Computer builders

[EvadeROAR]

Alright, i know nothing about computers and i have no idea whats good and whats not when it comes to computer building. I have no idea what makes a computer run faster and more efficient. Could someone please set me up with a descent, cheap, reliable system.

Thankyou
Sean

[penguinrusty]

how cheap? AMD or Intel? (intel = multi-tasking, AMD = gaming)

[EvadeROAR]

how cheap? AMD or Intel? (intel = multi-tasking, AMD = gaming)
Probably around $700-900? For both gaming and general internet use (downloading, browsing)

Cheers
Sean

[penguinrusty]

How much gaming?

[EvadeROAR]

How much gaming?
My bro uses the computer everyday to play Halo and Warcraft 3. Just to let you know im using a HP Pavillion MX70 monitor and a HP 721a hardrive.

Heres the specs:

- 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor.
- 256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM memory.
- 60.0GB Ultra DMA hard drive.
- CD-RW 24x write; 10x rewrite, 40xread max. speed.
- Nvidia GeForce2 MX 400 - 3D Graphics with 64MB SDRAM.

So in other words the whole system is stock. Is any of this stuff worth keeping or should i replace everything with better units?

Sean

[hoov100]

halo and warcraft are mainly ram eaters, the p4 you could overclock to 2.5/3 ghz with a decent fan system, the hraddrive should be fine at 60gigs. if you want, you could get a couple 56x cd-rw drives for about $30 and the nvidia card, only if you want could be replaced with an pci express, or if your computer has the slot, an agp car from radeon. or you could buy a bare bones kit off tiger direct.

[krosenqu]

In non hacker english, he basicly said:

Keep your hard drive unless its full and you really want to start over.

Get 2 CD-RW drives (read and write) so you can read and burn at the same time.

You can keep your graphics card if you wish or you can upgrade to a better one like the ATI radion series. (PCI and AGP are basicly diffrent slots on your motherboard to insert cards like graphics and sound.

As for ready mades I would stay away from HP, Gateway, and sony. Although if you really want you can get a halfway decent system with everything for $900 and less (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1344&). (stay with 3.0GHZ and above processors[meaning really fast])

Cnet (http://www.cnet.com) has great reviews that can help you out.

[penguinrusty]

NO CELERONS!!!! Anyway, are you looking to build, or upgrade?

[hoov100]

i over clocked a p4 to 4.6 gigs once, but that was when i had my liquid cooling system.

[rage-kid]

Even though im not THAT great with comps. and i dont have a very good one. My advise

Stay away from celerons. Get a P4 or an Athlon 64 D if you have the money.

[penguinrusty]

Like was said two posts above, don't go for a celerong. Low cache size and a low FSB make it crappy. They fool you into thinking it's good by saying that it's 2.8ghz or whatever, but they just have a huge multiplier. Also, depending on what you want. I would go with an Athlon 64. They're great processors, and much cheaper than any p4 in it's class.

[stampede_dude]

I like my AMD Sempron 2400+

[hoov100]

doesnt amd have a new proccesor out?

[penguinrusty]

i think so...they're new dual-core.

stampede_dude: The sempron is a very low-budget processor, but an ok one nontheless. You can get a nice Amd Athlon 64 3200 64 bit proc for pretty cheap.

[Kain44]

check this one out

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=3d91h1a&s=bsd

[WESTOZ racer]

Its rubbish.

[hoov100]

check this one out

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=3d91h1a&s=bsdi have a 5 year old compaq that performs better then that.

[EvadeROAR]

Whats wrong with the Dell?

Sean

[bubba069]

Whats wrong with the Dell?

Sean


once one builds a pc they hate any off the shelf pre built. mainly to get any performance you would buy off the shelf strip it and put in the parts you want. thus spending more than you would if you had just built it yourself.

you can get a DFI NF4 lanparty board for about 200, amd 64 3700+ sandeigo core for 350 'ish, BFG 6600gt vid card for 200 ish, 1gb of Kingston hyperX dual channel for 150, 160 gig hard drive for 80.

that puts you at about a 1000 bucks and it would walk all over that dell, anouther 200-300 for a case, keyboard, mouse and monitor (if you dont have already)

oh and if you dont have a legit copy of xp, you can get that for around 90 bucks now.

[hoov100]

the only off the shelf computers i like would be compaq.