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After four long years, it is finally nearing time to upgrade my PC. My current system is a P2 450 MHz Sony Vaio with 128 MB RAM, 4 MB VRAM, and a 14 GB HDD. What would everyone recommend for ideal, yet cost-effective specs? I would prefer a pre-built system, since I really don't have time to build one from scratch. If you have specific brands/models in mind, that would be helpful as well. Thanks for the help in advance.
Do you have a 3d card with your old machine?
They were 90% necessary for PC gaming four years ago but they are 100% necessary for today's games.
a. price range?
or
b. how long you want to keep it for?
No, I don't, but I am well aware that I will need one now.Quote:
Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Do you have a 3d card with your old machine?
They were 90% necessary for PC gaming four years ago but they are 100% necessary for today's games.
a. ~$1200-1500. I don't need a monitor.Quote:
Originally posted by Videodrone
a. price range?
or
b. how long you want to keep it for?
b. I'd like it to last at least three years with only video card upgrades.
You can get quite a bit with that kind of money. At least, if you build it yourself. :pQuote:
a. ~$1200-1500. I don't need a monitor.
Well, If you planning on playing games, make sure you get a good video card. Check out Radeon 9700 Pro($320), or cheaper version Radeon 9500Pro($180). Both are top noth card, and deliver excellent gaming performance, out performing mighty Geforce 4 TI4600. Well, until new Geforce comes out.
Also get a faster processor, either Pentimum 4 2.4 or higher, or Athlon XP 2200+, 2400+, or 2600+
512 Meg of Ram is also good thing to have.
40-60 Gig hardrive, preferably with 8mb buffer.
Good sound card and speaker set. Not necessary, but if it comes with the system, its a good bonus.
DVD player, and CDR/W burner, or even DVD Burner if you have extra dough :)
Ive been quite curious about the quality of Alienware PCs. Anyone here have one or know of someone who does? Happy? No? Anyone?
THe specs for Alienware machines look nice, but the prices are usually little to high.
Best Buy recently started selling high end Alienware pcs.
alienware PC's have alway been totally fab, but your paying alot for the style, and now name...Quote:
Originally posted by Mr_Furious
Ive been quite curious about the quality of Alienware PCs. Anyone here have one or know of someone who does? Happy? No? Anyone?
I have an Alienware, works like a dream, and never crashes. I like it a lot, but the one time i had to deal with customer service was completely horrible. I guess i would say avoid, even though it is a good product. I am glad my problem just went away because they were supposed to send me a new keyboard and never did i guess. Oh yeah, and the "2 weeks" it was supposed to take to get my PC actually meant "over a month". I've read about this problem from quite a few other people too.
If you don't want to build it, you best store bought idea might be a Dell:
this one here totalled up to $1,526.00...add $180 to upgrade to the radeon 9700 pro :cool: ...
Dell Dimension 4550 Series: Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.40GHz with 533MHz system bus/ 512K L2 Cache
Memory: 512MB DDR SDRAM at 266MHz
Video Cards: New 128mb DDR ATI Radeon™ 9700 TX Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
Hard Drive: 80GB Ultra ATA/100 7200 RPM Hard Drive
CD or DVD Drive: 16 Max DVD-ROM
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Speakers:
New Harman Kardon® HK-206
CD or DVD Burner for 2nd bay: 40x/10x/40x Max CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator®
I'm no expert, but just to give you an idea: I just bought a Dell with a Pentium 4, 2.0 Ghz, 60 Gig HD, CDRW, GeForce 4ti, 512 RAM, 17" flatscreen monitor, Ethernet card, 56K modem, Harmon Kardon speakers and subwoofer, and a printer. The whole shebang cost me $1000 even, including tax and shipping. It took a whole 5 min. to order from their website, and the rig was at my door in a week or so.
By the way, I immediately loaded up NOLF2, and it runs beautifully. Since your willing to spend a little extra dough, you could easily upgrade to a faster processor, etc.
