Need a new comp...

[imported_Aurora40]

My wife, bless her heart, got me Medal of Honor Pacific Assault. She knows how much I like playing Day of Defeat. :)



The problem is I have a PIII-600, with a TNT2 Ultra video card (Abit BE-6 motherboard, 512MB of PC-100/133 RAM, currently running a 112MHz FSB as my PC-100 sticks won`t take any more). It was real nice 3-4 years ago, but not anymore. Heck, it doesn`t even have a DVD drive to play the disc...



I`m a computer guy, and have built several, but I`m out of the game. One question I have is, when you can buy a $300 comp, does it make sense to build one from top of the line components that will just become obsolete?



The thing is not that a $300 system will be a great gamer, but say you buy a 2 GHz+ system for $300, bring the RAM up to 512MB-1GB, and toss in a $250 graphics card and you are only out ~$600 for a comp that may be 90-95% of one that costs $1500.



I have a great 21" Hitachi SuperScan Supreme 803, so no monitor will be required.



Oh, heheh, and on many maps, I get about 10-15 fps on DOD, so an upgrade would help me there too... :D



I`d love to hear any thoughts, though not "buy this particular comp, it rocks!!"



Oh, and my wife is awesome! :)

[LouisanaJeeper]

i would try to get a new mobo, ram, vid card and chip. and reuse you powersource, optical drives, HDD as a backup, and case.

should be around $500 for the new components



www.anandtech.com



newegg for the components

[cwcad]

my wife just built a computer for our friend in fairbanks and it was around eight hundred dollars including shipping to texas.



we bought:

track ball

ergpad

60 gb HDD

cdrw/dvd drive

mother board cpu fan combo drive

512 mb ram

nvidia 9600 video card

case with power source

two fans with splitter

two cheap speakers



these were bought from all over the net at what my wife thought were good prices.



i know total costs becasue i paid for it i also know that the video card cost around $95.00. wish i could help with the prices more but my wife is tired and has been cooking all day and do not want to interupt her quiet time with the kids at this moment.



merry christmas!!



p.s.

just make sure that the power source and the mother board in the $300 system support the new video card.

[imported_perry]

I`m a computer geek by trade and education but still like to build my own systems. I just like to know exactly what is in my computer.. the exact kind of RAM, brand of motherboard, specs of the video card, choice of hard drive brand, size, & speed, noise level of each of the noise producing components, etc. I guess it`s a control thing. If I were to by a prebuilt I`d be stuck with whatever bargain bin stuff the manuf had in stock the day mine was built. Building my own allows me to go top shelf on things I want and a little cheaper on other things.



I don`t much care about the warranty because I am able to fix the thing if it breaks. I don`t need tech support. I don`t use Windows. I can take money that would be spent on all that stuff and put it towards getting better components, or just put the money back in my pocket.



I happen to enjoy piecing together systems, then putting together those pieces and tweaking the system to be the way I want it. If you don`t enjoy that, then maybe a prebuilt system would be better for you.



You bought an Aurora and not a Cavalier (or other cheaper GM car). Did it make sense to spend extra money on something that is just going to depreciate? I can`t tell you if the money is worth it to you or not.

[Eliot Ness]

I always build my own computers also. There are some things in an off-the-shelf box that I just don`t trust. I always use a high end power supply, MB, good memory, fast HD`s, etc..



The area where I save the most money is in the processor.... there I tend to get one that is about three down from the most current, since whatever you build will be outdated in about three months anyway.



I have gotten cheap boxes before but by the time I updated the stuff I felt it needed I didn`t really save much money. The place where I used to buy most of my parts was Newwegg (http://www.newegg.com/), I haven`t been there for a while, but they always had very good service/shipping/prices and I liked the customer reviews for the various parts.

[dcswd]

DEFINITELY custom build a new computer. Its cheaper especially in the long run and you know that everything your getting is upgradable and of good quality.





I would also buy everything or nearly everything from newegg.com





Just a quick break down and you can always go higher or lower in quality than the prices I list:



CPU (newegg has a AMD XP 2700+ for about this): $100

Motherboard: $100

512mb Ram: $70

DVD Rom Drive: $30

Video Card: $200

Additional Fans if needed: $7



This puts you at about: $500

It would be quite a good system.





and keep your:

Harddrive, Cd-rom drive, mouse, keyboard, monitor, case, and powersupply (make sure it will be powerfull enough though).



and you can use the onboard sound and lan card.





From there, a few months down the line you can upgrade other components as needed.





I wouldnt go for a TOP TOP of the line system (ex. AMD FX Processor for $800~ ) unless your really into that type of thing but get a good base that you can upgrade on. Make it so that instead of getting a whole new setup every few years, slowly upgrade one component at a time.

[MTomlinson07]

I would go with a 64 bit processor because the 64 bit windows should be out in the next 12 months or so, you can get a 64bit cpu/mobo combo from fry`s or outpost.com for between 199 and 300 dollars. Get a good motherboard like a MSI K8N Neo not the crappy ECS one that comes with some of the combos, a gig of PC3200 DDR Memory the lower timings the better (it will say on the package), a good video card like a Nvidia 6600GT for around 200 bucks or at least an ATI 9600 Series for less, get a harddrive at a place like staples or office max they have mail in rebate specials almost every week so you can pick up a 160gig one for around 60 bucks. For a case make sure you get a quality one preferably aluminum (less weight and keeps the system cooler). Don`t cheap out on the case because the cheap ones usually have sharp edges and cut you when you put the machine together. For a powersupply stick with good brands like Antec, OCZ, Thermaltake, and Enermax at least a 400W. Here is a good guide on building a midrange system http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2250.

