Help: Best computer right now?

[Bahir]

Ive had my computer since 1996 now, almost completely upgraded. No 3d card, 12 GB drive 400 MHz. Ill give you a moment to pick your jaws up.

Anyway, my mom has promised to get a new computer soon (she has said that for some time) but now it looks like its finaly going to happend. Neither me nor anyone in my family is skilled with computers, so we dont know what the best stuff out there is right now.

Im generally going to use this computer for games, schoolwork and DC. That means I need a good printer, good system (this includes everything; max GHz-GB, RAM and all other things that I dont know much about) good videocard (same as 3d card ). I have broadband, and we are about to upgrade it so its gonna be realy fast; therefor, I need a computer that would work well with it. Money is not the biggest issue (we've had 8 years not spending money on computers...) but I would still like it NOT to be THAT overpriced. So could you please list the best there is right now (best in each compartment) ?


I dont know if I posted this in the right place, but admins/mods are free to move it to the right section (but please dont delete it, I realy need help)

 

[MDE]

What's the budget? A hard amount is good to set so you don't end up spending $3000 on it needlessly.

Also, will you overclock?

Athlon 64 3400+ ($309)
Asus K8V ($99) I'd wait for the DFI nForce3 board to show up personally, but this should be fine if you don't overclock
2x 512MB Mushkin PC3200
eVGA GeForce 6800GT ($389)
Antec Sonata ($98)

Optical drives and hard drives can be found dirt cheap after rebates locally, so keep your eyes peeled on the Sunday papers.

 

[nick1985]

budget? what will you use it for.

 

[dennisjai215]

Originally posted by: nick1985
budget? what will you use it for.

"Im generally going to use this computer for games, schoolwork and DC. "

 

[Bahir]

A hard amount is good to set so you don't end up spending $3000 on it needlessly

Well, below 2000 would be good.

What does "overclocking" mean?

Anyway, Ive been looking at some Dell offers. They seem pretty good, as they would install the computer for you (because I dont know anything about that stuff) and there is a long-time guarantee. The problem is: would the videocard that comes along with their computer be compatable with games like Halflife 2 and any other newly released games?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Dell is a problem right now because they are trying to sell you technology that is overpriced and inferior:

* an intel Prescott processor (slower than AMD 64, runs hotter, more expensive)
* DDR-2 memory (much more expensive, not any faster)
* PCI-E instead of AGP for graphics (almost no choices for video cards)

DDR-2 and PCI-E will be great technologies someday, but are bad choices for a system this year.

You should be looking for a system that includes an AMD A64 3200+ - 3500+, nVidia fx6800GT or ATI Radeon X800 Pro graphics card, 1 GB of PC3200 DDR memory. A great pre-built system should cost under $2,000 including a legal copy of Windows.

www.abspc.com has an "Ultimate M5" system like that for $1849 (after upgrading from 6800 to 6800GT). A slower Dell XPS (P4 3.4 vs. A64 3400+) costs $2032 at Dell (upgraded to 1 GB and nv 6800GTO), but it isn't an awful choice.

 

[Wahsapa]

2000 dollars is a good budget range(unless your in canada) :thumbsup: buys a hell of a lot more then it did in 1996

athlon 64 3000+ can be had for under $200
a 6800GT will run about 400-450 but you should check the hot deals forum first. even a regular 6800(non gt) should do fine.
an asus, chinatech, or dfi motherboard is what you should look out for, runs about 80-130 bucks. the chinatech gives you a lot for the price, and money to spend on other things.
a gig of ram will run about 200-250
antec case + psu = $100
harddrive = $70-$90(x2 if you want more space)
cdrw = $80
windows = $200(depends really)
odd and ends $50

should come out to around 1300-1500, depending on what kind of deals you find. you should save atleast 500 for a monitor(flat crt is my suggestion, lcd's are overated)

check out http://anandtech.com/guides/