Thinking about an upgrade..

[SimGirl20]

Hey guys,

 I have been contemplating whether or not if I am going to buy a new computer, I was wondering what brand, OS, and specs some of you computer savvy folks would suggest? I don't really want to buy the computer solely for the fact to play TS3, I just need a new computer in general since mine is like 3-4 years old. I'm not sure what kind of computer to buy either, laptop, notebook, or a desktop? I am pretty strapped for cash atm, as is the rest of America (but what's new?) so please don't recommend me a 6000$ alien-ware or something lol! Please just give me some suggestions of some nice, fast, modern models with a relatively good GC, and one that will last me atleast a couple of years.  


Thanks for the help

EDIT

I posted this in TS3 section because obviously I would like the rig to run the game smoothly.

[Ifrito]

Well, you COULD buy a Barebones PC kit. Often they are only lacking a few things, like the OS. Or a fan. Depends on the kit. But they are cheap.

But they require a bit of tech savvy, or a friend who can put them together.

I recently bought a Barebones PC Kit from Tigerdirect.com, that, by the time I pay my one friend for the parts and labor when its ready this saturday. Will cost me roughly 430$.

And this PC is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, with 4 Gigs of DDR2 Memory, an intial 320 Gig SATA HD. And other stuff. I forget the rest of its stuff at the moment, but it intially lacked a graphics card, a CPU fan and an OS.

But for the price, it cant be beat. Its a superior version of my Gaming PC. And I'll be able to upgrade it on my terms. I'll just have to get more HD's, a bigger power source, a better graphics card, etc.

So that may be the best route to go.

[abaris]

The only way to go would be to build it yourself. The premade systems are always lacking in one or more aspects, usually the feature an abysmal video card and second rate memory.

And it depends on what you want to do with your system. If you want to use it for gaming, a laptop would be an inferior choice. The parts are much more expensive and not that easily upgraded as for a work station.

But you would have to have at least some kind of idea how your finished rig should look like to give you any valuable advice.

[Caleb_71]

Coolermaster 340 case without a PSU (power supply) and a 120mm fan, as it only comes with one and you need a second.
Corsair 520 watt PSU
Intel E8400 CPU
Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-S2H microATX motherboard
4Gb (2 x 2Gb) DDR2 800MHz RAM
Nvidia 9800GT Graphics card
500Gb Sata Hard Disk
Sata DVD writer/rewriter
Keyboard, mouse and monitor
operating system

The big one is taking the time to learn how to build it yourself.

[SimGirl20]

I know, it's all so confusing for me as I have no idea what a good computer is in general, I know I talked to a friend and her husbands nephew builds computers from scratch, but he's pretty expensive.. I absolutely have no idea where to go for someone to build me a PC either, from one of those kits you suggested infrito. I don't know, its just really hard to decide. I looked at wal-mart.com (and there cheapest made/sucky computers are OUTRAGEOUS! I also had a look at a gaming PC (which I am leaning towards as it is 550$) and is really nice! with an NVIDIA 9400 GT and like 4-5 Gigs of RAM and so on, but the overall look of the computer is really ugly and boyish..so I dunno..


Here's that computer, which will be well over 600$ so I dunno. (but it is nice right?)

http://www.circuitcity.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4662411&sku=I455-92402

[Ifrito]

Well, I suppose that would be a very good PC. Aside from being cursed with Vista   

But I dont really know much about Multi-Core PC's.

I know enough about AMD's because I've had my Gaming PC for 2 years, almost 3 this december and its awesome aside from being itself cursed with Vista. Though I do have a graphics card in it similar to that ones if not almost exactly the same. And so far its run pretty much everything just fine.

But if you get into Team Fortress 2 like I do, you will need to get updated drivers for it. Otherwise the game will chug like a couch potato on a treadmill going up hill. But not Left 4 Dead for some odd reason. Which is even more odd cause both are made by Valve, and L4D is much newer then TF2.

Oh, you may want to check around for Vista 64's compatibility with your games. I know 32 Bit Vista is compatible with all my Sims 2 games up to and including Seasons for sure, but Vista 64 has had a nasty rep for being incompatible with various games that the 32 bit version is compatible with. And I dont know if they ever did anything about that.

[Caleb_71]

The 9400GT graphics card is pretty low powered and the motherboard is bottom of the barrel.

[abaris]

The 9400GT graphics card is pretty low powered and the motherboard is bottom of the barrel.

Which is usual for any takeaway computer. You always have your bottlenecks and the label "gaming PC" is just there to lure the unsuspecting.

No, if you can't do it yourself, find some friend or collegue to pester into doing it for you. Don't go for a premade system.

[sumpsychochic]

I bought a computer from AVAdirect last fall. It was around 900, but it was top of the line on everything I wanted AND I got to choose to install XP instead of Vista. There are quite a few options for graphics cards and processors and such, so you could pick and choose and see what price you wind up with that has everything you want.

[abaris]

There are quite a few options for graphics cards and processors and such, so you could pick and choose and see what price you wind up with that has everything you want.

But usually the built in mainboards are also lacking. With that crucial component being the bottleneck all the other parts become secondary. That's why you should build from scratch. Well, unless your satisfied with what they offer. It's usually not enough to provide a satisfying gaming rig.

[sumpsychochic]

I also chose which motherboard to put in, it wasn't a standard one. I had help from Calistra over on MTS to know what would be compatible with what since I wasn't sure.

If she has a build with all the parts and the only problem is she doesn't know how to build it and doesn't have someone she knows who can build it for her, they will build it. That was my only problem.