Curse

Guild Wars Junkie · Dec 16, 2005, 09:46 AM // 09:46

I should be getting a new computer for christmas soon, I was wondering if anybody could give me some help and hints on what to get. I was something that wouldn't be really expensive, just the regular good stuff you guys use. Here's what I got in mind:

Atleast 3.0 ghz
Atleast 2 gigs of RAM
Hard drive memory 120 gigs
Graphics card -Geforce 6800
-Geforce 7800
-ATI X1800

thanks for any suggestions/comments/tips.

Old Dood · Dec 16, 2005, 01:26 PM // 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guild Wars Junkie

I should be getting a new computer for christmas soon, I was wondering if anybody could give me some help and hints on what to get. I was something that wouldn't be really expensive, just the regular good stuff you guys use. Here's what I got in mind:

Atleast 3.0 ghz
Atleast 2 gigs of RAM
Hard drive memory 120 gigs
Graphics card -Geforce 6800
-Geforce 7800
-ATI X1800

thanks for any suggestions/comments/tips.

Well you will get many comments...opinions and the like....
Some will say BUILDING one is the ONLY way...others will say BUY a Pre Built....then others will say BUY a High End Custom Pre-Built...etc.
Then you will get the people that will say which proccessor to use...AMD or Intel.

As for my opinion....building a computer is fun and rewarding....if you have the time and the patience to do so. I use to build mine years ago when computers were weaker and needed to be tweaked and over clocked to reach playable speeds.

Now a days I buy a Dell pre-built. Why? To me they are solid computers. Not the fastest...not the slowest. Computers to me are so much faster today then just a few years ago that overclocking is unnesessary. Plus...I want a computer to work NOW...I do not have the time to play around fixing bugs and mistakes I have made....I want it to work right out of the box!

Dell computers are one of the best bang for the buck deals if you are smart and watch their web site for deals. I bought a couple of months ago a Dell Dimension 5100 (renamed E510 now). Since I got it I added memory from cruical.com (4Gb) and a retail video card (ATI X800XL PCIe). It runs fantastic for me.

Personally I would go with the Dell XPS400 (originaly called Dimension 9100). they have a bigger power supply then the E510 and they have more room in their case. You can find good deals on them if you are willing to take your time and shop first.

The specs you posted are pretty nice. It really boils down to the video card you want and can afford. I would go with the Nividia 7800 over the ATI 1800. Other then that your specs look great. 2Gb of Ram is what I would have as a minimum now.

Guild Wars Junkie · Dec 16, 2005, 02:32 PM // 14:32

I was checking out the Dell site earlier today, and I saw the ''all play no work'' concept. That thing would probably be beyond my budget. I am most probably getting a dell, thanks for pointing out the one you use. I have no experience or time to be changing and upgrading my computer myself. I'm going to the shop sometime this week, give them the list of what I want, and see if they have a computer with my requirments.

Joe Martin · Dec 16, 2005, 05:30 PM // 17:30

Well, if this is going to be a gaming machine AMD >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Intel. Clockspeeds really don't mean all that much anymore, thats why processor manufacturers are taking them off the listings. Your 3ghz intel isn't actually working at 3ghz, 3ghz is its "effective" speed (that is, its speed after instruction pumping, multipliers, and memory dividers), in reality processors only run as fast as their FSB, which for *most* processors is 200mhz (advertised FSB is also an "effective" speed). Effective clock speed doesn't mean anything, my 1.8ghz A64 (venice) owns a 3.2ghz intel processor in any game hands down. AMD's generally run games better because 90% of games are memory hogs/are constantly using memory and A64's have on-dye memory controllers, making much more efficient use of the system's memory.

For general computer use (surfing the web/using word) and video encoding Intel > AMD.

For everything else AMD >>>>>>>>> Intel.

pegasux · Dec 16, 2005, 05:34 PM // 17:34

If you are buying a prebuilt PC then whatever you do, DON'T buy an E-Machine...they are laughable at best. Dell's will probably give you the most bang for the buck. I myself hate Dell's because the hardware on their Optiplex (Business) are horrible. The Harddrives that they usually send aren't all that great whatsoever...we have a fairly high failure rate on those. If you ever have a bad part that is still under warranty they will send you a Refurbished one (Orange Sticker). PSU from what I can tell are cheap also, we swap at least 2 a week out here out of about 2500 PC's. The rest of the PC is fine.

Your 2 GB of ram is more then enough mem for a gaming rig. I would also go with a G-Force Card. A 6800 would run GW just fine.

How much have you bugeted for yourself?

Guild Wars Junkie · Dec 16, 2005, 06:00 PM // 18:00

Between 1000 and 1500 bucks.

pegasux · Dec 16, 2005, 06:51 PM // 18:51

That's quite a good budget, are you absolutely certain that you won't build it yourself or can't get someone else to build it for you? I would hate to see you spend that much on a swell dell or any other prebuilt system.

Dex · Dec 16, 2005, 06:59 PM // 18:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by pegasux

If you are buying a prebuilt PC then whatever you do, DON'T buy an E-Machine...they are laughable at best. Dell's will probably give you the most bang for the buck. I myself hate Dell's because the hardware on their Optiplex (Business) are horrible. The Harddrives that they usually send aren't all that great whatsoever...we have a fairly high failure rate on those. If you ever have a bad part that is still under warranty they will send you a Refurbished one (Orange Sticker). PSU from what I can tell are cheap also, we swap at least 2 a week out here out of about 2500 PC's. The rest of the PC is fine.

