Posted: 12/8/2004 2:51:53 AM EDT
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My current computer is getting long in the tooth, plus it is an HP Pavillion and sucks major donkey schlong. I was thinking of getting a Dell, but looking at their prices (not to mention having to pay almost 10% sales tax) I got to wondering if having someone build one for me might be a better idea. Does anyone here do this for a living or part-time? If so, I would like to get some quotes from you. I also need to know about warranties, etc. What I am looking for is a nice gaming platform - by default, it will also be capable of handling internet surfing and word processing. I have a cable modem and ethernet cards already, as well as a router since I will be keeping this computer for a backup on my network. I also already have a 21" monitor, keyboard, mouse, joystick, printer. So really, what I need is the box itself, processor, graphics card, sound card - if you can get me a good deal on Windows XP or Professional then we can go that route as well, since I believe my current copy of it is not registered and I would like to be "legal" on this for purposes of updates, registration, etc. Email me at [email protected] - also, anyone who can give advice on what processor, how much RAM, what type of HD, and graphics and sound card would be appreciated. |
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I have done it a few times. Check www.pricewatch.com that will give you an idea on parts. Id only go eith Dell if I had to get a monitor and everything, since you have that Id aovid them |
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I did this a couple years ago. I needed more speed for rendering video. Bought a new motherboard with a 3ghz processor. Oops, didn't know I would need a different type of RAM. Oops, didn't know I would need a different type of power supply. Oops, didn't know the original video card would not work. By the time I was done upgrading everything, it cost far more than a Dell. The only thing left from the original system was a fan and the floppy drive. The problem is, you will start to decide on a motherboard, and then see that for $20 more, you can get this extra feature. For $50 more, you can have more speed. For $??? more, you can have firewire AND USB2.0. There is no place to quit. It is fun to build your own. MUCH more fun than before plug and play. It cost me close to $1500 by the time I was done. Two years later, I went to best buy and bought an eMachine tower for my wife. It out performs mine, for half the $$$. Dave |
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If you need a computer for the internet go to walmart dot com. Building a computer is easy now. It is not cheaper. Except for ultra high quality ("Ailienware", etc). I would suggest RDRAM for any build. Sounds like all you need is a tower from walmart or a barebones kit from tigerdirectdotcom or zipzoomflydotcom. |
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I want a good processor (doesn't have to be latest, fastest whiz-bang, but I want it to be capable of running all the latest games for the next 2-3 years). I want a nice video card. Decent HD and CD and DVD drives. At least 1MB memory. Here are two I found that looks potentially interesting: www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1096380966475&type=product www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1089890510300&type=product |
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Just a FYI. A properly built gaming platform is like a pitbull on crank. There is little to nothing a gaming platform pc will not handle. The technology is much higher grade then you'll find a websurfer/wordprocessor dell. A word processing program or accessing the web won't even warm a gaming pc up. Right now I'm: On IRC, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Here posting with firefox Seti-Boinc is running (100% processor share) Mcaffee running a scan on drive F: Tv app running watching animal planet OS is Xp Pro w/sp2. My wife shakes her head when it defrags 3 partitions at the same time. No lag, studders, and pauses. Sad thing is i'm usually running more stuff. only using 415 megs of page file and 302 megs of physical mem right now. My 2yo system: Athlon 2600+ (2.144ghz) 510 megs of Dual bandwidth PC3000 DDR Leadtek Winfast 18dpro board (Nforce2 chipset) Leadtek Winfast Gforce 4 TI vid Leadtek Winfast TV card 400 gigs of HD space 600watt aluminum power supply Aluminum Mid tower Btw: I've never bought a build system. Just fixed alot of them over the years. 
