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itsthatemochild

Posts: 18
Joined: 08/12/2006
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new comp

im getting a new computer today. can anyone give me some advice on what to get? i need to be able to do work (and games of course) and my cap is like $1500

much appreciated
-chris

*EDIT* oh, and should i go with vista or try to stick to XP?

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

11/06/07 07:41

schivelrybrn

Posts: 1
Joined: 10/19/2007
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RE: new comp

vista is not very friendly with gaming, i would stick with XP, if the pc you get comes with vista, you can just remove it and install xp. i tested vista on a pc with 2gb ram, at idle(no programs running) it was using 42% of the Ram. IMO i would stick with XP at least till the first service pack comes out for vista.

as for the pc, are you going to a store to buy it or ordering it online? Desktop or Laptop?

11/06/07 07:49

itsthatemochild

Posts: 18
Joined: 08/12/2006
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RE: new comp

im most likely buying it in-store unless i see something incredible online, and i want a desktop

"The most merciful thing in the world... is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -H.P. Lovecraft

"He who is not radical at twenty has no heart,
while he who is still radical at forty has no brain."

11/06/07 07:50

Health_Kill

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Joined: 09/27/2005
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RE: new comp

I don't recommend buying it off the shelf. From my own experiance making it from scratch is better. More costly but you know the parts will last.
For GW2, I recommend 2GB of ram. Get a video card that you know GW will run on and proberally the newest video card too.
If anything goes wrong, blame the power supply.

Made for another forum I go on, Just felt the need to do something with this sig.

11/06/07 07:58

schivelrybrn

Posts: 1
Joined: 10/19/2007
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RE: new comp

yea, i build my own pc's too, but some people dont have the time, or know how to do this.

If you want a desktop and you dont know how to build one yourself, make sure (like he said) at least 2gb of ram, if it has integrated graphics, make sure it has a PCIE x16 slot.. then buy a PCIE x16 graphics card with at least 256mb of Ram on it. IMO i wouldnt go with a Direct x10 card yet.

edit: there are not a hole lot of DX 10 games out, and the cards are still alittle pricey.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

11/06/07 08:05

mwpeck

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 24
Joined: 11/24/2005
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RE: new comp

QUOTE

Actually, if you know what your doing, its always cheaper to build your own. Just more time comsuming.

I recently build a computer for my dads' work, where I ordered the parts from, it was right around $2,000 for everything. The one I build has a better processor and graphics card than a similar system on Alienware, yet the one on alienware costs nearly $1000 more.

I sugguest that if you(or anyone you know) builds computers, get them to put a computer together for you. Q6700 (quad core), 2GB DDR2 ram, decent motherboard, 8600GTX, 300GB HD, DVD Burner, nice case.....maybe $1000. Might as well throw in watercooling and overclock the Q6700 to 3Ghz, doing that will give you QX6850 performance, while saving you about $500.

EDIT: As for Vista......think of it as the worst OS ever, and you have a good idea of how it is.

Running it on 4GB ram, Q6700 @ 3Ghz, 7800GTX, 1TB total HD space, it ran very slow, basically unusable. After booting windows, it took a good 30 seconds just to become "ready" to do something. And launching anything took at least 10-20 seconds, and thats for normal apps like Microsoft Word or Outlook. Didnt even try gaming on it as normal apps didnt work worth a crap on it.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***


Characters: • Crimson The Fierce • Combustible Crimson • Crimson Denied • Crimson The Sniper • Crimson The Healer • Crimson The Reaper

11/06/07 08:52

Feanaro Anwarun

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 69
Joined: 11/12/2005
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RE: new comp

Yeh well comparing it to Alienware is like comparing a normal suit to an Armani suit.. Normal suit might be perfectly fine.. and last even longer maybe.. but it doesnt say Armani. :P

But yeah, building your own is a LOT cheaper.. Especially with some good sites/contacts. :)

Check out Pirates of the Burning Sea... Yarr! We got some interestin stuff goin on!
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11/06/07 09:42

itsthatemochild

Posts: 18
Joined: 08/12/2006
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RE: new comp

ok, so i was looking through ads and found this:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspagep?skuId...d=1188560830551

ill take off vista and replace it with xp. any other suggestions?

11/06/07 10:31

bo fairfieild

Posts: 15
Joined: 11/23/2005
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RE: new comp

I'm getting a 404 when I follow that link.

11/06/07 11:02

Drucila

Posts: 47
Joined: 08/23/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: new comp

My bestfriends husband (also my fiances bestfriend) works for miccrosoft I know the good the bad and the ugly of the system, I have had Vista Home Premium since day 1 and have had no problems running every single game I wanted on it including every beta out there currently (i have 7 betas on my machine right now) and I run between 40-60 fps on all of them. If Vista is the problem there is a feature that you can retrograde your OS on any given program by right clicking properties and going to "Run in" mode and choose from Win 98, Win 2000, XP sp1, XP sp2. I have never had a problem running with vista so I dont use it only on some really old games.

Water-cooling systems are crap, the idea behind them is great but they are not efficient and don't work. Period.

Alienware, highly overpriced for nothing special. Ask anyone that builds computers and really knows their stuff they will tell you the same thing, its nothing special just highly priced. Your basically paying out the nose for a case. Dell will give you the same thing, same quality for half the price.

Also anything more than 2 gigs of ram is a waste, no game currently on the market will utilize more than 2 gigs of ram, if you are video editing or something then you will need 4 but, 2 will do you fine.