Edit: Videodrone beat me to it. Doh!
dont buy alienware. they are waaaaay overpriced. look around sharkyextreme.com or tomshardware.com before plunking down. if you must buy a pre-made system both falconnorthwest and voodoopc's are well worth it. i just built a brand new rigg this last week for under $800 after cannibalizing my old stuff.
You could build a monster of a system at that price range. I'd really recommend looking at self building, if you're going to spend that much money, it strikes me as silly to throw it away on having a label on the case. The only real significant benefit to buying from one of the larger companies is warranty. Otherwise, you'll get more bang for your buck by picking and choosing each part. Up to you though...
I bought an Alienware four+ years ago, in July 1998, and the PC was fantastic, 100% reliable, and the amount I paid ($3000 I think) allowed me to play every PC game I wanted to play until August 2002. If you don't want to build your own PC, then Alienware is the way to go - they may be slightly more expensive, but they know what they're doing.
If my current (business) PC wasn't effectively free, I would've gone back to Alienware.
As a point of interest, sans monitor, in July 1998, I spent $2800-$2900 to get:
P2 400mhz
128MB RAM
Monster 2 16mb SLI (2 Monster 2 cards working together)
Monster Sound 16mb (I think)
whatever else
I would suggest buying a Dell because you have lots of customization options and they tend to have the lowest prices. Plus they run frequent sales. Here are some general guidelines:
CPU - as fast as you can afford
RAM - 512 MB
Hard Drive - 80 GB or bigger, 8MB buffer and 7200 RPM speed are nice
CD Burner - 32x or faster (if you even want one)
Video Card - Radeon 9700 Pro
Why the hell was this moved? This is every bit as on-topic as the 12,000 "What TV should I buy" threads. It's getting moved back.
If you want a pre built custom PC, the 2 places I really like are Vicious PC as a gaming rig builder and Monarch Computer as a more general PC builder...
Both can make you a good AMD based gaming rig with the 9700 Pro for around $1500... Vicious PC also has a discount going on, like 10% off their $1799 system (which is cheaper if you don't want the monitor)...
Hmm, I'm in the market for a new pc as well, so I will check out Monatch site. I did the run with parts I want in my pc, and it came out for about $1050 for a VERY COOL machine :)
why must people always get such big hdd's? i got by with a 4gig for years and finally caved in and got a 40gig with my new rigg. the only reason i got it was the price. and you know what? im never going to use any of it. do you guys just keep loads of games and shit on your hdd's?
heres what i bought the other week
athlon 1800 t-bred (1.5 oclocked to 2.0ghz)
thermaltake volcano 7 fan
shim
256m crucial pc2700 ddr ram (getting another 512 stick this next pay)
new case and 450W PSU (nice green alienware clone case with side acrylic window)
msi kt4 ultra mobo (gawddamn nforce boards came out 3 days after i ordered!!!)
ms internet keyboard
ms intellimouse wireless optical
windows xp home full OEM
(i cannabalized my hdd (IBM Deskstar 60gpx 40gig 7200rpm), floppy and burner (Cendyne 36/12/48) and my GForce 3 64Meg)
all this cost me $450 from newegg and i put it all together myself. the only reason you would need to spend 1200-1500 is if you dont know what you're doing, you buy a pre made system (which are normally not good for future upgrading) or you get one of those ungodly sharkyextreme "extreme" gaming riggs.
next on my list is more ram and a new video card
Get the one I have. A Sony Vaio PCV-RX490TV.
It came out last year so the price probably dropped around your price range.
www.ibuypower.com
Courtesy of Cloud for bringing this site to my attention. VERY Cheap.
Just a shot in the dark here:Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
why must people always get such big hdd's?
PORN
I'm just guessing, of course.
Well, Unless you have a Burner, and you tend to collect, movies, trailers, music and other space consuming things, you will eventually run out of space, and bigger hard drive comes in handy :)
Yeah...I have a 120Gig HD...and will never fill it up.
