Buying a PC... Any Advice?

[LifeHacker]

I'm going to be buying a PC this week. I've been looking at Dell and HP. I already have a Mac, but my wife needs a PC for her job.

I'm looking at spending between $500-700. I'm not buying a $1200 PC piece of shit that will be out of date before it even ships.

We've had various Macs (iMac Powerbook, etc...) for almost 10 years now and I haven't kept track of the PC market.

My wife needs it for work and I'd like to play a few games (flight simulator, Age of Empires, etc...). Any brand you guys prefer, hardware I'm gonna need. Like I said I don't wanna spend more than $700. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Please don't turn this into a Mac vs. PC debate. Just looking for some help. I'd rather have real world feedback than reading some so-called "experts" review at CNet and the like.

Thanks in advance.

[Dave _from_Kiev]

Having had a compaq and currently have one built for me. Iwill never buy a corporate machine again. The reasons:

1) corporate machines have so much garbage on them that cause problems down the line.

2) most of the shit on a corp, mach is absurdly priced when needing to fix.

3) my custom made one was priced the same as a corp. made one. and I can upgrade as I like.

I use pc builders wharehouse here In mich. Im sure you would have something like that in your area. ask around.

As far as what you would want for your processor. Nothing less than dual core. That will keep you current for quite a while and more so If you go with a good graphics card. I have an amd 3200+ with a ge force 6800 card and I can run autocad and catia v5 at the same time.

the point I am trying to make there is If you go with decent gear the pc will last much longer.

[tar_baby]

buy from ebay...and get the extended warranty

they have some dell laptop screamers for 1000-1300

[steamingpile]

Do not get any additional software, no jukebox, nothing dell recommends tell them you just want XP and the components from the OS. I have done that and you will get better results if you do that but they will try to shove shit down your pc's throat. I find it easier to buy mine through our work account and even then they argue about what they want to put on the machine.

Failing that look online, monarch pc is pretty good and I believe you can order from vision computers online now as well.

[themadsplatter]

i build all my own pc's,im not at all that bright and my 4th build has been working flawlessly for a year now.

[thelord68]

If you want to build, here's a component/price list I configured at Newegg:

1 Linkworld 313G-C26 Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - OEM
Model #: 313G-C2628
Item #: N82E16811164073
$24.99 $24.99

1 GIGABYTE GA-M51GM-S2G Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Model #: GA-M51GM-S2G
Item #: N82E16813128009

$76.99 -$10.00 Instant $66.99

1 AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Windsor 2.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADO3800IAA5CU - OEM
Model #: ADO3800IAA5CU
Item #: N82E16819103732

$144.99 $144.99

1 CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory Model VS1GBKIT667D2 - Retail
Model #: VS1GBKIT667D2
Item #: N82E16820145568

$106.99 $106.99

1 SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP2004C 200GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: SP2004C
Item #: N82E16822152022
$64.99 $64.99

1 Hanns·G HW-191DPB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Model #: HW-191DPB
Item #: N82E16824254005
$199.99 -$10.00 Instant $189.99

1 LG 18X DVD±R Super-Multi DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write Black IDE Model GSAH22N-BK - OEM
Model #: GSAH22N-BK
Item #: N82E16827136103
$31.99 $31.99

1 Microsoft Windows XP Home Sp2b 1pk w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM
Model #: N09-02142
Item #: N82E16832116169
$89.99 $89.99

Subtotal: $720.92


You need to add a keyboard/mouse and speakers. The motherboard has decent on-board graphics (Nvidia 6100) and can handle many games at decent settings. You can always add a PCI x16 video card later if you need to. I also included a 19" widescreen monitor (which has speakers built-in, but they are weak - I have one of these monitors).

I built a similarly priced system a few weeks ago for a client, but it only had the single-core processor and a 160gb drive instead of 200gb. Prices have come down a like usual.


If you have a Costco or Sam's Club membership, you can probably get a good package deal on an HP if you don't want to build.

[HumpX]

Go by Anthony's house on trash day :action-sm

[OandA_Chris]

Go by Anthony's house on trash day :action-sm

has anthony ever given his specs out on the air?

[Paper Boy]

has anthony ever given his specs out on the air?


he did in a thread the other day:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6700 (4MB L2 Cache,2.66GHz,1066 FSB)

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs

Dual 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Cards, Quad SLI

AGEIA PhysX physics accelerator

320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA 3Gb/s 10,000 RPM HDDs)

2.5MM aluminum thickness Chassis with front & back customizable LEDs
7-slot, BTX design motherboard
1 kilowatt Power Supply
Tower Six-heat pipe, Copper base Heat Sink with aluminum fans
Two 120mm x 38mm front fans

-------------------------------


thelord,

i just created a system with the same specs from dell and it's cheaper than yours. the only difference is the dvd drive is 16x istead of 18x but you also get 50 more gigs on your hard drive and the best part, 6 ,months free AOL.



From $689
$689 As low as $21/month2
Apply Now | Learn More
Update Price & Ship DateDiscount DetailsPreliminary Ship Date: 11/25/20063Print SummaryMy Components
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, English
No Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Selected
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
16x DVD+/-RW Drive
19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel
NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
My Accessories
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse
No Floppy Drive Included
56K PCI Data Fax Modem
My Software
No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
No Security Subscription
Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo
My Service
1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support
6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Also Includes
Mouse included in Dell Wireless Package
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Windows Vista™ Capable
Award Winning Service and Support
Vista Capable Sticker

[thelord68]

If you have broad-band (cable or DSL) then AOL is free forever. The only people who need to pay for AOL anymore are those who need dial-up.

[Paper Boy]

i was just kidding about the aol. my point was that everyone always says that it's cheaper to build your own pc but it's not cheaper and yuo don't really have a warranty if anything gets fucked.

[HumpX]

i just created a system with the same specs from dell and it's cheaper than yours. the only difference is the dvd drive is 16x istead of 18x but you also get 50 more gigs on your hard drive and the best part, 6 ,months free AOL.

yah but......it's a Dell.

[thelord68]

That Dell warranty is a pain the ass. I cannot tell you how many times I've ended up simply buying a replacement part for clients computers after attempting to get service from Dell in a reasonable amount of time. I've had systems covered by 24 or 48 hour onsite service, only to find out that means 24 (or 48) hours from the time they determine that you need onsite service, which in some cases took over a week.

Most of the components you purchase are covered by at least a year warranty (some longer, some such as cpu, shorter), so you can RMA them to the manufacturers. I know its not as convenient, but the rule of thumb is that if it makes it through the first 24 hours, you aren't going to experience a failure in the first couple of years. Anything that would kill a system during that time, such as power surge, etc., wouldn't be covered under warranty anyway.