Your 2 GB of ram is more then enough mem for a gaming rig. I would also go with a G-Force Card. A 6800 would run GW just fine.

How much have you bugeted for yourself?

Hehe. Yeah, Dell hasn't been doing a very good job picking out hard drives or power supplies on their Optiplex systems lately. We have a bunch of the small form factor machines at work. Also, what were they thinking building P4 Prescott machines in tiny cases? It's like a toaster oven in there! Anyway, we get a lot of dead hard drives and power supplies in those.

A friend of mine got a Dimension (not XPS) with 3.4Ghz P4, 2GB RAM, and a GeForce 6800 and he loves it. I think he got a really good price and a free 17" LCD as well.

One good thing about buying a pre-built system is that you get support. If you're not a hardware geek that can be a blessing. I'm a hardware geek so I build my own, but I have friends that live in other states that I recommend buy a pre-fab because they don't have the experience or time to troubleshoot hardware problems if they come up.

pegasux · Dec 16, 2005, 07:14 PM // 19:14

Dex is right about the support if you dont have a buddy that can fix your pc for you. Although I think pretty lowly of the Dell support lackies that they have answering the phone. I swear they have never seen a computer and are only reading off of a troubleshooting notebook.

We do have about 100 Business line Compaq/Hp workstations that have been bulletproof for the last 9 months or so. Try looking into their business line of PC's, their phone support is head over heals better then Dell. They are based out of Colorado Springs (tech Hotbed) and are pretty savvy. They picked up all of the good Gateway support personel when Gatway closed their support facility up there about 4 years ago.

LOL...we have some of those SFF systems here also...absolutly hilarious what Dell is doing with that. I must admin though that we about 50 Gateways that have the PC build into the Monitor. Boy those were hilarious! Straight out of the box about 8 had bad video cards, with 3 months we had half of the video cards die with the heat. We eventually pulled all of those off the network and gave them their old PC's back. The race to save the most desk space is such a bad thing for computers that it's not even really funny any longer. We're slowly starting to custome build all of our PC's now, much cheaper then those optiplex's and a whole lot more reliable.

Alias_X · Dec 16, 2005, 07:43 PM // 19:43

My Dell hard drive failed. It was a maxtor hard drive that came stock with my Dell. After that, I just decided not to go with Dell again, and instead, I am going to build my computer. I have no clue, all I have installed on this one is a new hard drive and a video card, but people on this forum have been pretty good about helping me torubleshoot, so I will take the chance.

pegasux · Dec 16, 2005, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Yeah that sounds about right for a Dell. We once got really lucky and Dell sen't a whole order with Seagate hard drives in them. We haven't had one of those fail yet...but maxtor's are the norm.

One thing that must be cautioned here is that this is only a forum and the people helping you (myself included) will never have a full understanding of your problem that you are having so take the advice given here in the proper context. What is said here is not always the right answer. Do the proper Due Dilligence before you go out and buy anything on the advice of someone else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alias_X

My Dell hard drive failed. It was a maxtor hard drive that came stock with my Dell. After that, I just decided not to go with Dell again, and instead, I am going to build my computer. I have no clue, all I have installed on this one is a new hard drive and a video card, but people on this forum have been pretty good about helping me torubleshoot, so I will take the chance.

Dex · Dec 16, 2005, 08:09 PM // 20:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by pegasux

Yeah that sounds about right for a Dell. We once got really lucky and Dell sen't a whole order with Seagate hard drives in them. We haven't had one of those fail yet...but maxtor's are the norm.

One thing that must be cautioned here is that this is only a forum and the people helping you (myself included) will never have a full understanding of your problem that you are having so take the advice given here in the proper context. What is said here is not always the right answer. Do the proper Due Dilligence before you go out and buy anything on the advice of someone else.

Well said.

Old Dood · Dec 16, 2005, 08:12 PM // 20:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dex

Hehe. Yeah, Dell hasn't been doing a very good job picking out hard drives or power supplies on their Optiplex systems lately. We have a bunch of the small form factor machines at work. Also, what were they thinking building P4 Prescott machines in tiny cases? It's like a toaster oven in there! Anyway, we get a lot of dead hard drives and power supplies in those.

A friend of mine got a Dimension (not XPS) with 3.4Ghz P4, 2GB RAM, and a GeForce 6800 and he loves it. I think he got a really good price and a free 17" LCD as well.

One good thing about buying a pre-built system is that you get support. If you're not a hardware geek that can be a blessing. I'm a hardware geek so I build my own, but I have friends that live in other states that I recommend buy a pre-fab because they don't have the experience or time to troubleshoot hardware problems if they come up.

I can't stand the Optiplexes....they are just the business version of the Dim 2400 or 3000. We have Optiplexes at work...and they are perfect for work. They do not have a vid card slot....they are simply a number crunching box.

I like the next line up....the E510 or the XPS400. Those two are the best buys at Dell if you wait for one. I have never had a problem with any hard drive from Dell though...