Thinking about buying a desktop

[Sir Gibbs]

Hello all.

I'm thinking about buying a desktop pc as my current laptop sucks.

Basically i'm after a pc with half-decent specs that i can play games, download with, watch multimedia on etc. However i am on a bit of a budget so i'm not after expensive state-of-the-art stuff.

I was wondering what make your desktops are, whether you've had any problems with the system or the service of the company and generally any other valuable pieces of information you can give me.

My laptop is a dell, who i have found to been a really shitty company to deal with so i don't want to buy from them.

Cheers for any help.

[Crax]

My computer is one I built from Parts and haven't had too many problems with it. If you aren't comfortable doing that kind of thing, your best bet is to check with Dell(who you already said you hate) or just check for sales at like BestBuy or Compusa. If you are planning on playing games make sure you get a video card with 128mb non-shared memory at the very bare minimum and preferably either a Nvidia or ATI. Also in my opinion, no matter how good a deal they say it is, stay away from anything with a budget class processor. Make sure you get a P4 or an AMD64. DO NOT get a celeron.

[dy-no-mite3000]

you know i think insted of just buying the desktop, you should think about buying the whole desk. yanno with legs and stuff. makes a desktop more effective since you dont have to leave it on the floor.

go to tigerdirect.com and look to buy one of their systemmax pc's if you wanna stay away from dell :D

[Alfuh]

If you have the know how a custom built computer is how to get the most bang for your buck.

[Sir Gibbs]

My computer is one I built from Parts and haven't had too many problems with it. If you aren't comfortable doing that kind of thing, your best bet is to check with Dell(who you already said you hate) or just check for sales at like BestBuy or Compusa. If you are planning on playing games make sure you get a video card with 128mb non-shared memory at the very bare minimum and preferably either a Nvidia or ATI. Also in my opinion, no matter how good a deal they say it is, stay away from anything with a budget class processor. Make sure you get a P4 or an AMD64. DO NOT get a celeron.

Yeah i was looking to get a gig of RAM and at least a 128mb video card, preferably 256mb.

I was thinking about doing this kind of thing briefly until i realised i wouldn't have a clue how to do this. Is there something or somewhere you can recommend that i can learn which parts are compatiable with others?

Same question for you Alfuh.

[Alfuh]

Well, you want to start with a motherboard. The motherboard will determine just about everything else such as which CPU (AMD or Intel), RAM (most are SDRAM, you just need to know how fast you can get), type of graphics card will work (if your mobo has a PCI express connection that is better than AGP).

Here is the newegg mobo selection:
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=20

As you can see they range in price from under $50 to over $250 so you have a large selection to choose from.

[Alfuh]

Here is one that is on sale and has some decent specs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569

It is an AMD Athlon 64 (good cpu)
nforce 4 chipset (newest out afaik)
It takes DDR400 ram up to 4GB (standard-good speed ram)
Front Side Bus works at 1000MHz (good speed)
It has a PCI Express slot (used on higher end gfx cards and the industry is moving towards this connection over AGP)

All that for $77. Good deal if you ask me.

For reference I can tell you what I have and I am running Oblivion, which is a pretty high end game just fine on 800x600:
AMD Athlon (2600+)
nforce2 chipset
DDR330 ram (1gb running at 2700)
FSB at 300MHz (not exactly sure on this one)
AGP 8x (fast AGP, not as good as PCI express) with a 128mb nvidia 6600gt

[Sir Gibbs]

Hmmmm....I understand what some of that means, another worry is whether those boards & components etc will work over here with our different plug sockets etc? I don't want to be frying them.

So did you build your comp from scratch Alfuh?

[dy-no-mite3000]

ooooh i forgot you were a limey!

ive built a few pc's myself it isnt hard, but if you arent comp savy and rely on customer service you'll be in trouble.

[Alfuh]

Hmmmm....I understand what some of that means, another worry is whether those boards & components etc will work over here with our different plug sockets etc? I don't want to be frying them.

So did you build your comp from scratch Alfuh?

Yes I did. Its not really that difficult, its basically just part here, socket there, plug it in. If anything seemed tricky I just relied on the manuals/instructions and if those werne't clear then I went online and searched for my particular problem. Odds are I wasn't the only person ever to have that problem ...

Anyway, I digress. The only thing I could see being different would be the power supply, which well .. supplies the power ya know? As far as I know you would just need to make sure you get a case/power supply combo with a euro plug set. MP would be able to answer your question for sure though.

