prodj101 Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 ok, anyway, I need you guy's opinions on what kind of computer to get. my dad is against building my own for some reason now, because he thinks the price doesn't make enough difference so you may as well just buy one. anyway, I really disaggree with this, but he's the one paying, not me, so basically I need to konw what the best computer will be for around $1,700 tops. I'd like to have the top of the line ATI graphics card, and at least a 2.53 ghz processor with maybe about 256 mb of DDR or RD RAM, but other than that, not alot of rules. thanks for your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Prodj, We had this discussion, last week -can't find the thread.... IF you have that much to spend - go with Dell-get brochures- and lay out everything you want, BEFORE, you call or go online. Whoever you go with, when you place the order, have them send you confirmation, showing excatly what you ordered! You should only have to spend 1,000.00 to get a high tech, slamming, system...IMO. Good Luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkbks Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 If the $1700 includes a monitor, you should be able to include a cool 17" (maybe more) flat panel. If you must go brand name, Dell is probably the best choice. Building one is not hard, it's fun, (and educational!) You won't save a ton of money but you'll get much better components and a lot of expandability. Dell, Gateway, etc. are often hard to upgrade or expand because many of their components are proprietary, i.e., limited to that machine or manufacturer. If you go brand name, get a machine configuration that will last you 3 0r 4 years. Go for at least 512 ram; Windows XP pro instead of XP home. A middle ground between brand name and build-you-own would be a "white box" PC from a local computer dealer. They can build them to your specification with quality components and give a warranty just like the big guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 13, 2003 Author Share Posted March 13, 2003 like I said, I'd build, but my dads not fond of it,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkl Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 " Dell, Gateway, etc. are often hard to upgrade or expand because many of their components are proprietary, " What components are proprietary in those systems? It's been a loooong time since I've seen anything that I would describe as "proprietary" in a dell or gateway. And even then, it usually wasnt proprietary, just out of the ordinary...Like how a lot of the budget systems used to use a fan shroud to use one fan for the power supply and cpu instead of 2 sepearate fans. This was just a money saver, as the fanless powersupplies are cheaper. The only thing that is every proprietary in most modeern systems is the bios, and even then, its usually just a slight modification, nothing which stops ANY upgrades. It simply costs to much to use proprietary parts, they buy the same components that everyone uses, made in the same generic factorys. -mkl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 We went the Dell route. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca_bagom Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 You should get at least 512 PC333 DDR. 256 megs. will not cut it for most games today. Get a graphic card with a bare min of 64 megs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GooseChaser Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 if gaming is ur main deal, get the audigy 2. otherwise get the M-revolution 7.1, everyone at promedia 5.1 general questions are raving about this sound card as the best sounding available. what speaker system are u going to use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 ProDJ, For 1700USD you can buy alot of computer and a A ok monitor. First an P4 2.53Ghz CPU,at least 512MB PC2700 RAM,Intel 845 audio/lan MOBO,in an Antec SX630II or 835 tower case.A Western Digital JB series or Seagate Barracuda V 80GB hard drive(Maxtor is sub par and does not measure up in durability,period).Besides the WD JB is fast and quiet and the Barracuda V is as silent as it gets and still has great performance. Now for video card I'll go with a trusty MSI Ti4200 64MB(128MB gives NOTHING more today,period.Its just marketing BS).Or if you value gaming alot get a ATI Radeon 9700(the non PRO),a great card and will torque thrue all the AA you can throw at it. A standard Mitsumi,Panasonic or Sony floppy.Any will do A LiteOn CDRW, the 52/24/52 is fast,good and