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 www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=697706&sku=e400-w4682 This is more than what you need. Price: $499.97 Less Rebate: - $100.00 Final Price: $399.97* eMachines Masterpiece with DVD Burner Pentium 4 2.6GHz Engine Under the Hood with 80GB HDD! eMachines W4682 Desktop PC delivers extreme quality at an economy price. From its powerful Intel® Pentium 4 2.6GHz processor with lightning-quick 256MB PC PC2100 DDR Memory to its 80GB hard drive, this sleek, top-notch desktop is built to perform to your highest standards. And it has a masterful DVD burner that will thrill you with its possibilities. Whether it's creating and organizing a customized sound and video library, operating word processing programs for business or school, playing the latest video games, using the Internet, or storing enormous volumes of data, the W4682 does it all effortlessly. Front Access Panel Conveniently accessible USB 2.0 and audio ports on the front of the PC so you don't strain your back! The eMachines W4682 puts you at the forefront of an easy and reliable computing experience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full Stereo Speakers Enjoy rich quality sounds with the eMachines W4682 stereo speakers. Extraordinary sound quality waiting to enhance your gaming or multimedia endeavors! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2-button Wheel Mouse Pan through documents and websites quickly and easily with the exquisitely designed 2-button Wheel Mouse. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PS/2 Internet Keyboard Right above the keypad you can quickly access your email or Internet Explorer with the configurable Internet buttons. Specifications Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition SP1 Platform Learn More PC Form Factor Learn More Tower PCI Slots (Total) Learn More 3 AGP Slots (Total) Learn More 1 Expansion Slots 4 Processor Brand Intel Processor Class Pentium 4 Processor Speed 2.60GHz Memory Type DDR Total Memory 256MB Capacity 80GB Optical Drive Type DVD+/-RW DVD-ROM Audio Description Integrated Audio Graphics Description Integrated Graphics Communications Description Integrated LAN Support Data Transfer Rate 10Mbps 100Mbps Buttons 3 Keyboard Type Multimedia Keys 110 Front Speakers 2 |
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Monarch computers www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv. I've bought parts from them on occasion, and I haven't heard anything bad about their builds. It isn't usually hard to build your own. BUT, and this is a big but, you must do your research first. Find out what motherboards users have problems with. What video cards have the features you want? If you haven't spent 5-10 hours doing your homework, you take your chances. Visit Anandtech, HardOCP, maybe Tech Report, and PCPerspective/AMD forumns and see what others think of your choices. Visit the motherboard manufacturer's website and see what CPUs are compatible with the motherboard. What memory? Or you can visit Corsair and Crucial's websites and see what they recommend. I know Crucial guarantees their memory compatibility picks, don't know about Corsair. If you want to do some serious gaming, I wouldn't get what BGcc11 suggested. CPU is nearly 2 years old (definitely out of date), memory is too slow (appropriate for such a CPU admittedly). Memory is inadequate for an XP machine; you want at the least 512mb, 1gig preferred. Video is onboard integrated graphics, so it probably sucks (Nvidia's integrated graphics are so-so, Intel's just flat out won't run demanding games (3d graphics capability required). Pick yourself up a lower end Athlon 64. Maybe a 3200 or a 3500; the price isn't too bad. Lower end Nvidia or ATI card will help keep the price down. Try this out for size: (all parts are from Newegg, a reputable Net seller). Athlon 64 3200 w/retail fan $196 Abit AV8 motherboard $111 Memory, Cruical, 2 x 512MB $156 (you could get by on 512MB, but 1GB will be useful for a longer time) Case, get an Antec w/o power supply - don't think they sell it without, (I've gotten my local shop to get me one) but it'd run $75ish. Power supply: get an Antec 430-480w. $70-86 Hard drive, your preference. Hard to go wrong with a 80gb one; I have yet to fill one up. Western Digital 80gb, 7200 rpm: $94 Video: Nvidia 6800 GT (high-midrange card) leadtek $389 Sound - you can get by on onboard, or pick up a PCI card. DVD-Rom drive Lite-on, 16x $23 $1114 w/o OS, keyboard, mouse, monitor (I assume you wil recycle the old ones). That'll blow the doors off any comparably-priced Dell. |
