Im wanting to buy or build a new computer. Im looking for one that has the ability to game well, while also can be used for practicality such as windows office and etc. Downloading some pictures and music. Im wondering is it better to build your own computer, or buy one premade? Id like to be able to now worry about memory space or RAM, or any of that, but still under a budget. Say 700$? If theres a really great thing for slightly more than that im up for ideas or suggestions. My computer as of now isnt cutting it, and is old as hell. When i say games i mean like, from FPS, all the way to WoW. And pictures and music not allot, i dont even have 1000 songs, and i have a decent number of pictures but not too much to be concerned over. So heres the question, what would you recomend for 700$?

 

Its almost cheaper anymore to buy a system pre-fabbed than it is to build one yourself anymore...

If I were to get a system, I would check out Dell Re-furbished site and they come with a warranty and you can normally get a kickin' system for around $500 give or take.

 

Pretty false...

I just built one. Spent about $450ish total excluding new mouse,keyboard, and 20inch HD monitor.

I built mine for basically the same thing, gaming, media, etc. Plus, the benefit of it all is you get to learn what your computer is actually made of and how to fix things etc.

My build went as follows:

Antec 300 Case
ASUS Motherboard
ATI Radeon HD 4850 video card
4gb Kigston HyperX Ram (Very nice btw, good seatsinks on it too)
500GB HD
Rosewill 530 watt power supply
Amd Phenom II X2 Quad Core 3.1Ghz Processor
Scythe 92MM Fan/Heatsink for processor
Liteon DVD/CD burner/optical drive

Was a fun little experience, I learned a little more, the computer has been on for 2+ weeks without being shut off yet, and I have yet to max anything out on it. 4 more gigs of ram would be sweet, but it isn't needed yet.

Compare what I built to something from dell, and I did much better. It's got more RAM..so for $100 I can add another 4 gigs. It has a 1TB HD.. for $20 I could've upgraded it.

I also went with brand names, and items that had the best reviews, and reminded myself that heat kills, and went with ram sticks that had built in heatsinks, and a case that has..6 large fans total.. my video card has got a fan on it, etc.


Plus you don't have to go with the generic looking computer case, you get to choose what you want in it, and it really isn't THAT difficult building a computer.

 

For $700, this is the setup I would go with:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131402 [$98.99]
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103882 [$100]
Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150447 [$169.99]
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231247 [$159.99]
OR http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231193 [$98.99]
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148008 [$59.99]
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136359 [$69.99]

So that leaves you at $658.95 with 6 gigs of ram or $597.95 with 4 gigs of ram. I didn't know if you needed a case or if you were going to use your old case so I left some extra money under the $700 limit for one. Either way, 6 gigs or 4 gigs of ram you're going to have a computer that will play *every* game out at 1920x1200 resolution with no problems whatsoever. The only thing besides a case I didn't include was a cd drive (which are around $10).

 

Ok i guess question is, how hard is it to build a computer, and i see cases range from 30-150ish. Do certain cases match certain parts only or what? Honestly ive only seen inside a computer twice and prbly dunno how to build one. I took a look at dell deals, and some of the gaming ones look for their price, worth it. The Studio XPS computers while yes a bit more, seem like a very decent price for it. Idk..

 

Dell has deals...watch for them. This PC Im using now was lees than $350 new. It has 4gb ram, 600gb hard drive, 16x DVD burner, Intel core 2 duo @ 2.93ghz, Radeon HD4350 HD graphics card(HDMI FTMFW), Windows 7 home premium... no monitor of course but with a warranty.

 

Read the reviews on the products too.
I just bought a computer for $80 and I'm pretty sure it's more than enough for me.
3.6 Ghz Hyper Threading, 4gb's of ram, 320GB Sata Hard Drive, Nvidia Geforce 7 Series, really good heat syn and nice fan for the heat sync, plus the case fan.

 

Ok now considering at this price, say 700$ for the tower itself, plus say idk 80ish for a decent speaker set. Then 180ish for a monitor, and 40ish for a keyboard. Thats sitting right at 1000$..I might be able to swing that by, but i guess the real question is how hard is it to build a computer with frame and all.

 

It's not too difficult, and yes, some cases are different. You would want a MID TOWER ATX

If you know what parts are what, and where they all go, its a fairly simple process.

Oh and..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16836150083

Speakers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236087

Monitor

Here's a decent read for building a computer:

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

 

Yup, just about any atx mid tower case will work. It's definitely easy to build it. All you do is screw the motherboard into the case and then plug everything in. It'll take a few hours, especially if it's your first one. But it's not difficult by any means. When I built my first one, the computer worked the first time I tried to boot it up.

If you don't want to mess with building it yourself, this computer has close to the same specs as the parts I listed for you: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883227274 I don't really like the case, but the parts are all there. Athlon II x4, 4 gigs of ram, radeon HD 5770.

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys. Now switch for that motherboard it said it wont run with the C3 processors, whats this mean? And are all the parts you listed around best for the money or were you just giving random suggestions in my price range? Im not the most tech savvy person but i understand some of the properties and etc. Just allot of stuff to dig through. Any other things i should know? Also for a case, hows this? Has good reviews and looks decent for the price. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146025

 

Dells been caught up in a whole lot of crap lately. Theyve been building bad pc's and shipping them knowng it. AVOID DELL.

SnTbakos has a great setup!!

Quadcore, hd4850, 4 gigs of ram. For the price you cant get a better computer.

And computers are easy to build, you just have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL with the parts. and avoid static electricity and your A-OK!

 

Yea, i figured as much, i just think 4gb of ram is a bit little. I dont mid assembling it, as long as its not extremely complicated.

