help buying a new computer

T

TechStuey05

Gawd
Joined
Aug 5, 2005
Messages
902
Hi I've had a sony computer for about 3 years now and it's beginning to show it's age. I'm looking into getting a new computer. My price range is from $1800 - $2800, I'd prefer to pay around the $2000 mark unless the computer is much better. currently I've got Windows XP and would like to upgrade to windows Vista.

I would like atleast 3-4 gb of memory, a good video card (for playing pc games) I dont need the most powerful video card, as long as it can keep with most games and keep a decent framerate. I would also like a powerful computer. I would like atleast 500 gb of hardrive space with 1000gb being the most. I also listen to alot of music so I need a pretty good soundcard.

The only issue is that the computer must fit inside a desk, so the size of the computer must fit certain specs: 17" height, 9" width 19" depth, that's the maximum that I can fit in my desk. What would be the best computer that I Can get? also what would be the best brands to look for?

I've so far looked at dell and Gateway, I was also looking into alienware but most of there computer were too large for my desk. Would this be a good computer? Gateway® FX541X

Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Stu
 
With that budget you can easily build a fairly high end systems to spec.
 
TechStuey05 said:
Thanks! I'll be purchasing the Nec 2690, so I'll be playing at 1920x1200
Click to expand...

Do you have any "give" in those dimensions at all? I found a case that's close, but then again, I didn't check all of the cases available. The Coolermaster Mystique 631 is 17.51"(H) x 8.07"(W) x 18.89"(D). The Q9450 is the best bang for the buck 45nm quad-core, and will last for years, especially if you overclock. The Xigmatek heatsink will let you overclock. The HD 4850 video card just came out, and you can read reviews about this card all over the web. The Asus Xonar cards are better at music than the Creative sound cards. The WD 640GB uses the new 320GB platters, and is very fast. Anyway, I've included the link to the configurator I used, if you want to play around with the options. If you are interested in overclocking, but don't want to do it yourself, AVA will do it for $99.

If you can wait a few days (until Wednesday), we'll be getting reviews of the HD 4870, if you're interested in that. Also, the GTX 260 will be available on Thursday, if you prefer nVidia. The main thing about the video card is that you'll have to decide how much you really want to pay for one. The HD 4850 is a great card and ATI has priced it aggressively. Some people prefer bang for the buck, while others prefer the best possible card available, regardless of price (i.e. the GTX 280).

This configuration uses brand name parts that are recommended here on [H].

GAMING PC, Core 2 DDR2 Gaming System: $1975.60
  • INTEL, Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB (2 x 6MB) L2 Cache, 45nm, 95W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
  • XIGMATEK, HDT-S1283 CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink, Socket 775/754/939/940/AM2, 120mm Fan, Copper/Aluminum, Retail
  • SERVICE, No CPU Overclocking
  • ASUS, P5Q Deluxe, LGA775, Intel® P45, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2-1200 16GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /4, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s RAID 5 /8, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
  • G.SKILL, 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15) SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
  • VISIONTEK, Radeon® HD 4850 625MHz, 512MB GDDR3 993MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, DVI /2, Retail
  • SERVICE, No GPU Overclocking
  • ASUS, Xonar D2 Ultra Fidelity, 7.1 channels, 24-bit 192KHz, Complete Dolby®/DTS®, EAX 2.0, S/PDIF In/Out, PCI, Retail
  • WESTERN DIGITAL, 640GB WD Caviar® SE16 (WD6400AAKS), SATA 3.0 Gbit/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache
  • RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives
  • ROSEWILL, RCR-102 Black 52-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, USB 2.0
  • SAMSUNG, Super-WriteMaster™ SH-S203B Black 20x DVD±R/RW Dual-Layer Burner, SATA, w/ Software, OEM
  • COOLERMASTER, Mystique 631 Black Mid-Tower Case, ATX, No PSU, Aluminum
  • CUSTOM WIRING, Standard Wiring with Round Cables
  • CORSAIR, CMPSU-550VX VX Series Power Supply, 550W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, SLI Ready
  • MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
  • SERVICE, OEM System Recovery (secure HDD partition only)
  • SERVICE, System Binder
  • LOGITECH, Office Pro Keyboard, Black, PS/2
  • LOGITECH, Optical Wheel Mouse, USB, Beige
  • GAMING PC, Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)
  • SERVICE, Standard Shipping (UPS, DHL, or Fedex)
 