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Ok, I built my current PC. I used my old Micron Case, its massive. (nice to say that about something) $80 I bought a ASUS P4P800 $130 2.6 Intel P4 with HT $220 for two sticks a HyperX 512 Kingston RAM PC4000 $250 for a ATI 9800XT vid card $60 For a power supply 350 watts This came to $740. Keep in mind this was a bit less than a year ago. I can buy a higher cpu anytime and bump it up. But ,I do over clock. I can take it to 3.5 if I wish. But I play Half Life 2 and it doesn't like extreme over clocking. SO I am running at 3.0 right now. I could buy a 3.4 and bust 4.0 . The vid card is a real good one. I get over 100 FPS in CS.S stress test. Thats with everything on its highest settings. I bought everything from Ebay except the powersupply. BestBuy for that. It was on sale. Above everything else. Buy a good motherboard. Doing so gives you up grading options later. |
Stay away from these places unles you want junk. I am head of IT for a banking company. I have built or rebuilt at least 60 computers in the last 5 years. I rebuild one of my computers every year. Here is my advice for you. Newegg.com has great prices, cusotmer service, and customer reviews of most poducts Do it yourself. It isn't hard and you will learn alot. Don't be scared most parts today come with great directions Once you start you will want to keep changing things on your computer. Dell is a great company but their prices are only good on low end work stations not gaming platforms Stick with mainstream companies for parts I run mostly Abit or Asus motherboards but they aren't the only good companies For a gaming system you need to spend alot of a video card and high speed ram for best perfomance. Hope this helps. If you are still leary of doing it yourself, try to find someone who has done it before to come over and help you with it. And having them do it while you watch doesn't count. Good Luck |
 Maybe for grandma wanting to check email and get on the internet. Absolutely not for current high demand video games like FarCyr, Doom 3, Half Life 2. |
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Saw this one here - www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=861278&Tab=0&NoMapp=0 Tell me - what is the difference between an AMD 64 3200+ / 2.00GHz vs. say a Pentium 4 with 2.6 or 3.4 Ghz? Is there a fair comparison with regards to the Ghz? This one above looks pretty nice, esp. due to the GB of RAM and the 256 MB Video card. |
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If you are building a machine: 1. Do yourself a favor and buy a good case. Don't go cheap on the case. http://www.xoxide.com/ has some nice examples that have plenty of cooling capability and expansion space and that are easy to do parts installations and swaps in. 2. Do yourself another favor and get a good motherboard. Just because it will fit a pentium chip that doesn't mean it is a good board. I usually buy genuine Intel boards because of the warranty and the fact that I use them with great results at work all the time. Also be sure to update firmware on whatever board you get to keep it healthy. 3. If you want a gaming system you will need a good graphics card. Don't buy the top of the line model graphics card. Buy about 1 rung down the ladder. This is much cheaper but you still get a powerful card that will stomp the daylights out of anything you want to play on it. I have a Radeon 9600 with 128 MB of RAM on it connected to a 2.4 P4 system and my machine can handle any game out there without even breathing hard. 4. Buy multiple hard drives. You will be much better off having 2 40 gig drives than one big 80 gig drive. Once you have experienced a hard drive puke you will understand why this is so. 5. Buy multiple optical drives. A DVD ROM and a CDRW make a nice combo in my opinion. 6. Buy a good monitor. You are going to be staring at one for long periods of time. Thus having a good one is a great idea. Having a nice graphics card and a pitiful monitor doesn't make sense. |
The AMD 64 is a 64 bit chip and the P4 is a 32 bit chip. The AMD runs at 64 or 32 bits. There is still very little software that can use the 64 bits. They are close in price. I haven't used any of the AMD 64's yet so I can say how they really compare. If you were to use a true 64 bit OS the AMD should be faster. I would stay away from Systemax computers. The parts the usually use are from the bottom rung of the ladder. The specs are good just find another company. IMHO I build a few of these for friends and they love them. It is about the size of a toaster. Suttel XPC You will still need to buy RAM, hard drive, processor, CD/DVD drive, floppy (if you want it), and an AGP video card. You should be able make a really nice one for $1000. |
