New Computer, what to buy? Options

[Hocus Pocus]

I'm coming into a bit of money. I was suprised when my wife suggested that we get a new computer, absolutly flabbergasted when she told me that I alone will make the decision on what to buy. As you can imagine, I'm as happy as a little girl. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Way back when, i think it was casper, who posted a nice comp build. But I don't have it anymore, and dealing with Real Life has led me to falter on the intracacies of the computer world. So i need some help in my decision. I'm looking to spend about 1200-1400 bucks, less would be even better. Requirements are as follows:

For the wife

she does alot of administration work and such. Excel and spreadsheets, and organization blather. I think her needs are very basic and whatever comp I get should work out for her.

Mine needs

The main one, and the only reason I bought a computer in the first place is computer gaming. I would like the have the mid to top of the line area to play and enjoy the most up to date games graphics wise. Secondary reasons are music and porn.

An old boss of mine and some coworkers swear by apple computers and I've looked into them seriously. But they won't play all the games I want to play I don't think, otherwise I probably rather buy one because they seem easier to use, the ones on display.

I'm just brainstorming some ideas kick some my way if you get a sec. This old southern dandy thanks you in advance (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) *smooches*

[Kagetenshi]

Depends, what games do you want to play?

~J

[Hocus Pocus]

I want to be able to play any game on the market right now.


my favorites are stragety and rpg

[Kagetenshi]

Ok, well, as big a fan of the Mac as I am, I'm not sure I can entirely recommend that route. On the one hand, you can boot into Windows, which will allow you to play most Windows games (IIRC there are a few which have weirdness with the drivers), but on the other hand rebooting is a pain in the ass and you'd still need a copy of Windows (which, granted, can be gotten in less-than-legitimate ways). It would also depend on your habits; if you don't bother to switch back into OS X most of the time, it sorta defeats the purpose (though the hardware is still nice and is fairly competitive in price on many models, you don't get the option to drop certain types of features even if you might not use them, which comparatively drives the price up for some people).

Aside from the new-computer issue, if you're a fan of strategy games have you tried Battle for Wesnoth? Some of the campaigns have bits where they devolve from "fun-hard" into "obnoxious-hard", but that may just be my playstyle and in any event it's an excellent game with a lot of good material regardless.

Also worth a look, though less free, is Spiderweb Software's games, even if they did take a major UI quality nosedive between the Exile series and the Avernum series. Not much going on here graphics-wise, though.

~J

[jago668]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA4600CUBOX - Retail $72
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $135
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail $65
XFX PVT84JYAJG GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $100
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA-300 Hard Drive - OEM $120
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W Power Supply - Retail $120
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model LH-16A1S-15 - OEM $25
ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001BABS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail $114

Total Total $752

That should play anything out right now. Case can of course vary, I have the one here, and it is quiet and keeps everything cool. I wouldn't advise using it as a lan case though.

I left off mouse, keyboard, monitor, and OS. Figure you can easily reuse from the old system. Other people can jump in with replacement ideas and what nots.

EDIT:
This is all from newegg, so easily shippable from one place. You can probably dig around and find stuff cheaper if you want to deal with getting everything from 6 different places.

[tete]

I would consider a Mac, it may not be for you but with things like parallels you have lots of options. Remember "if" you want more than 4gb of memory you need a 64bit OS. If I personally had 1,400 for a PC I would buy a Mac, load ubuntu and run XP 64 and OSX in vmware sessions, but that might be a little too crazy for you.

[jago668]

I would consider a Mac, it may not be for you but with things like parallels you have lots of options. Remember "if" you want more than 4gb of memory you need a 64bit OS. If I personally had 1,400 for a PC I would buy a Mac, load ubuntu and run XP 64 and OSX in vmware sessions, but that might be a little too crazy for you.

Depends on how you want to look at the 4gb limit. Since about a gig is reserved you will only "see" 3gb of it. Other than that yeah.

[Kagetenshi]

That's not true for OS X, IIRC; non-64-bit Windows does some specific things that end up causing that limitation (though it's a per-process limitation; you can use all 4 gigs, you just can't use them all for the same process).

Edit: I don't believe it's the case for Linux systems (like Ubuntu), either, but I haven't done much digging into the Linux kernel.

~J

[hyzmarca]

A case is a case is a case. If you have a computer then you can cannibalize it for the case and probably the power supply. This will save you money. You can probably also reuse your hard drive and Optical disc drives. This will also save you some money (though you might eventually need to add a new hard drive for more space, depending on what you have and what your proclivities are).

