Computer?

[asterroc]

I need to buy a PC. I attempted this last summer w/ help from kelsin, but I never got off my @$$ to actually buy it. I thought Newegg.com sold whole computers, but apparently they don't. I do not need a monitor or other peripherials, just everything that goes in the case. So what do I need to get, and do you have recommendations for which one? I will be installing Win XP on it (possibly Vista), MS Office, Firefox, and assorted games. I want to be able to play Starcraft 2 when it comes out.

I feel like these are the parts I need for a computer.

* Case
* Motherboard (is the processor typically integral to this?)
* DVD R/W
* Hard Drive (100+ GB)
* Video Card
* Sound Card
* RAM (1+ GB)
* USB slots (2 minimum, 6 ideal - are these usually integral to the motherboard?)
* Wireless card (Bluetooth not required)
* Power supply
* Fan

What parts am I missing, and what do you recommend for each? I'm counting on YOU, sirroxton, and maybe kelsin since I'm thinking of converting the old box to linux. ^_^ I'm hoping to order this next week, in the same order as a conure-cam.

Comments

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

DON'T DO VISTA!!! i've heard nothing but bad things about it. it was seriously broken from day one. i've never used it myself...i've used XP and that seems to work fine. why mess with success?

you know, if you have enough space you could just dual-boot Windows on your Mac.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Last time I tried it, it kept crashing in the games I wanted to play anyway. Since one of the top reasons I want a PC is for games, this does not seem a good solution to me.

[parrot-lady.livejournal.com]

Vista also reccomends a minimum of 4 gigs of ram.
The stupid thing is a memory hog.

I actually don't buy memory at Newegg- I've been referred to zipzoomfly.com and I can usually score a good deal between them and buy.com .

For the case, I'd wait on choosing that until you know what Motherboard you will be having- typically most cases will fit almost *all* motherboards, but you might find some that don't. When you do find a case, depending on accessories, I would definately make sure you have enough airflow through the case. Some lower end models may not have enough ventilation in them to keep things from overheating.

As far as processor- motherboard combos, newegg does put some together, but usually its lower end models. (I may be wrong as I haven't looked recently).

Memory kinds will also depend on the motherboard.

Video cards are great- newegg is again where I got mine. I bought a pair of 8800gt's with 512mb to put in SLI (linked) mode, they run as one, and it cost about 1/2 of what one would retail.

***Depending on the motherboard will depend on the video card choice for linking, some support ATI brand video cards, some support geforce videocards** This is totally optional, but a good idea especially for graphic/processor intensive games.

USB is part of the motherboard, but its also part of the case you're buying usually. There are headers on the motherboard, what you can hook your additional usb ports to. Whichever motherboard you get make sure you have adequate headers on it for what you want to run. It is fairly easy to run out of things.

My motherboard has onboard sound- 5.1channel, which does fairly nicely. Sound card at that point is optional, to me.
(my motherboard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130048 )


I don't know if you have microcenter near you, but they have OEM harddrives for sale now - sometimes they have comparable deals to what is on newegg for regular boxed/retail harddrives.

As far as power supplies go, I'm with Cosair all the way. You pay a bit more upfront for them, but they are solid. I've trouble with dead powersupplies from antec who strangely enough is willing to ship out replacement parts for a computer case without checking warranty information, but won't take a dead WITHIN WARRANTY power supply back because I wasn't the original purchaser (It was a b-day gift). They also won't take it back if you don't have a reciept- even if the manfacturer date is stamped on the thing.

Corsair power supply : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002

I home built my last one, and its been running fine for the last year. My dad's that I built- his got a stupid virus. BUT, thats not my fault. my fiancee has built his and upgraded fans and coolers, and everything.

I can't find my pics of my desktop on my laptop- chances on their on it- but if you want pictures I can probably get you some. Just be warned, my case is a 44lb beast(antec P180B)- only chosen for cooling capability, not it's massive size.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

ConureCam! That's pretty great.

NewEgg does sell headless PCs:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=10&name=Desktop-PCs

If you want to go that route, let me know, and I can try to help you pick something StarCraft-worthy.

If you want to go the component route, this guide is your best friend -- SERIOUSLY. Check out the budget box. All these boxes are designed for gaming.
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200805.ars

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Oh ho! It does do PCs! It got any w/o the mouse/keyboard? Yes, I do believe that's the route I'd like to go, just b/c it's so much simpler than mucking around with parts.

I'd like under $1k ideally, and I should be able to get all the software I need for free from my work or T$'s, so I don't need to buy them or have them preinstalled. If they come w/ the box though, I won't knock it.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

If you're not going to build your own, it's hard not to recommend a headless Dell.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DDCWFAX&s=dhs

Upgrade to the E8300. Get the 2GB of 667. Get the HD 2400 XT. Upgrade to XP Pro.

Now, the 2400XT is not a great card. We may want to remove the video card altogether and order the Radeon HD 3850 separately on NewEgg for roughly $30 more. The HD 3850 has pretty low power consumption, but let me dig a little more and make sure that wouldn't strain the power supply on the Dell.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Or you could get the Radeon HD 2600 XT from NewEgg and actually pay less.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

What's the difference between the 2400XT and the HD3850?