If you're willing to build your own, try mini-pc's. Here's a how-to:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20020815/index.html
The Vaios are so sexy. That's what lured me in four years ago. However, they also come with stuff I will never use. Decision, decisions.Quote:
Originally posted by Klonoa
Get the one I have. A Sony Vaio PCV-RX490TV.
It came out last year so the price probably dropped around your price range.
I don't know about other people, but I use my PC for 3D work and occasionally I have just 10-20 GB in rendered frames alone for a single project. I have 2 x 80 GB drives... I keep all my games and mp3s etc on one drive and all my work stuff on my primary drive... precautionary I guess.Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
why must people always get such big hdd's? i got by with a 4gig for years and finally caved in and got a 40gig with my new rigg. the only reason i got it was the price. and you know what? im never going to use any of it. do you guys just keep loads of games and shit on your hdd's?
I agree that you really can get cheaper from buying parts and assembling it yourself... but your price is decieving... say you get a new video card with that and you jack it up another 200-300 dollars. A new HD, another 100... A burner is another 50-100... Some more RAM, another 50-100... Basically, with your config, you could buy a PC from scratch for $800-1000 it seems... and there's still wiggle room at the CPU level.Quote:
all this cost me $450 from newegg and i put it all together myself. the only reason you would need to spend 1200-1500 is if you dont know what you're doing, you buy a pre made system (which are normally not good for future upgrading) or you get one of those ungodly sharkyextreme "extreme" gaming riggs.
So bascially, is $1200 really that much to pay ? In some cases, that 1200-1500 might even include a decent monitor and speakers. Personally, I'm not a fan ofmass market PC builders like Dell and Gateway (your reasons -- proprietary cases are a pain in the ass) but really, there are some good builders out there who will make you a great machine for $1200.
In my case, I paid over $2000 for my new workstation and I think I got a really decent deal.Surely you don't need to pay $3000 for a custom power gaming rig, but it's surely not such a bad deal to be spending 1200-1500 as long as you do your research ahead of time.
those are some sweet deals...even though the page design is horrific...Quote:
Originally posted by Rich
www.ibuypower.com
Courtesy of Cloud for bringing this site to my attention. VERY Cheap.
Edit : Dammit. Wrong Button.
I can't even fill by 40 GB HD..Quote:
Originally posted by Mman
Yeah...I have a 120Gig HD...and will never fill it up.
Videodrone, horrific is too positive sounding for the page design. :D
That could very well be the ugliest website that I've ever seen that wasn't intentionally trying to be ugly.
Jesus, how do they sell anything? I feel nauseous.
Has anyone had any experience with Best Buy's vpr Matrix PCs? They have some impressive specs for the price.
Yoshi: I moved it since it has nothing to do with gaming, and you don't even mention that as the reason for getting the "Pee Cee" in your first post. Hardly any of this talks about gaming.
I figured that was implied. I don't need advice on what machine to run 1-2-3 on... ;)Quote:
Originally posted by cigsthecat
Yoshi: I moved it since it has nothing to do with gaming, and you don't even mention that as the reason for getting the "Pee Cee" in your first post. Hardly any of this talks about gaming.
Not to mention the WORST customer warranty support in the business. And im not just saying that cause I hate sony, do a google search on it.Quote:
Originally posted by Yoshi
The Vaios are so sexy. That's what lured me in four years ago. However, they also come with stuff I will never use. Decision, decisions.
The Vaios are great, until somthing breaks and you need it fixed, then your without a computer for months..
ok, gang. Here is what I am leaning toward from I Buy Power:
Board: AZZA VIA-KT400 DDR400 WITH 10/100 LAN, USB 2.0 + 8X AGP Main Board
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @ 2.13 GHz Quantispeed
RAM: 512 MB PC3200 DDR
HDD: Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA-100 w/ 8 MB Cache
GPU: nVidia GeForce 4 Ti-4200 128 MB DDR w/ TV and DVI-Out
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live Value 5.1
OS: Windows XP Home
The price is $1188 with some other niceties, like a silver case and matching DVD-ROM and floppy drives, plus matching mouse and keyboard.
