Okay guys, I know I should get lots of input here. I am looking at purchasing a new computer, anyone have any suggestions. I am leaning towards Dell. Come on, tell me what you think! I know you are full of opinions LOL.
Printable View
Okay guys, I know I should get lots of input here. I am looking at purchasing a new computer, anyone have any suggestions. I am leaning towards Dell. Come on, tell me what you think! I know you are full of opinions LOL.
Go with the biggest monitor, get at least a 2.2 processor, at the least 40gigs of hardrive, get a cd burner, and dvd burner for sure!!!!!!!!... Go with the best deal.. There are so many deals out there it silly, You should find something real nice for under a grand.. I got a 20 inch monitor, 2.2 processor, 60gig harddrive (to store all my songs and porn), cd/dvd burner, i paid under 800.. LOL..its already outdated, its 8 months old..
I don't like dells, but go for the best bang for the buck
might want to check out this site. www.pricewatch.com
Id say get at least a 2.6 gig proccesor, 512mb of Ram, and the rest doesnt really matter. You might want to check out a mom and pop shop in town to see what it will cost to build one. They often offer better tech support because they can come to your ouse and fix it if anything goes wrong.I built one 4 months ago that is 2.6 gig, 512mb of ram, DVD burner, and a 128mb video card (you probably dont want a video card unless your playing games) that for about 700 dollars with a 17 inch monitor. It's really fast. I'd say the best thing is to shop around.
Actually if you're going to go with a DVD burner, go for a large HD, 80 gigs at least. Once you start copying or authoring DVD's you'll know why :)
Also AVOID a motherboard with a "built in" video card... spend the extra $150 and get a decent 8x AGP card like the Raedon 9600pro with 128 megs or something similar... "built in" cards are often of much lower quality and don't have their own memory, they "borrow" memory from the system (which is a huge resource drain).
Red
go with the one we already have,so we dont have to spend any money...:lol:
Combine all of these..
make sure you get the Pen 4 processor.. not celeron..
go with dell....... watch for the free upgrades..
17" flat.....
512 ram...
and the seperate video...
hard drives cost about $1 per meg.. 100meg drive is $100....
but the access speed is most important... don't get more than a 100 gig..
get 2 100meg drives, or 2 80 gig drives.. see what i mean...
also.. the reason you want a 2.4 ro better... that was the first p4 with the hyper threading.. although the still make the 2.2 it is mostly going in dual processor machines.. and you didn't indicate you were going to use it for anything ofther than home use......
good luck....
If your planning on building your "dream machine" stay away from dell unless you want to get bent over, they overcharge like a mofo when you know exactly what components you want, and have them build it.......dell is great if you want an average "cookie cutter" machine $500-$800, they really are trying to kill the competition with some of the stuff they give away on these machines.....if your gonna buy local, sony vaio pc's are pretty well built, and come with a ton of options.
-Cy
Have it built bro...Find someone trustworthy and describe what exactly you want then let him use his knowledge to tell whomever to build it.You dont need to pay for things you dont really care if you have or not...Every major brand ive used of know of someone using and it f#cking up..Hard drives crash...memory go bad..processors go bad..Just cause you have one bad one from them dont mean they are all like that,but like as said above usually if you have one built they will have great service...Might come to your house to fix it or offer longer warrenties on certain parts...
tell ya what... send me $2000 and i will give you a custom box with acrillic sides, internal lights...
and for $400 MORE i'll make it water cooled...???
what do ya think..
and i will guarentee all parts and pieces for 3 years..........
Quote:
Originally Posted by goodtobeapimp
^^^spy must work for dell, thats pretty steep!
-Cy
No..... but i first recommended what he needed...
this last is one that he can have...
3.2 g p4
Longhorn
dual 80gig hd
dvd/cd combo burner
cd player
256ram... vidio card..whatever i pick at the tiime
aluminum case with acrilyc sides ... lighted..
500watt powersource..
I could go on.............
1024 ram 3200
Quote:
Originally Posted by IronCy
your gonna warranty longhorn,,,,,its not even released yet....now thats support
-Cy
yep.. you can do that when you are a MCSD....
get all the good stuff... and i have 3 network engineers that work for me.. so ...............
Quote:
Originally Posted by IronCy
you'll have your hands full with that buggy stuff....I have had nothin but probs since I have been running it on my test server....but, hey why not!
-Cy
how much money are you willing to spend?Quote:
Originally Posted by jbolsrn
Holy cow! You guys are full of knowledge, I knew you would be. I would prefer to spend less than a grand. I mostly want it for home use, I dont have a business or anything. Most of our computer hours are internet and I do tons of school work, research and paper writing.
dell... get the free upgrades, free shipping
2.4 pentium 4 processor
whatever hard drive they are offering
upgrade the video card..
upgrade to atleast 512 ram
there ya go..
good luck......
