The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Lost in the search for a new computer
Dorkman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well it seems the old 7 year old brick is on it's last legs, and I need myself a new computer.
I have a budget of about $800 Canadian, and I am really at a loss as to where I should buy a computer. I really don't have the know how to build one, so that is right out...but is it better to get one mailed in? Buy one from a local big box store? Any specific computers I should be looking at?
For someone that spends most of his time on one, I know sweet fudge all about them.
Help me internets!
I have a budget of about $800 Canadian, and I am really at a loss as to where I should buy a computer. I really don't have the know how to build one, so that is right out...but is it better to get one mailed in? Buy one from a local big box store? Any specific computers I should be looking at?
For someone that spends most of his time on one, I know sweet fudge all about them.
Help me internets!
Poke Black 2 FC: 0390 6923 7158
Dorkman on
0
Posts
I would like to be able to play SC2, and Dawn of War 2 and those type games. Maybe something that will be able to handle Diablo 3 when that comes out. That's about as far as I need I do believe
I love using NCIX. Here's something in your price range. It includes the following:
The misses and I were out window shopping and we did find something like this: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-elite-amd-phenom-ii-945-quad-core-computer-hpe-400f-hpe-400f/10154025.aspx?path=6ca8f8aeb3eba8fc727019a17d2ce10een02
Would this seem reasonable? Are HP's notorious for being junk? If I chose to install better components later (i.e. Graphics card) would it be possible.
Christ, you don't know how clueless you are till you really start looking at it eh..
That looks like a pretty solid deal as long as you have a monitor you like.
Most prebuilt computers have only come with the recovery partition (as opposed to a cd) for a few years now, so I don't really understand why this is such a big deal.
AFAIK machines with windows preloaded allow you to create a backup image of your windows install to a DVD or five. Not as good as a real copy of Windows, but all is not lost if things go wrong.
Hard drive failure, or somehow accidentally deleting the partition.
Edit: CelestialBadger shows how little I touch pre-built PCs.
I would strongly recommend an iBuyPower machine, or a similar computer-builder service, over what HP sells.
You might also consider taking aside a knowledgeable friend and offering to take him out to dinner if he'll help you pick out matching parts and assemble them.
If you do buy HP, unless something has changed in the last couple of years it comes with a recovery partition that lets you wipe your main partition, but you can also use that partition to make a recovery disk. That disk will never work on any other motherboard.
Also, the reason why Futureshop is kinda getting us interested as we would also like to get Microsoft Office at a reasonable price. We can get it tacked on for $99 there, where it seems we will be paying a bit more with Tigerdirect and Newegg. Are there other avenues I should be looking at to getting this package hopefully a bit cheaper (Legal of course).
Look on newegg for reviews, I've never had to use iBuyPower's customer support because their products work unlike Dell or HP.
edit: And about Microsoft Office, if you're students, it is very cheap to get it through your school. Like $5-10.
Like is there a site I can go to that will give me a recommendation for a card based on what games I want to run in the future?
Forgive me if this seems obvious but Id hate to under-upgrade.
@ Bedlam: Futuremark used to have this applet that you ran on their website which performed a diagnosis of your computer and then told you how ready it was for any list of possible games. I can't find it now - this was like two years ago - but they do have a list of GPU and CPU minimum and recommended requirements for games. Really easy to read.
http://www.futuremark.com/fmgames/