New computer
 

If I gave you $1000 bucks right now. What would you get?

Re: New computer
 

id probably try out one of those mini laptops, but they only cost about 300. id keep the rest of the money

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Id take the money and head out to micro center where you could build a new PC for less then half of that..

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I'd spend $450 on another Compaq laptop, add more RAM, and pocket $500.

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Depends. I'd say MacBook, but I already have one. Best computer I've ever owned, LOVE IT.

Option two: Asus EEEPC (micro laptop). Perfect for logging/tuning, these things are about $350 and are ultra portable.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewprodu...tebooks+-+Mini

Option three: what kracka said. $500 HP or Compaq special from Best Buy and keep the change.

Re: New computer
 

Lian Li case
600+ watt modular power supply
Intel E8400 Core2 Duo processor
Intel P35 chipset motherboard
4GB DDR2 RAM
500GB+ SATA hard drive, maybe a second and mirror them depending on cost
Nvidia 9800GT video card

Might even have enough left over for 22" LCD.

Re: New computer
 

Circuit City actually, generally better deals than Best Buy along with better salesmen. I even got a free bag, printer, and some software with mine.

Re: New computer
 

i like circuit city to, since you can barter with the dudes! haha.

I would also say spend $5-600 on a comp. from circuit, and then you will have some left over so you could do something like more ram and still have fun money.

Re: New computer
 

I'd get an old pos and aem ems.

But seriously I'd get an amd 3800+
4gig of DDR2
VIA board
TweakUI
clocking software.
Many fans

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$250-300 on a 22 or 24 inch monitor, reserve another $200 for a decent case, fans, and 600 watt+ power supply.

Keyboards and mice are cheap. If you really need new ones $50- should be enough.

Dual-layer DVD/RW drives are $30- each. Don't bother with a Blue-Ray drive, those things are still over $300-.

Pick up an ATi 48xx graphics card.

1Tb drives are $100 each. For that same $100 you could probably get a pair of 500Gb drives which you can then mirror for safety/performance.

Now with the left over, buy as much cpu/ram/mobo as you can. 3 Gig dual or even quad core chips are running about $200 these days. Ram is always on sale for around $15- per gigabyte. I'm partial to Intel mini-ATX mobos, rock solid, etc, etc.

Buy at Microcenter and/or General Nanosystems. At General Nano you can have them work up a quote for you based on a few parameters:

Preferred monitor size
Preferred video card
Preferred cpu
4 Gb ram

Just figure out those 4 details and let them work up the quotes. GNS can do same day assembly and delivery.......

Re: New computer
 

Newegg ftw, what would you use the computer for?

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I'm with Matt D.

Only reason I'm AMD right now is because it was cheaper and fit my budget better.

Re: New computer
 

I am finally getting school going after years of talking about it. Just got word back on a house we put a offer on and it has a perfect spot for a office. So going the desktop route, So using it for school things and I play a few games so performance is going to be a factor. Plan on getting a pretty decent graphics card. Hard drive size 500 or so would be the least I would do. Ram I would think at least 4 gig. I'm kinda computer spec retarded and figured a thousand bucks should cover it. Was going to try to get a decent desk and a new racing wheel and try to stay at or around the budget.

Re: New computer
 

I would make a list of games and programs you have or would like to buy and us on your new rig. Then buy the parts that will fit best so you do not end up with something you did not want or is way to much for what you are doing. Putting together a computer is kind of like building a car, some things work, and some thing do not work. Also a lot of reading on the parts you would like helps and ask a lot of questions.

~John

Re: New computer
 

Newegg now gets owned by Microcenter IMO. Buying a motherboard locally is worth it's money even if it's an extra 20 dollars, I had to replace mine once before I got one that worked.

I just built a Q6600 (Quad 2.6GHz @ 3.2GHz on stock cooling), 750i SLI motherboard, 4GB of 1066MHz RAM and some other stuff for less than $1000.

Overall I saved about 100 dollars by going with Microcenter over newegg, WITH tax and shipping figured in both.

Then again, that's if you build your own.

Re: New computer
 

$100 - Cheap Case (Antec Lansing Gaming case or so)
$200 at most - E8400 Wolfdale 3.0ghz (best bang for the buck overclock card)
$200 at most - 8800 gts vid card
$175 at most - 780/790i SLI mobo
$100 - 650w battery
$80~100 at most - Cruc / gskill 4gb ram.

Re: New computer
 

Don't bother with more than 4G of ram. 32bit XP and 32bit Vista won't see or use anything more than 4Gb.

But you should get your 4Gb in two 2Gb 'sticks'. That will leave you expansion room for more memory in case you go with a 64 bit OS in the future.

Any cpu you buy today will be 32 and 64 bit capable so no worries there.

Re: New computer
 

If you were going for an all gaming rig and wanted future expandability, I would do something like this:


Case: Antec 300 - $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

PSU: I haven't seen enough data to recommend one, but plan on ~650w cert 80: ~$60-120.

CPU: E8400 - $164 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

RAM:OCZ Reaper HZC (4-gigs DDR2) - $109
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227289

Mobo: DFI Lanparty Dark (x38 northbridge) - $174 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136051

GPU: ATI 4850 - $159
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102770

DVD: Samsung Lightscribe DVD-R - $27
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151173

HDD: This is really time sensitive, each mfg seems to come out with good and bad series. I'll just arbitrarily say get a 640 gig - 1TB drive for ~$80-$120.


