Buying a new PC

[Solecord]

Anyone have any recommendations on where to buy a new PC? I'm not looking to build myself (not as familiar with PC hardware as I should be)...

I've looked at Dell, Alienware, and iBUYPOWER. So far, iBUYPOWER offers equivalent systems and better for half the price of Alienware.

So where do you recommend buying a PC from?

[Monster]

Don't go with alienware. complete rip-off. theyre cases look better, thats about it. Dell is bad too, their tech support is terrible, and they install a bunch of 'dell support' stuff on your computer that pops up all the time, being an annoyance and slowing down your computer. Their prices aren't the best either.

I bought this computer from cpusolutions.com. AMD athlon 4800+, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 7950GX2 for about $2500. Thats including a monitor, speakers, surge protector, mouse, keyboard, etc. check that site out.

Good luck.

[Phenom]

Monster is on drugs. Alienware is just fine

Just don't buy all the bells and whistles if you don't need them.

Like who's going to need a watercooled PC if you don't plan to overclock, thats just waisting money. This is just my opinion though and I've been messing with PC's even before monster was born.

I actually prefer to build my own PC's by hand but since you want a prebuilt solution I would recommend Alienware as if you have good credit you can also make monthly payments and they have extensive service plans where if your PC breaks, they fix it for free. I've never heard of any reviews on CPU Solutions before (except for Monster's previous comments). But which ever way you go is up to you. It also depends on the type of things you plan on doing with your PC Solecord, gaming, spreadsheets, graphics, video etc..

[Monster]

The only thing alienware has better is their cool-looking cases and liquid cooling installation. I think foqer told me that they have their 'own BIOS' that runs quicker than others or something, but im not sure about that. It costs like $5000 for their top-of-the-line system, and you can get the same thing for almost half the price at a different place

[meatwad]

http://www.newegg.com

[Phenom]

Monster, Alienware uses topnotch hardware thats meant to last, which is why its a higher price.

Dell says they have the best PC but I've taken apart many Dells and seen the hardware, they use slow components like only a 5,400RPM harddrive, CAS Level 3 ram (2.5 is average 2.0 is awesome), most of their bios suck for anything other then what Dell wants to install on your PC.

I've also worked with Gateway PC's before, they are nice PC's ment to last but they arn't geared towards extreme performance.(nothing really bad to say about a gateway PC)

CPU Solutions, I just took some time rummaging through their website, and while they do have good deals their hardware and setups are simply average. I could easily build a PC equivalent to one of theirs for cheaper and probably configure it to blow the doors off their machine

So CPU Solutions if you want average performance

Alienware if you want bleeding edge performance.


Final note:
CPU Solutions seems more like a PC builder's garage hobby website and they skimp on the hardware details which quite frankly, pisses me off. I like to know what I'm buying not just the name of the company I am buying it from. Its a great idea but PC Solutions has much maturing to do.

[spooker]

I have an HP media center myself and I love it. I also sold many HPs at my old job and many people were happy. They have overtaken Dell in overall market share, are killing them in home use, and making strong headway into the business market. I love HP

[Phenom]

Personally I can't ever bring myself to buy a prebuilt PC, and every single PC I have ever owned has been built by me except my very first PC which was built by a good friend who showed me how to build them.

My 1.7Ghz Athlon Thunderbird(oldschool ) blew the doors off my sister's Dell 1.8Ghz and a Gateway 1.8Ghz because it isnt just about how fast your CPU is compared to other CPU's its how your hardware works together and how well the PC is built.

Having one slow harddrive can slow your whole PC down, going from a 5,400 RPM harddrive to a 7,200RPM harddrive is a big upgrade itself, then theres the Harddrive's cache which you have to think about when it comes to performance. Same thing with ram, make sure you get the best qualified ram for your PC or you will never see your PC's full potential and on and on, its all depends on the overall hardware used, not just CPU speeds and case apperance

[Phenom]

After 951 posts I think I reserve the right to double post at least one time a month

My current PC setup is:
Sempron 2800+ (Can be overclocked to 3200+)
1.5Gb DDR2 RAM(Kingston) CAS lvl3
2x 160Gb 7,200 RPM Harddrives (320Gb Storage)
ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128Mb 8x AGP Video Card (Still plays newer games well)
AN7 Abit uGuru Motherboard
19'' flatpanel 75Hz 1280x1024 native resolution 8ms die time (grey to grey )
450watt PSU(Power supply)
Air cooled with dual 60mm harddrive cooling units to keep things at low temps,

Theres a few more bells and whistles on my PC but i'll leave them out as they don't really help to much with performance but are just for either looks or its a custom modification I have made.