[kanislatrans]

My wife just picked up a decent system on Tigerdirect. We comparison shopped at New Egg. ( and I have preference for ordering form them) but the system we got was only 599.99 without an O/S. its not top of the line,but has a lot of room to upgrade. cant remember the name, and its not here till the 25th.
jago668's build looks sweet. almost like the one we are getting except with a better video card.(a situation that will be quickly remedied as soon as I can soak up a little overtime)

[Backgammon]

I buy a lot of stuff at Tigerdirect too. If I were to buy a new game comp, I would most likely buy it from there.

[jago668]

I also recommend buying a higher end monitor once you get a video card that can really make use of it. Since everytime you use the computer you will be looking at it. Makes it so much more enjoyable, for anything. I have a 22" widescreen lcd and I will never go back. So upgrade the video card so you can get the performance you want from games, and then drop $300 - $350 or so on a good monitor.

Say similar to this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824002356
or possibly
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824005097

You can certainly get cheaper ones, only $235 for this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16824014131

[Cain]

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 89W Dual-Core Processor Model ADA4600CUBOX - Retail $72
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $135
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Model BL2KIT12864AA804 - Retail $65
XFX PVT84JYAJG GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $100
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA-300 Hard Drive - OEM $120
ENERMAX Liberty ELT620AWT ATX12V 620W Power Supply - Retail $120
LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model LH-16A1S-15 - OEM $25
ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001BABS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail $114

Total Total $752

My roommate, who is a major computer game geek, suggests that you may find better prices on TigerDirect. He also says that with that layout, the power supply is excessive, and you can possibly buy two 250-gig drives for cheaper than a single 500. I can confirm that Tiger Direct currently has a 500-gig HD availiable with a 4-gig flash drive for the same prive.

If you really want a major gaming computer, you may want to consider going dual graphics card and go up 2 more gigs of RAM. With that, you can run just about any game, but maybe not at the highest settings. Again, my roommate has essentially the same system, but only paid $600 or so for his. He also doesn't have the cool case, and uses a 21-inch CRT. Much cheaper monitor, but it takes up a hell of a lot of space.

[jago668]

I never said newegg was the best price, but they are easy to use and find stuff on. So I link stuff from there. I said he could shop around and find a better deal if he wanted to ship from multiple places. By all means get the best deal you can, and pay attention to shipping costs. No reason to save $10 on a piece of hardware to pay $12 more on shipping.

As for the psu you really want to go for a good bit more than you need. That way you can upgrade later on, and not run into problems. Better to buy a 650W now than a 450W and then later have to buy a 650W and have an extra 450W just laying around. As for the hard drive, it is actually cheaper (on newegg) than getting two 250GB 7200rpm drives by about $12. On tiger direct that very same drive is actually $9 more. Plus this way it only takes one power dongle, and one cable to the mobo, and leaves 3 extra sata slots on the mobo open for more optical drives or hard drives in the future.

Cases are a personal preference much of time. I mentioned above I have it myself and it runs quiet and cool and will fit even a 8800GTX with a bit of room to spare. So upgrading later won't be a problem. Just putting it up for consideration is all. I never expect anyone to build exactly what I show, but it gives a decent starting point to look around at. Also with cases pay attention to what type and how many fans it will hold, and go for a case that will fit 120mm fans. For the same airflow they will run quieter, than a 80mm fan.

The only one video card, and 2 gig of ram. He can always add those later, and leaves more of his budget open right now for other things, like maybe a new monitor, software, going out to a nice restaraunt, or putting in a savings account.

For monitors CRTs are cheaper, but good luck finding a decent one anymore. Newegg lists 5-6, and tigerdirect doesn't even have a listing for them. As for just personal, I have a big nice professional grade crt that is wedged into a back closet somewhere because a 19" lcd gave as much viewable area, weighed about 60 lbs less, and took up about a sixth of the desk space. Then I switched to a 22" widescreen lcd and I'll never go back. Trust me, drop the cash on the widescreen lcd if you can.

To use the website you like, $250
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...&CatId=2775

EDIT
To add a couple things.

[Kagetenshi]

Eww, CRT…

Consider the power costs as well before going CRT. It's not a great option, in general, unless you're doing work where colour-accuracy is critical.

~J

[hyzmarca]

In gaming, color accuracy is critical, particularly is someone has the bright idea to create a halo mod where the Baby Blue team fights the Columbia Blue team.

