travismore

i am learning and building at the same time here, so be patient with me please.

i play alot of RPG games and i have my own website.
my computer is on the fritz and i need to replace it.
i want to do it right. i want to make sure it is compatable to me and my needs.
i guess i am looking for
a fast modem
a fast video card
what is AMD and Intel?
a large hard drive.
i will be using these programs mainly.
quickbooks, lacerte and photo shop.
i am always scanning and uploading photos from my camera and i store hundreds of photos for my website and personal use. i also have a PDA I connect to my computer.
i have the monitor, mouse, keyboard and all that jazz. i am just working the CPU.
Any help or equipment would be nice.
MY BUDGET IS $800.00
Is this possible?
many thanks in advance.

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Pens & More

Agent Plissken

At the beginner level, building a computer can be a HUGE pain in the arse. Not everything works right away sometimes, it can be a pain to figure out what is wrong.

You could get a pretty decent Dell to play games on for $800...

Honestly, please just buy a Dell.
FYI:
CPU = Central Processing Unit
AMD = company that makes CPUs
INTEL = company that makes CPUs
MODEM = Archaic device that old people used to use to connect to their BBS

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JackHammer

Yes but I would recommend building it anyways. That's how you learn. You gotta start somewhere. I'm partial to intel over AMD so I may get flamed by some of teh AMD fanatics on this board. I am also thinking about building a computer. I want to upgrade my existing computer. I am only looking to change the motherboard, the cpu and the memory. I looked into it and it came in just under $400. I think with the extra stuff that you need, say the new video card, hardrive and the likes, you probably could get it around $800. With the hard drive, you know you can use your existing one, right? That may save you about $50 to $100.

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travismore

i am not buying another dell, i have a dell in my wife's office and it is slow on the games. the games stutter and freeze for a couple of secounds.
it is a dell 3000 i believe and i can't just buy another one knowing it will do the same.
so i am off to build my computer. i was going to use the hard drive, but it is only 40 gig. I must go bigger, don't you think?

DarkFury

BTW... the "Dell 3000 series" is pretty much the lowest consumer line of the Dells.

Unmodified, then yes, it wouldn't be appropriate for games....

However, put a decent video card in it and bump up the RAM to 1 GB and it would be workable for games. Upgrading to a larger hard drive would help as well.

The thing is... the 3000 series is the cheapest that they offer. You don't buy a Chevy Cavalier and expect Corvette performance. Now... if your wife had bought a 9100 series Dell with more advanced "gaming options" then you'd see a big difference (with a big difference in price as well).

Honestly, as a PC builder I will say... the basics to building your own will cost you around $1000+ to build a somewhat decent gaming system. However if you are starting with a Dell as a base, you can add about $300 to one of those and get pretty good performance (with the upgraded video, RAM, and maybe a sound card) and come out ahead.

On the flip side, building your own gives you a personal sense of accomplishment... and YOU get the satisfaction of knowing what exactly is in your system.... no "no name" generic mobo and other parts unless you choose to put those in there yourself. Personally, I have certain brands that I prefer when building mine so that my costs are usually substantially higher than what I could buy a Dell for... but in the long run I do feel that my personally built PCs are better.

My suggestion to you is... do your research first (which it looks like you are off to a good start posting here.) Go visit places like anandtech.com and other hardware sites (many different sites are periodically listed on the "news" page here on G|A with reviews of latest hardware.) Read magazines like Maximum PC for other pointers on how to compute better... and you'll be set.

Good luck and godspeed in getting your new rig together.

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travismore

thank you for the suggestions and support.
a dell 9100?
i am going to look into this. i don't mind spending the money if i get what i want.
if anyone has any thoughts on the dell 9100? i would like to hear them.
i will do some more research both ways.
everyone has been so helpful.........thank you so much everyone.

Jeffbx

The 9100 is a very nice machine...

Plus, you can get one with a free 20" LCD until 8/21:

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...=04&l=en&s=bsd

It's about in your price range, so I would HIGHLY recommend this package.

travismore

nice LCD, All this talk has me not wanting to wait.
i am going into town to buy the Dell 9100 with the widescreen LCD 20" monitor.
i am having another hard drive put on in addition to one already one it.
all for the total of $868.53. this includes tax.
good deal?
i will let you know when i get back and hook my new toy up.

