NEW job = which comp to get?

[ame540]

hi everyone!
i got a new job and finally have some steady income, so i want to kill my old desktop and get a new one.
Has anyone seen any really good deals on new computers?
This is what im looking at right now, its a dell system:

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.40GHz with 533MHz system bus/ 512K L2 Cache,
1GB PC800 RDRAM(4x256M modules),
New 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4? Ti 4200 Graphics Card with TV Out and DVI ,
80GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM Hard Drive

with some other crap... but i really need alot of processing power, i want to run my mp3 exchange server on this computer along with some other crap. Video editing may come later.. do people think i should get the 128MB ATi card?

any input would be great, im looking to spend around $2000.

thanks!

 

[MrDudeMan]

doesnt matter if you get the ATI card, but 128mb is nice all the time anyways....


personally i think you should build your own...better price : Performance ratio

for 2 g's, a ti4200, 80gb drive, and a 2.4 arent gonna cut it. im sure others will have more intelligent things to say, but i wouldnt jump on this deal quite yet.

 

[ame540]

yeah, i hear ya on the build your own system idea, but i had a not so great experience
before doing it myself, it was kinda a pain in the ass, and id almost not mind paying more just to have it
work right the first time.... have legit XP keys, etc....
i dunno maybe im just wasting my money doing it "the right way"
but again i have lots of time to think about it, and so im looking for peoples opinions..

anyone else wanna bash me?

 

[amdskip]

I'll build ya one if you run an AMD XP processor

 

[Bovinicus]

I think the precise reason to build a computer yourself is so that it works right. I always have mysterious problems when using pre-built systems. My computer runs flawlessly, and often for a week or two without rebooting it. Also, you don't have to deal with the company's BS software that they load onto your system without your permission. Plus, you can always buy a copy of Windows XP and install it yourself... I can understand why one might want to buy a pre-built system, but since I have made a setup my own, I have never gone back. If you do plan to get one, then Dell is the best way to go. Compaq and HP are just garbage.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: ame540
yeah, i hear ya on the build your own system idea, but i had a not so great experience
before doing it myself, it was kinda a pain in the ass, and id almost not mind paying more just to have it
work right the first time.... have legit XP keys, etc....
i dunno maybe im just wasting my money doing it "the right way"
but again i have lots of time to think about it, and so im looking for peoples opinions..

anyone else wanna bash me?

hey now, i was not bashing you


i will build you a system for the cost of the parts and shipping if you would like. i want the practice and the experience. i build systems on a weekly basis and i learn something new everytime. just something to think about...


anyways, keep looking around and see what you can come up with.




btw, if you want the truth in the matter, the processor speed makes NO DIFFERENCE at all. a pIII 1ghz vs a p4 2.8ghz...you wont see a difference as long as you have a fast hard drive. that is the best advice i can give you...get a FAST hard drive! get a western digital special edition drive and the rest doesnt matter (well, of course it does, but not nearly as much as this)

 

[Mardeth]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan


btw, if you want the truth in the matter, the processor speed makes NO DIFFERENCE at all. a pIII 1ghz vs a p4 2.8ghz...you wont see a difference as long as you have a fast hard drive. that is the best advice i can give you...get a FAST hard drive! get a western digital special edition drive and the rest doesnt matter (well, of course it does, but not nearly as much as this)

It does make a great difference if you for example play UT 2003 . Maybe when your loading a program, the first few second depend on the HDD but after that its only the processor (usually). Byt yes, if you use Notepad, IE, Word or some other quite light program you cant see any difference between those two processors. But he said hes gonna run a server or something and becouse of that hell need a fast processor and fast HDD but the one he has now chosen should do the trick but I would definately go for the Seagate Barracuda 4.

 

[Duvie]

Yeah mrdudeman can bring me that POS 1ghz p3 and encode one of my divx movies in 2hrs but unfortunately it would take more like 8hours....cpu means a lot in video editing, video encoding, in gaming to a point, mp3 encoding, and thelist goes on...don't listen to that crap!!! Trust me it is significant and I am not just talking about running benchmarks. I don't run any gaming benchmarks but run many real world programs and bench at different sppeds to show guys here the performance gains as well as if some programs like more cpu power or more memory.


You know....I know a lot of ppl getting dells in the last 2 years and you know what??? The award winnning services is starting to suck!!! I am hearing nothing but complaints. If you can troubleshoot softare and an occasional hardware issue you will be fine though and go with what makes you feel comfortable...

An intel p4 setup is really quite easy to build and hard to damage to cpu and install the hsf...You may want to think about it...other then the OS from dell in price you should be able to easily beat any of their prices when buying it yourself. Think about it this way at least you get a real copy of an OS not that 1 disc does all shite they give you.

 

[Sunner]

I'd go with DDR SDRAM instead of Rambus, not so much due to price differences and such, but cause you might wanna use it for other comps in the future, and DDR's future looks bright while RDRAM's future is extremely uncertain in the PC arena.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Duvie
Yeah mrdudeman can bring me that POS 1ghz p3 and encode one of my divx movies in 2hrs but unfortunately it would take more like 8hours....cpu means a lot in video editing, video encoding, in gaming to a point, mp3 encoding, and thelist goes on...don't listen to that crap!!! Trust me it is significant and I am not just talking about running benchmarks. I don't run any gaming benchmarks but run many real world programs and bench at different sppeds to show guys here the performance gains as well as if some programs like more cpu power or more memory.


You know....I know a lot of ppl getting dells in the last 2 years and you know what??? The award winnning services is starting to suck!!! I am hearing nothing but complaints. If you can troubleshoot softare and an occasional hardware issue you will be fine though and go with what makes you feel comfortable...

An intel p4 setup is really quite easy to build and hard to damage to cpu and install the hsf...You may want to think about it...other then the OS from dell in price you should be able to easily beat any of their prices when buying it yourself. Think about it this way at least you get a real copy of an OS not that 1 disc does all shite they give you.

oops, i forgot about the server and the video editing. for that, it makes a great deal of difference, but at first, i thought you were just building a system that you wanted to just mess around with. my bad.

however, i still put my emphasis on getting the fastest hard drive. SCSI would always be nice, but conventionally, the WD SE IDE drives are quite nice.

 

[ame540]

 

[ame540]

hey, thanks for all the great input guys.

mrdudeman... i know u werent bashin me, i just dont want people to hold back on their ideas...

i do know alot more about computers now than when i did build that last system and i have confidence that this one would be alot better.
i have a copy of XP pro that should install fine on a new comp... im running my laptop with it right now, (with service pack 1) all with no problems. (shhhhh *knock on wood*)
if i do build myself a system, i have alot more decisions to make... (which motherboard to get, RAM configuration, etc) but i have by all means not ruled it out.

im definately going to go P4 though, im sick of being bottlenecked by not enough processing power... i dont want it to happen if im gonna spend all this money. Video editing is definately in my future, ive been doing alot on my friends computer and not having enough resources sucks!

do u think 512 MB of DDR SDram is gonna keep me happy for a while?

keep those comments coming!