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Why Dell? Reliability, cost, customer service, or something else? I'd heard that the customer service had gone downhill since their initial awesomeness.

Video card: are you saying that if I choose the 3100 Intel card, I'd then pay $130 for the Radeon HD 3850, or just $30?

Should I buy the wireless card (Dell 1505, $70) through them, or something else?

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Price. The OEM price advantage for budget boxes is huge. That advantage shrinks a bit for enthusiast systems, but that's not what most people need.

2400XT = $40-$50
2600XT = $70-100
3850 = $130-$160

First off, notice that Dell is stiffing you on the price of the 2400XT. They charge $100 for it. (Buying video cards from OEMs is the equivalent of buying popcorn in the theater. The theater's margins on ticket-sales are super low, but they make up the difference at the snack counter.)

The 2400XT is a little underpowered for gamers, although it'll probably run Starcraft 2 acceptably well. That title is expected to not have really high requirements.

The 2600XT is a mainstream gamer's card, and should play all upcoming games acceptably well.

The 3850 is a high value mid-range card. You won't need to make trade-offs between resolution and antialiasing.

[seekingferret.livejournal.com]

My experience with Dell has been high quality, responsive customer service. But my other experience has been poor quality components- shoddy plastic cases that are underengineered and break, capacitors made out of spec (one summer I worked tech support for a company plagued all summer by exploding capacitors in Dell computers), and an utter lack of quality control. I usually opt for Dell because I tend to view computers as commodities and don't mind if they break down as long as they're cheap. But you, coming from a Mac background, may find Dell quality control frustrating.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

But you, coming from a Mac background, may find Dell quality control frustrating.

You forget, I'm the statistical anomaly for Macs: every problem that others haven't had with their Macs, I have.

I don't think of myself as a Mac user. I think of myself as a both Mac and PC user. I have only had a Mac at home for the past 6 years; I primarily owned PCs for 8 years (and before that I used my parents' PC). I've had much more problems with Macs in the shorter time I've had them than I've ever had with PCs. IIRC though, my most recent PC was a Dell, and I never had problems with it.

[always-going.livejournal.com]

Starcraft 2 is something my new CPU, whenever I get one, needs to be able to work with, too!

On an unrelated note, do you remember a long, long time ago you recommended a hairstylist to me on Grafton St and I went and she was wonderful? Well, I can't for the life of me remember her first or last name (all that comes to mind is Laura and Sarah, neither of which is probably correct) and I need a haircut, stat, before I leave for Maine.

Any idea who I'm talking about?? Yeesh, these paint fumes must be getting to me....

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Jen at the Hair Spa

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Ah, beautiful.

The last link I sent you was for the slim tower. I contacted Dell, and they informed me that the slim only had a 250W power supply. The full tower has the full 300W power supply which, despite what some (over-)enthusiasts may tell you, is more than adequate.

Go here:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ddcwdav&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=productdetails~inspndt_530

Select:
The E8300 processor.
2GB 667MHz DDR2

Great system, $579. I think it's the best deal you're going to get.

Video Card:
Pick One. Any of these cards are a great value.
9600GT - Enthusiast, $160
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134038
8600GT - Excellent, $95, $65 after rebate*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150229
2600XT - Good Enough, $67, $47 after rebate*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102700

Feel free to ask questions. I can tell you anything you'd like to know, but I don't want to get off-message by starting to ramble without prompting. ;-)

*Older cards get discounted through rebates -- sad fact of life

Caitlin's

[(Anonymous)]

Just built Caitlin a new PC. Got Asus motherboard with an Asus graphics card and DVD r/w drive. All work great. Sound card came with motherboard. For ram we bought G.Skill ram from NewEgg and I was happy with it (This is after Corsair from newegg which came DOA and Corsair got back to us about replacing it AFTER I already got my refund from Newegg.... gogo corsair).

I would suggest not doing wireless and running a cable for the desktop. Esp if you want to game on it, dealing with random interference lag is annoying, just my opinion though.

USB Slots will be on your motherboard, nothing to worry about there. Fans will come with the case (and one will come on the chip, and on the graphics card). So unless you are planing some ridiculous system and then going to overclock it you should be fine. You can buy a motherboard with chip attached but normally you buy both separate.

Any questions just ask, or shoot me a budget via email and I can show you what I would buy from newegg via a saved cart.

Re: Caitlin's

[kelsin.livejournal.com]

That was me :-(

Re: Caitlin's

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

I'll second avoiding wireless if you can.

If you get your own components, you'll pay a little more, get a little less, but it's reassuring to 1) know that you personally evaluated every component and 2) have the fix-it confidence that comes from building it yourself. I would pay (and have paid) $150 extra to hand-build my own system. I consider that a neurosis on my part. If you don't share my neurosis, then I really can't recommend DYI. :)

You might find your concerns better addressed via IM. If you'd like, e-mail me your IM info (or we can just discuss this over e-mail). roxton@gmail.com