista, and is easily upgradable.

The only drawback, in fact, is that it will need a PCIe video
card cause the integrated graphics on this machine
won't quite make it on the latest games. But I knew that
when I bought it. You may need more.

-JerBil

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Milkman
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 19:57 Edited at: 27th Feb 2006 19:59
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@JerBil:
most likely you got a generic motherboard and ram because you went through gateway, and is that a sata hard drive?

@Phillip:
definately build it yourself

formerly xMik
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CattleRustler
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 20:07
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Philip, I havent read all of the above posts so sorry if this was already mentioned: You should definitely look into going with PCI-Express setup for the video. I know its expensive but it is well worth it, the graphics are simply stunning and will only get better since the games out now are barely taking advantage of the pipelines available in pci-E. I built this machine a year ago (wow, that went fast!) and I am glad I went pci-e. The card I bought at the time is a Nvidia 6800 Ultra PCI-E 16x 256ddr. It's insanely sick. You'll need a mobo that has the slots for pci-e but they are only a little more expensive than the highest end agp8x boards. Plus they come with pci-e 1x slots for other devices and normal pci slots for today's stuff. Here's my rundown:

Asus p5gd2-deluxe mobo
nvidia 6800 pci-e 16x 256ddr
1 gig ddr533 ram
twin 80 gig SATA HDDs western digi
dvdrom/cdrom combo
floppy drive(not sure why)
generic case with extra case fans
-----------------------------------
cost at the time $1500 USD (incl tax)

built myself from scratch, have since added WinXP Pro and a sweet ViewSonic VX-924 19" lcd monitor with 3ms refresh

i am quite happy and will be for a while with this setup. If down the road the 7800's come down in price and are "so much better" than the 6800, ill get a new card. It felt good to be on the bleeding edge of the video card market for once (at the time this was purchased and built)

good luck with your new rig

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JerBil
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Posted: 27th Feb 2006 21:16
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@xMilk:
It didn't came with sata hd, but has two available sata connectors
on mb. Also has one open PCIe x16, and one open PCIe x1 and will
take 4gig memory. That, and the dual core 64bit cpu is what I was looking for to keep current with Windows Vista, and future games.

-JerBil

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Dazzag
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 00:01 Edited at: 28th Feb 2006 00:03
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Quote: "I checked on XE.com for the conversion rates."
I always use XE. Plus converting dollars to pounds is easy, as is normally just dividing dollars by two (ish). Doesn't matter though as that would only work if you could order it for the US without any hassles (not even talking about warranties). Unfortuantly we would get imported taxed to the hilt. What I'm talking about is even if we bought the same machine, built in the UK even, then it will normally work out around 30% more than the US. Much better than it used to be though. This even goes for the same company. For example Dell. They make them here, but we normally pay a good premium over the US.

Essentially we are taxed massively on everything, and joe public has got used to a certain price. ie. lots. Gotta love it

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
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Phaelax
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 07:28
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Quote: "Unfortuantly we would get imported taxed to the hilt. What I'm talking about is even if we bought the same machine, built in the UK even, then it will normally work out around 30% more than the US"


Hmmm, this gives me an interesting idea. I buy the parts in US that you want, charge a slight mark-up as to make a profit (15% instead of 30%), then ship them to you. We both win.


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Milkman
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 07:58
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but once you factor in the international shipping costs...

formerly xMik
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 08:37
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Quote: "You know. It doesn´t take that long. Surely you have some spare time, like Sunday night for example?"


Ha! Not when the last season of Sopranos is going to air soon

Quote: "seriously, DON'T EVER BUY AN ALIENWARE!"


Name a computer that can outlast an Alienware? Name a company that provides better service? They're expensive, yes, but (A) they have the best cooling in the business, even on their cheaper computers, (B) they're BUILT for gaming unlike any other system around, and (C) they're absolutely beautiful. If you've ever been around an Alienware and heard the sweet sound of silence, and saw the nifty lights packaged into the breathtaking case, you'd fall in love with them instantly. I miss my Alienware (which still runs, but its old)... gaming on a Vaio isn't something to snuff your nose at, but it sure isn't an Alienware. When I have a problem with the Vaio, I have to call customer service and wait for an hour or five while a customer service rep who can't type talks to me about my technical issue that he doesn't understand, all the while trying to decipher his funky accent. When I had to call Alienware (which only happened twice because that computer ruled), I had a rep on the line in ten minutes who diagnosed and solved my problems in less than three minutes. No muss no fuss. So yeah, you'll pay extra, but it's worth it. They have Area 51's in your price range... I wouldn't dismiss them.

Sorry for the blatent Alienware plug, but I friggin' love those systems.

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
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Dazzag
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 10:58
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Quote: "then ship them to you"
And then they charge us import tax at customs. You may be lucky, but most likely not. You don't charge us the tax, we do when we get it.

