[blue]

For graduation my parents have graciously bestowed upon me $1000 for a computer, laptop or desktop. I'm debating between the two...1000 bucks on a laptop will get me something entry leve, but for a desktop something more. I've been looking at uBid and there are plenty of deals to be had, but they're mostly on desktops. Any suggestions for sites to look at/obscure brands to look for?

My criteria:

-AMD Athlon XP/64 or Pentium 4...speed isn't THAT important, just over 2ghz.
-512mb RAM
-80GB HDD
-128mb vid card, either a GeForce or Radeon
-DVD burner

Everything else is pretty flexible...I just can't find a damned laptop in my range with the above equipment. Anger.

 

[bjanga]

Do you want to play video games?
Are you gonna want to be able to lug your laptop to the library?

I have a dell laptop with a 64mb video card, P4 2.8 and 512 RAM. If I had to do it over again I would have bought a desktop, but I like games.

 

[korked7]

dude... get a totally awesome computer cause they're totally awesome. and utah is totally awesome.... actually no.... those are crap... build your own really nice computer for 1000... or save an other 2 G's and get a powerbook like i did

 

[Silver]

My wife's laptop died a couple months ago, and she got a kick ass Dell for 1K. Dual layer CD burner, huge screen, Centrino.

If you like games though, get a desktop.

 

[ummbikes]

One of my techs (I'm the service manager for a IT firm) just bought a Dell desktop, P4 3.0ghz, SATA 80 gig HDD, 128mb PCI express video card, and a 19" LCD monitor for $899.

That's what I would buy.

 

[blue]

Yeah, thats the problem...lots of the laptops I've looked at aren't really game capable, and I like my games. I'm not that concerned about space issues (I won't be living in a dorm), but I love the portability and lappy offers. I just can't get one with guts within my budget.

My current (family) machine is an Athlon 2200+ XP with 512mb and a Geforce 4MX440 128, and it doesn't have any problems running anything yet...I just want to not have to buy another machine for a few years.

 

[narlus]

H8R spec'd a killer machine for me which was just at 1K. i moved some stuff over, and went crazy on hard drives, but you should be able to get what you want for much less than going pre-packaged.

 

[BrokenChain]

I've been really looking at the ABS desktop systems on newegg.com. The only problem is I am extremely monetarily challenged. This is the one I'm looking at. All you need is a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

 

[H8R]

H8R spec'd a killer machine for me which was just at 1K. i moved some stuff over, and went crazy on hard drives, but you should be able to get what you want for much less than going pre-packaged.

Blue:

Look at the spec on Narlus' machine and take out the more expensive drives and you should be golden.
Read the whole thread:

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116057&page=1&pp=15


Get it all from Newegg and grab a friend who knows computers to build it. You'll have a killer rig for the money.

 

[Anders]

dude... get a totally awesome computer cause they're totally awesome. and utah is totally awesome.... actually no.... those are crap... build your own really nice computer for 1000... or save an other 2 G's and get a powerbook like i did

judging by his post, i suspect he wouldnt know where to start. im on my second dell and i love them

 

[bjanga]

If you are gonna go desktop, think about building one up yourself. I have decent computer hardware literacy and I put together a desktop with a serial ATA harddrive in an afternoon . . . before that I think I had seen the inside of a computer twice. Also, look for a motherboard that supports PCI-express video cards.

 

[sanjuro]

Dude:

$ ps -ef | grep 4212 | cut -f1 -d' ' | sort -nr | uniq

 

[Ciaran]

Blue:

Look at the spec on Narlus' machine and take out the more expensive drives and you should be golden.
Read the whole thread:

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116057&page=1&pp=15


Get it all from Newegg and grab a friend who knows computers to build it. You'll have a killer rig for the money.

Ask Narlus for his software dealer's name. I'm sure he'll help you out.

 

[binary visions]

Ask Narlus for his software dealer's name. I'm sure he'll help you out.

I wouldn't trust that bastard. I heard he wears women's clothing...

 

[blue]

Blue:

Look at the spec on Narlus' machine and take out the more expensive drives and you should be golden.
Read the whole thread:

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116057&page=1&pp=15


Get it all from Newegg and grab a friend who knows computers to build it. You'll have a killer rig for the money.

Newegg...old egghead!? Oh mang, I remember back in the day when I was like...6...I'd flip through those catalogs lusting after the new 486s...mmmm. I still have a 486. Mwah.

