What desktop would you get?

[INeedLove]

My old desktop crashed and burned. My monitor is a flat panel and decent. I got a lowend laptop before Christmas (thank goodness!). But I prefer a desktop for some features. I need a machine that can handle lots of pics, gaming and eventually home video editing. I'm a bit overwhelmed with all of the choices and hope to get some of your opinions. Help?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ammre]

My old desktop crashed and burned. My monitor is a flat panel and decent. I got a lowend laptop before Christmas (thank goodness!). But I prefer a desktop for some features. I need a machine that can handle lots of pics, gaming and eventually home video editing. I'm a bit overwhelmed with all of the choices and hope to get some of your opinions. Help?

Thanks in advance!

I'm a mac girl... G5 or the dual core mac, most def.

 

[Carnevil9]

If I was buying one today, and needed any sort of power, I'd go for the dual core. My rule of thumb is usually based on price, though. The names change, but the price points are fairly stable. A basic, word-processing, emailing, net-surfing PC can be had for $400 to $500, and a power-machine for gaming and video can be had for around $1000. Get whatever you can in that range. Good luck!.....Carney

 

[borisk]

I would recommend a dual core processor. I recently built a system around a core2duo E6300 (1.86ghz) processor. It is the entry level Intel dual core but it is powerful. If you are not into gaming you don't need a blazing fast video card. But I would also get at least 1gb of ram if you have the funds go for 2gb.

Like Carnevil9 stated for pricing is accurate.

Good luck,
Boris

 

[thecharlieman]

do consider building your own.

it really isn't that hard, and there are people here that are more than willing to help you decide what hardware to buy.

how much do you know about your old comp?

i'll start with the basics: what brand & model was it?

do you know how large the power supply was?

i can think of a number of questions for you, but we'll start with just these.

 

[lovingdreamer]

dual core all the way, get the best you can afford. You will save a ton of money if you order your parts from newegg or zipzoomfly rather then going namebrand.

 

[thecharlieman]

If you decide to build your own,,,,,

http://geek.com

in the tabs at the top of the page: price search


also, check here:tomshardware.com


again, in the tabs across the top of the page, check "build your own"


lot of help there.


by building your own, you won't be having to put up with a lot of cost cutting compromises ALL the name brands use. also, when you buy a name brand, your box is preloaded with all kinds of adware/spyware that can be difficult to remove. better to build your own and purchase your own software, avoiding the "bundled" crap.

 

[sparc101]

hardware?? I can show you some hardware if you want...lol JK

I am a computer guy... at times. I deal in HIGH end software that requires intense processing.

If it were me looking for a computer I would do one of two things. If I stay in the "windows" world, I would lean to the heavy processing power (the dual core) or I would go with the MAC with Intel and kind of get the best of both worlds.

The one thing you need to think about now is Vista. Its available and it is pretty good. But it does require memory and a good processor.

Ultimately though it really depends on what you are doing. I think you really need more pics so don't forget to get a digital camera with your deal... I'll be waiting.

Also... glad to see a Michiganite on here.. I was from Michigan

 

[linuxgeek]

AMD, athalon manufacture, has dual core chips also.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_13041,00.html

 

[linuxgeek]

If you are going to abuse yourself by using M$ Vista as your operating system, these are the minimum stats just to run the OS. Safe bet is to double the RAM and CPU speed recommendation if you want your software to run decently.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919183

 

[thecharlieman]

If you are going to abuse yourself by using M$ Vista as your operating system, these are the minimum stats just to run the OS. Safe bet is to double the RAM and CPU speed recommendation if you want your software to run decently.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919183

depending on what you are going to use your computer for,

you may not need to buy vista.

read some of the articles in tomsharware.com, and other review sites.

 

[linuxgeek]

depending on what you are going to use your computer for,

you may not need to buy vista.

read some of the articles in tomsharware.com, and other review sites.

The question will mainly be, if buying a new computer, does the buyer get a choice. Where Micro$oft expects to make most of its money on Vista is by the M$ Tax on most PCs for the Vista license.

Sadly, most of what I've read makes it sound like Vista isn't really much better than XP, they have just moved stuff around and changed their licensing methodology.

 

[thecharlieman]

a lot of what tom's checked out vista was actually slower than XP even after they "taught" the superfetch.

but that's just one review....

all in all, vista to me isn't much of an improvement even in the look and feel dept, but then, if i knew more about how programs actually worked, i wouldn't be running windoze at all!! i'd rather run linux or sun

 

[linuxgeek]

Depending on what you are needed to run, one of the Linux distros may do the job for you. If you need a product that is only on windows, there are options which may let you run them on linux:

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/

 

[thecharlieman]

last time i tried linux, i couldn't seem to get any VM to work. i have several PC games that will only run in windows, and wouldn't even load in a VM envirnment.

rather steep learning curve for me.....file structure etc being so different between windows and the others.

but anyway, i still have the ubuntu live cd and am planning to refurbish an older box to put my website on. would rather have the website on a linux box for security reasons (duh!). have noted in the error and access logs that there have been multiple attempts to hack. such is the price of hosting web goodies. daily virus scans etc. pain in the butt when you're trying to do research.

