It's been 15 years... time to buy a new PC, AND I DID! JUDGE IT

Magic Pink

So, yeah, I'm biting the bullet and buying a PC.

Basically I'm going to the Dell Outlet Mall in Ogdenville and hoping to score big. I almost git a REALLy nice one Friday night but I didn;t get it to my cart in time and someone else snagged it.

This is all I know:

I want an Intel i7 core
I want at least 6 GB of ram, more if available.
The biggest hard dive I see yeah boo but I can increase that easily no matter what.
I don't care much for the drive but I would like a RW one.
Graphics card: I have no fucking idea. I'm shooting for a 1 GB at least but should I wait for a GeForce or go with ATI RAdeon which are much more plentiful on the site? And what kind? I think GTX is the best but they never have those in their machines, it's usually GT or GTS. Oh, and some numbers.

Also, I wanna hook it up to my HDTV so is there anything special I need for that other then a VGA->HDMI cable?

I=overwhelmed.

Skoal Cat

Dell uses pretty shitty parts. Why are you set on a Dell?

Magic Pink

The website was easy to use and had the oulet/refurbished category for cheap moneez. I;m hoping to stay under $1000.

Roe

I went with Gateway since they've improved a lot with time. I would also buy a separate monitor than theirs. I'm a big fan of LG monitors so I would go with them.

As for graphic cards personally I would go with Nvidia. If you get a hard drive you should know your speeds. A slow hd can make your games load a lot slower and lower the performance of your computer.

Skoal Cat

Magic Pink wrote: »

The website was easy to use and had the oulet/refurbished category for cheap moneez. I;m hoping to stay under $1000.

Check out the Computer Build thread. Building your own machine is very easy and $1000 can buy some top of the line shit.

Magic Pink

Skoal Cat wrote: »

Magic Pink wrote: »

The website was easy to use and had the oulet/refurbished category for cheap moneez. I;m hoping to stay under $1000.

Check out the Computer Build thread. Building your own machine is very easy and $1000 can buy some top of the line shit.

I already did, it was way way over my head. I'm not going to build my own; I have no idea how to do that.

How is this one?

System ID: EEDB0TCV
Studio XPS 9100
Certified Refurbished - SA
System Price: $979.00
Processor Processor: Intel Core i7-930 Processor (8MB L3 Cache, 2.8GHz)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
Base Studio XPS 9100 Desktop
Hard Disk Drive 1.5 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Memory 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (4 DIMMs)
Media Bay 6X Blu-ray (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
Video 1 GB ATI Radeon HD 5670
Keyboard Keyboard
Mouse Dell USB 6-Button Laser Mouse
Hardware Upgrade No Modem
Thermal Heat Sink
125V Power Cord
Office Software Microsoft Office Starter
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System

Roe

Wides screen LED monitors are becoming cheap. The 3d monitors are the new phase that hasn't hit consumer price levels yet. A good thing to keep in mind.

Magic Pink

Roe wrote: »

Wides screen LED monitors are becoming cheap. The 3d monitors are the new phase that hasn't hit consumer price levels yet. A good thing to keep in mind.

Except, like I said in the OP, I'm not getting a monitor. I'm just using my HDTV. There's no way I could afford this if I get a monitor as well.

Roe

Even with HD tv output, there is a reason people have HD tvs and monitors as well.

I think HD tvs skew the perspective too. You're also going to have a hell of a hard time playing games on it.

Skoal Cat

My HTPC is my main computer (I'm on it right now) and is hooked up to a 32" HD TV. The problem is that I sit at a normal couch range which doesn't work well. I need to increase font sizes tremendously for it to be useable. I also need a good wireless keyboard and mouse. How far are you going to be from your monitor?

Magic Pink

I'm not. You guys have convinced me this is too much trouble.

Thanks anyway.

Skoal Cat

You're just overwhelmed. If you work with us we can make this an easy process for you and make sure you're happy with what you want.

Magic Pink

No, if I can't use the TV the price of this goes way out of bounds. I'm much happier with consoles anyway.

RBach

Get a little less RAM and processor and you'll surely be able to afford a $100-$150 display. Decent ones aren't that expensive.

Skoal Cat

Magic Pink wrote: »

No, if I can't use the TV the price of this goes way out of bounds. I'm much happier with consoles anyway.

1) You can but consider the issues it presents
2) Monitors aren't outrageously expensive

But if you'd rather not, then that's cool too.

jackal

You should really just get a less expensive PC and a decent display. HDTVs make for crap PC displays. If you are willing to stick with a PC from the year of our lord 1996 I don't think a top end cpu and gpu should really be a priority for you.

Magic Pink

If I have to get a monitor then I have to buy furniture to put a PC ON as well as get a chair. So the price goes too much.

jackal

Out of curiousity what are you currently using to post in this thread as well as for generally web surfing shenanigans?

Magic Pink

jackal wrote: »

Out of curiousity what are you currently using to post in this thread as well as for generally web surfing shenanigans?

My work PC.

Daedalus

I use a 46" HDTV as my only monitor and it works quite well. You just bump up the DPI size and you're good.

You will need to find a wireless keyboard and mouse that don't suck but beyond that it's all fine.

Magic Pink

What's DPI?

Ok, thread change then: HDTV as a monitor, the ONLY monitor. Yay or Nay?

jackal

DPI is dots per inch, and it tends to be turrible on HDTVs because a 46 inch HDTV will have roughly the same resolution as a 19 inch monitor. There's also the problem that most software is designed for someone sitting 12 inches from the screen rather than 12 feet (except media center type apps of course).