I've built plenty of computers in the past, so I'm not gonna have to worry about it, but I haven't done so in quite awhile, and after my bikelust I sort of lost interest in computers and freaking over specs and stuff for the most part, so I'm somewhat not-on-the-cutting-edge. I really would like to buy it complete, but I can build it if I need to. The Dells are nice, but all of the name brand comps spec crap for vidcards at that pricepoint, so I may have to go towards an unknown brand or build my own...

 

[JRB]

I wouldn't trust that bastard. I heard he wears women's clothing...

Wait, I thought that was hip.

 

[blue]

All right, bad news, my budget has been slashed to $700.

How good is the refurbed stuff at NewEgg? My current spec clocks in at $612 and has the following stuff:

-ASUS Socket 754 nVidia nForce 3 250 AMD mobo (refurbed)

-AMD Athlon 64+ 3000 Newcastle IIC FSB CPU (refurbed)

-Generic black case...I don't care much about noise/front ports, just need room and cooling

-DVDRW burner, and then a DVDROM/CDRW drive...both Sony...both black

-Samsung SpinPoint 160GB 7200 RPM IDE ATA133 HDD...think 7200 RPM would be too slow for that big of a drive? I have a 40 gb music collection, but I can probably raid this computers extra 40GB drive as well.

-512 MB OCZ performance SDRAM DDR (184 pin, PC3200)

-ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro 128mb AGP vid card (refurbed)...I'm not sure about this one. I haven't kept up to date on my video card specs, and all these new GeForce numbers confuse me. This one is 100 bucks, and I have a little bit of wiggle room, but not much. I want to be able to run my games nicely and smoothly, but it doesn't have to be a Ferarri...I like the TV tuner capabilities of the All in wonder, as there's a good chance I won't be buying a TV, but I'm still unsure. Does clock speed matter a ton?

Suggestions...comments...thoughts?

 

[blue]

Okay, i've ditched the mobo and vidcard after reading up on PCI Express and gone with an ECS 754 Socket NVIDIA nForce4 AMD mobo, but I'm still undecided on a vid card. What should I look for in the new stuff? I'm backing slightly away from the need for a TV tuner...

Edit:

I like this one...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814128198R

1100mhz mem clock+256bit interface? I like. Trying to keep the vid card at or around 100 bucks.

 

[dhtahoe]

Yeah, thats the problem...lots of the laptops I've looked at aren't really game capable, and I like my games.

Get the desktop. I have what you decribed above. It plays 3 flight sims with very complex aircraft on it and I can count rivet lines and panel lap joints. AI air traffic is clear as day. Water is so real if I fly a seaplane too much I have to pee. All on an ATI Radion 300x 128mb card. If you want to play some of the new games such as Half Life 2 you better get a 256 mb card. Stay away from the GeForce some games do not like it.

 

[dhtahoe]

Dell Dimension 4700 with the P4 is about $699 ready to go. It has everything you need and can be upgraded in no time. My vid card was $75 and upgrade to 512mb was another $40. All the new stuff is plug and play... you just put the new card in an connect the monitor. And always make your folks aware that when it come to computers you get what you pay for. So easy to upgrade now as long as the mother board is good you can build some bad ass systems. Make sure it has PCI/PCIe or AGP slots to do that kind of thing.

 

[blue]

My parents know, my dad's an embedded software engineer...I currently like my setup, although I'm not sure about the GeForce. It seems to outperform the ATI on all counts, but like you said, some games don't seem to like them. I've got a monitor, although it's not going to match the rest of everything with my budget...

I tried customizing that Dell to the specs I have now and it was too much money. People say the GeForce 6600GT sucks...don't want ATI...ATI bad...bad ATI...

 

[blue]

Get the desktop. I have what you decribed above. It plays 3 flight sims with very complex aircraft on it and I can count rivet lines and panel lap joints. AI air traffic is clear as day. Water is so real if I fly a seaplane too much I have to pee. All on an ATI Radion 300x 128mb card. If you want to play some of the new games such as Half Life 2 you better get a 256 mb card. Stay away from the GeForce some games do not like it.

Reading things about the ATI 300x I've learned of poor FPS issues. I think I will get a GeForce 6600 with 256mb of VRAM. Affordable, powerful, overclockable. I like it.

 

[bjanga]

I BELIEVE that card also (barely) supports some super-dooper lighting effects too, search for far cry HDR . . .

you will probably want to buy more ram once you get $$$, too.

 

[Pau11y]

All right, bad news, my budget has been slashed to $700.

