Simviation Forums

Well i just cant decide, keep my crappy Dell Inspirion 1150 and upgrade it, or just buy another pc. Lets talk with a budget of, umh... 1000 or less US Dollars...

Don't go for something by Voodoopc or Alienware with that budget as you will be paying a price premium in a price bracket where you don't have to.

I woulden't advise upgrading unless you only need to do something simple like adding a stick of ram as Dells have terible component compatiblity problems as they use non standard components.  For example a dell PSU may have a non standard 24pin power connector which supplies different voltages on the pins to a normal psu which would destroy any other motherboard apart from the dell one that was designed to be used with that psu.

With $1000 you can make a pretty sweet gaming rig if you chose wisley with components.  How confident are you doing this?  I would only attmpt it if you have already had some experiance with components.  EG. Installing a new add in card.

Your best bet if your not confident in building a new pc yourself would be to check out what you can get from builders that arn't Dell (which creates, although cheep very bloated computers with usualy poor graphics cards and intell cpu's).  Read reveiws on places like http://www.hardocp.com/
and make sure the computer you purchase has a good graphics card (6600gt/x700xt or greater) and at least 1gb of ram.  you should be able to get more than this though, I'm just stating the bare minimum you should accept.  

ok, well thanks for that, i will start saving money after buying my LCD screen and my XB360.

www.ibuypower.com
www.cyberpowerinc.com

Those are the two I reccomend for getting a custom PC, HOWEVER.......BUILD THE DARN THING YOURSELF!!!!!

You will save soo much money and time doing it that way.

Cheers
Cameron

go custom, thats all i can say.

i had a dell dimension 2400 ($550) (p4 2.6ghz, 1 gb ram) for 2 years, and it performed half-ass on FS.

i custom built one, all parts totaled around $700, and this thing works like wonders (to me that is...;))

ther are two good things about building your own AMD computer.

1: AMD's can be switched out without motherboard problems (like my p4 did, what a waste)

2: almost anything is customizible, basically you choose what you want. when i did my first comptuer part search  was looking for a few items on the motherboard alone:

>price (always a factor (except to some elite few *cough*ctjoyce*cough*)
>processor type and pin number
>Form Factor (ATX or BTX (I stuck with ATX)
>what expansion slots will i have
>what ports will i have
  >external ports on back
  >IDE, SATA,etc...
>what can i expand(extra USB, Firewire, etc...)
>ram type

and the list goes on...

anything helpful here?

Ramos

ok, 700 buks for it, sound sgood, is it easy to build?

Building is increadably easy. Just read the manuals, and don't rush it.

Resurch your parts, and make sure you get the best ones for your needs.

Cheers
Cameron

You know, since it seems that you got a really good pc, can you tell me what parts you got? please? by the way, i am going to start working next year, at taco bell i think.

Well if I were you I would look twards a budget of about $1000. That should give you enough room to get a decently high end system with the top end brands.

Suggested parts.
CPU: AMD x64 3800+ / Intel Prescott 650. Both are 64bit processers so your fine for Vista, and I know that both clock very well. But buyer beware, the Intel will run hotter, however multitask better. However if its mainly gameing and music that this comp is getting used for the AMD all the way.

Motherboard: There are a bunch of options here. Basically look at ASUS MSI and Gigabyte. ASUS and MSI seem to have the best high end NF4 boards, so if you go AMD look to them. However for the $90 range Gigabyte is what you look for. Some people say the bios is limited, but I disagree. Aslong as you dont use the boards onboard IDE RAID your fine.

RAM: Basically OCZ, Corsair, GeIL, are the main brands. Look for a PC3200 1GB (2x512MB) kit with 2-2-2-5 or 2-3-3-6 timings. I have two sticks of Corsair XMS 2-3-3-6 and their amazing.