Quote: "Name a computer that can outlast an Alienware?"
Browse a few forums. Filter out the fanboys and they are ok computers costing more money than they are worth. When I bought my laptop there was plenty of fluff around yabbing on about Alienware, but going to decent forums dedicated to laptops made me realise I could buy the same product (pretty much exactly infact because they share the same chassis with loads of other suppliers) for a couple of hundred quid cheaper at a fair few other places. Amusingly the Area 51 laptop (I believe it was at the time) was actually worse than a few others (top AGP, Voodoo, RockDirect for example that all used the same chassis) because they used inferior memory. Ended up being several frame rates slower in everything than most of their competitors.

Also it's personal preference if you like the looks. Some people do, some people don't. Personally it's a PC. A PC.... If it's a desktop it should be hidden somewhere (unless you don't like free space for some reason), or a laptop then basically you look at the screen. If you want to show off to your mates then either buy something with more power (but who cares how it looks) or buy some plastic surgery. Much more useful.

Gotta love those alien eyes in the BIOS though.....

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
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Phaelax
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 18:54
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alienware is over-priced, i dont care how to try to justify it.


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Matt Rock
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 19:27
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Their laptops do suck, they're too heavy and they have poor battery life, but their desktops? I'm going to stand by my claim. Personally, I'm willing to spend an extra couple hundred bucks for a desktop that's going to outlast the opposition, customer service that's unmatched, and the ease of upgrading (when you need to). The cases are gorgeous, that's my opinion... but I've yet to see a home-built computer, or a pre-built computer, that could stand up against an Alienware in the benchmarking department. Okay, I'll shut up about them now

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
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Milkman
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 19:38 Edited at: 28th Feb 2006 19:40
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are you kidding me?
you could build a nice comp for the same price of an alienware that would perform better and out last the alienware. other than the case factor, there is no competition between alienware and custom built...

edit: if you do everything right, there is no need for customer service. in my opinion, alienwares are for gamers who don't know how to build their own computers...

formerly xMik
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JoelJ
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 21:25
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Quote: "Name a computer that can outlast an Alienware? Name a company that provides better service?"

so think about it this way, you're paying $1000 - $2000 for watercooling/customer support (which you don't need anyway) what a deal!

ok, i will, ME, and since i save an extra $1000 - $2000, I'll buy myself an extra 7800gtx and gig of ram. Then go out and buy me a few hundred games.

If a computer had problems, no matter who i bought it from, i would mess with customer service, because they're going to tell me what i already know "send it in, you need a new motherboard" or whatever. I don't have to play tag with anyone, i just get the job done myself.
Newegg has better Customer Support than any company i have ever seen. something breaks within warrentee, they'll replace it, and if THEY don't, the manufactor probably will.

and if i wanted a over sized ugly case, i would probably buy my own


This just in: White lab coats cause cancer in mice. Details comming soon.
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 28th Feb 2006 21:29
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Ugly iyo. One of my problems was a virus (although i didn't know it at the time). I had a similar problem on my Vaio. Alienware's guys explained how to fix the problem... Sony's guys told me to format my hard drive. Most customer service reps are like that, but that's why I put alienware above the rest. And not everyone is as handy as computers as some of us

"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Patrick's Day all of the time." ~ Christopher, *The Soprano's*
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soapyfish
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 01:31
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Just on the off chance you don't want to play that many games, apple today released an Intel Mac mini. http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/90601/wo/si5jhv9QSTBL3qrj7Q11v6hGGgw/0.SLID?nclm=Macmini&mco=1E47836E.

I AM A MORON
and won't change my sig until I get off my oversized behind and finish a project.
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Philip
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 02:06
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I'd rather rip my arms off and give mouth to mouth resuscitation to a 3 month old corpse than buy an Apple.

Cheer if you like bears! Cheer if you like jam sandwiches!
Quote of the week: "... I started learning DBP while I was a Satellite Network Controller for the US Army Space Command ... "
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 02:12
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I'll second that! I'd rather rip your arms off and give mout to mout resucitation to a 3 month old corpse than buy an apple, too

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Represent
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:11
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I highly recommend not getting a dell.

I noticed your using Euros. I would say www.cyberpowersystem.com but i dont know if they ship to Europe.

I recommend building your own with these specs.
CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ (or higher) - $169
GFX: Sapphire x850xt 256 PCI-E - $209
MOBO: LanParty nf4 ultra - (not sure maybe $180?)
RAM: Corsair Value Ram 1GB - $80
Any sound card

Is there a Newegg.com for Europe?

SPECS:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 512MB RAM, 128MB ATI RADEON 9600SE, 16x DVD ROM & CD-R/W 52x32x52 Combo Drive, 19" Flat Screen CRT, 3 12" Cold Cathode Blue Neons
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JoelJ
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:16 Edited at: 1st Mar 2006 04:17
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yeah, newegg.eu



build your own phili... you're not going to get away with saying no now

OR even better, you pay for shipping, and I'll sell you mine...

$420+shipping


This just in: White lab coats cause cancer in mice. Details comming soon.
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Represent
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:17
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lol yea newegg is amazing. 900 bucks and you can build an amazing system. if you need help making one ill get all da parts together for you from that newegg site

SPECS:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ @2.3ghz, 512MB RAM, x850xt @ 594/621
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Milkman
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:19
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yeah, and go with an x2... not an athlon 64

formerly xMik
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Represent
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:22
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well if you want an x2 kinda cpu. better off getting a nice Opteron and OC'in the crap outta it. Those are the way to go.