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbolsrn
Thanks Spy, thats kinda the direction I was headed in anyway.
i have some cupons for dell so pm me if you want.. :)
Wonderful, thanks alot!
Dimension 4600
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/bullet.gifPentium® 4 Processor with HT Technology 2.8GHz w/800MHz FSB
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/bullet.gifMicrosoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/bullet.gif256MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz (2x128M)
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/bullet.gifFREE UPGRADE! 120GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/spacer.gif Featured at
$1,939
$1,789
After $150 Mail-in Rebate
Rebate Details
Online Only!
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/spacer.gif Featured at
$1,489
$1,389
After $100 Mail-in Rebate
Rebate Details
Online Only!
http://img.dell.com/images/global/general/spacer.gif Featured at
$1,049
$949
After $100 Mail-in Rebate
Rebate Details
Online Only!
this is the one you want... $949
big difference with the 800mhz front side bus...........
Is this your job, Spy? Thanks again! I know where to look for computer problems from now on! You guys are awesome!
No......... it's the one i recommend to my family so there is someone else for them to call....
Dell's tech support.....
I build much larger ones.......
see below..??? I really have done a water cooled one.. over clocked the CPU to 3.8 and that was 1 year ago..
alot of heat.........
Quote:
Originally Posted by jbolsrn
Hey, spy do you know any good sites for components. I've been wanting to build my own lately, but I'm going to have to do it a piece at a time.Quote:
Originally Posted by spywizard
What was your career field in the Air Force? I got out about a year ago.
Sym
Well spywizard has given some great advice so far.
Like everyone said, search around for the best deal, and make sure they include warranty on all parts. I suggest if you can extend it, then do so.
Also, some other suggestions, one which was mentioned, try not to get one hard drive which is too large, like 120GIG or so. It's better to get more than one drive, like two 80GIG or two 60GIG hard drives. Also, if one were to crash, you would still have the other. Also, you could save important files on both.
Another thing which my brother has told me is important, is install more than one operating system. Say something like Windows ME and Windows 2000, or even Win 98. Sometimes if something happens like a computer virus, you could still use your OTHER operating system to access the drives and/or the internet for help on how to deal with your other problem.
Depending on what you want to use it, you don't really need a really HIGH END computer. I myself use mine for school work/internet and playing a few games, and I only have a Pentium 766Mhz, and it's still good enough.
So, I would suggest you get something over 2.0Ghz, and that would be more than enuff to do what you need for the next 3-5 years. Also, like someone suggested a GOOD monitor is important, and make sure that pixel number is low, the lower, the better. I'm not sure how they write it, but it's like "Viewsonic, bla bla, .27mm" or like ".25mm" something like that. Try to get one with lower numbers. THIS IS ONLY if you are NOT going with a FLAT LCD/TNT monitor.
Also, like Red said, make sure to get an actual VIDEO CARD. A good one too. The onboard ones suck big time. Something with 128mb is MORE than enough. The ATI are usually pretty good, and work well. I use "Matrox" myself, and it's been going very good as well.
RAM is also very important, if possible, try for 512-1024MB of RAM. This is something people are ALWAYS wanting to upgrade.
All this SHOULD come to under $1000 U.S. dollars. I'm guessing you are in the states. In Canada, same system would probably be about the same, $1000-1500 canadian.
Not sure, but make sure you know what you wanna do. If you think you will want to burn DVD movies, then get the DVD burner, but if you don't know, you leave it out. You could always buy it later and just add it on, no biggy, and the price is going down everyday. A fast CD BURNER is important, and also a DVD player. Some people suggest to get SEPARATE CD PLAYERS. One primarily for burning, and the other for just reading cd's (like a DVD player) cuz sometimes it might ware out the burner to constantly read cd's. I dunno if it's just a myth or if it really does. Just a suggestion.
Make sure to get accessories too, usually they will throw in speakers/keyboard/mouse, but just double check to make sure you get it all. Try to get good speakers, with good subwoofer too (if you tend to listen to music a lot at the PC).
I guess that's all I gotz to say. Also, if possible check to see if the motherboard has several free PCI slots (those little black things, where cards are inserted), this allows for future upgardes. Also, enough bays inside the case to add more drives and such. A big case would be good too, mid sized tower to large sized one.
Okay, good luck with that :D
www.pcusa.com
http://www.ocsystem.com/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Symian
might want to check out newegg.com and the hot deals section at forums.anandtech.comQuote:
Originally Posted by Symian
spy, you'd get along with my brother. He has a phase change cooled cpu and water cooled video card/north bridge.
MCSD = Microsoft Certified Solution DeveloperQuote:
Originally Posted by spywizard
Spy did you get your .net cert also? Rattle off your certs if you don't mind. If you have your MCSD...then you have a shiet load more!
peace,
ttgb
Thanks, bro! That site is awesome! They've got some cool stuff.Quote:
Originally Posted by spywizard
Sym
:D
my best cert
Owner
Quote:
Originally Posted by tryingtogetbig