Is this a good deal for a computer

[FreakBaller12]

[daviselk]

well you are about the same age as me, and for my age in my possition i would not get it. It is alot easyer to build your own computer for that money, and it would be faster. But if you do not have the know-how or are not paying for all of it, it is ok though, but dont rely on just me, ask around school and get on a comp forum and ask there. Goodluck

***i built my own compt that ruuns faster then i would want to run, and i payed for it myself by working over summer when i was 15***

[davidb]

If you do any gaming, keep in mind that you're going to need to drop more money for a videocard. I would just build a computer if I were you. Too much of the money in that computer is badly misspent. Floppy drive, dual optical drvies (but no DVD-ROM/RW?), dual hard drives, one stick of 512 when two of 256 would do a better job, fancy case, fancy lighting, exotic power supply, crappy surround sound system (a surround sound system and a 500 watt PSU powering a computer with no videocard?)

What's the surround sound system for? It's got no DVD drive, so you're not watching movies. It's got no videocard, so you're not playing games (if you are you're allocating your system resources to video, anyway). What are you going to do, matrix your music CD's so they sound worse than two-channel?

Spend around 50-100 on a case, 300 on a motherboard and processor, 130-ish on a hard drive or two, 50-70 on a DVD burner, whatever videocard and amount of RAM (keeping in mind two smaller sticks of DDR will cost less and perform better than one big one) is suitable for your needs, and maybe a soundcard and a speaker system. No frivolous crap, money spent on exactly what you need, and a good learning experience.

My two cents.

P.S. Not trying to come off as insulting or taliking down to you, just trying to point out some things you might not have considered.

[FreakBaller12]

Yea well that's what I wanted. A true opinion on what I'm doing. I am considering building my own computer.Should I use newegg.com for all my parts. I was thinking, try to get to a computer expo because they sell stuff there really cheap.

[Echo419]

I just bought my new rig for 1565 from newegg yesterday, go for them definityl.. if u want almost guaranteed 2 to 3 days shipping... i placed my order at 5 eastern yesterday, and in 30 minutes it was shipped out. seriously.

also cheapest place on the internet. period.
newegg

[BuyMyMag]

https://www.newegg.com

Bought a lcd monitor and 512 mb DDRAM at the CHEAPEST PRICES EVER. That is the only online place I will buy computer parts.

[FreakBaller12]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517

Is that a good motherboard?

How do I know if stuff will fit each other? Do you know of a good computer forums I could learn this stuff on? Thanks for the help

[Hexis]

There are really only a few things that have to match, most of a computer is standard.

First, pick the CPU you want. Then find a MotherBoard that the CPU works in (ASUS is good stuf). You may have a few options. Next find RAM that works in the MB. Then find a video card for the MB (PCI-E or AGP, I suggest PCI-E)

The rest should be pretty easy. It's going to be an ATX board I suspect, so you want an ATX case. That's the vast majority of the offerings (outside the special stuff). You will also want a nice Powersupply, that will be ATX as well, and should have the necessary connectors for any ATX board (AMD or Intel).

My general suggestions:
Motherboard: somthing from ASUS
Powersupply: Antec TruePower 400w or more
Ram: Lots, minimum of 1G.
Video Card: PCI-E (gotta make sure to get a PCI-E MB) with DVI

[NJPaint]

I run a computer business. Its too bad you didn't ask a few weeks ago, I was still in Northern NJ. Anyways. Give me a budget and I'll design you a computer and recommend parts/vendors and I'll try to explain options and why I chose certain parts.

Here is the basic listing (with obvious groupings):

Motherboard
CPU
RAM

Video Card
Sound Card
Ethernet Adapter

Hard Drive
Case

[Echo419]

Contact my brother on aim at Warriorrocker, he will help you with prices, what u should get for the price, and compatibility issues. tell him echo referred you, he's always on aim.

