UPGRADE or BUY new

[GeoffRowley]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

The recent advice has been..helpful, and anymore would be much appreciated.

[WildLegba]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

I hate to be "last wordish" but...

I'll take you up on that challenge :)

Snipped list of parts and prices ...
Subtotal: $961.45

$40 under, but I guess you do still need to build it.
But I think one of the biggest reasons for building it yourself is that you don't void any warranties if you open up the case. And everything is upgradable, whereas Dell and other such companies have cases that may not allow for a new PSU to be installed.

Dell offers free shipping. Also, on that model if you buy it right now, you get a free upgrade to a 20" monitor. There goes the $40, and more.

Why don't you void the warranty if you open your self-built box? Because you don't get one. Yeah the parts may be individually guaranteed, but you have to diagnose it, tear it down, pack it, go to the post office, pay postage, be without a computer for two weeks, etc. Dell sends *someone to your house to fix it and covers the labor AND the parts.*

I'm not saying that this is what I want, or what others should want. I'm just saying that in the value equation, for the average, non-builders needs (and the original poster professed some concern about building their own), buying a pre-built, pre-configured, optimized system (but granted, with gobs of pre-installed junk-ware) offers bang for the buck that is difficult to match.

So not "totally wrong" after all. And You're last sentence looks pretty close to what I offered up as the rational for building your own, or at least going with the unit he linked to, which is essentially a pre-assembled box of open standard parts, or the best of both worlds as I pointed out.

you need a new computer

(Snipped: complaints about listed parts and suggestions of alternatives...)

...also get nvidia nforce 4 chipset motherboard for amd64 it rocks...

finally make sure that the motherboard supports at least 4gb. the next set of games will need it. and get 2 gb for now.

Just to be clear, no one is suggesting that he buy this $999 gaming box, be it from Dell or the list of parts listed. This was an exercise in comparing, in general, the cost of pre-built name brand computers against the cost of buying the equivalent parts at retail and building it oneself.

The machine he is buying is a very solid mid-level machine. Yeah, some of us might substitute this or that, but all of the componants are quality and sit pretty close to the "most bang for the buck" curve of price/performance.

[GeoffRowley]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

That seems to be something I completly forgot about, a moniter. Any reccomendations on a good moniter. 15 inch is fine, preferably a LCD though. Thanks.

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

Yeah, I think my post comparing the Dell to the neweg computer was just a post for comparison. I was curious how the prices would end up, and since I had made the cart on newegg, I decided to post it just in case anyone else might find it interesting.

Don't worry goya, I'd never suggest getting an 820 or an x300 :)

As for monitors, I would suggest getting a viewsonic. One of the most reliable LCD monitor manufacturers, albeit their prices are usually higher than the other brands. Acer and BenQ are also supposed to be good I think. I just personally wouldn't take the chance of getting dead pixels or poopy color quality with a lesser known brand. And be sure you get an LCD with a DVI connector and preferably under 12ms response time.

Some might suggest getting a 17" or 19" so you can use 1280x1024 and push the 7600gt to its full potential, but I think it would be a better idea to just stick with a 15" and 1024x768. You should be able to play more games on high that way :)

My suggestion: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824014110

Final edit: Windows XP Home does support both hyperthreading and dual core CPU's, goya :)

[WildLegba]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

Assuming you already have a CRT, and that 15" is fine for you, I would simply stick with the CRT that you have. The biggest issue with gaming and LCD's is response time...LCDs, until recently, had a response time that was postively glacial compared to CRTs. Not something you want in an FPS game. In fact, there are a lot of hardcore gamers who still refuse to use an LCD due to this issue.

Oddly enough, this is more of an issue in smaller LCDs than in larger ones, in part because the market is moving towards larger displays as the price comes down and product development is focusing now on 19" + sizes. As a result it is virtually impossible to find 8 ms response times in 15" LCDs from quality manufacturers while there are quite a few 19" + sizes are down to 8 ms. For gaming, you want 8 ms, no question.

If I were you and had your requirements I would actually wait a year or two and get a 20" monitor when they are $250. You say 15" is fine, but play on a 20" for an hour or so and you may change your tune.

That seems to be something I completly forgot about, a moniter. Any reccomendations on a good moniter. 15 inch is fine, preferably a LCD though. Thanks.

[DrunkenPirate]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

Moved.

[GeoffRowley]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

Neat.

[GeoffRowley]

Re: UPGRADE or BUY new

So your thinking this will be a moderate computer with the upcomming batch of games? If you could post your specs and FPS and such for BF2 and others, it would be much appreciated.