I have $1500 and need the best i can get!

[DBavaria]

I have $1500 and need the best i can get!
I'm wondering what can i get?

Here is somthing i whipped up tell me how it is

Inwin ATX Mid Tower 250Watts Case
AMD Athlon 950MHz
Gigabyte GA-71XE Mobo
128MB (One Piece) SDRAM
20GB Ultra 66/33 HD
10X DVD ROM
Matrox G400 32MB AGP (Single Monitor Output)
Sound Blaster Live! Value
Altec Lansing ACS45.2
Zoom PCI 56K V.90 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
ABS Scroll Mouse
Internet Keyboard (No NT Support)
*Total: $1464.00*

AND $350 - KDS AV-195TF Monitor

What do you think gimme your opinions

 

[zippy]

Get the 300w power supply...your athlon will thank you.

 

[konichiwa]

Get a p3 700E with cB0 stepping and overclock it until it bleeds. Get yourself the Asus 815 mobo and some pc133 RAM. The rest looks nice, except I agree with zippy about the 300W ps even if you're not going to get an Athlon.

Make sure you don't get a winmodem!

 

[DBavaria]

what do you think about the GA-7IXE you think i can overclock with it?

 

[LXi]

Gigabyte boards overclocks like my grandma. Try Asus, MSI or Abit if you want to overclock.

 

[Thanatopsis]

Why not get a socket A mobo and an Athlon?

That will leave you a better upgrade path and give you an easier time for overclocking if you can change the multiplier.

 

[DarkManX]

get altec lansing ACS56 instead.

 

[DBavaria]

now my dad is refusing to let me build my own, anyone know a good site i can order a custom configured computer from???? (a smaller brand , since they tend to give more for ur money)

 

[LXi]

gamepc.com? Never been there before, I heard that they built machines base on your selection of parts.

 

[konichiwa]

I ordered from a company called Cantek awhile back, they were pretty good...http://www.cantekusa.com. Try to talk your dad out of it, though, because you'll most likely save some dough and you can always come here to troubleshoot. That's what we're for.

 

[steelthorn]

Your dad should let you build your own computer. It's the best way to learn about computers. If you can't though, go with a Dell computer. They are the fastest out of all the oems.

 

[veryape]

Your father must have about $1000.00 extra dollars lying around. If he is just going to pay that much money for someone to talk to him on the phone just tell him to mail me the money(paypal is fine)and i'll talk his ear off for $1000.00. Since building your own would get you the same manufacturer warranties and the only extra thing you get for your money is free(sometimes you still pay depending on company)tech support via the phone and they will fix it just like you could with your warranty. Building your own system is a great experience and a monkey could do it so in my opinion bying pre-fab proprietary no name parts is no bargain because you will definitely get your use of tech support which is not a good thing. So to sum it all up what your father is telling you is that he would rather spend his/your hard earned money on cheap parts and laber(oh and don't forget that quality tech support) instead of giving you a free lesson in building a QUALITY system with name brand parts that you can actually upgrade in the future instead of having to buy a new system because companies don't build thier systems with upgradability because they want you to buy a whole new system. Sounds like a bargain to me. You should try to explain these aspects to your father before you end up wasting a lot of cash that could be spent on good parts instead of proprietary junk. Take it from someone who has been on both sides of the fence. You get a much better system if you build it yourself and you learn somnething you ill definitely use again in the future and it is really not that hard. Believe me.

 

[Howard]

If you can't build your own, the ABSOLUTE BEST PLACE TO BUY A PRE-BUILT COMPUTER IS COMPUCHEAP! LONG LIVE RUSS!

, http://www.compucheap.com/

 

[Ulysses]

It's too bad that your Dad won't let you build a PC. Building one can be a lot of fun. OTOH it can be a bigger job than you think if you haven't done it before, and if things get screwed up you are own to get it fixed. Also, building a PC won't save you much money, when you count in the cost of software and/or the the cost of your own time.

If you decide to buy one "off the shelf" I'd recommend Dell if you want one with an Intel CPU (like a Pentium III) or Gateway if you want one with an AMD CPU (like a new Athlon/Thunderbird or Duron). Those company's give excellent service and make fine PC's. The only downiside to buying like this is that you probably won't be able to overclock this kind of PC, which may or not matter to you. I would avoid buying a PC at one of the large mass retailers.

If you are going to buy from a semi-custom on-line type of place, like http://www.gamepc.com, be sure to check the vendor's rating with http://www.resellerratings.com/.

If your Dad relents and lets you build one, then you can search for prices at http://www.pricewatch.com/ or http://ibuyer.net/. You might want to pick vendor to buy most components with, to make record keeping easier. I've used http://mwave.com myself and been happy, but there are many others.

You might want to take a look at the following, some sections of which may be applicable to you:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=199398