How good is the refurbed stuff at NewEgg? My current spec clocks in at $612 and has the following stuff:

**Save some more $$ to meet the specs below

-ASUS Socket 754 nVidia nForce 3 250 AMD mobo (refurbed)

**change this to a MSI K8N Neo2 for AGP or Neo4 for PCI-EX. I'd prob stay w/AGP as PCI-E still needs to mature. The Neos are socket 939. The 754 form factor is coming to an end and AMD is starting to focus on 939, especially for their dual cores. Dual cores are supposed to be supported by any 939 boards w/ a BIOS flash (MSI is in their testing phase for the Neo2s - I just bought one on ebay for $85.00, used for 2 weeks w/ all retail goodies).
BTW, I swear I was running SLI w/ the old 3DFX Voodoo II (x2) cards YEARS ago. They're now bringing that back in the newer PCI-E standards...

-AMD Athlon 64+ 3000 Newcastle IIC FSB CPU (refurbed)

**Get the A64 w/ San Diego cores that has 1mb of L2 cache. They start at 3700+ for around $330.00 at zipzoomfly.com. Retail or OEM is no big except in the case of warranty.

-Generic black case...I don't care much about noise/front ports, just need room and cooling

**Aluminum cases do better for cooling and they cost around $50 - $80 these days

-DVDRW burner, and then a DVDROM/CDRW drive...both Sony...both black

**Seperating these two is good as a combo will never run as fast as a dedicated drive

-Samsung SpinPoint 160GB 7200 RPM IDE ATA133 HDD...think 7200 RPM would be too slow for that big of a drive? I have a 40 gb music collection, but I can probably raid this computers extra 40GB drive as well.

**Think you might want to do a RAID 1 w/ dual 120 SATAs. I have over 240gb of MP3s and it'd break my heart if I lost those. I went w/ a Promise Supertrak SX6000, a 6 channel IDE RAID 5 card using 6 80s. My point is a mirrored dual drive system will give your data just that little bit of security.

-512 MB OCZ performance SDRAM DDR (184 pin, PC3200)

**Bump this to a gig. BTW the 400mhz RAM speed is max supported by Neo2.

-ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro 128mb AGP vid card (refurbed)...I'm not sure about this one. I haven't kept up to date on my video card specs, and all these new GeForce numbers confuse me. This one is 100 bucks, and I have a little bit of wiggle room, but not much. I want to be able to run my games nicely and smoothly, but it doesn't have to be a Ferarri...I like the TV tuner capabilities of the All in wonder, as there's a good chance I won't be buying a TV, but I'm still unsure. Does clock speed matter a ton?

**This is a good card and will be fine running just about everything out there buttery smooth. It is also VERY overclockable. You can even download a BIOS flash to get this thing turned into an ATI Radeon 9800XT (ATI's top dog AGP card).

Suggestions...comments...thoughts?

**Last thing, get a good power supply. Don't buy a POS PSU and expect your system to be stable.

The end

 

[blue]

Allright...sorry Pau11y, I'm probably going in a different direction. I'm not too enthused with the ATI stuff, and the 939 is out of my pricerange. I like the PCI-express stuff, and I want to be able to get a new videocard in the new standard if I wanted to. I do have a spare 40GB ATA hdd I will be using to backup everything important on. My new board has capacity for 3gb, I think I will get an extra 512 stick when $$ allows. I really don't have money to save at this point, it would be winter by the time I could get all the stuff you suggested.

Here's the current loadout...it's changed a lot:

ECS NFORCE4-A754 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$70.25

ASPIRE X-Dreamer II ATXB4KLW-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail
$55.00

SONY Black IDE DVD Burner Model DW-D26A BLK - OEM
$46.99

SAMSUNG SpinPoint P Series SP1213C 120GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM (I've just been informed this is sketchy...maybe I'll go with a standard ATA in the same price range)
$80.00

Logitech Internet Pro Desktop 967457-0403 Black PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - OEM
$21.00

OCZ Performance 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model OCZ400512R3 - Retail
$59.47

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 754 Processor Model ADA3000AXBOX - Retail
$146.00

Logitech X-230 32 Watts 2.1 Speaker - Retail
$39.00

Apollo 6600PCX Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - OEM
$135.20

Grand Total, sans shipping: $652.91

Everything is brand new except the vid card (refurbed). I like the current spec...solid machine, not a total rocket machine, but will run everything fine. I think this will be it.