Third, quad-core, quad-core is great if you know what your doing, but most programs arent even written for duel-core and I find with my quad-core that it is underutilized at the moment and I have to tweak programs sometimes to run on the cores correctly (city of heroes for example will not run on a duel core let alone a quad). So if your budget is strained I suggest getting the core 2 duo at 3.0 ghz and it will last you a good 2 or 3 years.

Lastly, dont go out and buy the newest best video card out there, you will pay through the nose and its stupid, also with a $1500 budget it will blow the whole budget. Get yourself a nvidea 8800 GT, its been out almost a year so you can get it around $400.

Best deal if you havent built and/or dont want to: Dell 720, core 2 @ 2.66 ghz, 2 gig ram, 512mb 8800 GT, Vista home premium, 250 gig HD, & DVD burner goes for $1549.

Just my opinion on the whole thing, I spent a long time looking before I got my new machines

I currently have a Dell 410:
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6850 (8MB L2 Cache,3.0GHz, 1333FSB) (2 CPUs), ~6.0 GHz
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 2 DIMMs
Hard Drive: 1TB RAID 1 (2 x 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Monitor: Dell HD Flat Screen in 30 inch
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
Speakers/Headphones: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Keyboard: Logitech Bluetooth Wireless Media Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Bluetooth Wireless 10-button Media Mouse
Mouse Surface:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_rtm.061101-2205)

710:
Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX CPU 6800 @ 3.73GHz (4 CPUs), ~14.92GHz
Memory: 4GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz OC'd to 1066MHz-4 DIMMs
Hard Drive: 1TB RAID 1 (2 x 1TB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 RPM HDDs)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Monitor: Dell HD Flat Screen in 30 inch
Sound Card: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Speakers/Headphones:
Keyboard: Logitech Bluetooth Wireless Media Keyboard
Mouse: Logitech Bluetooth Wireless 10-button Media Mouse
Mouse Surface:
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6000) (6000.vista_rtm.061101-2205)

11/06/07 11:11

schivelrybrn

Posts: 1
Joined: 10/19/2007
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: new comp

there are alot of people that have problems with vista and gaming. look for yourself, not trying to start a flame or anything, just showing the facts. also i dont like the fact that vista used 42% of 2GB of ram with no programs open, on a Dell workstation 490. IMO i will stick with XP, why fix what is not broken?

http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...ticleId=9011078

also i get a 404 error when clicking on your link

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

11/06/07 12:24

Drucila

Posts: 47
Joined: 08/23/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: new comp

QUOTE

Vista is made for gaming, it allows direct x 10 to steamline your processes, including video processes so you have a higher frames per second. If you would like to prove me wrong try choosing an article that was not written almost a year ago.

QUOTE

A small but significant number of games written for Windows XP either crash or creep along slowly on Vista, according to numerous complaints by game enthusiasts in online forums.

New games are all written for vista and as I stated above you can run games in XP SP 2 mode and as admin which takes care of this problem.

And the rest of the article talks about drivers causing the problem...well I dont know about you but my drivers are all up to date as they should be and drivers are now out for Vista and have been for months. Yeah when it first came out it sucked for a while but if you get a machine made for vista it is not a problem.

And as for not broken...I personally dont care what OS anyone uses, I just prefer people educate themselves before bashing Microsoft or any other company, person, etc.

Drucila

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

11/06/07 16:25

The Quick One

Posts: 9
Joined: 04/17/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: new comp

I recently bought vista and I have no problems with it. works fast and the only thing that bothers me is the UAC thing but I disabled that. I rarely lag too, usually 60fps so I dont know what all you others are talking about :P

My pc specs are

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

11/06/07 17:34

mwpeck

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 24
Joined: 11/24/2005
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: new comp

QUOTE

I had nothing but problems when I tested it with a top-of-the-line system, and had nothing but problems the entire time I was booted on it.

QUOTE

Water-cooling systems are crap, the idea behind them is great but they are not efficient and don't work. Period.

Hmmm......why do some of the highest overclocks happen on good water-cooling then? I really would like to see how you can backup water-cooling being "crap", if done right, it out right kills air-cooling. (PS: My dad is going to phase-change cooling soon.....is that crap too? :P )

QUOTE

Also anything more than 2 gigs of ram is a waste, no game currently on the market will utilize more than 2 gigs of ram, if you are video editing or something then you will need 4 but, 2 will do you fine.

Agreed, my dad has 4 gigs, only running XP, which can only see 3 gigs, but he truely needs it, he does 3d-modeling of models that go into the few hundred MB sizes.

QUOTE

Third, quad-core, quad-core is great if you know what your doing, but most programs arent even written for duel-core and I find with my quad-core that it is underutilized at the moment and I have to tweak programs sometimes to run on the cores correctly (city of heroes for example will not run on a duel core let alone a quad). So if your budget is strained I suggest getting the core 2 duo at 3.0 ghz and it will last you a good 2 or 3 years.

I also agree with that, but with my dads computer, those huge models.....his old single core FX-57 took around an hour to open one of them. His quad core, did the same thing in about 30 seconds-1 minute. Also, the rendering, his quad renders a model in a few hours, which took his FX-57 a few days to do.

Just so ya know, not trying to disprove your post Dru, just getting my experiences with the same material out there. So far, it seems Vista is very picky over system hardware, what works great for some, works like crap for others.


Characters: • Crimson The Fierce • Combustible Crimson • Crimson Denied • Crimson The Sniper • Crimson The Healer • Crimson The Reaper

11/06/07 20:09

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