Yay or nay?
Yay, but make sure you have one or two very good fans to cool down that monstrous Althlon processor of yours. :)
I have a Volcano 7 fan for my Athlon XP 1800+, and it works pretty well. The cool thing about it is that the hotter the CPU gets, the faster it spins, so there's little to no danger of my PC going kablooie.
My friend JUST bought a computer from I buy power
not much of an issue but i never heard of the mobo company and the hdd is ata100? is that all the mobo supports cause you should have ata133.
hey phlegm do you have the t-bred core or the original? i also have the volcano 7 on mine (1800+ t-bred core) and have that puppy up to 2.0Ghz and it runs at a cool 35C with a healthy workload.
Good setup Yoshi :)
If they have Radeon 9500Pro, you should think to get that instead of TI4200, since its a better card, and should be in the same price range, but beats 4200 performance wise in every way.
Your setup its pretty much what I will be getting in my PC as well.
And yes, make sure you get a good fan to cool all the stuff inside
I often wonder the same thing. I've got four OSes on this harddrive with masses of room to spare. What I'd do with 100+gigs? Beats me.Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
why must people always get such big hdd's? i got by with a 4gig for years and finally caved in and got a 40gig with my new rigg.
Then again, I also say the same thing about most recent computer advancements. I'll be amazed the day I think I need a processor that's over 2ghz. Hell, my 500mhz P3 in my laptop works just fine. The general slump in computer sales recently is with good reason, most people just don't need this stuff.
Well, If you are not PC gamer, then sure, you dont need fast CPU, or Big Harddrive, or Powerful Video Card.
But if plan on playing some of newest games, than all that stuff comes into play. Slow processor wont be able to run new games, since most of games nowdays, require 1Gig-2Gig hard drive space, and you want to keep all of them installed, you need bigger drive. And Fast Video Card is MUST nowdays.
Imagine a day when programers had to program better to get more out of a game, instead of requiring more hardware.
Seems like eons ago.
We are nearing the capacity of Silcon, some much current is being drawn by new CPUs, current leak is becoming a problem. We may see a thinning of the herd the in PC gaming area soon.
Nope, no thorough-bred for me. :( But then my system isn't overclocked (yet).Quote:
Originally posted by Dragonmaster Dyne
hey phlegm do you have the t-bred core or the original? i also have the volcano 7 on mine (1800+ t-bred core) and have that puppy up to 2.0Ghz and it runs at a cool 35C with a healthy workload.
Yeah, but ATI's still a bitch when it comes to drivers, and the 9500 Pro is more expensive than the Ti4200. My advice would be to stick with the ti4200 for now, wait until the next generation of nvidia cards come out, wait until they drop in price, buy one and sell your old GeForce 4.Quote:
If they have Radeon 9500Pro, you should think to get that instead of TI4200, since its a better card, and should be in the same price range, but beats 4200 performance wise in every way.
But if you want the best performance you can get right now, then yes, you should buy the 9500 Pro.
My personal thoughts follow -Quote:
Originally posted by Yoshi
Board: AZZA VIA-KT400 DDR400 WITH 10/100 LAN, USB 2.0 + 8X AGP Main Board
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @ 2.13 GHz Quantispeed
RAM: 512 MB PC3200 DDR
HDD: Western Digital 80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA-100 w/ 8 MB Cache
GPU: nVidia GeForce 4 Ti-4200 128 MB DDR w/ TV and DVI-Out
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live Value 5.1
OS: Windows XP Home
Check and double check the mainboard - reviews, company track record for updates, support etc etc. I would reccomend an MSI board.
I would ditch the DDR 400 unless the prices are the same (or less) for the 400 stuff. Stick with the more stable and (sometimes) faster preforming 333.