With the exception of my first computer, and laptops, I have built every one I've had. Don't build one thinking you're going to save yourself money. You likely will get a better overall deal by buying a major brand. Now, if you are just looking for absolute performance and don't give a darn about cost, then building your own is the way to go, you can choose the exact parts you want. Example, I just bought parts a few weeks ago for a whole new build. Asus P5GD2 Deluxe $189 P4 3.4 800 FSB $287 WinXP Media Center $145 Asus AX600XT 128MB PCI Express video card $235 2 Seagate 120 GB SATA drives $93each $186 2x Corsair 512 MB DDR2 memory @139 each $278 Sony DVD+-R $98 SATA capable Power Supply $89 MGE Titanium Case $129 The Asus board allows a RAID setup with the SATA drives. My RAID setup is striped so the two Seagates act as one superfast 120 GB drive. All in all just over 1700 and that's w/o any keyboard, speakers, mouse, programs, etc. This is w/o the nice 30" Vizio LCD HD TV/monitor I just picked up at Sams for another $1400. I now have what many would call a nice gaming computer, but more important to me, is the simple satisfaction of building it myself. One hint to save a little $... buy parts via out of state internet vendor... no sales tax that way, just beware of overpriced shipping. Around Chicago we have a couple groups that run monthly or twice monthly computer shows where local or even regional computer parts vendors offer some pretty decent prices on the newest of the new parts. Call around to some independent computer vendors in your area to ask if there are any local shows. Careful shopping at these can save you quite a bit of $. I'd sworn my last home build was going to be my last and next time I'd break down and buy a prefab. Turned out I didn't this time... Maybe next time... LOL yeah, right! |
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look around the mom and pop shops for a "bare bones" system. this is a case, board, processor and sometimes bas memmory. you can reuse the drives and adapters from your old system and save a bundle. The new boards will come with onboard audio that works fine for most applications. Many will come with onboard video. the video is typically fine for home/office use but lacking for gaming. i just built a 2.8gz amd system for around 350.00. |
Here's a couple reviews that show the relative performance of the 2 chips: www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2149&p=7] ]www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=1946&p=5 If you do some reading of various CPU/vid cards, you'll see that the A64 line blows the P4s away in gaming. The P4s do better in some other applications, but for a gaming machine, they rule. Note the large difference between a 3ghz P4 vs a A64 3000. The A643200 isn't listed, but you can figure it's between the A643000 and 3500. Don't confuse the XP3200, which is an older, less capable chip. Howerver, if you want an high end A64, prepare to spend some money. I'm about to upgrade, and I'm looking at the A64 3500 90-nanometer new production, which looks to be a good overclocker. For $300ish, not bad. The next step up to a 3800+ is $608 (!). You cannot compare P4s and AMDs by clockspeed alone. The model numbers AMD used with the XP series was a fairly close comparison, but with the A64s, bah. |
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Ive Shitcanned an Emachine i havent made 3 payments on. I got a dell 8400 instead and it is 10x better for the same price and is loaded out. The emachine was from best buy. Memory bus Fried in 2nd week. Exchanged for new PC, Power supply fried 1 week, new Emachine PS. Ran 2.5 weeks MOBO fried. Put an ABit in it and it works fine. But still I got such an awesome deal on a DELL 8400 I had to do it. SO the Emachine is sitting collecting dust. Even though its basicly not an Emachine after I replaced the MOBO, RAM, Power Supply, Sound Card, hard drives, Cd drives. So considering that I basicly rebuilt it, all i got was a case -powersupply +intel processor +keyboard + mouse + CRT 17" monitor for + shitty lexmark printer still in box for $1300. Plus another $650 in parts that Ive added. Ive always built my pC's But needed a quick fix for work. Needless to say, I lost data and productivity by getting the damn off-the-shelf E machine. Do Not Buy an Emachine- EVER! EVER! EVER!,  Dell does get a crappy reputation, but they can build what you want how you want, and are usually chock full of the latest tech if you order a top end model. Check out the Dimension 8400 series. They have the newer intel CPUs, DDR2 PCI Express, etc. and come with 17" lCD for around $800. Higher End Dimension 8400 P4-3.2Ghz $599 shipped free Save $200 over normal config. Uses top of line Intel 925X Chipset, more slots than 4700 Dimension 8400 Desktop P4 540 3.2Ghz 512MB DDR2/40GB Serial ATA, Free 48x CDRW, 128MB PCI Express Radeon X300 SE Video Card, Gigabit Ethernet, 5.1 audio $599 after $150 rebate. Exp 12/8 Suggested upgrade: 512MB DDR2-533 +$30. 17in LCD +$149 LINK If thats all you need then its fine, I uppgraded mine when I ordered and got 1GB of faster 533mhz Ram, 160GB SATA HD, XP PRO, and an LCD TV and only got in the $1250 range. |