gotta put in a good word here for Velocity Micro. Both AVA direct and VM have active members on this board. If you go onto a rant about how terrible either is they'll reply pretty quickly.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
gotta put in a good word here for Velocity Micro. Both AVA direct and VM have active members on this board. If you go onto a rant about how terrible either is they'll reply pretty quickly.
Click to expand...

Actually, I believe the AVADirect representatives were banned for spamming or something of the sort. I'd be wary of buying from them based on that and a few other bad testimonials I've heard, even if there are a lot of people satisfied with their purchases.
 
The Velocity Micro has a better CPU, but the Gateway has more HD space and the two 8800GTs combined are faster than the 9800GTX that the VM has.

Between those two, I would suggest you get the VM, but replace the video card with either a GeForce GTX260 or an ATI HD4870 once it comes out, and add another HD if you want more storage space. Even with those upgrades, the total system cost will come to less than that of the Gateway, and it'll get you a PC that's a fair amount faster than either of those two computers in their stock configuration. You could also sell off the 9800GTX to recoup some of the upgrade cost.
 
Zero82z said:
The Velocity Micro has a better CPU, but the Gateway has more HD space and the two 8800GTs combined are faster than the 9800GTX that the VM has.

Between those two, I would suggest you get the VM, but replace the video card with either a GeForce GTX260 or an ATI HD4870 once it comes out, and add another HD if you want more storage space. Even with those upgrades, the total system cost will come to less than that of the Gateway, and it'll get you a PC that's a fair amount faster than either of those two computers in their stock configuration. You could also sell off the 9800GTX to recoup some of the upgrade cost.
Click to expand...

Thanks, so you're saying that Velocity Micro is a better brand? Would it be better to customize a computer off of Velocity Micro's website?
 
Well, I wasn't saying anything about the brand, I was just talking in terms of the specs of the two different machines and offering my suggestions to improve the configuration. I honestly don't know if you would get a better price off of VM's website, or if they even offer the HD4850 altogether considering it hasn't even been officially released yet. You could certainly take a look at their website and try configuring something yourself, and I'd be happy to help you tweak a build.
 
 
Eh... Not so great. First of all, that line uses motherboards with nVidia chipsets exclusively. Generally, unless you're going with an SLI setup(which you aren't), Intel chipsets are the better choice when going with an Intel CPU. Also, the computer that you specced out is quite expensive, and while I suppose that's fine if you're willing to spend the cash, isn't really the best way to go IMO.

Now, if we go back to that VM system that you linked to on Best Buy's website, that machine is almost as good as the one you configured, except it's almost $1500 less expensive. If you take a look at my post here, I gave you some suggestions that will bring that PC up to around the same level as the one you picked out in your last post, except you could save a whole lot of money if you're comfortable with performing the upgrades yourself.

If you want to bring it up to the same performance level as the system you picked out on VM's site, all you would need to do is upgrade the video card to a GeForce GTX280 and replace the HD with a 1TB drive. The video card costs around $650, and a 1TB drive is around $180, so assuming some small shipping costs your total system cost would be about $2850. However, you'd also have a spare 9800GTX and 750GB hard drive that you could sell off, either on these forums or even somewhere like eBay or Craigslist, and you could probably get back a good $250-300 for them, which would put your net cost at around $2600.

I gather that you don't want to build your own PC, but if you'd be willing to perform some basic upgrades, it could save you a lot of money.
 
We have that velocity on display at my Best Buy (woodbridge NJ) and it is pretty cool, a bit small for my tastes but to each their own. Also note that it has a watercooled cpu with a single 120mm rad.
 