GPU: X1800XL-XT / nVidia 7800GT or GTX. Both companys cards are amazing. At the top of the GPU spectrum they will provide unmatched proformance. ATi tends to be a better all around card IMO, so if your like me and watch movies on your comp as much as you play games go ATi, however if your all games all the time nVidia is where to look. ATi Brands: ATi, Sapphire Tech, Connect 3D. nVidia: eVGA, BFG Tech, Leadtech

HDDs: May not seem important, but in this crazy world of SATAII, SATA150, SATA3, ATA133,UltraATA, and others its easy to get lost. Well let me suggest SATA3 or SATA150. Both are the fastest data transfer currently, and both are very cheap ($55 for an 80GB) I suggest a 10,000RPM 74GB if your building only for games, and a 250GB 7,200RPM one if your going all around. WESTERN DIGITAL. Rember the name. I have an old WD 30GB ATA drive from back in 2000 that still works like the day I bought it. Have not had the same luck with Maxtor or Seagate.

Cooling: Yes its important, esp on a P4 system. Yes I do have a 3.9Ghz 550 P4, however the heatsink I have on it is massive (Zalman CNPS-9500). If you want to keep your system cool (low 30s) and mabe overclock a wee bit I suggest a Zalman CNPS-7000Cu and for only $35 you really cant pass it up. GPU is also very important to keep cool. The Zalman VPS-700Cu is the best cooler for the job. Just look at my GPU clock, and that runs 36C idle. And everyone ends up overclocking their GPU, you just cant get around it.

Case: ThermalTake, LianLi, CoolerMaster. Take your pick. There are liturally thousands of cases, and most are crap. Look for the better brands. I personally have a ThermalTake Soprano, and besides a LianLi case, is by far the best and easiest case I have ever worked with. I just love the thing.

Power: 400Watts + is a MUST. I personally suggest any ThermalTake PSU, but if you want the best on the market, you must go for the Hiper Type R. This is the PSU I have, and it delivers 580Watts constent with a max of 640W. The thing is amazing and soo stable.

Well I hope this helps a bit.

Cheers
Cameron

Ok, well i better start saving! Cant wait, i guess right now what i am going to do is buy some ram to my laptop and a cheap but better video card...

I say there is no need to buy a new computer if your pentium processor speed and memory allow you to upgrade. Upgrading is less expensive and the rewards you get out of it make it worth wild!

I just upgraded my PC Flat panel from a 17"FPD to a 24" Widescreen FPD (flat panel display). I can tell you this much my eyes are still making the adjustment. Everything looks so huge and crisp. with my current 256mb graphics card it leaves me with the option to upgrade to 512mb graphics card. This is just awesome!

CPU: AMD x64 3800+ / Intel Prescott 650.

I would disagree on the AMD choice - I would say go for the 3700+ (San Diego). It has 1mb of L2 cache rather than the 512k of the 3800+ (Venice), and also it's cheaper. IIRC, they also tend to clock a lot better - just ask congo

Again I'll say about the Hiper 580W - I know them to be fantastic PSUs, I've heard it from many people. But I bought one and it failed. Just so you know, they're not all completely perfect.

Otherwise Cameron has specced a good system there, I like it.

Jon

www.ibuypower.com
www.cyberpowerinc.com

Those are the two I reccomend for getting a custom PC, HOWEVER.......BUILD THE DARN THING YOURSELF!!!!!

You will save soo much money and time doing it that way.

Cheers
Cameron

True ...if you build one youll likely get a $1500 computer for around $800

Oh and always,ALWAYS be concious(sic?) of the ESD monster, Very easy to destroy a $200 MB with that stuff

Well a good start for a beginner is a little lower than the big specs above, if all your doing is FS then a 3000 or 3200 939 should work fine along with a 6800GS or X800GT. IF you want to play COD2 at max get that pc above

Well here they are, just in case you wanted to know...


Inter(R) Celeron (R) CPU 2.60GHz 2.60GHz, 256 MB of RAM.... What i want them to be....

Intel Pentium 4 ( or that ADM one ) 3 GHz 3 GHz, 1.50 GB of RAM..... i think that is about 2000 buks ( U.S. Dollars )