inexpensive.A Toshiba DVD/CD ROM,most solid unit on the market,beats Pioneer DVD drives in durability easy. The on board sound card will do,if you want mre quality then an Audigy will do the trick.Or the classic Santa Cruz. LAN is integrated on the MOBO and you dont need to waste money on any PCI ethernet card. Keyboard/mouse.So far Logitech is top of the line followed by Microsoft. You decide,the MX700 cordless mouse is a champ,like mine alot. Monitor,at least a Samsung 955DF(19"),or a monitor from Mitsubishi or NEC.Me I use Mitsubishi and SONY CRT's.If you go the LCD route(remember not a good gaming choice)Viewsonic,KDS and SAMSUNG have good mmonitors the Samsung 171 and 172 are great units and should cost you below 500USD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattbugz Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 $1700 is a lot of $$ for a computer these days. With that type of money and with orders not to build it yourself from your dad, I would definitely go with a Dell. Dell has specials that change weekly. Right now they have a $200 rebate on the Dimension 8250. It also includes a CD burner and a 120GB upgrade. Conclusion...you NEED!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca_bagom Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 MX700 is a great mouse if you are not planing to play games. My weapon of choice is MX 500. Same functions but is corded. Have you considered AMD? Im using the NForce2, easy to overclock, stable as a rock, build in Lan card, 6.1 built in sound card ( Not as good as Audigy), RAID, Serial ATA, and Firewire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sj993 Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 We went Gateway which is good, also Sony won't go there. But I'd say either Dell, Gateway or even Alienware. Alienware is good though a tad overpriced IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEAR Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 The latest AMD CPU's may be easy to overclock but they dont hold a candle to the powerhouse of overclocking that is the 2.4Ghz P4.And a few have the same stepping on 1.8Ghz P4's!!! I mine and a few others are running this beast at 3.4GHZ!!!Stable and with STOCK COOLING!!! No AMD on earth can be overclocked 1000MHz up with stock cooling and run so stable. In the overclocking world Intel dominates AMD by a football field.Not even close To overclock an AMD by a good percentage you need at least a BIG cooler(I use the champ of forced air cooler,Swiftech MCX462/Sunon Tornado combo)and even with voltage boosing you hit a wall. Imagine the latest stepping Intel goes up buy 1000MHz and more in some cases! Me I will NEVER buy a brand name built PC,I build all my PC's myself and $ for $ they whoop the dell,gateway and Co. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 13, 2003 Author Share Posted March 13, 2003 ahh, see, the 1,700 is for the COMPUTER only. I know how to ask for things. see, I our monitor is going to hell, and I have to bash it against the wall to make it work (literally, took about 10 mins to get it to flicker on today, and a nice crack in the case), so, I tell my mom, "well, dad seems to be ok with a computer, but we could really use a monitor right now" so, moms getting monitor, dads getting computer. maybe around 400 for the monitor.I don't want an AMD processor, I like the pentiums more. in benchmarks they seem to have the edge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mca_bagom Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 Are you use the 845G chip set? or 845D/E/PE? The highest I ever seen a P2.4 overclocked (that was stable) was 3.2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minn_male42 Posted March 13, 2003 Share Posted March 13, 2003 prodj, what will you be using your computer for? if you are looking for graphics, video, and music....the macs out there far outperform the pc based platforms... if you are into gaming...go for the most horsepower you can find in a name brand pentium 4....much more gaming software out there for pc's..... like all day long at work..."what's your application?" get the best device for your purposes... here's a mac that meets your budget... http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/72007/wo/Pk3jlK1cNZxU2p7sEwJ8kJQ6o2q/1.3.0.3.27.21.1.0.19.3.1.1.0?46,8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prodj101 Posted March 14, 2003 Author Share Posted March 14, 2003 thanks for the suggestion minn male. however, I really wasn't considering macs for the reason they aren't very compatible with either current