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Buying a new computer!


Panarchy

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Hello!

I want to buy a new computer, because the one I have now is 6 years old.

Any ideas?

I want a really good computer, one that will last a long time... and in case you were wondering, I don't know what my budget is at the moment.

I am thinking of buying alienware... if that's still good.

Any other suggestions will be helpful!

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

PS: I will be using this computer for programming (Visual Studio 2005 Professional), games, vista, and the whole office suite. So I want one that can run windows, not some dodgy mac that can run windows... :lol:

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No... building my own computer would be fine... but don't premade computers last longer?

Not necessarily true, self built systems can last a lot longer than prebuilt.

It depends on who builds it, if they can be stuffed doing a good job, did they have a big night earlier, etc, etc,etc.

If you do it yourself, all the above apply, but you can leave it and come back to it.

For general windows work, not 3d gaming etc, Alienware is extreme overkill, not to mention expensive.

You could have a look at Dell if you are desparate, (again expensive), but nothing beats homebuilt if you can do it.

Also with self built, you get to choose what goes in, what quality you use,and also what brands to use.

Not helpful Im sure, but my 2cents.

PS which state are you in.

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I don't know how to build one :(

BUT, thanks to your (and other people on other forums) opinion, I think I will build my own.

I think I have a book around here somewhere on how to build my own...

Can you please tell me all the parts I will need to build my own...

And then you can you please tell me what the top of the range (make sure they can work with eachother) ones are.

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

PS: By top of the range, I also want kept into account that it is going to be in my room, so I don't want one that will be super loud. My six year one is pretty loud...

PPS: I do want a good enough graphics card, for 3D gaming...

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As oldwolf said, building your own pc gives you the advantage to know what goes inside. I have already posted in your poll regarding the motherboard (I might be biased though) and if you need anything else to know, just come here and ask. We`re happy to help :hello:

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... many of them only have 1 fan which is not enough at all. ...

What the... I only have one case fan in my systems. If I connect 2 it doesn’t lower temperatures that much, just 2oC on the HDD ;).

Any way, we are dealing here with a high budged :).

Panarchy, any idea where to buy your stuff? Any computer shop close to you that has a webpage?

Basically, you need:

  • - CPU; Quad cored CPU are cheap theses days so a Q6600 from iNTEL would be a good choice.
  • - Motherboard; this depends mostly on how far you want to Overclock your system so first we need to find out if you want to OC or not. Besides that you could need eSATA, a few PCI-E 1/4x sloths, EEE1394 (firewire400) and some more features. So, let’s go for a better motherboard from ASUS or Gigabyte, P35 chipset would do fine, or if you want the latest you can take a look at the X38 chipset.
  • - RAM; Just plan and simple DDR2 on 800MHz, 2GB would be good to start with r if you like you can drop in directly 4 sticks of 1GB, a total of 4GB. Personaly I don’t like the overdone, overvolted DDR2 sticks; A 1.8volt stick would do fine from any known “brand”.
  • - Harddisks; All depends on how much speed you need. To be secure about the data you have you could directly go RAID. At this moment the Seagate 7200.11 is king in the 7200rpm hard disk world, but WesternDigital comes close to that. 500GB drives are no exception these days by the way ;).
  • - Optical drive; DVD-RW, any will do fine. Try to get a SATA model so your case will look cleaner inside. Brands Like Pioneer and LiteON are favourites among us (the Geeks :P).
  • - Readers; if you still use floppy or you have memory cards laying around, then buy one of these.
  • - PSU (Power Supply Unit); this totally depends on how much drives and how hungry your VGA card will be, but think about a PSU of 430 real Watts and up. Popular picks are Corsair HX520 and 620.
  • - Input devices; It’s hard to say what you “like”. Best way would be to go to the sop and hold the mouse in your hands and slam on some buttons of a keyboard. Popular picks are brands like Logitech and Microsoft.
  • - Monitor: much has changed in 6 years. 19” up to 24” screens are popular these days and cost way les then the 27” or higher models. It’s hard for me to guess what you “need”. 19” would give you 1440*900pix, 20” 1680*1050, 24” 1920*1200. Personally I would go with BenQ, Acer or Samsung…
  • - Housing: Any case from Antec or Coolermaster would do fine. There are other good brands too but most of the time more expensive. Just get one that uses 12cm fans so you will have a good airflow with less noise.

Did I forget something?

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Hello!

PuntoMX, fairly interesting list... I already have a 19'' Monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 940n). And for the rest, I would like to get some more opinions! As I haven't bought a computer in 6 years (back when I hardly knew how to work one)... so I would like to get a large sample of people's opinions, and pick from that!

So I'm just going to throw this out!

I have decided to rev things up a little...

By Saturday (two days away) I will buy all the parts I need.

Then I will start building my 'new' computer.

The only part that I have already decided on is;

Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme

I have yet to decide on;

1. Cooling system

2. Case

3. Video card

4. Memory

5. CPU

6. Optical Drives

7. Hard Drives

Please help me out...

Thanks in advance,

Panarchy

PS: I think I will buy a 500GB harddrive... it will go well with my brand new 400GB one (which yesterday I returned to the store because of a fault, and they sent it to the manufacturer...)

PPS: I am thinking of getting 4GB of RAM...

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Thanks... that graphics card seems to be the one that everyone is suggesting I get.

So I will update my current 'Wishlist'

Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme

Graphics Card: Nvidia 8800GT

Thanks for the info... um, that cooling thing, is it quite? Cause this computer will be in my room, so I don't want one that will be loud (my 6 year one is pretty loud)

Please reply,

Panarchy

PS: That CPU looks good, what brand?

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okay am just going to be honest with you, you are not ready to build a computer.

asking what brand that cpu is? there are only 2 brands out there and your motherboard only supports one brand.

please do some reasearching before asking questions like those, google is your #1 resource.

you may encounter many problems throughout your build if you refuse to you google.

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New WishList

Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme

Graphics Card: Nvidia 8800GT

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600

Hard Drives: Western Digital (probably a 500GB, as I have just bought a new 400GB one)

Edited by Panarchy
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