Get the highest quality RAM you can afford - big brand names (Crucial, Mushkin, Corsair etc)
Ditch the SBLive!! :eek: The sound is terrible compared to the cheaper Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. The SC even tops the Audigy in most tests and competes on par with the Audigy 2. Driver support for XP/2000 is great and the price is nearly impossible to beat.
The TI4200 is very difficult to beat at it's price point because of monster overclocking options - some overclocked models can match a stock Ti4600.
Thanks for the feedback, Six. I'll head back over and see what I can fiddle with.
Well, If sound not of big importance, look into Motherboard with sound card. Some are using pretty good chipsets, and that will save you some money too.
Sure, TI4200 is cheap, but it wont beat new Radeons New Features wise, and with Anti-Aliasing and Filtering (X 4,6,8), 9500 beats TI4600. Plus unlike TI4200, it supports Direct X9.
Gygabite mainboards are pretty good choice. They not very expesive, fast and reliable. And have lots of features.
www.pricewatch.com
Look for good prices for AMD chipsets... Athalon 1800 - 1900 is a good budget priced chip though you could do better. I scouted a MoBo with an Athalon 1800 included for 160 from a good vendor.
Not sure how good the vendor is? www.eopinions.com
You can get a good/great PC for 300 - 500 dollars. If you don't mind spending more I suggest some additional cooling for the Athalon (they could use it - stock fans for those suck) and may be a nice nice nice ATI 9700 :) Those are swank cards... and if you hold of for a bit (patentice pays off) ATI will slash that price when the nVidia FX comes out to undercut them. Isn't competition great :) Used to be I was on the NV side but ATI mixed things up a bit.
Looking at the 800 dollar range - you can get a board that fully used the potential of those cards (8x AGP).
HHD's are keen things - I suggest a basic 7200 RPM IDE internal HDD with an 8MB cache (makes things a hell of a lot faster) but if only the best will do - SCSI Raid configuration is the way to go. Forget about access times... and forget about being cheap too. RAID inherently requires mutiple HDDs and all SCSI (which are more pricey than the IDE counter-parts). It's one thing I love about a good computer is low access and seek times.
Fuck the OEM's or buying Windows outright. If you don't have WinXP already or WinNT/2K then just... errm... borrow them or perchance install Linux (it's not difficult really). That or pay out the ass and really stick it to the man and get a Mac :/ In which case you won't need our help.
Finnally - I cannot stress this enough - a kick ass computer is nothing without a kickass connection. Get broadband if you do not already have it. I've seen lives change by the power of the Cable Modem.
ºTracer
Nitty Gritty:
ASUS or Gigabyte for the MoBo.
AMD 1900 or greater... the lower you go the prices get amazing and they're still damned nice chips.
512 (at least) DDR Ram
120 GB 8MB cache IDE HDD (7200 rpm)
ATI 9500 or 9700 ($$$).
SB Audigy sound card
Deals to be had. That rig can be had for 490 bucks (1900 athalon) case and all (Lan Lei aluminum/plexiglass case - pretty).
ºTracer
Agree. If the price difference is enough to stomach go with the 9500 (and a quick check to pricewatch indicates it may be less that I thought). So after checkin Anandtech...I modify my suggestion to include the 9500Pro. ;) Even an overclocked 4200 is shaky in comparison.Quote:
Originally posted by Despair
Sure, TI4200 is cheap, but it wont beat new Radeons New Features wise, and with Anti-Aliasing and Filtering (X 4,6,8), 9500 beats TI4600. Plus unlike TI4200, it supports Direct X9.
:D
#6
ATI is more efficent and you'll save money on the board too because you don't need a really hardcore one to make it work they way you're promised. 4200 is great, but 9500 is nearly just as good and you can squeeze more outta it. If you want overall horsepower the 9700 is tops but priced at 399.99 most ways.
ºTracer
bah. go with the Radeon 9700 pro. its the best videocard out on the market, and wont even have a competitor until the new nvidia card comes out. i think its called the FX or something. but be assured it will do everything the 9700 can do.... only 7 months later.
dont buy a Pentium 4. sure, they can reach speeds above 2.4 Ghz, but its a weak-ass processor. go with an Athlon. theyre cheaper, too.
