Curse

apocalypse_xx · Feb 25, 2006, 04:52 PM // 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Dood

I agree. I have mentioned this before. Allot of people just do not want to build a machine. It is a hassle. I used to build them...not worth the effort anymore. Computers have gotten cheap and fast enough that buying a pre-built works just fine.

NEVER---EVER---Buy a prebuilt "box" machine, build it yourself on paper then let a shop order and assemble the parts...package deals are 90% only deals because they skimp on some components---like PSU's, RAM and whatnot. One more thing, AGP video cards are ancient history, PCI express out performs and is even less costly than comparable AGP cards, you should have no trouble putting a great system together for your budget...

Key Points so far IMO:

Case and PSU are important, don't skimp
Asus MB's -- I love them
AMD chipsets perform extremely well for the price (you may have some temperature issues, but a nice case and frequent cleaning solves that)
Kingston RAM---is there any other brands?
Seagate HD---awesome---I also love Western Digital (a little less expensive and very reliable)
Nvidia and ATI---need I say more, just do yourself a favor and go PCI express---nothing less than 128mB ram
Sound---I love Sound Blaster---never had an issue

Good Luck and Have Fun

PS---most shops will not charge for assembly and setup of your rig, since they are buying the parts for you

Old Dood · Feb 25, 2006, 11:15 PM // 23:15

Hmm...I guess my Dell Dimension 5100 is just pure crap then?

It is stable, runs cool, has the BTX PSU on it, CPU is quite fast, Hard Drives and the Optical Drives are solid. The Dell UltraSharp monitor is perfect. I added my own Ram and Vid Card.

Nothing wrong with my pre-built "box".