Buying a New Computer

[DragonFeather]

Yeah, buying a new toy, and was wondering if anyone had any tips as far as hardware goes.

I would like to get the top of the line game eating machine of doom, but thats just a wee bit out of my budget.

Basically, Im lookin to get something for about 2 or 3k, but im debating going the custom computer route or just ordering some generic thing from dell of intel or something like that.

[Middnight]

Your best bet is to build it yourself. When I built mine back in may it was the next step down from top notch and was only about $1400. give or take 100 due to carring over CD roms and Monitor from my old comp. A sugestive point would be to go simple but and try to buy all the parts from one place. I would go to [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], They price and there RMA (just in case something is wrong, has not happened to me yet) is quite good IMO.

What I am running.
Asus a8n32-SLI deluxe
2 gigs of Kingston ram (4x512 sticks)
EVGA 7800gt 256MB ram PCI-e (about to pick up the second for the SLI set up but its really not needed. Everything that I have seen has yet to even pressure it.)
AMD 4200 X2 dual-core Processor
Creative Audigy 2 ZS platimun sound card.
Creative Labs 7.1 T7900 speakers (clear and very accurate sound quality)
4 Western Digital SATA 3.0 120GB 7200RPM harddrives (non-raid but can be set up if you so choose)
CD burner and DVD burners are both Lite-ons so 50 bucks for the set.
Logitech G5 (wired) Laser mouse (I can't say enought about it)
Logitech Internet ready (with media keys) keyboard.
19" Envision flatscreen monitor.
Hyper X 600 watt power supply (modular very nice)
Lian Li PC-V1200B case. It cost but for me was worth every penny. Lots of extra room for when or if you choose to water cool and will last through quite a few PC's that you plan to build in the future.

Hope that helps a bit. Software wise I use Windows XP prof. It has yet to get sluggish from games, video editing, or just general use.

[Master Penguin]

a bit wee out of your budget and your looking for something 2-3k? lol.

Well, with a budget like that, you should be looking at a core 2 duo for cpu. 7950GTX for a video card. 2 gig of ram. And everything else is pretty much preference.

[PoSiTiOn]

Originally Posted by Middnight

Your best bet is to build it yourself. When I built mine back in may it was the next step down from top notch and was only about $1400. give or take 100 due to carring over CD roms and Monitor from my old comp. A sugestive point would be to go simple but and try to buy all the parts from one place. I would go to [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], They price and there RMA (just in case something is wrong, has not happened to me yet) is quite good IMO.

What I am running.
Asus a8n32-SLI deluxe
2 gigs of Kingston ram (4x512 sticks)
EVGA 7800gt 256MB ram PCI-e (about to pick up the second for the SLI set up but its really not needed. Everything that I have seen has yet to even pressure it.)
AMD 4200 X2 dual-core Processor
Creative Audigy 2 ZS platimun sound card.
Creative Labs 7.1 T7900 speakers (clear and very accurate sound quality)
4 Western Digital SATA 3.0 120GB 7200RPM harddrives (non-raid but can be set up if you so choose)
CD burner and DVD burners are both Lite-ons so 50 bucks for the set.
Logitech G5 (wired) Laser mouse (I can't say enought about it)
Logitech Internet ready (with media keys) keyboard.
19" Envision flatscreen monitor.
Hyper X 600 watt power supply (modular very nice)
Lian Li PC-V1200B case. It cost but for me was worth every penny. Lots of extra room for when or if you choose to water cool and will last through quite a few PC's that you plan to build in the future.

Hope that helps a bit. Software wise I use Windows XP prof. It has yet to get sluggish from games, video editing, or just general use.

'

Lol, instead of spending about $100 moving everything you should have gotten an external hard drive. Anyways that computer you have looks awesome, really cheap price IMO.

[Peety]

DONT GET A DELL!!!

build your own..

trust me...we bouight a $1.5k dell about a year ago..and it runs like a P2 from 1996..

and i got a laptop in june...it takes 5 minutes to boot and dell already tried to rip me 100 bucks for a warranty i already have...

BOO DELL sorry for caps xD

[YoUrMaMa]

Damn, You serious about that computer for only $1400? I wouldn't mind getting a comp like that later on xD. Anyways, you should build your own, its a lot cheaper, but it requires a little bit of experience, just to make sure that it's good.

[dead4life]

If you decide to build your own, contact me and I'll set you up with suggestions for the best bang and performance for your dollar :P

You can also get custom computers (its gonna be a assembled for you for a fee and the parts are a bit more expensive) at

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I can help you pick out parts if you decide to go that route

[Middnight]

The only reason I carried over the CD roms is due to them being less than 2-3 months old. At current I am looking to upgrade them but in no hurry as they still work great. And Pisition its so far been exellent. Only problem I had was the first day I got it up and running, and that was a simple fix with a patch from AMD for there X2's. Sence then all I can say is games with all eye candy on, burn a dvd and cd, and listen to music at the same time and not have a coaster or system lag. One thing is for sure though the case gives plenty of room for a water cooling kit when I go to put it in, in a few weeks. want to make sure it don't leak. lol

[Einhanderkiller]

If you want an ultimate gaming machine of uber awesomeness +10^100, I would wait for the release of Nvidia's GeForce G80 cards, which should be in a few weeks. Quad core processors are coming out early next year, but they won't do much for gaming.

Here's what I would build.

Motherboard:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

nVidia GeForce 8800GTX ($650?):
Not released yet

2 Gb Kit DDR2 (2x 1Gb) 4-4-4-10 800Mhz (TeamGroup):
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Power Supply:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Processor:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Heatsink:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Chassis:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Fans (get 3 of these to replace the fans in the case--it'll give you better airflow):
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Thermal paste:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Soundcard (better than X-Fi for sound quality):
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Headphones:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Monitor (F'ing huge!):
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I hope I got everything.
The total should be roughly $3,500, without shipping and taxes. You could drop that price by a lot by getting a smaller monitor, different case, different headphones (or dropping the headphones altogether), etc., however, but that monitor sure is nice...

An alternate monitor around the same price (Dell is having a deal right now):
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[Blagol]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Possibly one of the best ways you can spend that 2-3k of yours.