[Sir Gibbs]

ooooh i forgot you were a limey!

ive built a few pc's myself it isnt hard, but if you arent comp savy and rely on customer service you'll be in trouble.

I'm not the most comp savy, but i reckon i can learn.

I'm not planning on doing this until I get my deposit back from my student house, the lease runs out in the end of june.

[Crax]

You will have different processors and different motherboards, so make sure they do indeed match. The boards for a P4 will be different than the boards for a AMD64. Also, pay attention to the kind of ram your board takes to make sure you get the right kind. You can find reviews of different boards, processors, video cards etc. at http://tomshardware.com

[SnjoNegri]

Mines a custom.

Custom>Company.

[Sir Gibbs]

Mines a custom.

Custom>Company.

Any advice to give ol' Gibbs?

[SnjoNegri]

Any advice to give ol' Gibbs?
I got my vietnamese friend to take me to a computer part store named computer boulevard and I gave him 2 g's to build me a wonderful computer.

Its 2 years old and still a pretty good computer.

Find yourself an asian nerd and give him money and youll be PIMPED.

[Sir Gibbs]

I got my vietnamese friend to take me to a computer part store named computer boulevard and I gave him 2 g's to build me a wonderful computer.

Its 2 years old and still a pretty good computer.

Find yourself an asian nerd and give him money and youll be PIMPED.

I've found a nerd off my course who has a custom job. But he isn't asian, he is fat though, will this do?

[SnjoNegri]

I've found a nerd off my course who has a custom job. But he isn't asian, he is fat though, will this do?
It might, but for his participation you might need to buy him dinner. Or 3.

[Alfuh]

Wow. 2Gs? You can build a great, top of the line computer, for under 1G. Your Asian friend played you and then went to the massage parlor and got 'loved long time' with the rest of your money.

[Sir Gibbs]

Wow. 2Gs? You can build a great, top of the line computer, for under 1G. Your Asian friend played you and then went to the massage parlor and got 'loved long time' with the rest of your money.

Hmmm...I better be careful with my fat man, he could do a similar thing but go to KFC instead of the massage parlour.

[Alfuh]

Hmmm...I better be careful with my fat man, he could do a similar thing but go to KFC instead of the massage parlour.

You mean like .. having sex with dead chickens? :eek:

[Sir Gibbs]

You mean like .. having sex with dead chickens? :eek:

Totally, genetically modified chickens born with no eyes or legs[/dookchute]

[SnjoNegri]

Wow. 2Gs? You can build a great, top of the line computer, for under 1G. Your Asian friend played you and then went to the massage parlor and got 'loved long time' with the rest of your money.
In Canada?

HA!

[Smash]

Hey Gibbs,

The difference in voltages is dealt with the power supply which cost around ?14.

There are some good suppliers which sell CPU/motherboard and RAM combo's which are already set up for installation.

Like these:-

http://www.savastore.com/products/components/motherboards/kits/?MSCSProfile=E88FF544888F07618470FCBD217785837C7AD 7E495699126B906D4C6276B65BFC1BA5E363D72470D2EB2358 7E31D31FB81B41AC8C4902BC86297CFF9573463A321D3DD7FB C4B65EB0C0C618C8C7AF7142EB3C068D43BD354EDF3E738A82 C2FC0002AC86D41A195DDA1BD6F37EBA9C88BAF5B977AA184C 51273F7E6D82B63B50B2BEC2076961460C9

Then you'll just need the other cheaper bits. Most of these will have built in graphics cards so I would just use that until you want to get a better seperate card.

I guess the other bits needed are:-

Monitor ?20+(Most independant retailers have some CRT's around going cheap)
Speakers ?20+
DVD/CD drive ?40+
Floppy drive ?10
Keyboard/Mouse ?10+
HardDrive ?30+

? Graphics card ?35+ (preferably ?80+)
? More RAM (around ?30 for a half gig)


There's loads of computer fairs on around England which have some good bargains to be had.

[Sir Gibbs]

A monitor for £20!!! I'm guessing that was meant to be £200?

I'm currently looking to get a Athlon 64 of some kind, as it seems to me that everything is moving towards being 64bit so i don't want to be left behind.

Cheers for the link though buddy, there looks to be some good stuff on there.

[Smash]

No worries, but yes £20. Not a flat panel job but I got a 17" CRT for £20 a few months back. Most of the independant retailers I#ve worked at keep the stuff they take out of peoples computers when they have an upgrade. It's often worth asking what they've got lying around. They'll even put the parts together for you for 1 hours rate and with that you know your getting stuff thats working OK.

I would go 64 bit aswell though, depending on your budget.