Posted: 1/23/2008 9:08:22 AM EDT
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ok guys, I need to get a new computer. I'm willing to spend 2k +/- 2 hundred, and I don't want to build anything. I already have a monitor/speakers/mouse/keyboard/ext hd. I had just been tinkering around with dell xps's... Any other companies worth looking at right now? Let me know what you guys think. |
Get the Quad Core. Wow that Blackbird is pretty sweet. Also see if you can get a 64bit OS... and then install 8GB of RAM. You won't regret it. Editx3* Get the best CPU you can afford. You can always add a badder Graphics Board and more RAM easily later. CPU's are more of a pain in the ass. IMO. Eh, the HP is REALLY expensive. Get a DELL and pimp the ride. |
Yeah, but the Blackbird is actually built by Voodoo PC (which is now a subsidiary of HP). With a Dell, you're going to get a Dell factory-locked BIOS (no OC for you  ), expensive RAM (Dell overcharges big time for RAM), etc.Really, the best would be to build it yourself - you can pretty much cut the cost in half in most cases. But since he wants to buy prebuilt... As for 64bit - that's unnecessary unless he's either a movie editor or a number crunching scientist. If he just wants to play games, a copy of Vista Home Premium 32bit and 2GB of RAM is sufficient. The real key is the CPU - so make sure you get the most expensive one Quad core for sure.As for graphics - the 'top dog' right now is the Nvidia 8800 series. 8800GT 512MB is the best value right now - maybe get two of them in SLI. ETA: You might want to also look at computers from Velocity Micro, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo PC, ALienware, etc. |
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hey guys, put this together and it looks like a pretty good setup for the price. you guys see anything worth changing? dell xps 720 red for 2429$ PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB) edit OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium edit MEMORY 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz OC'd to 1066MHz-4 DIMMs edit HARD DRIVE 320GB - Seagate 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable edit MONITOR No Monitor edit VIDEO CARD Dual nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB edit SOUND CARD Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer (D) Sound Card edit KEYBOARD No Keyboard edit MOUSE No Mouse edit BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Dell 19 in 1 Media Card Reader edit FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit MODEM No Modem Requested edit My Software & Accessories SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months edit PRODUCTIVITY No Productivity software pre-installed edit My Service WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support edit DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP DataSafe Online Backup 20GB edit DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS No ISP requested edit ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM Labels Windows Vista™ Premium Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1 XPS Specialized Support XPS, Specialized Support PHOTOS, MUSIC & MORE! No Entertainment software pre-installed |
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Dell is horribly overpriced IMHO. I just got a PC from Xttreme Gear (buyxg.com) It was the lowest price I could find and the PC is sweet. You don't have all the extra crap softwate that most companies load onto PC's. I was really surprised when I went into msconfig and there was hardly anything I needed to disable. I've been playing COD4 with everything set to the highest settings possible with zero lag. This is what I got: RaidMax Smilodon Med-Tower Extra case fans 600 Watts Power Supplies(CoolerMaster Unit 600 Watts eXtreme Power) I ntel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit() Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooling Fan Asus P5E Intel x38 CrossFire Chipset Motherboard 4GB Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Memory w/ Heat Spreader (4x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives(160GB (80GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER 16X DVD ROM(BLACK COLOR) Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-BIT PCI Sound Card() Logitech (BLACK) X-540 70Watts 5.1 Configuration Speaker System ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD PCI 56K V.92 FAX MODEM W/ VOICE Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU Round Cable Upgrade for Optical Drive 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64 bit. It was all around $1700 without a monitor. |
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What games are u wanting to play? Other than dell, I would strongly recommend bulding a computer Pre-built systems are affordable and have warranties because sacrifices have been made somewhere, which tends to be the quality of power supplies, expandability, and sometimes motherboards that are so customer to the OEM, that your options for upgrading the parts of the rig are very limited I built what I believe to be a VERY respectable rig, {Quad Core, 4GB, 1TB SATA 3.0GB {soon to be raid} nVidia 8600 GTS} for around $1500 You will not get a computer of comparable quality of parts for less than $1800+ |
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I put this setup together on buyxg.com Case: In-Win F-430 Mid-Tower 420W Case (Black Color) CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit Mainboard: Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard Memory: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)4GB (2x2GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand) Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card Video Card 2: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 16X PCI Express Video Card VIDEO CARD 3: NONE LCD Monitor: NONE HARD DRIVE: Single Hard Drive (400GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD) Data Hard Drive: NONE Optical Drive: (Special Price) 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR) Optical Drive 2: 16X DVD ROM (BLACK COLOR) Sound: Creative Labs X-FI XtremeGamer 24-BIT PCI Sound Card Price: $2358.00 (before all applicable rebates) 5% rebate |
Overrated. I've seen plenty of these systems, and none of them are anything special you can't build yourself. -d |
I had an alienware ~4 years ago and it shit the bed... I was like a month and a half over warranty and they basically told me to just scrap it 
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what should you be looking for when you pick a mobo? I have these options on ibuypower: [===Support QX9650===] Asus P5E Intel X38 CrossFire Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [- $9] [===Support QX9650===] Asus P5E WS Professional Intel X38 CrossFire Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [+ $36] [===Support QX9650===] Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38 CrossFire Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [+ $25] [===Support QX9650===] Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35 CrossFire Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [- $24] [== New ==] Asus P5N-D Nvidia nForce 750i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, Dual PCI-E MB [- $106] Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [- $138] [===Support 3-Way SLI===] Asus P5N32-E SLI nForce® 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [===Support 3-Way SLI & QX9650===] Asus P5N-T Deluxe NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, 3-Way PCI-E M [+ $34] [===Support 3-Way SLI===] Asus Striker Extreme nForce® 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [+ $89] [===Support 3-Way SLI & QX9650===] eVGA Nvidia nForce 780i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, 3-Way PCI-E MB [- $12] Nvidia NForce 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0 Dual PCI-E MB [- $54] MSI P35 Neo-F P35 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0 PCI-E MB [- $148] MSI P6N SLI-F nForce 650i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, PCI-E MB [- $143] [===Support 3-Way SLI===] MSI P6N Diamond nForce 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, PCI-E MB [+ $40] |
| I'd personally go with a motherboard that can last longer because of upgrade capabilities. I decided SLI is a waste of money because you spend a shitload for 2 video cards and then in a few months a new card will come out that will most certainly outperform both of your 2 in SLI and cost less than what you paid for 2 of yours. So save your money and just upgrade the card sooner. Based on my line of thinking I went with an X38 chipset. More specifically an asus P5e. It will support DDR3 memory and PCIe 2.0. I don't know much about computers honestly but that is my opinion. |