DONT BUY A DELL.
skip Windows XP as well, unless you like all those pretty colors. its full of bugs and security holes.
anything over 512 megs of RAM is overkill. and unless you download lots of porn and programs, 40 gigs worth of harddrive space should do you nicely.
THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH RAM!
Seriously though - I could use more when/if I get a digital video camera.... lots of RAM is well needed for video encoding/editing.
ºTracer
You can get an All-in Wonder 9700 for under 400 at some places. That would have you covered for everything multimedia based, for at least a while. I recently purchased the 9000 Pro, and I wish I had just saved up for the 9500. It does kick a fair amount of ass, though.
If I was you, Yoshi, I would build from scratch. It's a lot more fun than just buying one outright.
Here is the specs for my possible new machine:
Cases: Enermax/Monarch 305-B Tower w/350W PS $89.00
Case Fan: Thermaltake 80x80x25 HP Fan $25.00
Motherboards: Gigabyte KT400 7VAXP 8X AGP RAID, Sound, Lan $108
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (Retail Box-w-Fan)$355.00
Heat Sink Fan: Dynatron DC1206BM-L/610-P-CU $32.00
Memory: DDR 2700 - 512 MB Corsair CAS2/Htsnk CMX $169.00
Hard Drive: Western Digital 40GB 400JB 8MB 7200 $89.00
2nd Hard Drive: Western Digital 40GB 400JB 8MB 7200 $89.00 RAID Setup: RAID 0 (Zero) $10.00
CD-RW/DVD-RW: Lite-On 48x12x48 Black CD-RW $69.00
Floppy Drive: 1.44MB 3.5 inch Floppy Drive $14.00
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 8X AGP $180.00
All for the about $1280. Not bad.
The best PC makers out there are Alienware, Falcon NorthWest, and Voodoo Computers... but their top of the line PCs cost 2500-3000 dollars
with Ibuypower, you get a very solid machine, but it's lacking in the wiring, tech support, and other little features that the big three do have. Still better than a Dell, since they have sweet case mods and are still cheaper
also... ATI can't make drivers for shit...
finally someone agrees with me. i kept out alienware because they're overpriced for what you actually get. man, those voodoo pc's are friggin works of art if i say so myself. i finally built my own pc the other week and now i got the "itch". never was a power pc person before but now its like crack....Quote:
Originally posted by FirstBlood
The best PC makers out there are, Falcon NorthWest, and Voodoo Computers... but their top of the line PCs cost 2500-3000 dollars
Well, the order is in. I was given a $750 award in addition to my annual bonus at work, so I went with an AlienWare Aurora DDR system. It's basically their top-of-line AMD system.
Cool :) Gongrats then :)
I shall be ordering my new one, hopefully next week.
Start the New Year with New PC :p
We'll need to head on over to the Online Matchmaking board once we get some common games, Despair.
Great choice Yoshi I hope you enjoy it...
Why all the hate for Dell, for an office non gaming computer you cant beat the quality and stability of there machines.
In my line of work I have seen them all and ill stand by Dell %100 for work machines...
True, But we are talking about Gaming machines here ;)
My problem with Dell, they dont offer much of flexibility. You dont have many options as what you actually want to have in your PC. Take Video Cards for example, you either have low end Geforce4 MX, or high end Radeon 9700TX(did they stoped carrying Pro?). Not much of a choice range, you know. Same with many other components.
I understand Despair, however most people blindly hate and knock a product.
Its bad to trash a product without understanding the niche it fits into...
If im discussing brands with a client I wouldnt trash Dell outright..
I would find out what the machine is for, if its for the office I would get him a Dell but if its for his own personal use at home and the kids want to play games i wouldnt and would explain the reason why...
I guess I just didnt like seeing people trash a good brand without specifics being expressed....