Zero82z said:
Eh... Not so great. First of all, that line uses motherboards with nVidia chipsets exclusively. Generally, unless you're going with an SLI setup(which you aren't), Intel chipsets are the better choice when going with an Intel CPU. Also, the computer that you specced out is quite expensive, and while I suppose that's fine if you're willing to spend the cash, isn't really the best way to go IMO.

Now, if we go back to that VM system that you linked to on Best Buy's website, that machine is almost as good as the one you configured, except it's almost $1500 less expensive. If you take a look at my post here, I gave you some suggestions that will bring that PC up to around the same level as the one you picked out in your last post, except you could save a whole lot of money if you're comfortable with performing the upgrades yourself.

If you want to bring it up to the same performance level as the system you picked out on VM's site, all you would need to do is upgrade the video card to a GeForce GTX280 and replace the HD with a 1TB drive. The video card costs around $650, and a 1TB drive is around $180, so assuming some small shipping costs your total system cost would be about $2850. However, you'd also have a spare 9800GTX and 750GB hard drive that you could sell off, either on these forums or even somewhere like eBay or Craigslist, and you could probably get back a good $250-300 for them, which would put your net cost at around $2600.

I gather that you don't want to build your own PC, but if you'd be willing to perform some basic upgrades, it could save you a lot of money.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm not too fond of opening up my computer to upgrade it, I suppose I could, I have done it in the past, I'd prefer to have everything installed in it already, Could you customize me a computer on Velocity Micro's website? I'd greatly appreciate it.
 
Zero82z said:
Actually, I believe the AVADirect representatives were banned for spamming or something of the sort.
Click to expand...

It was a new employee who did that, without permission. Misha would never have approved that, knowing the rules here.

Zero82z said:
I'd be wary of buying from them based on that and a few other bad testimonials I've heard, even if there are a lot of people satisfied with their purchases.
Click to expand...

Velocity Micro has also had bad testimonials here. The only company among the normal four vendors that are recommended, who hasn't had a bad testimonial here, is Puget Custom Computers.

Stu, you can also check out http://www.resellerratings.com/ if you want to compare the various vendors.
 
What I would recommend from AVA...

Core™ 2 Quad Q9450 Quad-Core 2.66GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB (2 x 6MB) L2 Cache, 45nm, 95W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail
CPU Coolers
Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink, Socket 775/AM2, Aluminum
Thermal Compound
MX-2 High-Performance Thermal Compound, Non-Electrical Conductive
Socket 775 Core 2 DDR2 Motherboards
ASUS, Rampage Formula, LGA775, Intel X48, 1600MHz FSB, DDR2-1200 8GB /4, PCIe x16 CF /2, SATA 3.0 Gbit/s RAID 5 /6, HDA, GbLAN /2, FW /2, ATX, Retail
DDR2-800 Non-ECC DIMM Memory
4GB (2 x 2GB) Reaper HPC Edition PC2-8500 DDR2 1066MHz CL 5-5-5-18 2.1-2.3V SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC
PCI Express x16 Video Cards
Radeon® HD 4850 625MHz, 512MB GDDR3 993MHz, PCIe x16 CrossFire, DVI /2,
Sound Cards
Sound Blaster® Audigy® SE, 7.1 channels, 24-bit, 96KHz, PCI, OEM
SATA Hard Drives
500GB Barracuda 7200.10, SATA II 300MB/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache
DVD RW Drives
LH-20A1L Black/Beige 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, SATA, Retail
Network Cards
Integrated 10/100/1000 Mbps Network Controller (Choose upgrade)
Tower Cases Without Power Supply
M9 Black Mid-Tower Case w/ Window, ATX, No PSU, SECC
Power Supplies
CMPSU-750TX TX Series Power Supply, 750W, 80 PLUS®, 24-pin ATX12V EPS12V, Multi-GPU Ready
Operating Systems
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM
Warranties
Silver Warranty Package (3 Year Limited Parts, 3 Year Labor Warranty)

That puts it at ~$2k ($1964.48)

Danny Bui said:
For the price, I highly recommend going with AndonSage's AVADirect build if you want the best bang for your buck and aren't willing to do any upgrades.
Click to expand...

