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Help me spend my money on a new computer!

H

hoyaguru

Senior member
It's tax refund time, and I'm going to end up with about $1100.00, and I want to spend it all on a new desktop. I'm figuring abotu $300 to $350 for a nice 19" flat screen, and with the rest I'll need a new:

Case
Power Supply
CPU
Memory
Video Card
Hard Drive

It's been years since I bought my last computer, I have no idea what's good out there. I want a real good video card with enough memory to handle graphics intensive games. A MB with room for a lot of memory so I can upgrade if I want it. Power supply that can handle everything with no problems. CPU? I have no idea what is good in the CPU world any more. Hard Drive is not real important, 80GB to 200GB shoudl be good. Any advice?
 
As much as I hate to say it. If you need a flat panel and a new computer, you might get a bigger bang for your buck buying a system. Other then that, see if you can get one of the 25% off dell lcd's going around (I just gave mine to a buddy to buy a 2001fp) and order a dell lcd then buy your parts for your computer elsewhere.

I'd go around AMD64 3800 with one of the cheaper asus nforce4 boards. You can get a gig of any ram fairly cheep and a fortran power supply to be safe. The rest is up to you.
 
If you spend 350 on the screen, you'll have about 750 left for the rest. Do you already have CD/DVD drive(s)?

If you want to do gaming, AMD tends to have better performance there so I'd recommend an Athlon 64 something or other, even a 3000+ Venice core would work well and overclocks nice (if thats your thing).

You could probably afford a 7900GT graphics card and stay under budget.

 
what will be using this rig for? gaming? general use?

video card will play a huge part in your budget if you want gaming power
 
Eleventy billion system threads in General Hardware, as well as many threads on individual parts.

If you can read this post, you might also be able to find your way to GH and have happy reading fun time!
 
Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
what will be using this rig for? gaming? general use?

video card will play a huge part in your budget if you want gaming power
Click to expand...

General use and games. As long as it can handle Spore when it comes out I'll be happy.
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Eleventy billion system threads in General Hardware, as well as many threads on individual parts.

If you can read this post, you might also be able to find your way to GH and have happy reading fun time!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I could spend 5 hours trying to find the information there, or just post here and find some helpful people real fast.
 
19" LCD - $250 (Do not pay more than $250 unless you get a really high end brand or something)

Mobo (DFI lan party ultra d) + CPU (AMD 64 Venice 3000+)- $250
Case - A decent case for $75-100
Memory - 1GB dual channel kit - OCZ brand or something, $75-100
PSU - 450watt or higher - $50-75
HDD - many deals, you shouldn't pay more than $0.25/gb so a 200gb should be no more than $50
Video Card - 6800GS maybe...$175

Combined you should be either near your budget or a good chunk under it. Those prices are all approximate off the top of my head.
 
Can you deal with rebates?

20" LCD = 320-400
Antec lanboy for 40 after rebate (often found at frys/compusa) and psu for 50 = 100
3800x2 cpu/mobo from frys/outpost = 300
6800gt or x800 gto (good deals every once in a while or hit fs/t) = 150
1gb = 70 after rebate (ocz, geil, corsair, whatever hot deal there is at the time)
160gb seagate from frys/outpost = like 70 after rebate

Comes out to a little more, but worth it in my opinion.
 
Don't get a 19" LCD monitor, totally not worth it.. Either get a 17" or a 20", period, the 17" and 19" usually have the same resolution so it's just stretched out garbage, trust me, I've got two 19" monitors and are only 1280X1024, just like the 17"s..
 
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