With this combination of parts, you could OC the CPU to ~ 3.8 Ghz on stock cooler. The ram, according to the research I've seen, is the best latency for overclocking with this setup. The ATI 4850 is hands down the best bang for the buck right now. with 1 card you outperform Nvidia's 8800GTX (which was selling at $600 1 year ago). with 2, in CF mode , you can beat their current $450 GTX 280 in most cases, while coming in cheaper at $300. The x38 chipset on the motherboard will supply both 16x PCI-e slots in full 16x mode, whereas the p.* chipsets you are limited to 8x per channel. The more expensive 48x NB set only provides about 1% more performance over the older x38, but costs quite a bit more. I've never really gotten excited about super flashy cases.. a bit too much like ricing a car out. So I would recommend something that is good and sturdy with a great airflow layout and tool-less design.

But if you really are never going to overclock your rig or go multi-GPU setup. I'd make a totally different parts selection, and the price would be closer to $560 rather than $900... probably go quad core too if gaming was not your primary objective.

SnoEclipse is correct, 32bit windows XP caps you are 3.25 GB of RAM.

Re: New computer
 

Newegg has GeForce 9800GX2 dual cores for under $250!!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130402
It is a re-man, but it works, think I might have to pick one up.

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Q6600 FTW, dual core is so 2007.

http://xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/dis...d-q6600_8.html

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Fuk the desktop and fuk the games, get something that won't play games so you can focus on school. Get a laptop so its portable, you can leave and go work in a coffee shop when need be. Being stuck in a chair all the time is for the goats.

Re: New computer
 

I don't know what's funnier the fact that both of those CPU's are from 2007 or that the stock clocked dual core actually beat the stock clocked quad core in nearly all of those benchmarks. :D

But seriously, none of this is going to matter when Nehalem is released.

Re: New computer
 

What's funny is the fact that the "stock clocked" quad core is 400MHz slower and still keeps up with the E6850, which in games is about 1% slower than an E8400. When overclocked however it can beat the other CPU in almost every category. So if you're going stock vs stock then yeah the E6850/E8400 is the better choice.

And yeah the new Core i7 processor is going to fucking annihilate everything the benchmarks and overclocking results coming in on the early motherboards are absolutely insane. $1000 for a motherboard/CPU/RAM upgrade is too steep for me though, I'll wait half a year.

References: http://en.expreview.com/2007/11/30/r...o-e8400.html/5

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I can accept a $200 price tag for a sweet motherboard, but DDR3 prices are still through the roof (it's been a year...) and that's just fucking dumb. :(

Re: New computer
 

Well thanks for all your input guys, I have a lot to think about. Still another two months until I actually pull the trigger on this so who knows what will be out there then and for how cheap.

scheides: I already have a fairly decent laptop right now. Hughes actually picked out this one. So I suppose one of the primary reasons for the new computer is for games and music and whatever misc stuff. Starting school just gives me a reason to go buy the "one" I've always wanted.

Re: New computer
 

That and AMD has the Deneb quad core coming also. People have done testing and with the right Mobo and air cooler have hit 4.3ghz, catching up to intel, finally. The new intel series the cheapest one for ($2xx) beats the top dog quad from intel that still retails at $1,xxx. This is going to be sweet when all this new stuff hits the stores.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/core-i...rmance-review/
In 2 months you will be able to put together a really nice rig for not a lot of coin.

~John

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http://www.nextlevelhardware.com/storage/battleship/

Here is all you need, and will ever need, and if you don't buy it you suck.

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It would go a long ways towards getting me back in school!

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Well I got the computer today. Gateway DX4200-09 640 gig hard drive. 4 gig of ram and picked up two 2 gig sticks and threw them in for a hefty 8. Picked out the monitor I have been eying up and I love it. Got a 22 inch samsung, 20000:1 contrast ratio. 2ms response. One thing I am disappointed on and I know I should of researched more was the video card. The damn thing has a ATI Radeon HD 3200 freakin intergrated card. Kind of just settled on it and just figured I would Just upgrade so.. Brings upon the question. What card should I get fella's? Nothing insanely expensive but something above average.

Re: New computer
 

i take back my recommendation, i did some research and i found that they have a lot of problems and limitations that make them not so cool

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What is the model number on the motherboard? Also when you do upgrade to a graphics card you can/should be able to disable the on board graphics so there is no issues there. Do you prefer ATI vs Nvidia?

~John

Re: New computer
 

I have no clue what the motherboard number is I'd have to take the panel off and look. I know that I have a PCI-express slot from my research. ATI vs Nvidia.. I really don't have a preference.

Re: New computer
 

You have an available PCIe x16 slot, so no problem there buying the latest/greatest gpu's but the power supply is lacking to say the least. 300watt psu is tiny, so plan to buy at least a 650watt watt psu, mainly look at the watts on the 12v rail/s then divide by 12 to get the amps on the 12v rail, with your GPU upgrade. What games do you play now and what games would you want to play in the future?

Look here for the games you might want to play, look for at least ~60fps for a playable game:
http://www.guru3d.com/category/vga_charts/

And shop newegg, read reviews etc:
www.newegg.com

Re: New computer
 

I would buy one of those mini PCs and go to wired.com where they show how to hack it and make it run Mac Leopard or whatever the new OS is called. That way I would have a mac and a PC. Pocket the other loose change.

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until you find that they have problems freezing and crashing and no harddrive space

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for a laptop, definitely Dell XPS or Inspiron. For Desktop Dell XPS.

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Already got the computer tom, Picking out a video card now.

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Alright, I have come to terms that I won't be spending over 250 bucks. I want a new video card damnit. Will I need a larger power supply or no?

Re: New computer
 

depends on the PSU you already have, and what graphics card you want. Also when you get a grachics card you will have to disable the onboard in your BIOS. Any 1 card from Nvidia or ATi will work in your pcie x16 slot.

~John

Re: New computer
 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150351

My friend has a 4850 and it runs Lost Planet at full blast at 1920x1200, and that's one of the most intense dx10 games!

He also pretty much the same setup you have, so a 500 or 550 watt PSU should be just fine.