Alright, so the Mrs. and I have decided to get a new computer. I am really not sure what to get though.
I looked at Dell but when you compare their prices to the ones at Best Buy and Circuit City, they seem expensive. BB and CC computers kind of scare me though since they are pretty much the bottom of the barrel mass produced computers.
I thought about building one, but I have never done son and my fiance says she would rather just buy one.
I would like to go with an AMD64 processor. This computer would be used for some gaming (I would like to take advantage of my surround sound computer speakers on Doom 3 and Far Cry) and photo editing, but mostly routine things.
Are You keeping Your current monitor / keyboard / mouse?
You have a nice speaker setup, but does that mean a nice sound card too?
If the answers to those are yes, then You should be able to get a decent peforming system for $1k out of a store. Just skimp on harddrive space initially and install Your current one also.
If You are building one (it’s REALLY easy other then installing all the software / drivers), then You could build a kick-ass machine for $1k.
You say that some gaming and photo editing are the primary uses (outside of internet of course), then spend the money on a Good CPU & lot’s’o’Ram.
Current monitor is shit.
Keyboard and mouse are cool.
Flat panel monitors are going pretty cheap right now so I could hold off on that and stick with my 17" CRT for now.
I have put together several systems on Newegg.com (for about $600) but I have no way of knowing if there are any conflicts with my component selection.
i’m building one for my g/f also and i’m in the same boat. Putting it together is no problem, its installing everything to get it running i’m nervous about. Can someone post a step-by-step list of the software process once everything is installed? Hopefully in really simple terms, like your explaining to a 6 y/o, Step 1 - open cd drive, step 2 - insert cd kind of method
My only word of advice is… if you are all into gaming, get a PCI Express card. AGP is all fine and dandy, but the Express cards will outperform any AGP card, and if you don’t want to worry about upgrading video compnents for a while, get one.
Cool, current tech HDD’s are cheaps as hell anyhow.
Wait for BuickGN & SilenceMachin and them to chime in.
In the meantime - The only problems You’ll see when doing the software install (unless You are installing alot of warez/cracks/hackorz and don’t know them that well) is conflicting drivers.
The way I’ve done it before (3x): Do the Windows format and install, let it run all out. Then run through the OEM Driver CD’s (CD Driver, Mobo, Vid Card, etc). Do disc at a time and reboot check for conflicts and move on. Takes a day or so, but it’s surefire.
$0.02
IMO a cheap-o 256 AGp will do more then fine for what he seem’s to want to do. Again, $0.02
The video card that Jon posted up has monitor plugs that look different than the conventional monitor plug. What is the difference and will that affect my monitor selection?
Floppy Drive and Media Reader:
