Thing is, I know jack shit about parts -- I've been out of the loop for ~ 3 years. All I know is that core 2 Duo chips kick all kinds of ass and then some.
So, here's the challenge: help me build a system from scratch with the following taken into consideration
Budget: $2,500 - $3,000.
Planned Lifespan: At least 3 years without upgrades (current system lasted that long).
Usage: Primarily high end games. Also basic video and photo editing.
Monitor: Need an LCD of 19 inches or greater. Ideally, I'd like to fit the monitor into the budget. But this can be worked with.
Requirements: No generic parts, particularly RAM. I'd like stuff that is highly reputable. Quality warranties are a plus.
Purchase timeframe: Before the end of the year.
Other stuff: I refuse to overclock, so please don't factor that in (I.E. I won't buy a cheaper processor and overclock it to save a hundred bucks).
So, lets see what you all can do for me here. I'm talking to many people about this, I want to get the best value for my money.
(Also note -- I don't need a new copy of Windows XP. I have a spare key for a copy of Pro.) Falaanla Marr fucked around with this message on 10-18-2006 at 02:29 AM.
ProcessorIntel® Core2 Duo processor E6400 (2.13GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD
MEMORY2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMsedit
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
MONITOR 20 inch Ultrasharp 2007FP Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card
SOUND CARD Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic (D) Sound Card
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service
PROTECTION AGAINST ACCIDENTS CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service 2Yr
Grand total of $2972 plus tax (and minus any coupons) Sabratiz fucked around with this message on 10-18-2006 at 02:50 AM.
, but ~250 normally Total cost is roughly 2700 + Tax and Shipping
It was hard for me to waste all that money but I did it. You seriously only need to spend 1500-2000 at most on a new computer. With this much money you kind of want a Kentsfield, which isn't out yet.
Edit: I'm not sure if the power supply is sufficient, which is kind of sad, but I think it is. Noxhil2 fucked around with this message on 10-18-2006 at 04:13 AM.
Edit2: It makes a lot more sense to build your own, as you will get a ton more for your money. Furthermore, for reasons explained in Tarquinn's thread, waiting is probably correct right now.
I wasnt almost as futureproof of a system as possible and if I don't quite get the absolute most bang for the buck that I can (by, say, going with less of a system), so be it.
quote:
Falaanla Marr had this to say about Duck Tales:
Nox: I'm curious, why do I only need to spend 1500-2000 dollars? Will it last me for 3+ years and last well? If not, it defeats my purpose.I wasnt almost as futureproof of a system as possible and if I don't quite get the absolute most bang for the buck that I can (by, say, going with less of a system), so be it.
Because it isn't 1996 anymore. Computers should simply not cost more than that. And any differences you're going to find between a $2,000 computer and a $3,000 computer will be very small and completely invalidated within the 3 months, by new technology.
If you want a top of the line machine, it's impossible to make a single purchase and have it last you three years. Especially right now, where CPU makers are going away from Ghz, and adding more Cores to their chips.
Buy a Dual Core now, Quad Core will be out in 6 months. By a Quad Core, you'll see an 8 or 16 Core eventually as well.
quote:
Reynar Model 2000 was programmed to say:
Because it isn't 1996 anymore. Computers should simply not cost more than that. And any differences you're going to find between a $2,000 computer and a $3,000 computer will be very small and completely invalidated within the 3 months, by new technology.If you want a top of the line machine, it's impossible to make a single purchase and have it last you three years. Especially right now, where CPU makers are going away from Ghz, and adding more Cores to their chips.
Buy a Dual Core now, Quad Core will be out in 6 months. By a Quad Core, you'll see an 8 or 16 Core eventually as well.
Are the current motherboards going to support these chips with extra cores on them? Or will I need to buy a new motherboard for each of them?
That's the only real reason I can't just upgrade this machine; AGP is a dated graphics standard 
quote:
A sleep deprived Falaanla Marr stammered:
Nox: I'm curious, why do I only need to spend 1500-2000 dollars? Will it last me for 3+ years and last well? If not, it defeats my purpose.I wasnt almost as futureproof of a system as possible and if I don't quite get the absolute most bang for the buck that I can (by, say, going with less of a system), so be it.
Pretty much what other people said.
For me, if I had the $$$ to buy a new desktop, (err, I mean if I was willing to spend the money I have... which I'm not because my MBP serves me fine) there's a lot of places I would look to get more value out of my money. The processor for example. In V1.0 of that computer I put together, it had an X6800 and came out to about 3k, but I just couldn't bring myself to recommend a $950 processor; it was pretty hard to recommend a $500 processor anyway.
I mean, the cheapest Conroe, the E6300 is $183 and has been safely and reliably pushed to the speed of a X6800 by tons of people already, because Intel VERY conservatively clocked all these new Conroe chips, moreso the low-end. You don't want to overclock, which is certainly you choice, but you could even buy it now and when it started to be a bit sluggish, THEN try and see what you could do with ti. I dunno. It's still less than $200 with the potential to perform like $950.
There is definitely a certain allure to buying a top-of-the-line computer, but it just really doesn't make sense anymore. Prices for midrange a mid-high range components are consistently great bargains; high end components (in this case the Memory, Proc and Graphics card) are charged a serious premium. Yes, you could get aa 8800GTX for 650 and it would be fantastic and last a good while. Or, in a couple months you can snage the inevitable 8800GT for <300, which is comparable performance for half the price. (I don't know their actual release plan, but this is how the GF6s and 7s went so...) I can look later at what you can do for 1000 less, or someone else can. If you decide to just go ahead and spend 3k, WAIT FOR KENTSFIELD!! Noxhil2 fucked around with this message on 10-18-2006 at 02:14 PM.
Big price gap, small performance difference.
quote:
Falaanla Marr thought this was the Ricky Martin Fan Club Forum and wrote:
Alienware or Dell
Same company now. I'm kinda wondering when Dell will drop their XPS line in favor of the Alienware systems.
quote:
Random Insanity Generator stopped beating up furries long enough to write:
Same company now. I'm kinda wondering when Dell will drop their XPS line in favor of the Alienware systems.
I realize this. But the systems, for now, are still different. I wasn't talking which company, but which actual system.
But yeah. Right now, quad core is going to be released next month. Apperently so are the GeForce 8 cards. If those don't sufficiently trounce over something like a 7950GX2 though, I wouldn't bother with them. DX10 is a nice idea and all, but it's going to be another year or so until we actually see games that utilize it. At that point there will be another generation of cards out that will hopefully be less power hungery, cooler running and better performing.