SPECS:
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ @2.3ghz, 512MB RAM, x850xt @ 594/621
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Milkman
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:25
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how about price though, in comparison? i'm not up to date on all the prices recently.

formerly xMik
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Reality Forgotten
FPSC Reloaded TGC Backer
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 04:27 Edited at: 1st Mar 2006 04:28
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Quote: "If an extra 100-200mhz on the cpu is really that important, just double its price. (not worth it in my opinion)"


Just flood your board with ram. it will more then compensate.

My system specs.

AMD Athalon 64 3700 clawhammer
2 gig Ram pc3200 ddr 400mhz
250 gig hard drive
giga bit tech k8 triton motherboard (x8 AGP)
nvidia geforce 5600 256MB agp

I may add another gig of ram to the board.
It seems to work fine for what ever I need it to do.
And I spent well under 1000 us dollars.

"I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter."
-- Winston Churchill
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re faze
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 06:49
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i bought the dell 4600i, about 4 years ago and its still running strong. pretty quiet, could use an upgrade but its not a terrible machine. Ill probably build the next one though, and have more than 2 hdd bays.

Dont code slowly be SWIFT about it!
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 07:05
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Didn't he already say that he wants to buy a pre-built system?

The whole Alienware debate was a throwback to college. I remember having this exact same conversation with a few people from a class and the professor of said class. This one guy argued to build your own computer, and my professor argued to buy an Alienware. That professor said one of the funniest things that ever came out of her mouth that day: "The only people who hate Alienware PC's are the people who can't afford them."

I'm not calling anyone poor, I just thought that was a funny memory related to the Alienware vs. everything else debate and worth sharing. If you were there or if you took one of her classes, you'd understand how friggin' funny that was for her to say that... she was a very soft-spoken and polite person and that conversation made her roar.

I have a bunch of friends who own high-end pre-built computers (mostly Alienwares, although one friend has a Voodoo which I'm not fond of), and a bunch of my other friends have custom machines, and at the lan parties we have rather regularly, the home-built machines are always the ones causing problems (when it isn't my Vaio failing to connect). And even when their computers crash (rare, but it happens... and I've NEVER seen an Alienware crash, not yet anyway) they continue to say that Alienwares suck and their computers are better, even when we've proven at those parties that they simply aren't. That's why I said Alienware's outlast other computers. And until I see an Alienware crash from something that isn't human error, and until someone at our lan parties with a home-built computer goes ten parties without some kind of problem, I'll stand by my claim. But that's my experience and it's made me very, very biased, and as someone pointed out earlier, I'm an Alienware fanboy


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
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JoelJ
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 07:23
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"The only people who hate Alienware PC's are the people who can't afford them."
or are smarter than the average idiot and knows how to use a calculator and realize they're getting ripped off...

Quote: "the home-built machines are always the ones causing problems"

well, they're idiots. Only problem i've had with my home made machine, is the batery on the motherboard is dead, so it randomly asks me to check the bios and make sure the settings are correct.

if they seriously have that many problems, then you're an idiot.


This just in: White lab coats cause cancer in mice. Details comming soon.
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Matt Rock
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 07:37 Edited at: 1st Mar 2006 07:39
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Quote: "or are smarter than the average idiot and knows how to use a calculator and realize they're getting ripped off..."

Right. That's why the only home built machines I've seen that could clock as fast as the Alienwares all cost as much or even more to build. One of the guys at our lan parties paid $3500 for his home-built machine, and that crashed... meanwhile Amber's $2,000 Alienware Area 51 has never once crashed in the two years she's had it.

Quote: "if they seriously have that many problems, then you're an idiot."

I'm an idiot? I didn't build them, they did... four computer science majors. And they don't have problems constantly, just once in a while (as I pointed out, if you actually read what I wrote). "oh man, I need new ram," or "oh darn, I was toying with this or that and I forgot to do this thing or that thing." It's obnoxious. But not as obnoxious as their attitudes are, thinking their better than everyone else because they built their own POS machine. Seriously, who cares? I'm not impressed... The Alienware's never have a problem. When I owned one, it never once crashed, I never had anything wear out or break (although I did upgrade the ram and the video card, not because of failure but because of age), and the cooling is flat-out unmatched. I'll gladly invite you to the next lan party we have and you can pit your home-built machine against those Alienwares.... $50 says you'll end up lagging them long before you see them glitch. I've never seen one crash, and I've never even heard of one crashing for that matter. And they aren't as expensive as everyone makes them out to be... you can buy Alienwares for around the same price you can buy a Dell XPS, and the Alienware isn't going to crash... the XPS will.


"Hell is an Irish Pub where it's St. Paddy's day all year long" ~ Christopher, The Sopranos
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soapyfish
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Posted: 1st Mar 2006 07:52
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Best. Computer. Ever.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3880195342.html

I AM A MORON
and won't change my sig until I get off my oversized behind and finish a project.
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