Yeah his is a good build, although the PSU/RAM/Mobo choices are not what I would have expected.
 
ivandurago said:
Damn 3k for a PC that could/should be built for ~1.5'ish...
Click to expand...

Meh. It happens. Not everyone here has the time to put together a new PC.

For the price, I highly recommend going with AndonSage's AVADirect build if you want the best bang for your buck and aren't willing to do any upgrades.
 
AndonSage said:
Velocity Micro has also had bad testimonials here. The only company among the normal four vendors that are recommended, who hasn't had a bad testimonial here, is Puget Custom Computers.

Stu, you can also check out http://www.resellerratings.com/ if you want to compare the various vendors.
Click to expand...

Stu, if you have any questions for Puget, just drop me a line at [email protected]. I would go with either Velocity Micro or AVAdirect before I would go with a large volume manufacturer--you'll get better support from us little guys.
 
Thanks for the responses. I'm actually leaning more toward getting the Velocity Micro then the Gateway but I'm not sure if the Velocity Micro will fit inside my desk. The computer must fit certain dimensions otherwise it won't fit in my desk space. I posted my dimensions in my first post. Anyone know the dimensions of the Velocity Micro Edge Z55 and the Edge M40? It's not listed on their website.
 
I'm sure Randy will show up here soon and answer that directly. He's on these forums pretty regularly. (Randy Copeland, CEO of Velocity Micro.)
 
I was thinking of customizing the Edge Z55 and going with the GX2 Black case. would that be a good computer? is the Nvidia 280 that much better than the 9800?
 
Sorry for the slow response (and thanks H)

The GX2 chassis that houses the Z55 and M40 appears to be too big for you. H 17.75" x D 19.25" x W 8.27". Our smaller MX2 case is H 15" x D 17.625" x W 7.38" but is only configured for our lower priced systems. Call us for a custom quote on the Z55 or M40 but with the MX2 case and mATX motherboard. Thanks - Randy
 
If you give me 2000, I can find you a system like what you've described.

Seriously, you ought to be fine. Take a geek to lunch and get it custom built. It will all work better and longer if. If you don't know a geek, talk to somebody who does. You'll make their day and get a much finer computer.

---
Don't feed them after midnight
and
DO NOT go to Best Buy.
 
Fincher said:
If you give me 2000, I can find you a system like what you've described.

Seriously, you ought to be fine. Take a geek to lunch and get it custom built. It will all work better and longer if. If you don't know a geek, talk to somebody who does. You'll make their day and get a much finer computer.

---
Don't feed them after midnight
and
DO NOT go to Best Buy.
Click to expand...


what do we do for future tech support with a geek built computer? how do we find one? put an ad up on craigslist, maybe ask someone at a small computer store?

ive been low on money for a while and damaged my cheap laptop screen some days ago

this looks good for an intro pc
10% off coupon too
too bad no soundcatrd built in

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Velo...02880/catOid/-12962/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
 
vseshad said:
what do we do for future tech support with a geek built computer? how do we find one? put an ad up on craigslist, maybe ask someone at a small computer store?

ive been low on money for a while and damaged my cheap laptop screen some days ago

this looks good for an intro pc
10% off coupon too
too bad no soundcatrd built in

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Velo...02880/catOid/-12962/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do
Click to expand...

It is alright, but I would spend a bit less and build your own, or spend a bit more and head over to VM's website, or one of the others, and a custom build over there.
 
holy shit !!! 999.99 for that crap lol

for that much money if you built your own or had a custom built
you could have a really awesome computer !!
and go with an intel processor for godsake
 
lol again where do you find a geek? that computer is $900 with the coupon. for retail that has to be a good buy. haven't read much on intel quad core vs amd quad core. i know that amd is 4 cores and intel is 2 sets of 2 cores. don't know how each model compares.
 
I would not use vista, i have it and it's still too buggy. too many unproper software shutdowns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top