-echo

https://www.attackingecho.com

[FreakBaller12]

Thanks guys, I'll be contacting you guys tomrrow because I will be out all night and I'm at school right now.Thanks for the help :)

[NJPaint]

Motherboard you posted is not worth it. This is a better performing and about the same price board. Big plus, this has a quality LAN and sound card integrated.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130487 (Board)
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzUzLDc= (Review comparing the top Abit board to this)

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzE0

$178


CPU (I randomly chose one, you can go up and down in terms of what you are buying to adjust the price. This seems like right now to be the best bang for the buck)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103533

$274


RAM (This is key. For a true gaming system, you should have 1gb of DDR400, you could get away with 512mb, but you really want 1gb. As said before, 2 sticks is better than 1, its faster.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146890

$180


Total: $632


Hard Drive (You have some options here. Two choices, IDE and SATA. IDE is slightly slower (I doubt you will notice to be honest), but cheaper. SATA is newer, sleaker in terms of cabling, but slightly more expensive.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822135106

$60


Last but not least, the video card....

You MUST go PCI-E, not AGP. They have stopped developing AGP video cards and you will be stuck with old technology if you don't go PCI-E.

Here we go. I'm going to try to be as unbiased as i can. You have two major choices. Nvidia and Ati. Both of them have their own fanatical followings and both are now good choices. It used to be an easy choice because Ati drivers were complete and utter crap. Now however, it isn't so easy. Here is a master chart of all video cards.

http://users.erols.com/chare/video.htm

Now, don't let that scare you. It isn't as complicated as it looks.

Rules:

#1 DO NOT BUY ANYTHING NAMED "SE" this is the WORST thing you could possibly do. SE cards are simply high end cards that didn't make the correct specs, so they are clocked at lower speeds.

#2 Nvidia and Ati both make good cards, look at both, but don't get hung up. I personally choose Ati, but that is just me.

#3a (You are rolling in cash) Buy an X850 XT PE for some ridiculous ammount of money

#3b (You have a budget)

1. Go Ati, This is where price REALLY fluctates. For all games out right now, an Ati 9800 Pro will work fine. You will have good frame rates at normal resolutions and you will be fine. However, in 6 months, the 9800 Pro will fall behind in the newest games at average performance. I would personally recommend an X800 Pro or an X800 XT. Both are good cards and will last a long time. I would try to stay clear of the X300, X600, X700, look at the BW pipe of them compared to even the 9800 Pro. Realize that a 9800 Pro only comes in AGP and won't work in the Motherboard I recommended, this is my point about going PCI-E. Go X800 Pro/XT.

2. Go Nvidia. I used to be an Nvidia fanatic. I just simply hated Ati drivers and software. Now that has changed. However, here is my 2 cents. Go GF 6800. As cheap as $250. Just don't get an LE.


Lastly Case/ Power supply. This is all choice. You need a 400W power supply, but this is all really up to you and how much you want to spend on it. If you need help, i can, but I don't think its neccesary. Its really budget dependant.

So, that computer should cost abotu $1100. And will be essentially the top of the line.

I hope this helped.

[FreakBaller12]

so far I got my $500 part, then I will buy the last few parts when I get more paychecks
here is what I got
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard -$178

A-Top XBlade AT859A-BK Black/Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail -$60

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT533D2 - Retail -$92

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail -$146

and an extra 80 mm fan for $3

edit: more stuff
ASUS EN6600GT/TD/128 Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - $175

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $130

SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Combo Drive - OEM -30

All in all I'm done with the price of about $900 I think this system is as good as I can go. I have a dvd drive here that will be put on as well. A descent sound system. Any final comments?

Heh I'm over my 700 budget but this computer will be fine.

[RoboTron]

IMHO, i would actually spend a bit more and get an AMD FX 64 processor... this is the AMD equivilant of the Intel Extreme Edition and will be one of the bests for awhile and keep you at the top... also, if you want cheaper, go with an SLI configuration, this will alow for the use of 2 video cards at the same time and if you only have the money for one card, you can use the one for the time being... it can be cheaper than a single card, and it will give better benchmarks in most games

[FreakBaller12]

IMHO, i would actually spend a bit more and get an AMD FX 64 processor... this is the AMD equivilant of the Intel Extreme Edition and will be one of the bests for awhile and keep you at the top... also, if you want cheaper, go with an SLI configuration, this will alow for the use of 2 video cards at the same time and if you only have the money for one card, you can use the one for the time being... it can be cheaper than a single card, and it will give better benchmarks in most games

Nah a processor for $830, is over my complete system budget. No way do I have enough funds to buy that