If you had to BUY a computer rather than build one....

[Nationalist_Cause]

What would you purchase? I'm in the position of not really knowing anyone to build one for me, my only friend who built comps moving away two months ago. I don't really feel comfortable spending hundreds or thousands of dollars buying parts online and trying to build one myself and then installing all the software. Not for me.

So my question is, what to do? I refuse to purchase a manufacture comp from Best Buy or Circuit City or any similar store. Micro Center is the only computer specialty store in my area. Should I purchase one there? Should I order one online from Dell or Alienware? What to do?

As far as a budget goes I can put up several hundred up front, as much as $500. I can finance the rest. Many thanks in advance.

[sdjenkyn]

Id still build one. But first tell us what you want it to do and also include what your current rig has in it from os to hardware. Could possibly save you some coin.

[Nationalist_Cause]

Id still build one. But first tell us what you want it to do and also include what your current rig has in it from os to hardware. Could possibly save you some coin.

I want it to run all the new games at high / max settings. By new games I mean new gen MMORPGS such as Vanguard, strategy titles such as MTW2, epic strategies such as EU3, etc. Basically, I want a rig that is capable of running a new release title for the next 6 months or so without any upgrades.

From my current rig, well, nothing can be salvaged. I have an OLD ATI card that I bought before RTW released. I have two sticks of old 512mb ram. All this is running off a 4 year old HP computer I purchased before I knew any better. I did what I could to keep it up to date but any further investment in this p-o-s is futile.

[sdjenkyn]

what operating system do you have? hard drives ? cd drives ? those are all items that can cut the cost of a new rig without impacting performance. After that select a graphics card you want to use " i suggest geforce 7600 for price and performance " then you need a case with a 550watt power supply , costs about 75.00 for a good game case w/fans. Try outpost.com for a motherboard/ cpu package about 150.00 to 200.00. You will probably want 2 gigs ddr2 ram ( if the board supports it, if not ddr1 is cheaper ) and maybe a sound card to round it out. Assembly is easy and Im sure anyone here including myself would be happy to walk you through it.

[Nationalist_Cause]

what operating system do you have? hard drives ? cd drives ? those are all items that can cut the cost of a new rig without impacting performance. After that select a graphics card you want to use " i suggest geforce 7600 for price and performance " then you need a case with a 550watt power supply , costs about 75.00 for a good game case w/fans. Try outpost.com for a motherboard/ cpu package about 150.00 to 200.00. You will probably want 2 gigs ddr2 ram ( if the board supports it, if not ddr1 is cheaper ) and maybe a sound card to round it out. Assembly is easy and Im sure anyone here including myself would be happy to walk you through it.

I'm running XP and have a 20 gig hard drive which is hardly sufficient these days. I have a DVD drive that hasn't worked in 3 years, despite having a friend reload XP on my comp twice.

But in all honesty, I really don't feel comfortable building my own rig. The most I've ever done is install a video card and that took me nearly all day with installing the correct drivers and such. I'm so ignorant on compatability issues and technical jargon that walking me through it over the net would be an absolute nightmare for everyone involved.

Spending an extra few hundred for convenience of having a pre-packaged rig with shipping and handling is something I'm willing to deal with.

[Vir Egregius]

i suggest geforce 7600 for price and performance " then you need a case with a 550watt power supply.

hi all, i would like to drop my question here too. i have a 500watt power-supply, a 4year old pentium4 2.0ghz and a geforce5200. if i upgrade to 6600 or 7600 will that 500watt be enough? do i have to buy another power-supply unit?

[sdjenkyn]

hi all, i would like to drop my question here too. i have a 500watt power-supply, a 4year old pentium4 2.0ghz and a geforce5200. if i upgrade to 6600 or 7600 will that 500watt be enough? do i have to buy another power-supply unit?

You will have plenty of power with your 500..... I was recently running an Amd 3100+ , 4 gigs ddr 333 and a Nvidia 7800 otx overclocked on a 450 watt supply. Until you jump to a dual sli config you should continue to have plenty of power.

[Citizen]

You will have plenty of power with your 500..... I was recently running an Amd 3100+ , 4 gigs ddr 333 and a Nvidia 7800 otx overclocked on a 450 watt supply. Until you jump to a dual sli config you should continue to have plenty of power.

Um, although you probably already know this, it doesn't have much to do with how high the number of watts it has. What you want to look for is those 12v rails (just as I learnt). A PSU can have 500watts but be ****. You want to look for the 12v rails. Also if it's modular, it's even better.

I say don't even bother with a Dell. Even the medium-range ones stock weak video cards, and the RAM and PSU will probably be their own brand too. But in all honesty, from what I've seen in the pre-built systems is that the video card will be the big let-down. You could get a decent computer with an E6400, 2gig ram, a decent size HDD and a fairly reasonable monitor, and the video card will still be poor.

Customize and buy! And get it built at a local PC store or if the online place will assemble it for you (usually the case with customize 'n' buy) then that's awesome.

You'd be better off customizing one and then buying it online or (like others have already mentioned) seeing if there is a local store near you that'll build one for you.

[sdjenkyn]

There are hundreds of options but I do believe financing was a possible pre-qualifier for his system. Another option is outpost.com Fry's website. They have financing and build pretty good rigs for less. Also they use standard atx so upgrading in the future is feasible.

