Building a new computer

[krabby5]

Hey all,

Our current computer is 5 years old and am pondering getting a new one. I already have a good monitor, so i wont need a new one..

What places, online or B&M, are good to shop?

I really don't want to build it from scratch myself...I just want to be able to configure it the way I want it...ie..I pick the video card, drives, storage..

any good places that offer good inards for good prices?

thanks

[petrym]

I use Tiger Direct (http://www.tigerdirect.com/).

[PhantomOG]

NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com/)

[Silverti]

You simply cant go wrong with Dell, you just cant. I have helped at least a hundred people buy one with our Employee discount at work. A lot of people who shouldn’t be using a computer at home (they are that bad). But Dell customer service is great and you can get 3 years AT HOME repair if you have problems.


But, I use newegg for all of my home stuff, cant beat it.

[engtaz]

Newegg, http://www.newegg.com/
Zipzoomfly, http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Home.jsp
Clubit, http://clubit.com/
I have used all three with good luck and good service.

[bobman1235]

Yeah, if you were building your own PC I'd say use NewEgg, but if you jsut want a customizable pre-built PC just go with Dell. Lots of different build options, decent support, good pricing, etc.

[edbert]

I just built one and bought everything from Newegg. For the most part they had the best prices. The ones that weren't it came down to ordering everything from one place instead of different pieces coming from lots of sources just because it was a little cheaper.

What's your budget and what are you wanting it to do?

[dudeinaroom]

Newegg is a very good choice for building it yourself.I have built5 computers in the last 2 years, and have looked all over and keep going back to newegg. Some places beat their prices on certain pieces, but after shipping newegg is usually cheaper for me, I live in MI, and newegg is based in Cali. If you want to order parts, and ship them to me I'll put it together and Install the OS for $20 plus shipping to you(you will have to buy an OS, or send a disk to me).

[bobman1235]

I really don't want to build it from scratch myself...I just want to be able to configure it the way I want it...ie..I pick the video card, drives, storage..

I'm thinking he doesn't want to build it himself.

[Gaara]

You simply cant go wrong with Dell, you just cant.

I respectfully disagree. When I was looking at a new PC I picked out what I wanted and checked dell's price, then a few others. I ended up with Velocity Micro, I got the same processor, hard drive, fans, cooling, better memory, etc for ~$200 less then dell. For perspective the computer was ~$1600 at dell while it was $1400 at velocity micro.

I spent around 4 months researching different parts, brands, and configurations. I ended up going with velocity micro because they had the best price, all the parts I wanted to see in my PC, and very good customer service.

Jared

[jflail2]

I'd also recommend at least looking at ABS (http://www.abs.com/index.asp).

I think they are owned by newegg. Either way, a friend of mine got a great machine from them for a good price (about a year ago.)

[krabby5]

thanks for the responses...

this computer would be used for internet, some games (I usually use Xbox 360 though, so I won't need a top of the line video card), and my wife likes to create DVD's from pics and music files....and it is used for DVD and CD burning as well..

it will have a lot of different uses but not one main use

I would like to get it as future proofed as possible obviously

What MOBO should I get? what hard drives? decent but not top of the line video and sound cards?

thanks!

[Gaara]

I'd also recommend at least looking at ABS (http://www.abs.com/index.asp).

I think they are owned by newegg. Either way, a friend of mine got a great machine from them for a good price (about a year ago.)

Another very good company, my runner up. At the time I wanted Intel Core 2 Duo and they only had a higher end PC with it ($2000+) so I didn't go with them.

[Bamadude]

...What MOBO should I get? what hard drives? decent but not top of the line video and sound cards?

If you simply want to specify how big of a harddrive and generals on processor/mobo then Dell and the other big guys are okay. If you want to pick the type and brand of motherboard, hard drive and memory then you can count out the big names because they won't let you. In that case look at newegg or other custom integrators and buy the components yourself. I'd suggest the following based on the use you described.

Hard drive: start with at least 300GB and add more later as needed. Storage prices are always going down.

Processor/Mobo: Go with a Dual-core system. That means Intel Dual-core, Core Duo, or AMD X2. Not Celeron, Pentium 4, Pentium D or AMD non X2.

Memory: I'd recommend at least 2GB for Vista, and 1GB for XP. And buy all the memory you can afford right now because if you wait you'll have to worry about compatibility, availability and higher prices down the road.

Video Card: Make dang sure it has a PCI Express x16 graphics expansion slot even if it doesn't come with a graphics card pre-installed. Go to Tom's Hardware to identify a good bang for the buck card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphics/index.html
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Hope that helps,
Daniel

[krabby5]

If you simply want to specify how big of a harddrive and generals on processor/mobo then Dell and the other big guys are okay. If you want to pick the type and brand of motherboard, hard drive and memory then you can count out the big names because they won't let you. In that case look at newegg or other custom integrators and buy the components yourself. I'd suggest the following based on the use you described.