My PC runs butter smooth STILL and I am running Vista Inspirat transformation pack for XP (Because I don't like vista yet) and Rocket Dock ontop of a shoutcast server.


My PC gets ran like a server PC as in it has 99.9% uptime a year and only gets shutdown durring thunderstorms and in the past year the only fix it has needed was more ram installed when I upgraded my memory.

Custom built PC's are not only a personal experience they work exactly how you want them to work and do whatever you need them to do plus more if you set it up that way.

My PC is actually obsolete but I guarantee you with a CPU upgrade (Would only cost me $60-70$) it could easily perform aswell as most new prebuilt PC with no problems and my PC's shelf price it only about $350 give or take a few dollars, its all about the hardware.

[Solecord]

Ok Phenom or any other hardware enthusiast, please answer the following:

* Asus P5N-E SLI nForce� 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB
* Asus P5N32-E SLI nForce� 680i SLI Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB [+ $138]

For $138 more, is it worth the upgrade the the P5N32-E?

Along with the MB, add in:
* Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6700 (2x 2.66GHz/4MB L2 Cache/1066FSB)

Will a Creative Labs soundcard be worth it or is onboard sound good?

For graphics cards, is there a big difference between an NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 768 MB and a 2X NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS 320 MB?

Memory: 2 Gigs DDR2-800 PC6400 - Corsair or Mushkin (Xtreme w/Heat Spreader)?

Based on decisions above, what kind of power supply would be sufficient? 600 WATT? or less/more?

[Phenom]

I've heard people have had problems with duocore on the P5N32-E and alot of BIOS configuring had to be done to get the board to run properly/smoothly.

I would say grab the first option (Asus P5N-E SLI nForce�) and use that extra $138 for a good hooker or something.

As for 1 video card vs 2 video card, I've heard that SLI is owning most of the competition so go SLI and remember the SLI configuration will take up more space then a standard video card. This is really up to your personal preference.

And for Audio, to me its always best to leave integrated audio alone unless its absolutely needed. Running onboard audio uses up more resources then having an actual audio card processing compared to the motherboard.

with memory, you plan on trading your Mushkin with my Kingston right Thanks! and heatsinks for your memory sticks is always nice, especially if they are the kind that light up

[Solecord]

One more thing - is it true that 32bit OS will not be able to use a full 4 GB of RAM? So it would make more sense to only get 2 GB RAM instead?

[Phenom]

From what I understand an OS like Windows XP WILL use all 4Gb of ram but still partition it into 2 halfs, one half for kernel usage and the other half for applications, then the applications will divide that 2GB up among them selfs

So to cut the bull 2GB would probably be best, unless you are running ALOT of stuff then in a sense, you are still only using 2GB if you get 4GB

[=peg=]

if ur going for sli (2 gfx cards) then i'm not sure 600 WATT will be enuf.. as them 8800 units will need a lot of power.. and u do NOT want an underpowered PSU.. check all the specs for all the components to be sure..
(HDD's need a fair amount of WATT's too..)
better to have a little more power then is actually needed in case u want to upgrade or pimp it up with some gadgets later..

[foq]

The 650i should be better as the 680i has some issues with RAM...
CPU looks good
soundcard is a waste of money
SLI is a waste. The GTX will be better with the higher clock speeds, less heat, less power consumption and more memory. (when you SLI you don't get added memory, like 2 GTS 320MB SLI will not make 640MB)
Memory... whatever is cheaper
For a power supply, it's not the watts you're looking at, it's the amps. You want at least 30 amps on the 12V rail with that system... but any 600 watt with 30 amps should be good