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Buying Desktop (Help)
Sin Twin 1
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Looking for help/advice in buying a desktop, The old one I have is out of date and craps out on me everyday. So I have CS:S and enjoy high preformance high speed computers (doesn't everyone) I also enjoy games like Civilization IV and other city building games, am also playing Crysis. So Since I have been searching I find it pointless since I know nothing of what I would need to enjoy Crysis, I am looking at the intel site and see some crazy stuff but would really like some help from here please. I have 1500 $ to spend (I know its not alot) but I also have to eat and pay bills, I could wait and save up but that could take months. So would you guys please guide me through this darkness ?
Sin Twin 1 on
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I'd say check out the build a computer thread, you'll spend a lot less for a lot more than buying one pre-made.
It'll save you a lot of money and you'll likely get a better product for it.
If, on the off chance you have a friend who has built a comp before, it wouldn't hurt to have him watch you put it together. That way if you have any questions about what you're doing (you might have 2 or 3 for the whole process) he will be right there to give you an answer.
I was nervous, but it went more smoothly than buying a desktop, and the feeling of elation you'll receive from a job well done can't be matched by anything.
Good luck!
Opening one up and taking it apart (with extensive labels, photo's whatever it takes) then putting it back together gave me a lot more confidence at the prospect of self-builds in the future.
i would say 3.2 quadcore 4 gigs 1tB HD video and a 22" screen good
not at all bad.
give me a minute with newegg I'll see if i can't throw together some general specs for you
here we go... just tossed these components together to give you a general idea so some of it probably won't work together and you might need a bigger power supply but if you need anything more than that there is probably something seriously wrong with you
you have no idea how much i want some of those cards
as a side note i double checked and it looks like everything will sync up fine
At this stage I think I am going to have to do a mobo/GPU/Ram/PSU upgrade and I simply cannot afford it. Could probably go up to a 4850, not sure it is worth it though with all the other flaws.
i don't know. unless you literally have 0 dollars it's not hard to upgrade anymore. parts that cost 500 each a year ago are like 20 now. even about 6 months ago i upgraded for age of conan and it cost about 450 for a new pretty much everything. I'm running a 3.2 dual core 2gb ~900Gb and a sexy case. video card handles 4 windows of wow with very little latency, and age of conan on high.
it's the video card that gets pricey
With standard PSU, I would have to replace that for better parts. MoBo is a pricey replacement. And I don't want to do it half-heartedly. Since I could max afford £150 at the moment, I'll wait an do something more comprehensive I figure (unless you have genius suggestions
I have to admit- some of that seems like over kill to me (the graphics card and processor mostly...) and you could get a much better monitor for the money.
Other than that, not a bad set up, but you could probably get something that you'd be just as happy with for 3-400 less. Maybe more.
that's not too bad at all
obviously for a new monitor and everything else it's going to be more but a lot of that stuff you have on yours you really don't need
edit: man they really should just make a "chucks tech emporium" where i answer computer questions
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208021
it is ultra sexy and runs super quietly. i would highly recommend this unless you get the ultra video card, in which case the above post's got the one for you.
9800gtx will run any currently existing game well (it's in my computer), but you could arguably kick it up one more notch to the 285gtx I'd Fuck Chuck Lidell Up suggested if you want that "my new computer destroys the max graphics setting's of all games" feeling.
I picked my parts (on sale & high quality) individually and paid a $50 charge to have it assembled for me before it was shipped to me. They did an excellent job assembling it, better I would say than the assembly you get buying a random pre-assembled computer from a store.
Try:
NCIX, Tigerdirect and Newegg.
Hmm, the problem is I see 'not too bad' and think that I may as well wait for a bit more price drop. Cause £200 for not bad makes me squeamish.
Plus I am not buying much new in the way of gaming atm, so probably not worth it. Maybe if I get a job over the summer.
No, unless "other programs" includes "Windows XP" and even that is manageable.
Asus M3N78 PRO Motherboard CPU Bundle - AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad Core 2.20GHz Socket AM2+ OEM Processor - 219.99
Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB) - 44.99 - 24$ mail in rebate
BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC2 MAXCORE 55 Video Card - 896MB GDDR3, PCI Express 2.0, (2) Dual Link DVI, SLI Ready, VGA and HDMI Adapters - 204.99
Ultra X-Wind Aluminum Socket K8/AM2 CPU Cooling Fan - 24.98
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB Hard Drive - 7200RPM, 32MB, SATA-300, OEM - 89.99
Turtle Beach Riviera 5.1 Digital PCI Sound Card - 34.99
Lite-ON IHAP322-08 DVD Burner - 22X DVD+R, 22X DVD-R, 8X DVD+R9, 8X DVD-R9, 12X DVD-RAM, 8X DVD+RW, 6X DVD-RW, 16X Read, 32X CD-RW, 48X Read, IDE - 29.99
I-INC IS-220DPB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1680x1050, 3000:1, 16:10, DVI, Internal Speakers - 159.99
829.91 + tax and shipping for that rig. Certainly not the BEST possible video card/monitor, but you could go up a little from there still pretty comfortably.
This is brilliant.
by "not too bad" i mean pretty amazing.
like i said, I'm running a 3.2 dual core and 2 gigs of ram and i decimate most games, especially with my video card. the build i made you is double mine... yeah...
and as far as price drops go the problem with that is by the time that gets any cheaper you're looking at better tech being out there, which means a bunch of things that will require that better tech. just like getting a comodore is cheap now, but is useless for anything new.
t: sintwin: newegg is amazing. so far I've bought 3 whole comps for myself off of it, 3 for friends, and god knows how many parts.
and no, vista works with pretty much everything at this point. i use it to great success. I especially love 64 bit
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
Processors AMD Phenomâ„¢ II X4 940 Black Edition (3.0GHz/125W)
Memory 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
Hard Drives 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 2 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Video Card CrossFireX, Dual ATI Radeon HD4850 512MB
CD ROM/DVD ROM Single Drive: Blu-ray Disc Combo (DVD+/-RW + BD-ROM)
they are two seperate but interlaced cards that split the work to make it faster. the games that won't allow you to use a crossfired video cards are a lot like the games that will only let you use 1 processor. (starcraft sometimes, and U2XMP) you can still use it and play the game just fine, but it won't be as fast, ironically, as games that require better video cards. if I'm not mistaken WoW doesn't have a crossfired feature but it requires so little from your video that it doesn't even make a difference
basically it's something you shouldn't even realize, but i wanted to warn you anyways
In other words, I need a 64bit OS. Vista and I do not get on well, and I don't much fancy shelling out a ton for it. Worth trying to get on win7 Beta?
Yeah, as a sidenote, OP, you can generally build a gaming computer for 20% cheaper than its whole desktop equivalent.
edit: for example, I want to build a gaming rig soon - order it on Tigerdirect by the end of April and it'll be waiting on my doorstep when I'm home in early May
I want this:
Factors to consider: I'm using my 200 gb hard drive, my keyboard and my speakers from my old computer. However, on top of that price of roughly $1000 there's -$55 in total rebates so it kinda balances out anyway. Also that's in CAD. Just to make that clear.
To compare, a barebones kit with what I want roughly: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4542909&Sku=B69-1046 is 800 bucks. Everything is pretty much the same except it has a somewhat more expensive mobo/cpu combo (the 6700 quad which is actually what i want before but the savings on a board with a e7400 were too great to ignore, especially since I can deal without SLI) That's before:
man vista is not as bad as people say
Any changes should speak for themselves. Focus on the video card. If you're doing video editing or 3D graphical work (i.e. Photoshop, Maya, etc) you're going to want a very nice card.
If you're doing anything professional at all or expecting to turn a profit I would almost look into getting a workstation graphics card. Like a Quadro. But I don't know too much about those.
I copied some music onto my parents computer. I then tried to move it. Would not let me. Tried to delete it. Would not let me.
I am admin, I checked all the boxes and faffed about searching the internet at al for 2 hours with the end result of deleting all of it. What a waste.
That experience alone is enough to make me hate Vista with a passion. My XP proffesional likes me!
No, it's not, and it's like eight times better than XP now, but to be fair the Windows 7 Beta is essentially Vista but better in every way.