Help in purchasing a new computer

[iluvjo]

Hello. I am in need of advice in buying a new computer. This computer's specs would be geared towards gaming, 3 games in particular: Half Life 2, Doom 3, and mainly World of Warcraft. I cannot spend more than $2000 and was looking at the Dell XPS setups. I am not the most computer literate person out there, so building a computer is not really an option, and I need this computer to last me a good while, at least a few years. I was just hoping someone could answer some questions.

1)Is now a good time to buy a new computer or is there something coming out soon hardware-wise that I just just wait a month or two for?

2) Which video card is best to fit my needs? I keep reading the Nvidia cars are slow with DirectX 9.0.

3)I would prefer a Dell(from experience), but is there a better option(Remember $2000 or so max)? Alienware looks good too, but they don't include a monitor.

4) What's this PCIExpress(I think that's what it's called) and should I wait for it?

5.)AMD or Intel?


Thanks so much for your help.

 

[buckmasterson]

PC World does a pretty good job reviewing systems. I subscribe to the mag and have been a member for about 7 years. Text

Take a look at this month's rankings. I'd advise you subscribe to it too. They have a lot of help stuff for new people.

Oh, welcome to the forums iluvjo!!!!

 

[Bucksnort]

If you are wanting a system with good video card im not sure if dell will fit the bill. They and other mainstream builders use a weak power supply and the newer cards need a minimum 350w ps.Last time i looked dells main card was a geforce 4 440mx which absolutely sucks. The radeons do beat fx cards in dx9 at this time but there is rumor of a revised directx to come out that will fix some of that. The pci express will be the new faster graphics port making agp obsolute in the future. New systems with pci express will need a new generation video card and those are going to be expensive. You may want to look at alienwares at best buy or falcon northwest. You could get either of those for around 2000 bucks without a monitor. My suggestion is if you want a great quality computer which has all retail parts, is fully upgradeable and you do not want to buld one then get a falcon. I did 3 years ago and mine has been upgraded some by myself lately and its still a very fast computer. Only the best is used in a falcon. give them a look and talk to one of the very knowlegable sales person. As far as a dell, hp compaq etc I have no recommendations. They are good for the general non power user who wants to dicker with a few low power games and email, word processing, chatting etc.
http://www.falcon-nw.com/
ps, I have owned dell in the past.

 

[Regs]

2000 dollars is a great budget if you plan to build one yourself. The only thing you might not able to buy with 2000, is maybe a 21 in LCD screen.

I'll get back to you once the games come out. Which should be in 3-12 months

 

[jskagg]

check out Velocity Micro Computers. They are more expensive than dell, but less so then alienware, falcon northwest, voodoo, overdrive pc, hypersonic, screamworx, and the such. They get pretty good Reseller Ratings. Also check out their system reviews done by CNet, and others done by PCMag(Velocity Micro Vision 64,Velocity Micro DX-W). The ones they tested are more expensive then your price range but I was just posting them to give the Velocity Micro credit as being a good dealer. Mess around with configurations on their site. Go under the Home & Office computer tab on their site to begin.

I must admit I am in the market for a new pc as well and will be purchasing somewhere in april-june. Velocity Micro is the front runner in my picks as of now but Dell is up there for price reasons. I don't have any experience with either as I am on a 4 year old iMac right now(A WONDERFUL computer as I have had ZERO problems). I am getting a pc though for gaming, and college purposes and that I must learn to be very comfortable with them as they are the more commonly used in the business world. The main reason I have Velocity Micro above Dell is that they use all retail parts and you can get no propriety parts. This means you can get a name brand good PSU like Antec TRUEpower series, a known motherboard, and the such. You will be able to find information on each component online so that you know everything will work together before buying. The name brand parts will also run the computer smoother and it is nice to know what company made what part and what it is EXACTLY.

AMD will probably cut prices some time this month on there processors(Feb 15?) so wait untill then at LEAST. AMD will also be moving from socket 754 to socket 939 which will create a new upgrade path. I can't give you all the technical jargon as to what this means in full but I do no that the socket 754, although it will continue to be supported for sometime, is nearing its end of potential upgrades (Ending with the AMD64 3700+ I think). That means socket 939 will be much easier to find better upgrade options when you decide to upgrade, in your case years down the road hopefully. This socket change is rumoured to happen around March 29 or a little there after. Intel also has some good cpu's with Hyperthreading which is nice when running many DEMANDING programs at once. Personally as of now I plan to go with a AMD64 bit processor as I see them to be a little more future proof with 64 bit computing being discussed more and more each day. Don't expect a 64bit windows for over a year though as the recently released beta expires in 360 days so this is where I get this estimate.

For a video card as of now I think ATI Radeons have the edge in performance but their drivers are sometimes not as forgiving as those of NVIDIA. The power needed to run Half Life 2 and Doom 3 is not yet known so it is hard to make a estimate of what would be good. Right now I think the Radeon 9800pro 128mb video card would be a good card for those games but others may have better insight.

For the monitor I would recommend buying it separate from the system at newegg or monitorsdirect.com as it should be cheaper then combining it with a system from a vendor except for maybe the exception of Dell. NEC/Mitsubishi, Viewsonic, Hitachi, and Samsung all have good CRT monitors. I don't know if you were planning to go with LCD or CRT but for gaming a CRT would be preferred as it can deliver a faster response time. A good 19" would make you very happy, check out the NEC/Mitsubishi Diamondpro 930sb for the best quality although be it more expensive, the NEC/Mitsubishi FE990 is a less expensive toned down version of the 930. The Hitachi CM721FB is also a great monitor. For a less expenisve monitor that many use and love the Samsung 955DF does not disappoint much.

Overall I recommend you wait awhile but don't get too drawn in to release dates. Technology is constantly changing and evolving to better things. If you do not buy at some point you will wait forever for the "Next Best Thing". I am interested to hear what you decide to go with though as I will be purchasing eventually as well. Please keep in touch in this thread!

 

[wetcat007]

LCD's are geting good for gaming either a 17 inch 16ms or a 20 inch 16 ms will work well

 

[Zinn2b]

I Build Gaming systems for gamers and these are very nice machines as far as DEll and the rest go I can give you more bang for the buck we have an instant replacement policy.3 year full guarantee on all parts lifetime on video,memory and 5 year on hardrive's my web site is www.raidcomputers.com we are redoing are web so its not up to date all gaming pc's come with dual raptor harddrive's in my opion our machines are better looking than the other manufactors other than Alien Ware's we are currently working with LIAN LI to overcome that problem. My phone number is (507)437-6474 $2000 well not get you our top of the line gamer but it well get you a very nice machine your friend Zinn2b

 

[MDE]

Building your own PC isn't really all that hard (heck, I put my own together when I was 10) so I'd try it out. If you want to buy it prebuilt though, I've heard good things about ABS computers.

1) ATI and Nvidia should be releasing new chips in a couple months, so I'd wait for those.
2) Same as #1. Keep in mind that Nvidia is faster than ATI in OpenGL (which DoomIII will use).
3) Not really sure.
4) PCI Express is a new type of expansion slot, but IMO it isn't imperative that you wait for it as PCI cards will be around for a while. (Remember how long ISA stuck around?)
5) Whichever you get a better deal on, but I'd say AMD for gaming.