Skoal Cat

Sure! How far are you going to be sitting?

Magic Pink

About 5 feet away.

This is my DPI... thing.

Display size: 29.6" × 22.2" (75.18cm × 56.39cm) = 34.59 PPI, 0.7342mm dot pitch, 1197 PPI²

Skoal Cat

Don't worry about DPI, thats an OS setting. What model TV do you have? Is it's resolution 1080 or 720?

Magic Pink

Panasonic TC-L37S1, 1080P. The native resolution (which I believe I should never switch because it can explode the TV or some such) is 1920 x 1080 .

Skoal Cat

You'll be fine. If you need/want a wireless keyboard that doesn't have line of sight, avoid IR stuff.

edit: IR not RF

Magic Pink

Nah, the keyboard I use normally on the 360 works fine and the PC won't be any further away then that. I am gonna want a wireless mouse tho.

What's RF, by the way?

Skoal Cat

Whoops, post edited.
RF=Radio Frequency
IR=Infrared

IR signals, like that in a remote control, need direct line of sight. RF doesn't and can also pass through walls if strong enough.

Elimination

Also as far as the PC thing goes, get an Core i5, theres no reason you MUST get a Core i7, you'd probably be happy with the 2500k i5. That one PC you posted was great as well, other than the ATI 5670 is pretty low on the video card scale of things. You're almost better off trying to score one with no video card and just selecting the card yourself later on so you get what you need.

The Dude With Herpes

Elimination wrote: »

Also as far as the PC thing goes, get an Core i5, theres no reason you MUST get a Core i7, you'd probably be happy with the 2500k i5. That one PC you posted was great as well, other than the ATI 5670 is pretty low on the video card scale of things. You're almost better off trying to score one with no video card and just selecting the card yourself later on so you get what you need.

That or find a friend who knows how to build pc's or really think about letting the folks in the build thread help you out.

Building a PC can seem daunting but honestly it's not at all. If you've ever set up a home theatre or anything that requires wiring a lot of stuff correctly, you pretty much already have the skills.

It's just rough to see someone willing to shell out $1,000.00 for a pre-built PC that is decently under-par with what you can build for the same price on your own.

Azio

jackal wrote: »

HDTVs make for crap PC displays.

They actually make awesome displays, which are gloriously massive

Ego

A decent 1080p HDTV makes a fine PC display.

Just make sure you get one that has 1:1 pixel mapping (haven't seen one that didn't in a long time,) be sure to adjust overscan settings in your graphics control panel (to ensure that, again, you're getting 1:1 pixel mapping) and sit a little further back. Also, as always, disable dynamic contrast.

For a long time I used my 42" as a primary, flanked by two 24" LCDs to the sides and a couple feet ahead of it. Even now, after lending out one of the 24s, I use the HDTV as my secondary with (the better one of) the 24s as my primary.

I expect I'll have the HDTV connected to my system for the forseeable future. Pretty slick being able to toss movies or TV shows or web videos (a couple patches ago, Flash changed it so that you can have a flash movie working full screen on one display and do work on another without the movie dropping out of full screen) on an HDTV while you do your work.

bigwah

I have a HTPC connected to my 65" DLP and its just fine (doesn't do 1:1 pixel mapping, but you can always have the desktop scaled down, but not video (well you could video, but throws the 3D off, so i leave it overscanned).

DPI is increased in windows to make shit bigger and if you want to get crazy with it, you can setup a Harmony remote to control it all (ie turn on pandora, tune to tv, pull up youtube) at the touch of a button.

Ego

Smartphones also work really well these days for integrated PC/media player controls, too, though I've yet to use a harmony remote outside a store so as to compare.

I can't really express just how much raw, geeky joy I get out of a centralized system that runs the HDTV people watch from my couch, the work I do on my desktop, and shares any available media/documents to my kitchen, bedroom, or smartphone. Each controllable by the other (well, actually I can't control my smartphone with my PC. Other than that.)

Computers are pretty slick.

bigwah

With Intelliremote, not only do I get extreme customization for my harmony remote, I can use my iphone to switch the channel on my wife while taking crap, technology at its best!

Magic Pink

Crap, how do I tell if I have 1:1 pixel mapping?

And are there any other outlet sites for refurbished/clearance/scratch and dent PCs? All I know of is Dell and Newegg.

Magic Pink

How is this one?

HP Pavilion Elite HPE-570t W7HP-64 i7 2600 3.4GHz 1TB SATA 8GB DVDRW(LS) 1GB NIC 15-in-1 Rmkt PC

The only thing I can see wrong is that it may not be an Intel.

Jesus these Hewlett Packard clearance PCs are RIDICULOUSLY cheap for the power they have. What's the catch here?

jackal

i7 is Intel.

Magic Pink

Then I have to be missing something. An i7 3.4, 1TB of hard drive, 8GB ram and the thing is barely 600$.

Roe

Magic Pink wrote: »

Then I have to be missing something. An i7 3.4, 1TB of hard drive, 8GB ram and the thing is barely 600$.

Motherboard, speed of ram/harddrive, Computer case, Power supply, DVD/blu-ray drive, speakers, Keyboard/mouse, Wireless router/reciver Mouse pad, HDMI connector, Software(including OS).