 

[linuxgeek]

If looking at using the linux box as a server, would recommend looking into Debian or GenToo. Both are set up to allow you to have the bare minimum needed on the machine to specificially only provide the services you want. This can be important because if there is a bug in a specific service/program, if you aren't running it, the bug can't be used against you. It is also helpful because less stuff installed on the machine, the more CPU and RAM resources you have available to the services you want to provide.


The primary difference between Debian and GenToo is Debian provides the executable versions of the programs where GenToo provided the source code and compiles and executeable on your machine. If you have played with Ubuntu, then you have already played with an distro which is based on Debian. Ubuntu has primarily made changes to the GUI desktop from what I understand.

http://www.debian.org
http://www.gentoo.org

 

[thecharlieman]

yea, knew that ubuntu was debian based.

the live cd gives the option to install a LAMP config, which loads only those parts of linux to acess web controls etc from what i've read about it, then directs you to dl the proper config libs.

the rest of the distro is kinda held back, at least with the 6.0.6 releast i have. i'll need to burn the latest before i go with it...been over a year since i played with it.

 

[thecharlieman]

anyway back on topic:

from tomshardware:look here

then here

and finally here

 

[linuxgeek]

mmmmm .. LAMP

http://home.planet.nl/~borzu000/lamp/downloads/lamp.banner.01.468x60.png

 

[thecharlieman]

exactly!

i'm assuming that you [linuxgeek] prefer AMD over Intel?

 

[linuxgeek]

Intel annoyed me when they did the whole serial number thing that anyone with website using activeX controls could access.

AMD, use to have a problem with smoking their CPUs because they didn't have a thermal cutoff in their early Atholons.


These days, I'll generally go with which ever one gives me the better price & stats on the motherboard I want to use.

 

[bighornedsatyr]

Unless you're a major computer geek, don't build your own computer. It'll be too much time and effort for the result. I think you're better off customizing a computer from one the big sellers over the internet. That way if you have problems, you have someone to call. Yes, you'll have a long hold time, but it's better than nothing.

You don't say what OS you want to use. But I imagine you're running Windows. I'd suggest looking at the Macs. They're beautifully designed and the video stuff is simple enough even my Mom can do it. Linux is great two (I'm running it on two of my old laptops), but suffers from a lack of support from hardware manufacturer's and other things and the installation is not idiot-proof. It's no harder than any OS installation, but you wouldn't typically need to install other OSs. (If you think you might like it, you can try a Live CD of a distribution. Boot from the CD, and it's just like you had installed the OS, and you can easily reboot to your old CD.)

You're trying to do two of the most computing intensive things on your computer: games and video editing. I'd second the suggestion of a dual-core (or hyper-threading at the very least). Also, get a lot of RAM, I'd suggest 2 GB. (Note that most computer companies overcharge for RAM. Feel free to get the minimum and buy the rest cheaper from Crucial or another seller of RAM.)

Also, for HDs, depending on the cost, you might want to trade some capacity for speed. That'll speed up loading and saving those big video files. (You can always get external drives in the future for archiving those big files.)

As for the video card, that will depend on what type of games you play. If they're complex 3-D games, you'll need to spend more. Simpler games, like online poker or old arcade games, will require much less. MMORPGs will be somewhere in between. Or at least that's what I imagine. I haven't played a game other Civ II in years.

Any computer choice you make is going to be highly influenced by how much you're planning to spend.

 

[thecharlieman]

here's another link to a guide for building your own. goes into the arguments for and against. somewhat in depth, but you be the judge.

another item in building your own....upgrades. MOST prebuilt boxes have very limited upgradeability, for the obvious reasn that they want you to come back to buy a newer (supposedly) better machine.

also, most of the hardware used in prebuilt computers is proprietary, meaning you can't just change a part here and there and expect it to work or even fit in some cases. in my experience, the storebought machines have the minimum usable power supplies that just barely cover the needs of the hardware, so in order to upgrade anything, the first thing you need to buy is a better PSU. more often than not, the original PSU will have been made special for that brand, and you would then have to go back to them for a better one at twice or three times the cost of an off-the-shelf unit.

the motherboard is also another area that will have proprietary changes, in the major components and chipsets. there you would likely run into compatability issues with off-the-shelf parts. (I.E. gateway, HP, and mostly DELL)


google search term: build your own computer

lots of free tutorials out there! including help in deciding what you need.

 

[Starbuck69]

Go with the core2duo, i just replaced my system with ut and then upgraded to a 64bit os and im very happy with the performance of it

 

[FallenAngelsSlut]

get a Mac!!!