I am looking into buying a new pc. I need everything from the tower to the monitor. I use my pc for music,digital photos,internet,and I have just been introduced to the pc gaming world. I have about 5 grand to spend. What should I look at? Thanks for the info.

 

You can get one hell of a machine for $5K. Of the uses you mentioned, would you prioritize any of them higher than any of the others? Also, do you need home theater functionality in your PC? Lastly, are you talking about off the shelf or are you open to building?

 

wow..with 5K I could build 3 boxes... Really depends on what you want...

 

Gaming and Sound as far as music would be on the top of my priority list.

 

What about build vs. buy? All my component knowledge is pretty much tailored toward building. I'm simply not in the know on who's using which components in the off-the-shelf world.

 

My old pc needed a new sound card installed and a fan replaced. I have no problem at all doing that. How hard is it to build your own pc? I have never done this before.If I had a manual to follow,I do not think that I would have a problem. It would also save me alot of cash.

 

5k is too much for a PC. PC hardware depreciates faster than your car. 2k max. UNless you are going to use your PC for a business there is absolutely no reason to spend that much money.

 

$5K USD? Wow, that's alot of change for a machine. All you need is probably $2K for your tower and if you want, use the rest on a nice laptop.

 

The physical assembly of the computer is easy. Stuff pretty much goes together only one way. A lot of us (myself included) spout off "building a machine is easy." However, we tend to take a lot of basic component knowledge for granted. Choosing your parts and making certain they're compatible with each other can be overwhelming if you've never done it before. Here are some of the things you'll need to consider and/or choose:

CPU - AMD/Intel
Motherboard System Chipset
CPU Socket Type (likely dictated by chipset)
Memory Speed and Type (also likely dictated by chipset)
Video Card Slot (AGP, PCIe)
Video Card Brand and GPU model
Hard Drive Size
Hard Drive Speed (likely dictated by size)
Hard Drive Configuration (Individual, RAID 0, RAID 1, 0+1)
CRT or LCD monitor

Two things I can tell you for certain. 1) Even though you have a large budget, don't waste your money on buying the fastest CPU model from either AMD or Intel. It's doubtful you'll ever see the difference unless you're doing 3D animation rendering, or applying Photoshop filters to 20 megapixel images. Purchase one, two, or even three models down from the highest CPU. 2) If you decide to build and you can wait two or three months, it would probably be advisable to do so. The graphics card industry is currently transitioning from the AGP slot to the PCIe slot. The current choices of PCIe video cards are somewhat limited and the supply on a several of the the current PCIe cards can be very tight.

 

Go pick up a copy of PCGamer, they have a dream system recommendation that costs a total of $3905, Computer Gaming World's pick for the best dream PC is the VoodooPC Rage SLI for $5925, but they also suggested Maingear's Type3-VJ for $4490.

 

So, what you really need is a mid-range processor (~3 GHz rating), 1 GB RAM, DVD Writer, very good sound card with 5.1 at least out (Preferably as many outputs as you can get), good video card (Geforce 6600GT through 6800GT), and a good monitor.

Not knowing your needs, here's what I recommend:

- nForce 3 250 Gb based motherboard (DFI Lanboy is the current king)
- AMD Athlon64 3200
- nVidia GeForce 6800GT (AGP) (I like BFG cards)
- ~400 W power supply (I like Thermaltake and Antec PS's)
- I haven't played with sound cards in a while, but I'd look for an alternative to the Creative Audigy line (bad software)
- A 160GB to 200GB HDD (Seagate has returned with their 5-year warranty...not the fastest or quietest though)
- PC3200 Memory with CAS 2.5 or lower. Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, Kingston are all good brands Preferred in two sticks (4-way interleave, even though you can't do dual channel with the A64).
- DVD Writers...get a dual while you're at it. NEC, Pioneer, and Sony seem to be very popular. I would not go with an off-brand (I use an NEC).
- Cases...look to see what you want. I'd get a mid-tower at the largest. Antec, CoolerMaster, Lian Li, ThermalTake all make good cases. The best bang for the buck lately has been the Antec Lanboy.

Hardest part of building your PC is component selection and software install.

And of course there's no mention of any of the other peripherals here...mouse/keyboard, speakers, printer, router, etc.

 

I wanted to add in here:

First pick the motherboard you want. Make sure it has everything you want, stable, etc. Everything pretty much starts from there.

The system as described above is good for now. PCI-Express is slowly changing out the AGP slot. 939-pin AMD processors are changing out 754-pins (with 1266 pins in the future 2006 time frame). Anymore, I don't care about upgradability. The only things I upgrade any more are memory, video, and disk drives. For anything else...you swap motherboards.

For a good selection, try the Ars Technica system guide. It's a good start. http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/...ide-200411.ars

Anandtech.com is also good for reviews, pricing, etc.

My favorite places to buy are Newegg.com and ZipZoomFly.com

 

For the record, I just purchased a system very close to what Lung spec'd out. Different brands, but mostly the same spec parts. The only thing I did differently was that I went with slightly slower memory (CAS 3) and upped the processor to a 3500+ with the "savings." My total cost, no sound card, two HD's, and a copy of Half Life 2, was just over $1,600 including shipping. I should have everything tonight. Except, of course, for the motherboard and power supply which appear to be backordered. Grrrrrrr......

 

If your gonna go AMD64, DO NOT get something with Socket754, and If your gonna go with an nVidia based Mobo, get the NForce3 ULTRA or the new nForce4, the nForce3 250GB previously mentioned only goes to an 800Mhz FSB and all the new 939 stuff is based on a 1000Mhz FSB.

Personally if your not big into building computers, I would buy one.
Dell Dimension XPS or
Compaq X Gaming PC
Even with upgraded components, your only gonna spend around $2000.

Gives you plenty of leftover $$$ to buy a scweeeet LCD, some 5.1 Surround speakers and a bunch of Software for the machine.

I also personally detest XP Home and if XP Pro is a small jump in price, I would do it.

 

http://www.alienware.com

 

 

OVERPRICED!

 

Check out http://bensbargains.net/. They have coupon codes for 30%-40% off Dell systems. I wouldn't spend all $5k. Maybe $1.5k-2k.

 

alienware is WAY overpriced

i got my first computer from www.ibuypower.com . they are okay but not great. I still recommend getting stuff yourself.

www.newegg.com is a great place to find hte stuff that has been listed here. if you give us a more detailed list of how you want to prioritize your needs, then we can tailor a list to meet your needs. again 5k is A LOT (A LOT) for a computer. even some of the most serious gamers will spend probably around 3-4k. anything around there to me is a waste of money. you can build a very very very very nice computer that will do everyday tasks and much more for around 2k or less.


www.ibuypower.com is a place where you customize what you want and they build it for you

I recommend AMD64 3200+ (and anything above that)
If you really really really like games go with the uber expensive AMD64 FX chips. I dont think its necessary but hey, you have 5k to throw away.

www.newegg.com you buy everything yourself andyou build it yourself. its more challenging as there are no real instructions. but you do save money.

 

Goddam the XPS can become super expensive. I added up all the best components and it went to 6k+. Just a question, do you guys perfer AMD or Intel. Im a AMD guy.

 

look for AMD, Dual CHannel RAM, PICe for videocard, RAID interface for Harddrive, 10/100/1000 networking.

The most important thing is the motherboard. If it has all these things, chances are that the computer will be good for a while due to so many upgrade options. These are the latest changes for computers and they'll probably stay that way for a while.

everything else is according to your budget (harddrive size, ram size, cd drives, videocarrd)...

thats how i see it..

 

You do realize only the FX series from AMD has dual channel memory bus?

 

not too familiar with AMD never built one but i know they own in multimedia and gaming... even the slowest AMD's blow awway the fastest p4 in gaming

 

thats not true on teh scale that you make it out to be, but as a rule of thumb, amd = slightly better gaming, p4 = slightly better encoding (mp3, video)

build your own comp and buy yourself a hugeass lcd and a 5.1 system for $2g's everythingn included

 

Welcome to 2004

The 939 Series Chips (basically anything on a 1Ghz HT Bus) comes with a Dual Channel 128bir memory controller, just like the FX series.

Athlon 64 FX --------- Athlon64

this is why I said earlier in this thread, DO NOT buy an Athlon64 in Socket754, only buy 939

 

I will Say that the AMD Marketing machine is definately going overboard these days though.
Check this out.

Model - Speed - Cache - FSB - Socket - RAM
3400+ - 2.4GHz - 512KB - 800 - 754 - Single Channel
3500+ - 2.2GHz - 512KB - 1000 - 939 - Dual Channel
3700+ - 2.4GHz - 1MB - 800 - 754 - Single Channel
3800+ - 2.4GHz - 512KB - 1000 - 939 - Dual Channel
4000+ - 2.4GHz - 1MB - 1000 - 939 - Dual Channel
FX53 - 2.4GHz - 1MB - 1000 - 939 - Dual Channel

So the 3400 is actually faster than the 3500?? I guess its a 3500 because it hasa faster bus and Dual Channel memory?
But then look at everything else. 5 different chips all running at 2.4GHz with a price range of $225 to $750
And no apparent difference between the FX53 and the 4000+
With the king Daddy FX55 (2.6Ghz - 1MB - 1000 - 939 - Dual Channel) being over $1000 for the chip itself, and still hard to find.

 

i wonder why any one hasnt mentioned DELL so far?
I think Dell makes nice PCs..

 

 

Welcome to FUD land.

In most applications that are CPU bound, you will beenfit greater from an Athlon 3400+ Socket-754 vs. a 3500+ Socket-939. This is due to the clock speed differences. Some other instances they perform exactly the same.

So you too can have a (almost) slower CPU for $70 more (approx) not including motherboard cost.

BTW, thank you for correcting me. I did forget for a moment about the Socket-939 A64s.

So, you'd still be better off to get a Socket-754 system to save extra money (too put towards a faster vid card, more memory, etc.)

 

Dammit, I got owned by your post (I was too late).

The main difference is on-board cache. This increases silicon die size substantially. Die Size = cost.

 

Ive got the 939 pin AMD +3500 and i plan on upgrading to the FX w/o changing motherboards which was my reasoning behind getting 939 pin.

I love my AMD. I spent close to $1200 bucks 6 months ago.

I got AMD64 +3500 939pin Asus MOBO
Nvidia Geforce 6800GT ( free doom3 )
80 GB hd
DVD RW/CD RW
1 gig mushkin low latency pc3200 ram
Xp pro
upgraded 6" copper heatsink
Cheap case



I can't see the reasoning behind paying $5000. If you built a computer yourself, the most I can see you spending is close to $3500 for the same hardware etc etc..

 

Haha, look at post 14, DELL XPS
Except if you want to go AMD, then your gonna be waiting an awful long time to get one from Dell.

 

If you have a decent amount of money to spend, and plan on putting your own pc together, get a GOOD pc case. I bought a Lian LI PC50 for $120, and it is WONDERFUL.

A good case makes it so much easier to work on your pc it's ridiculous. A cheap case will cause to have to bend your hands at crazy angles just to get stuff plugged in. I have a huge scar on my thumb from pulling out a hard drive power cable.

 

You know people rag on dell, but I have had three dell desktops so far (and just bought a new one which should be here this week) and I have had no problems with them, have benchmarked just as well as the build it yourself specials (minus overclocking) and the thing is with Dell, is if you wait it out and eye their wesbite you can get some amazing deals. Two sites to check out on a regular basis are www.slickdeals.net and www.edealinfo.com

Just recently thanks to edealinfo.com I found a 40% off any machine over $2500 coupon.

I got a Pentium 4 3.8 ghz with 1mb cache, 1gb of ram, 250 gb sata hd, top of the line sb audigy with firewire, dual burners 48x cd-r and 16x dvdr-+ dual layer, full version (not SE) Radeon X800 XT 256mb pci-e Logitech MX500 mouse, with 4 year 24x7 support for 1650 shipped. Now I wont have this machine for four years cuz I'm a nerd but the remaining transferable warranty is a huge selling point when it comes up to list it on ebay. (currently if you configure the same machine with the same features on any major computer website you are looking at $2200-2800) My machine origionaly rang up at 2595 so with the 40% coupon, the instant savings and free shipping came out to my final price. (for the record on newegg.com the 3.8ghz cpu which just came out is going for 775 by itself and the x800 xt pci-e is 500 which comes to close to 1400 just to buy the gpu and cpu only in parts)

Just keep your eyes peeled for a good coupon code and you can get a hell of a steal.

While I agree with the earlier posters that for pure speed AMD 64 bit is the way to go, but with the way you can really get a steal on a dell if you just wait for the right deal to come along, and the fact that overall I have not experienced any quality issues with them they would be my suggestion.

Keep in mind this is coming from someone who has worked in IT for 10 years and used to be one of the "the only good computer is one you built yourself" kind of people.

But you know what, if you can be patient and rape dell with a good coupon for the price of parts, why? I mean sure if you're nerdy enough and your power supply goes out you can go buy a new one and replace it, but first you're buying a new one, two you have to dick with replacing it.

The ONLY downside of dell is support. You have a 70/30 chance of getting your call routed to Inidia.. And if you do get routed to India theres about a 50/50 chance of you getting someone with a clue.

But if you arent the type to call support for anything short of a hardware failure, you are still getting a hell of a deal.