software, or upgradability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Invidiosulus Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 ---------------- On 3/13/2003 11:37:16 PM minn_male42 wrote: if you are looking for graphics, video, and music....the macs out there far outperform the pc based platforms... ---------------- Lol, that's a good one, "far outperform the pc based platforms" hehehe my sides are aching i am laughing so hard. If you go up a few tax brackets on the mac side they might "far outperform" the lower priced pc's. I don't really see a mac outperforming by far a similarly priced pc. I use a mac nearly every day running Adobe After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. The mac which is actually faster then my old computer at home is not noticeably faster. My old pc is a 750MHz PIII with 512 megs-O-ram, the mac's I use at school are 867Mhz G4 with 640 megs-O-ram, from the way people talk you would think that there would be a noticeable difference but there is not Peace, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 This is before a 200.00 online discount???? Dell Dimension 8250 Series Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.53GHz with 533MHz system bus/ 512K L2 Cache Qty: 1 Price: $2,107.00 Date: Friday, March 14, 2003 6:51:20 AM CDT Catalog Number: 29 19 Dell Dimension 8250 Series: Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.53GHz with 533MHz system bus/ 512K L2 Cache DN8225H <221-1309> Memory: 512MB PC1066 RDRAM (2X256 modules) 512M2 <311-2132> Keyboard: Logitech® Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse Desktop Solution WIREKM <310-2264> Monitors: New 17 in E171FPb Flat Panel Display E171FP <320-0578> Video Cards: 64MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Graphics Card with TV-Out 64NV420 <320-0440> Hard Drives: FREE UPGRADE!120GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive 120GP <461-8842> Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices: No Floppy Drive NFD <340-8442> Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional WPXP <313-7222> <412-0304> <420-1922> Mouse: Mouse already included in Logitech Wireless Package N <310-1966> Network Interface: Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet IN <430-0412> Modem: 56K Telephony Modem for Windows 56KWS <313-1583> CD or DVD Drive: 16 Max DVD-ROM Drive 16DV995 <313-2559> <430-0427> Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card SB1024 <313-1319> Speakers: Harman Kardon® HK-395 Speakers with Subwoofer HK395 <313-7284> Software Bundles: Microsoft® Works Suite 2003 with Money 2003 DWORKS <412-0337> Zip Drives: 250MB Iomega Zip Built-In Drive ZIP250 <340-3801> Digital Music: Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH MMBASE <412-0298> Digital Photography: Dell Picture Studio,Image Expert Standard DPS <412-0271> <412-0273> Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options: FREE 1Yr Dell SecurityCenter(McAfee) w/3Yr Ltd Wty,3Yr At-Home Service S3O1M <412-0360> <462-0129> <950-1272> <950-3339> <950-4270> Internet Access Services: 6 Months of America Online Membership Included AOLDHS <412-0365> <412-0371> Mail-in Rebate Offer: Save $200 with mail-in rebate. Price shown before rebate. 200 <462-0299> Video Editing: New Dell Movie Studio Essentials DMSESS <340-8009> Secondary CD or DVD Drive: Free Upgrade! 40x/10x/40x Max CD-RW Drive 40CDR2P <461-7876> FREE TaxCut Deluxe Software from H&R Block: TaxCut Platinum Software from H&R Block HRBLCKU <412-0364> Price Sub-total: $2,107.00 Shipping: 3 -- Tax: 4 -- Total Price: -- As low as $64/month Apply Now / Learn More Continue Shopping DESKTOPS NOTEBOOKS HANDHELDS ACCESSORIES Dell PCs use genuine Microsoft® Windows® www.microsoft.com/piracy/howtotell 1 Configuration, pricing, tax, shipping and monthly payment information above is estimated and presented for your convenience only. All pricing, shipping and monthly payment information is subject to change without notice. Final Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 14, 2003 Share Posted March 14, 2003 REFURB1:Pavilion Media Center PC 873n Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor, 2.53GHz, 512MB RAM, 120GB HD, DVD-Writer Combo&48X CD-Rom Drives,Windows® XP Media Center,1 Year Warranty Included Original Price: $1,599.99 (25% Off) In-Store Price: $1,409.97 Internet Price: $1,199.00 http://www.compusa.com/clearance/product_info.asp?product_code=298461&pfp=CLEARANCE Dell GX110 P3-866 15.0 M $469 http://www.refurbfactory.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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