[the_dunner]

If your maximum budget is $1400, you're not going to be able to find a Mac with hardware that'll play current high end Windows games. The only systems with the appropriate video hardware for that are Mac Pros and Mac Book Pros, either of which are going to exceed your budget. (Yes, the Santa Rosa chipset is better than anything previously integrated. However, for high-end 3D games, its still completely unacceptable.)

On the TigerDirect vs. Newegg front, consider return policies and rebates, if applicable. TigerDirect has a history of being very hard to deal with for returns and rebate fulfillment. Newegg, OTOH, has an excellent reputation on both of those fronts.

Having covered those points -- how comfortable are you building the system yourself? $1400 is a pretty generous budget. On the one hand, you can easily build a system that will meet your requirements for $800 or so. On the other hand, if you're concerned about digging around inside your system, then you could inadvertently flush that $800 down the toilet when you hook the power supply up backwards or ground something wrong. (I've had to deal with a fair number of folks who "let the magic smoke out.") If your comfort level isn't really high, you might be better off grabbing a Dell (or other manufacturer's system) that comes with a Warranty and somebody to who'll drive to your house and fix anything that breaks.

If you really want to build something, then, a quick stop at Newegg turned this up as a starting point:


GIGABYTE GA-N650SLI-DS4L
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
EVGA 512-P3-N862-AR GeForce 9600GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDR3
Kingston HyperX 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

That comes to $655 before shipping. Adding a DVD burner, a 500GB HD, Windows, and a case with a decent power supply should still leave you under $1000. If you want to use this as a media center, you should be able to swap the vid card for one with HDCP without too much of a price/performance hit, then add in LG's $135 Blu-Ray reader.

In terms of a monitor, I'm currently using a Vizio 37" HDTV as my preferred monitor (However, it only does 720p). That ran about $600 when I bought it last summer. If you want higher resolution or a larger screen, you'll obviously be spending more money. OTOH, if you don't want to use this as a media center, then you Samsung's got some great 22" LCDs that you can find for around $300 (e.g. SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22", $280 at Newegg.) I just bought one of those for my Father-in-Law, and he's quite fond of it.

[Caine Hazen]

Only thing I'll disagree with on the_dunner's post there is the GeForce 9600, the 8800GTs with 512 of memory run the same prices and actually perform better at higher resolutions. I've been watching the reviews as I'm in the marke right now for a new system as well... I just have a stretched out budget (I buy a component a month...)

[Lindt]

Yeah, even though Im a hard core Invidia lover, and have been since the TNT2 cards, there isnt enough of a jump to justify the 9 series. As it stands an 8800GTX is rather faster then the 9600. Go get a good aftermarket 8800gts, I highly recommend BFG tech.

[Wounded Ronin]

Get an Apple IIC from the 80s. Play Think Quick! and The Leather Goddess Of Phobos.

Only when you use an Apple II will you understand how a cyberdeck is supposed to look and feel.

[Fix-it]

whatever you do, DO NOT skimp on the power supply. don't do it. trim fat elsewhere. the PSU is the cornerstone of a system.

[hyzmarca]

At the same time, an absurdly powerful power supply will usually be inefficient at low loads, meaning that supplies with obscenely high wattage ratings will just wast electricity unless you have obscenely high power requirements.

[Kagetenshi]

If your maximum budget is $1400, you're not going to be able to find a Mac with hardware that'll play current high end Windows games. The only systems with the appropriate video hardware for that are Mac Pros and Mac Book Pros, either of which are going to exceed your budget. (Yes, the Santa Rosa chipset is better than anything previously integrated. However, for high-end 3D games, its still completely unacceptable.)

You forgot a model. I still hold with what I said above, that Hocus Pocus may not be best served by a Mac, but the pricerange does not mean he'd only get integrated graphics from going that way.

~J

[Wounded Ronin]

Ahh, Crapintosh. They used to be cool back in the 80s, they started to suck in the 90s (I remember overhearing this in my middle school computer lab: "Can these macs multitask?" "Yeah, right before they crash"), and now they have nothing going for them but the brain-dead snobbery of their ad campaigns.

Guys, you could have been cool and elite if you used a mac over ten years ago. Now you're just the ironic sucker in a marketing campaign which fondles the moldering past.

[Kagetenshi]

#!/bin/bash
rm -rf Wounded\ Ronin

#~J