 

That case would work fine. The motherboard I linked would work with the CPU I linked guaranteed. I actually built a computer with that combo already, so I know it works. Anyway, as far as price/performance goes. The motherboard, cpu, and graphics card are the best you can get for their price range. However, stuff like the hard drives, ram, etc I have no guarantees. I checked and made sure they would work with the parts I listed, but I didn't bother making sure they're the best for the money. There's so many different memory and hd vendors that it'd be a lot of work.

 

Ah alright thanks. With that setup should i have to worry about heat allot? Also case wise, how many fans should be good? Seems like people opt for 3ish fans. Also on that PSU seems like its kinda iffy. A decent number of people had it crash out of the blue, while also a decent number had it last. When it comes to PSU's i have no clue whats best, any other ones that are more reliable? Id rather pay more for something that wont break.

 

It comes with two fans, but you can buy a third 120mm fan and put it in front of the hard drive enclosures. You'd probably be fine with two though, since you're not going to be doing any overclocking and most of the components that get hot come with their own fans.

 

Alright cool, should that processor be fine? It looks good, but has no reviews. Is that because its brand new or what? Also for a more reliable PSU, hows this one do? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341022
Its near the same price w/ or w/o rebate, looks likes the main problem was with rebates and apparantly a death smell..

 

Sorry to second post but, when i add all this up, it comes to around 900$ including screen and etc. But if i look at dell, for 950$ i can get the Studio XPS 8100, which has more RAM, bigger screen, 1TB memory, a dvd drive(cheap i know but still), and then another 25 and ive got the speakers. So which is a better deal? Or should i still stay away from dell?

 

The power supply you linked is fine. As far as the cpu goes, you can order this one instead:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103704

It's basically the same exact one.

 

Go ahead and link me the dell you were thinking of.

 

Gotcha, either this one

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...en&s=dhs&cs=19

or

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...en&s=dhs&cs=19

Both are the 8100, ones a different package than the other. Im not canceling the 9000 out of the picture either, though its considerably more.

 

The plus side: They have better processors, more ram, and bigger hard drives.

The down side: The graphics cards in both of them are below par.

They'd be great computers for general usage, but they probably won't play games on high settings at a high resolution. They'll get by if you use low settings though. You can always swap out the graphics card in the future.

 

Ah, so what about HP computers, my friend said to go with them over dell. I looked at them, but it seems like they are worse then dell. Also, what about the available upgrades from them for the graphic cards? They have the ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB card as well as another for 80 more, or are they all not up to the bat?

 

This build from dell is alright: It comes with the 5770 and a phenom II x4 processor.

 

Hows the video card in it? Is the phenom processor any good? I really dunno :/ And im assuming 500GB is more than ill ever need?

 

A few things...while you're logic is pretty close to correct as far as more ram goes, better cpu, etc goes.. there are a few things.

MORE ram doesn't necessarily mean it's BETTER. 4 gigs does just fine with what I do. I play various games off of steam, left 4 dead, etc. And have zero issues, and play them at the high resolution. I stream movies like they are crystal clear, and have multiple applications running the back ground, and there is ZERO lag with this computer.

I spent a bit more on my ram sticks, to get a better product, vs. the cheaper ram sticks, that would heat up more, and be slower. I have also overclocked these ram sticks.

ANY processor you are going to be looking at is going to have mixed reviews. It's the internet, if something does extremely well, you'll hear about how shitty it was first. AMD has a proven name, cheaper then Intel, and in some cases better.

The ATHLON X2-X3-X4's are all nice. The Phenoms are nicer.

The worries you're having with PSU's, if it's got a 5 star rating on newegg, chances are, it'll run just fine for you. I always recommend atleast a 500 watt power supply. OCz makes good PSUs, Thermalake makes good PSu's, hell, even the Rosewill I have has done excellent.

Like I have stated, for an extra $20 I could have gotten a 1tb HD, but I don't see the need to have it yet, my 500gig is doing just fine.

If you want to get fancy with your case, and have it stay cool, and have plenty of room for expansion: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-021-_-Product

I have the Antec 300 case, it's got..4 fans total, 140MM up top 120 MM in the back 2x 120 MM up front, and a spot on the side for another 140MM. It stays room temperature.

With the Dells, HP,s etc, you may get a subpar product, you have no guarantee, it may work just fine, who knows. Building one yourself though, you will know what is compatible as far as upgrading in the future goes, because you WILL upgrade eventually.

I've owned numerous manufactured desktops, and I'll say honestly, I won't ever buy another one. For the price of buying one, I can just as easily build a better one for that price. I can build one of the same quality for cheaper.

Run the $1500 Dell, and stick it next to mine, and let me overclock, my $450 rig will do pretty well.

BTW: the inside of mine:

 

Dont get me wrong, i wouldnt mind building a computer. But it almost seems like for the price of buying one, you get the same stuff.

 

Sure, go buy one.

 

the difference is in the graphics card.. a graphics card is expensive all in itself. and the ones that u are seeeing, the 5770's and stuff, arent near as fast as a 4850..

Theres lots to the numbers on computer parts.

Basically to play any games, you have to have a discrete graphics card. and most suppliers dont ship with them unless ur buying an alienware which is now dell basically. And alienwares way overpriced. Voodoo pc is even MORE overpriced.

Plus when you build your pc, with parts from like newegg, you get at least 1 year warranty or more, no hassle. and if you have problems we can figure them out for you.

 

Very true Kreno. Im gunna have to set aside some real time, and decide what would be the best bang for my buck on what parts, and what do i really need.