15 replies to this topic

[JoeCamel]

Hey my computer has taken a turn for the worst yet again and I'm fed up with fixing it. This would be the reason why I haven't been on the servers as of late. I want a newer one and I just found this craigslist posting.

I have been trying to find prices for the hardware but haven't been too successful. Any help in estimating the cost would be greatly appreciated...I've missed the choas that is office and need to get back in the action.

[Stubs]

What is your budget, there are plenty of people on these forums who can help you build a PC.

P.S Don't buy that one. DDR2, 9800 GT. Fail.

Edited by EoE.Stubs, 22 March 2010 - 07:52 PM.

[JoeCamel]

My price range would be 1000 to 1500 for a new computer. I don't have much experience or knowledge with building computers so I don't know if I want to go that route. But after all the problems with my last Dell I just want something reliable and runs games at a decent level.

[Stubs]

Would you be looking to build your own or buy a prebuilt?
What resolution is your monitor?
What kind of HDD storage do you need?

[Scroll_Lock88]

If you are looking for the best bang for your buck as far as a prebuilt machine look at iBuyPower. From my experience with them from a few customers I've done work for they are pretty decently built machines. Also the prices are pretty competitive if you were to actually price out the machine.

[JoeCamel]

Would you be looking to build your own or buy a prebuilt?
What resolution is your monitor?
What kind of HDD storage do you need?

Prebuilt, not sure i think 1600x1200, 500-750 GB

[Stubs]

Do you need an OS or and peripherals (mouse, keyboard, etc.?)

I set this up for you: its a pretty sweet rig for that price
If its not what you want, change whatever or check out other stuff on that site. They have some pretty nice prebuilts once you get past all of the BS

Edited by EoE.Stubs, 23 March 2010 - 08:42 PM.

[Bumblebee]

I agree with stubs, except screw the 260, get the Radeon 5850, price was $1270 with the 5850. Also it came with the Corsair H50, its what I use on my uber rig and i can overclock to 4ghz and never break 55C on max load. (course i got a push pull setup, only get one fan with that cooler)

Edited by Bumblebee, 24 March 2010 - 08:06 AM.

[Stubs]

i put a 5850 in there, it probably didn't save correctly. Definitely get a 5850 of a 5870 it you're willing to spend the extra cash

[JoeCamel]

Do you need an OS or and peripherals (mouse, keyboard, etc.?)

I set this up for you: its a pretty sweet rig for that price
If its not what you want, change whatever or check out other stuff on that site. They have some pretty nice prebuilts once you get past all of the BS

I wanted to move on to windows7 since I assume at some pnt MS will stop updating XP. Couple of which is better, why and is it worth the $ to get it questions: DDR3-1333 vs DDR3-1600 and AMD vs Intel. Will 700Watt PSU be enough? I have been using NVidia since the beginning and I wanted to try ATI this time around. Are the driver updates as much of a pain in the neck as Nvidia's?

Here's what I came up with let me know what ya think:
http://www.ibuypower...rs.aspx?mid=393

[Stubs]

If you plan on doing any kind of gaming, i would recommend at least a 5850, the 5830 isn't worth buying.
I don't really like iBuyPower's RAM policy, they don't give you specific options, just general outlines. You won't see much of a difference between 1333 ram and 1600 ram unless you need the better bandwidth or lower timings.
AMD is better price/performance but if you need the extra CPU power an i7 930 is the way to go.
For that rig you set up a 700w PSU would just fine.
About ATI driver updates: They come out much less often than nVidia drivers and make a MUCH bigger difference in performance.

[DarkShadow]

ATI's drivers are very simple to install, I still think it to be more logical if you built a system yourself though, better performance and the satisfaction of knowing exactly what's inside your system.

[mr.lively]

Is upgrading a cpu a simple matter?

[DarkShadow]

about as simple as putting one together, just take motherboard out, detach heatsink, remove old CPU, place the new one in its place, apply thermal paste and put the heatsink back.

[Scroll_Lock88]

Except if it's intel and you have those god damn pushpins of awfulness. Atleast it's a step forward from the 478 socket, good god, needed the jaws of life to release some heatsinks from their mounts.

[Bumblebee]

The H50 in that order has no pushpins and is uber easy to install, if you get all that and need some help with it let me know since i got one already.