Thread: Need help finding a good computer, (Computer nerds come!)

Ok, I need help finding a new computer.

Im looking at the Athlon processors because they are cheap. My friend said that DO NOT LOOK AT THEIR PROCESSOR SPEED!, because he said they are wrong, and to find a a true athlons processor speed, look at the number, and im looking at a 3400, so according to him, it has a processor speed of 3.4 ghz, because its advertised at 2.2?

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.2GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 16X DVD+/-RW and 16X DVD Drives, Windows XP Home Edition

Those are the specs, the 1GB RAM looks nice! PLus this thing is only 620$

I hook up throught the internet through a wireless router, netgear, and alot of my computers are fussy with the wireless card, but would this one handle it, because it says its networking is only 100/10 or 10/100.

Would this be a good deal?

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...349&pfp=BROWSE

And....if not, can you recomend a computer like under 700, Im looking at minimum 512 memory, 2.8ghz, and one that will work with my netgear card.

And What are the better processors for gaming? I heard athlon and pentium, and stay from celeron.

Thanks

He's right on the Athlon part, the 3400 is basically how fast it would be if it was an Intel. Even though the actual processor speed is rated lower.

What graphics card, mobo, etc. are you talking about? If the computer is for gaming, the graphics card is really, really importaint.

Though I'm no longer truely a pc person (I've converted to mac's for a number of reasons), I can definately help out here.

The absolute cheapest way to build a high-end system, is to do it yourself. I've been doing it for about 8 years for myself, my family, friends, and even a small company at one point.. it's NOT THAT HARD. You can find many online tutorials of how to do it, and feel free to pm me with any questions (or hit me up on aim at k2kyo or email me) Anybody with any type of mechanical ability can do it.. most is pretty straight-forward.. plug this here, connect that there.

If you're looking for games, definately avoid celeron processors since they lack the front-side bus of the better chips. The best "bang for your buck" so to speak, is going to be the AMD 64 series. They've got the power, without the price tag. Super high-end Intel chips definately rock, but you pay dearly for it.. the processor alone can out-weigh the entire cost of the system. So go with the AMD 64 or any of the athalon processors, and you'll be fine.

Next up is the motherboard, this is one of the things you should NEVER cheap out on. Spend the extra cash, and get a nice one. Asus makes great boards, and in this case they are worth the cash.

Heatsync - you need one. Get one approved by AMD, you can find a list on their website for your specific chip. AMD's are known for high-heat, as with any high-speed chip.

Hard drive - SHOP AROUND. Rebates are your friend here, you can snag 150gb+ drives for nothing these days. Look for 7400rpm or more if you can.

Graphics - ATI and nVidia rule this domain. Which is better is a matter of opinion for the most part.. there are hardcore fans of either. Any nVidia chip with shader 3 is pretty sick. 128mb minimum here, 256 if you want to spend the cash.

RAM - this will be determined by your motherboard as to what type you need and such, go with 1gb minimum.. and if you get 2 sticks of 512 to get there, make sure to get a matched pair to avoid problems down the line. Corsair owns here in my opinion, but most memory is fine. Get a warrenty if you can.

Case - Get something with a built-in power supply, 400w min. You can go as crazy as you want here, from $30-$500+ depending on what you want. Make sure it has at least 1 inlet and 1 output fan.

Want to save money? take your time. check places like tech-bargains.com and hot-deals.org for great deals on components. You can put together an absolute top-of-the-line computer for around $1k if you have patience.. and a suitable system for around $600-700.

If you have any other questions, feel free to drop me a line, and I'll help you out any way I can. Alternatively if you're set on buying a pre-built system.. check ebay. Look for actual computer dealers with tons of feedback.

Good luck :)

Kyle

www.pricewatch.com in the meantime, look for parts there as well.

(We've built 4 computers completely from scratch with parts 100% found through pricewatch)

The last place you should cheap out is the power supply. Get a decent power supply. Antec is my fave, but PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, and Vantec make good ones as well.

An Antec power supply may cost a little more than a cheap one, but it is well worth it.

I would like to add this:

If you plan to update your PC as you get more money, it might be wise to think about SLI (dual graphics cards). It would be fine for you to pick up, say, a 6600 GT and buy another one as time goes on. You will, however, need to put a little bit more than normal into a motherboard that is SLI enabled.

As far as RAM goes, get the nice stuff. There are quite a few "bargan -ram" type products, but they really are quite inferior to nice ram.

I would recomend shopping around for the processor. This, again, is not a place you want to get something inferior. I really recomend AMD 64s, and would, in general, pick them up over Pentiums as far as your budget is concerned. It might be a little bit pricy, but I have heard good things about the 64 X2 3800 (linked below). Also give the 64 3500 a look (again, below).

As far as RAM goes, I like Corsair. Decent RAM can be pretty expensive though, so try Newegg and Ebay as well as the places listed by other posters.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103514

Google "Toms Hardware" and "Overclockers Cafe" for some pretty good hardware review sites.

i built all of my desktops..and just want to add,that these guys are right.the one area i found to save cash is the case.i went cheapo on 2 of em and so far they are perfect. as seen above..newegg and pricewatch will become your bestest buds.there are other places but those seem to be the 2 biggies.on yer first build dont get intimidated.your gonna find assembly is actually the easy part.its those first error beeps thatll get your hair standing up.you are about to find a new joy.kinda like dr frankenstein. one other thing you may also want to look into a barebones system.thy usually come with most of the components youll need.most not all.some have ram..some dont some have hdd's some dont. shop around and be patient.

personally i never look at specs for processors. i look at benchmark scores. if you go to http://service.futuremark.com/servle.../projectsearch it will give you a bunch of benchmark scores from all different processors and GPUs. 3DMark05 for GPUs and PCMark05 for CPUs. for under $700 you wont get a good gaming system. if you want gaming you need to spend around $1500 for a decent desktop, more for top of the line stuff.

oh yeah just stay the hell away from celerons. HT Pentium 4s, Athlon 64s, or Pentium Ds are decent desktop processors. for a GPU the best value is the GeForce 6600 GT. it costs around $200 and it will play all of todays games well.

oh whoops pcmark05 is a total system benchmark, it tests cpu, memory, graphics, and HDD performance. i guess a good CPU only benchmark is super pi, which is a program that calculates pi to a certain amount of digits and tells you how fast yoor processor did it. for example, i have a Pentium M 750 that was able to calculate 1 million digits of pi in 40 seconds.

I got a hp 1130n

AMD 64 3500, 1GB PC3200 DDR SD RAM, 250GB ATA Hard Drive, Lightscribe

Go here for more specs http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/HP_Pavi...9.html?tag=tab

I am happy with it, it only costed 680

I think you did Ok. Enjoy.