[sdjenkyn]

@ nationalist cause , If that is the way you feel I respect that. So to actually answer your original question I would buy a Dell. They have gotten better about using industry standard parts which means if you ever want to upgrade parts you can. Also you can personalize it and price is very good plus they finance if you need it. Hope that helps

[Stalins Ghost]

If I was to make one big suggestion: wait it out a bit.

Given that Vista is now out, a new system which is capable of doing it justice will set you back at least a grand, when you're building it yourself, and buying from the right places. Any system you buy on a budget won't really last more than a year/ year and a half. I'm waiting at least 6 months before I think of getting a new rig myself, maybe even a year. That way PCs more Vista friendly wont be quite so stupidly pricey, and I wont have to think about upgrading so soon after.

[westy159]

Do you have any local PC shops? You may find that they do builds themselves and, if you are lucky, at a good price.

Here in grey England I use a shop named RLsupplies which is a 10 minute drive from where Im at. On display they had a computer fit for the highest of todays gaming standards (dual core CPU, 7800GT(?), 2GB RAM, Vista) all for the price of around £800. Now that is a good deal. I would say it cost them £750 to build at most.

Usually shops like that will tend to give you better deals as the people working there are just earning their weekly pay for their appartment, its not some big company with men in suits thinking of their next "offer" somewhere in a city office.

[cudakite]

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/Default.asp

way more options than Dell.

[UnderdawgIV]

www.abs.com Owners of Newegg.

Nuff' said.

[Yogi Bear]

Goto your local computer shop, not a big company, the little one on the corner tucked away somewhere
They can build it for around $35-40~ extra.
IF your budget allows, heres what i think would best suit you..

Case: Whatever takes your fancy
Power Supply: Coolmaster iGreen 500 or 600 watt
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 OR AMD Athlon x2 5200+ (is a bit cheaper, better option if you wont o/c (overclock))
Graphics Card: 8800 GTX (dose not matter what brand, Sparkles tend to be cheaper)
Mother Board: A good $150~ the shop will help you on that
RAM: 2 GB, dont get generic! Get a brand name one such as Kingston, A Data or Crosair
Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATAII (or more depends how much storage you need)

This system would run all the new games for a good 6 months + with very decent settings

[Citizen]

Goto your local computer shop, not a big company, the little one on the corner tucked away somewhere
They can build it for around $35-40~ extra.
IF your budget allows, heres what i think would best suit you..

Case: Whatever takes your fancy
Power Supply: Coolmaster iGreen 500 or 600 watt
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 OR AMD Athlon x2 5200+ (is a bit cheaper, better option if you wont o/c (overclock))
Graphics Card: 8800 GTX (dose not matter what brand, Sparkles tend to be cheaper)
Mother Board: A good $150~ the shop will help you on that
RAM: 2 GB, dont get generic! Get a brand name one such as Kingston, A Data or Crosair
Hard Drive: Seagate 320GB SATAII (or more depends how much storage you need)

This system would run all the new games for a good 6 months + with very decent settings

Dude, that system would run games for WAAAYYYYY more than 6 months. I would probably agree had you selected a diffrent, less pwnage graphics card, but you went for the best one out. Sure ATI are yet to come out with their cards, but in all honesty, the 8800GTX won't be far out dated anytime soon! 2 gig ram? Pfffffffffffffffffffff that'll be more than enough to run Crysis! and a Conroe E6600 is pwnage with it's 4MB L2 cache

[Nationalist_Cause]

Many thanks to everyone who responded. I'm checking into the links now. I had heard months ago that Monarch Computers was a good online shop for custom rigs but they seem to have undergone somewhat of a change in business. I read on a site that they closed their Atlanta storefronts and are currently only moving garbage refurbished systems on their site so I plan to avoid it.

[ShangTang]

Get a barebones from magicmicro.com and then customize it by installing the easy stuff such as video cards and hard drives.

[Nationalist_Cause]

Get a barebones from magicmicro.com and then customize it by installing the easy stuff such as video cards and hard drives.

And by barebones you mean what? Motherboard and processor?

@ the poster who referred me to ABS. They seem to be a reputable company. They don't provide financing but from what I gather from resellers they seem to be the best, and most reliable, bang for the buck out there. My car will be paid off in a month which means extra cash. I'm seriously considering buying from them.

[kkbob33]

shop newegg.com and build a new intel duo! they overclock like a beastz!!!!!
you dont need the 6600. u can get the 6300 and oc it from 1.8 to 3.0 easy!!! i mean really , these chips are amazing!
a 500 watt psu should be enough to run most rigs , including SLI unless u use the dx10 cards.

if u want to buy one go here:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/


i would recommend them to anyone looking to buy a fully made rig.their customer service is superb and they give you a couple year warranty as long as u dont OC (yeah right!!!! LOL). they have the best prices and it is where i got my first gaming rig. one of my buddies just bought a sli system from them....he wouldnt let me build it because he was afraid something would go wrong(even though i buiilt my recent rig with virtually no problems). they actually sell for a small amount more than it costs to build one. your just more limited on types of hardware than if u build ur own.


u can also work out a payment option with them both with no money down.

NOTE: i am not running a duo system but currently seriously contemplating building one. i am currently running a single core rig:

AMD fx-55 939 slot (2.860) with cooler 64 pro heatsink
1 gig cheap ram with cheap heatspreaders ( going to upgrade ram next week to 2 gigs of a-data OCing ram)
x1950 GT with a zalman
450 PSU
very cool running case(7 fans! LOL)
asus motherboard
crappy 150 gig IDE hard drive( getting SATA asap!)