Hard drive: start with at least 300GB and add more later as needed. Storage prices are always going down.

Processor/Mobo: Go with a Dual-core system. That means Intel Dual-core, Core Duo, or AMD X2. Not Celeron, Pentium 4, Pentium D or AMD non X2.

Memory: I'd recommend at least 2GB for Vista, and 1GB for XP. And buy all the memory you can afford right now because if you wait you'll have to worry about compatibility, availability and higher prices down the road.

Video Card: Make dang sure it has a PCI Express x16 graphics expansion slot even if it doesn't come with a graphics card pre-installed. Go to Tom's Hardware to identify a good bang for the buck card.
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphics/index.html
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

Hope that helps,
Daniel

exactly what info I'm looking for...

thanks!

5 years is a lot to be out of the computer loop..:o

[krabby5]

I think I found a pretty sweet deal at Dell...I can get the following shipped to my door for $776...I found a $350 coupon for all Inspirons over $999

PROCESSOR
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6550 (4MB L2 Cache,2.33GHz,1333 FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium

MEMORY
2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

HARD DRIVE
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

OPTICAL DRIVE
Dual Drives: 48X CDRW/DVD COMBO Drive + 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

VIDEO CARD
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3

SOUND
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

MODEM & WIRELESS
Internal PCI 802.11g Wireless Network Card

can you beat that for the price?

[Demiurge]

What's the coupon? I'd be all over that one...

[Jstas]

Honestly, if you are looking for a customizable system, Dell is nice but MicronPC has many more option available to a buyer. If you are the average home user looking to surf porn, read email and steal music while browsing MySpace then go with Dell because like what was said, CS is good, not great but good.

If you use your system for a bit more than video games though, I'd go with MicronPC.

http://www.mpccorp.com/

[krabby5]

What's the coupon? I'd be all over that one...


http://www.couponmountain.com/

[Shizelbs]

IMO, NewEgg is the best. Very good prices, great service.

[krabby5]

Honestly, if you are looking for a customizable system, Dell is nice but MicronPC has many more option available to a buyer. If you are the average home user looking to surf porn, read email and steal music while browsing MySpace then go with Dell because like what was said, CS is good, not great but good.

If you use your system for a bit more than video games though, I'd go with MicronPC.

http://www.mpccorp.com/

I'm sure they use better parts, but I configured a comparable pc to the dell and it was 3 times as much..

[Jstas]

Micron has consumer level products but most of their stuff is geared towards serious computing power for serious users. Like I said, if you're going for average home computer user, go with Dell. If you want some serious computing power, I'd go with the Micron. I already have a new MPC T2500e laptop on order for me and 4 T1300e laptops on order for use at the shop, two for putting in mobile diagnostic systems and two are going in the race trailer to do data logging and telemetry on the race cars.

They aren't for everybody and the price can be prohibitive but I've always had success and been pleased with the performance of the Micron systems. If you are looking for super cheap then Micron is not where you should be looking. You asked for suggestions, I gave them.

[jflail2]

I haven't checked prices elsewhere, but that looks like a pretty good deal to me.

[krabby5]

Micron has consumer level products but most of their stuff is geared towards serious computing power for serious users. Like I said, if you're going for average home computer user, go with Dell. If you want some serious computing power, I'd go with the Micron. I already have a new MPC T2500e laptop on order for me and 4 T1300e laptops on order for use at the shop, two for putting in mobile diagnostic systems and two are going in the race trailer to do data logging and telemetry on the race cars.

They aren't for everybody and the price can be prohibitive but I've always had success and been pleased with the performance of the Micron systems. If you are looking for super cheap then Micron is not where you should be looking. You asked for suggestions, I gave them.

no..I appreciate the suggestions...

In fact, i was drooling over some of those configurations:o

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I doubt you'll be able to find a better deal than the Dell spec-wise (not taking into account quelity of components, etc)

[Demiurge]

I actually just sprung for a new Dell desktop with that coupon. Normally always build my own system, but this was a worthy deal.

[jakelm]

krabby, you did just fine with the sytem you built.

You wont need to upgrade a thing ( I promise you) for another 5 years. And the upgrade after 5 years will be minimal.

$779, with those specs, will do you just fine.

[Bamadude]

Congrats krabby, you're gonna be blown away with the performance compared to an older system.

Personally I can't wait for solid state hard drives to become mainstream. No moving parts, silent, cool and much faster than conventional drives in most regards. Just gonna be a bit before they're affordable. Look for them in a year or two when you need more storage.

regards,
bamadude

[krabby5]

I haven't gotten anything yet....I'm still deciding..(quickly goes back to the Alienware site):eek: