(I hope I posted this in the right section)

I am not extremely knowledable of computers and how everything works and it seems like we have some really smartie pants on this site so I am hoping to get some help on the following please!

Ok my co-worker asked me what kind of computer to get. He wants a new computer and he said his 5 yr old one is really slow. He has 2 little kids and they play their little computer games and I guess their current computer always freezes up and is slow.
What are the best companies and how much memory and stuff does he need? What are things to look for? Im sorry I know this is really noob but I dont know... Does he need some special video cards or something?
Does memory matter if its slow? lol.. seriously stop laughing at me! I dont know these things


Any help- as specific as you can get is good!
He said he will pay $2000 or whatever, he wants good, that could get him something pretty good right?

 

$2000 is more than enough. I would say get a dell because i bet they will be needing lots of help, and dell is pretty good with that.

512mb of ram would probably be enough, 1gig even better, and still not too expensive. dont need much in a video card, especially for childrens games. pentium 4 2+ ghz would be good

 

I agree with Slayer

1) Dell - Good for Noobs
2) Go with a P4 3.0Ghz or higher, if he has the money to spend, dont skimp and go Celeron
3) 512MB is the minimum these days for a half way decent XP experience. 1GB (2 512s in "Dual Channel") is much better and will be enough till the next Windows OS gets released.


If you want to make sure the machine is ready for upcoming future technologies, then it should have the following:

- SATA II (Second Generaion Serial ATA, if it only has SATA1, that good, but not great)
- PCIe x16 Video Slot (In case those kids become Gamers in the near future)
- 5.1 (or 7.1) Audio - Might not use it now, but again, better to have it for later
- DVI on the Video Card - Best connection for LCD Monitors and can also be used to connect to some newer HDTVs (if it has DVI or HDMI ports)

 

SATA II isn't needed yet. most likely wont be upgrading in the future until you buy a whole new comp, so i doubt a MB compatible with SATA II is even needed. not sure if they all do now, but it is backwards compatible, so you can still use SATA on a board that accepts SATA II. its a decent amount cheaper

 

AMD processors are good for gaming, imo their better at gaming than the intels, and cheaper. I suggest getting an athlon 64bit powered processor, with a asus motherboard that uses pci slot, because agp are slowly dieing out, and 1 gig of ram if not more. For vid card, i think a 6800 is good enough.

 

for childrens games and email, this is overkill.

just buy the next dell special with a p4 2.8+ a 120gb hd cd/dvd drive and 512mb+ ram

 

Thank you so much for all the help!!!

ok do video cards come standard or do you have purchase those separate?

I remember I built my dell on their website but I didnt know everything that I was doing.

 

Exactly. Try for 1 gig of RAM, it'll give your machine more legs.

Any generic tower from Dell will work just fine. Don't buy an HP/Compaq, or Acer, or any other shit-brand from Best Buy or Comp USA.

If he wants a specific model that's solid choice, this XPS will be more than enough - http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...n&s=dhs#tabtop

If he wants to nerd out he can upgrade the video card and add more RAM, but it's a good choice from the get-go.

 

They all come with a video card by default, although not necessarily a good one for gaming. But he can buy one afterwards if he needs to.

 

^^ Thank you

 

If you're buying him a dell, I sure hope he speaks east Indian.

 

^^ yo ! feeling better ?

 

Yes I am... thanks for asking.

 

for the love of Enlglish I sure hope you're kidding.

I can't deal with that shit, I get it enough from my credit card companies...

 

Any company but Apple is going to send you to India for tech support.