Fonebone, did you get the PM?
[quote]brucevangeorge wrote:
Fonebone, did you get the PM?[/quote]
I did, thank you. I also replied to it. Do you have your “receive PM” function on? I do intend to visit that site later today.
[quote]Fonebone wrote:
OK, now for memory we have:
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz -2DIMMs
and for the hard drive we have:
DataSafe 160GB (Includes main hard drive plus a hidden reserve hard drive) – this is instead of the 80GB drive I had before.
We are now up to $1,519, which I can live with. Will this get me by for a while?[/quote]
Try going to www.alienware.com and checking out the bot. It is their budget computer, but it is good for the money and better than the machine you have there for less. It should end up being $900 after a shipping rebate.
-Fireplug
I know, but it will be once DX10 (and the similar version of DirectX 9) comes out - which will be with Vista.
[quote]brucevangeorge wrote:
Joker, even the newest videocard at this moment isn’t fully compatible with Aero in Vista.
Sounds weird? Well, then check for yourself. You’d be surprised.[/quote]
I built my own and spent $2300. if I had gone with the same system through Dell it would’ve been up over $3200 by a bit.
[quote]spamme wrote:
How are you guys getting that much savings? Or have your guys not looked at component prices in last few years.
[/quote]
Yeah, btw joker. These videocards aren’t fully DX10 compatible, even the $500 ones.
But who really cares? If you wanna play the game and not worry about: (is it installed?, do i have the latest update?, can my computer handle it?, WHY can’t my computer handle it? where’s the damn play disc?.. and so forth) Just get one of them newfangled consoles. Like the PS3 or something.
Umm recieve PM function? I’m kind of new to posting here, so I really don’t know all the tricks to the forum.
I would give the recomemdation of getting an AMD processor. They are significantly cheaper than Intel and often work better. The only bad thing about them is that they run a bit hotter than Intels so they require more fans unless you use water cooling.
The second thing I would recommend is going to cyberpowerinc.com. It is where I got my current computer and it is honestly close to the same amount that it costs to build your own.
A yeat and a half ago i bought a computer with a 3 gig processor, 1 gig of ram, a radeon 9800 video card, and dvd and dvd rw drives. This with monitor cost me just over $1100. That was a year and half ago and the computer is still able to run anything that I want it to smoothly.
Just something to think about.
Monster
[quote]bigscarymonster wrote:
The only bad thing about them [AMD Processors] is that they run a bit hotter than Intels so they require more fans unless you use water cooling.[/quote]
Tnat’s completely backwards. Intel runs hotter than AMD does as AMD generally runs at a lower cyclical rate (hertz speed).
Eventhough AMD processors run at a lower cyclical rate, however, they carry out more operations/tasks per cycle.
This is why AMD uses the “2800,” “3500,” etc… rating instead of saying the hertz (“3500” is equivelant to about 1.8GHz).
Fonebone, for what you want to do, ANYTHING will work including the 10 year old box in my shed. For those requirements you can get by with a built in video card in fact everything built in. So whatever you go for
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don’t worry about “it won’t be fast enough” no matter what you are told
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focus on simplicity : easy to get, someone puts it together, easy to get it fixed
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looks nice and feels nice to use, big screen is great too, and nice speakers or connect to existing stereo
I look at all computers and their components as disposable. They are going in the bin in a couple of years. So I don’t stress about getting the latest and best. Except hard drives, they are always the best, and they migrate to the next system, and go into backup systems etc…
In 5 years your phone will do it all. And hard drives will be wireless networked, output to giant tv screen etc… and 3g internet connection wherever you go.
OK, I am making this-a-here post from my spankin-new HP Pavilion 1330! It seems to work really well.
I have 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive (7,200 rpm - I think that was the benchmark) and the AMD 64 processor, which, I have heard from a number of sources, is better than the Pentium, and a 17" LCD monitor. I have never seen T-Nation in such rich color 
I ended up going to a Circuit City (donning asbestos bodysuit)…really though, I was pleased with the service, and I get the impression they will still care even now that I have left the building). If it crashes, they will come to my house and fix or replace it.
They put the whole thing together, software and all, plus printer, cable modem, battery back-up/surge protection, all for about $1,350 after rebates. It took me five minutes to set it up. And this Comcast Internet is burnin’!!
After consideration, I think it made the most sense to go with something simple. So thanks again for all the replies; it really helped my research.
Sounds like an awesome deal! Best of luck with your new pc. And remeber: DON’T UPGRADE TO VISTA!!!
[quote]brucevangeorge wrote:
Sounds like an awesome deal! Best of luck with your new pc. And remeber: DON’T UPGRADE TO VISTA!!![/quote]
Thanks. So far I am extremely happy with it. I was afraid I was gonna get raked over the coals for going to Circuit City, but they really did seem quite competent.
Not that I would upgrade to Vista (cue angelic choir music) without looking into it, but what’s wrong with it in your opinion?
Vista is coming on a 4GB DVD!!!
Windows XP comes on a 500mb cd. I don’t know what takes up so much space but its ridiculous.
Also the next one comes with a new GUI (graphical user interface… the pretty windows and buttons). The new GUI looks like mac almost.
But get this… if you want to use the thing with all of its fancy special effects you have to have a computer with a videocard that will be manufactured next year and at least 2GIG RAM!!! Thats if you want it to look pretty.
Otherwise you get the other option of grey boxes(like windows 2000, 98… etc.)
It’s really pointless to upgrade. Its just a bloated version of XP. (looks pretty though, but your computer wont be able to run notepad if you set it too high)
Oh and on a side note: there will be at least 7 different versions coming out.