InfiniteNothing

Wow, you must have mad CVD skilz. I'd start with the 386 diagram here, and improve on it from there.

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DarkFury

C'mon man... cut the newbie some slack.

DarkFury

My suggestion... (though this will make it cost more...)

1) Get at least the 80GB hard drive (40s are just too small... and if you play games, you will eat that up in no time.)

2) Try to get 1 GB of RAM. Either buy it from Dell.... or wait and buy it from a place like Crucial.com. RAM upgrades make more sense/value than most PC hardware upgrades.

3) Try to get an improved video card (if you want to play games...) The standard configuration comes with the ATI Radeon X300 SE 128MB... this will be fine for most things, but honestly this machine will hum with a better card. If things are kinda tight... just go ahead and get this one with the notion that in a few months, you upgrade it to something a bit faster. Then you won't have any problems playing any games out there.

Other than that... the standard config looks fine to do what you say you wanna do.

Good luck with your purchase.

ArkiStan

I'm not too much of a computer wizard myself, but I'm getting some good experience with the Dell 9100 deal. I ordered the free 24" widescreen LCD package a ouple of days ago with barebones additions. I'm adding my own RAM, HDD, DVD-R drive, which is much cheaper and gives me some exposure to the inner workings of my system. I'd be too terrified to touch anything involving the CPU though....

irwin

lol nice

zippyjuan

You may want to upgrade the video card yourself- Dell sometimes has a good markup on them. The 9100 uses a PCI Express slot- an X600 or X800 will be better. The X300 it comes standard with is the slowest PCI Express card made and you will want better if you play games.

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you my man is where funny gets its name

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johnnymk

Personally, if I was a newbie, I would build a $100 computer before I tackled a $1000 computer. That way if something gets fried, you are out only a few bucks. Plus you could still use the case, the memory and whatever else is salvageable.

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DarkFury

Now the question is.... "How do you build a $100 computer?"

johnnymk

Very easy..get a case and P/S at compgeeks for less than $30, a MB for $15-$20 with onboard sound and video, a 400 mHZ PII for $10, a cooler for $5, a stick of memory for $10, a 4GB hard drive for $10 , a used CDROM for $5 and a floppy for $10.

Or go to the Salvation Army and get a complete computer for $25 and tear it down to see what's involved.

I got a computer online at eBay several months ago for $11. Fortunately, the guy was a few miles away, so I saved on shipping.

Cheesypuff

buy a very expensive pen and paper?

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shocky123

aahahahaha, BBS, classic.

~Kyle

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mcs328

But his original post is that he wants to play RPG games. That's a good suggestion for building your own but it's not going to be able to play any current games.

I think the Dell deals we are talking about under $1000 are only if you order online and not at retail stores. Right? I don't think you can walk in the store and purchase a 9100 with the coupon code on the deals page and walk out...maybe someone else knows if that's right.

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DarkFury

Good luck finding most of that stuff in good working condition.... An "experienced" user could probably scrap together most of those pieces to build such an outdated system, however even most "second hand" stores will charge you more than the prices you quoted up there.

Most people who are building "new" computers aren't gonna want to mess with used parts... unless those parts are coming from computers that they already own (i.e. "Frankensteining a computer from your parts graveyard")

BTW.. many of those REALLY old PCs you find at the Salvation Army/Goodwill/etc... really aren't much help at all. Many of them are very "proprietary" technology (i.e. old COMPAQs and even older IBM PCs) that wouldn't carry over very nicely to building a PC.

I just personally wouldn't recommend this... but that's just me.

Agent Plissken

No, its online only and also its from Dell Small Business not Dell Home...

InfiniteNothing

Okay... but I'm putting you personally in charge of all his future "Tech Support Thread" posts

Daversinger

I made this sweet rig for just over $900

AMD 64 4000 SanDiego $360 heh ebay
DFI UT NF4 SLI-DR motherboard $100 newegg.com
1gb Kingston Hyperx $85 outpost.com
2x 120gb WD 7200rpm caviar SATA $80 dumpinggoods.com
LiteON 16x DVD-R/RW CD-R/RW etc. $40 dumpinggoods.com
BFG 6800gt PCI-E w/ $50 MIR $275 newegg.com

DarkFury

How can YOU possibly put me in charge of anything Admiral?

Do you need a lesson in "remedial potato peeling 101"?


BTW... Dell will be more than happy to provide that support for him.