[kpounds]

I`m just going to add this in case you decide you DON`T want to build it yourself. There are some great deals on Dell computers going on all the time. Every 3 months, Dell has aggressive end-of-quarter sales to boost their sales and stock price. The best way to find these is go to Fatwallet.com, Forums, Hot Deals forum. Then be patient and wait for a great deal, the people at FW watch the Dell site like a hawk and they`ll tell you if the current offering is hot or not. Also you can search the forum for `Dell` and that`ll cut right to what you`re looking for. What I`ve been seeing lately is that Dell`s sales have been up in the last year so they havent needed to be as aggressive in their discounts. Still, when I get my next comp. (P3 866 now) that`s the place I`ll go looking. We also have a P4 2G Gateway here, it`s been a good comp too and I like their American based tech support much better (shame on Dell for outsourcing jobs) but I think Dell`s prices are better.

[imported_Aurora40]

Perry, I`m just like you. I like to know exactly what`s what too. And I think it`s one reason my comp is about 6 years old but is still useable. I don`t think I`d be that happy if I bought some pre-made cheapie...



I have to say, my initial thoughts are these:

- MB with PCI Express and SLi support (probably Asus)

- Slot 939, and the cheapest AMD processor to fit it (I think an AMD 64 3200+)

- Possibly 512MB of low-latency memory

- use built-in sound and reuse my speakers (I dont` want 5+ speakers around my desk)

- Probably a pair of ~35-40GB drives that are 7200-10000rpm I don`t store gigs of songs or anything



Anyway, my thinking is then in the future I can get another Slot 939 processor when they become old-school and aren`t expensive. I can add some memory, and can consider just getting a second SLi GPU to toss in. I`m thinking about the NVidia 6600 GT. :nixweiss



I`m hoping that no monitor or software will keep it around $1000-1200?

[dcswd]

looks good Aurora40.... make sure to get a nice heatsink for the CPU (unless your getting the retail version of it). Also make sure that you will have enough case fans to keep everything cool.



I would suggest looking in Compusa, BestBuy, etc... ads for really good harddrive deals. That would be the best. I was able to find a brand new WD 200GB 7200rpm 8mb cache for $50 at Frys (I`m not sure if you have those or not). That is a way better deal than you can get anywhere else.



ah, also, chances are that whatever motherboard you get will have the capability to support SATA harddrives so consider that if you really wanted to.



hope this helps :D

[imported_Aurora40]

Mehh, thanks for all the suggestions folks. However, it may all be for nothing. The more I think about it, the stupider it seems to spend $1000 just to be able to play a $65 game.

[imported_Faceman]

Yeah, buy an x-box :)

[imported_Aurora40]

Alright, I`m back in the game. I`m gonna go ahead and get a new comp. It seems a shame when mine still works perfectly after 6 years, though.



So it looks like newegg`s a good place, thanks for the recommendation. I prefer to just get everything from one place, even though a few bucks may be shaved here and there by buying from 2 or 3 places. It`s just not worth it to me.



So I`m thinking:

- Asus A8N-SLI retail (this seems to be cheaper a lot of places, I may call Newegg to see if they`ll price match)

- XFX GeForce 6600 GT vid card, PCI-Express

- Antec 550W power supply in anticipation of possible two SLI video cards in the future.

- AMD 3200+ retail CPU for socket 939

- Crucial Ballistix 512MB DDR400 stick of ram (always had good luck with Crucial)

- May get hard drive local, we`ll see, but not interested in those mail-in rebate jobbies. Would kinda like 2 smaller capacity 10,000 rpm drives in a raid striping config, but maybe not. Retail box, though.

- Kingwin aluminum mid-tower

- some kinda DVD drive and floppy (I have a nice CD-RW already). Retail boxes.



I`m not doing the OEM stuff anymore, it`s too big a pain. So I`m looking at about $1200. And it would be easy to upgrade in the future when socket 939 chips are cheaper. I could get another 6600 GT card with SLI to boost graphics, or maybe then two 6800 Ultras will be dirt cheap, or a 7000 or whatever is around by then, plus another 512MB or gig of RAM. I think this`ll be a good mid-level comp with high upgradability, which to me is important. Two years from now I could have a better computer for less than if I got a high-end one right now and let it age two years. :)



I`d welcome any feedback. I kinda think SLI might be asking for config problems, though. I half think just get a nice Abit motherboard since I`ve always had good luck with them. They always hook right up and work fine. They seem to perform fine too. Maybe not the ultimate "tuner" board, but they seem to be quality. They have a few nForce4 boards coming out soon. Perhaps I should wait a bit and see what other nForce4/SLI stuff comes out. One thing I don`t like about the Asus is that when you use SLI, it cuts the bandwidth to each video card in half. I`m not sure if that`s an SLI issue or just with how Asus implements it. :nixweiss

[MTomlinson07]

I don`t know if you plan to overclock but if you do make sure you get a Winchester core 3200+ and not a Clawhammer, some winchesters do 2900mhz on air cooling.

[imported_Aurora40]

Not a big OC`er, but it is a Winchester core so that`s cool. :)



Isn`t the ClawHammer a newer one though? That`s the core for the FX-55 and 4000+. They seem to have more L2 cache also.