[sophisticated]

Hey Guys,

I wanna buy a desktop for my boyfriend for his birthday, I've looked into Dell XPS, but their basic is a bit expensive at 889. I was wondering if building a computer would be a better alternative. I'm not sure exactly what parts would fit what and which video cards would be good. I want a good computer that can pay Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 with no lag in the highest settings. My budget is 800$. Also, it would be nice if the computer is upgradable? i guess like add more memory and stuff later on? Yeah i'm not too sure about all this ahahha. I hope someone can help me out with which parts are good? like maybe a list of different set ups with their pricings?, i'll greatly appreciate it.

[mace]

Hmm well probably the most important question.. which country are you in? There's a big difference between US$800 and AU$800, with respect to what you can buy.

It'll be easier to recommend parts depending on what shops are in your area etc too.

Also - are you able to build a desktop computer yourself? If so then it is always a better/cheaper option to do so. Otherwise if you get a computer store to do it, then they'll charge some fee to do so, or find some friends who can do it for free =) Otherwise often it's easier just to buy a branded/preassembled one, as you don't need to worry about what fits together and warranty support etc (if I remember correctly Dell have pretty good onsite warranty).

And next - is your budget just for the computer tower, or the whole system, i.e. monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse too? That will heavily affect choice of parts..

Regarding being upgradable.. most, if not all computers can be upgraded later on with more RAM/hard drives etc.

[Musicality]

A good place to start for a computer build is always Newegg.com

Is this including a monitor, keyboard, operating system, and mouse? Or do you have some spares?

Ok, what I've got is only temporary, as the combo deals on Newegg might run out or change, so yeah.

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

COOLER MASTER Elite RC-330-KKR1 Black Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 3.5" Hard Drive

Foxconn A79A-S AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

PowerColor HD4770 PCI-E 2.0 x16 Graphics Card

LG Black bezel SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model GDR-H20N - OEM

Patriot Extreme Performance 2x2GB DDR2 800 RAM

AMD Phenom II X4 920 BE + Windows Vista Ultimate

Total Price W/o S&H: $822.42

The last item has a $80 - off combo price, so that's good.

^Lol was put while I was finding the stuff. I agree. Also the build above is "upgradeable", but the graphics and CPU aren't, as the power supply that comes with the case can't handle much more than what's already in it. It can be upgraded with RAM and Hard drives, but that's about it. The graphics I selected is pretty much the best bang-for-your-buck graphics card, and can handle most modern games.

[sophisticated]

Hmm well probably the most important question.. which country are you in? There's a big difference between US$800 and AU$800, with respect to what you can buy.

It'll be easier to recommend parts depending on what shops are in your area etc too.

Also - are you able to build a desktop computer yourself? If so then it is always a better/cheaper option to do so. Otherwise if you get a computer store to do it, then they'll charge some fee to do so, or find some friends who can do it for free =) Otherwise often it's easier just to buy a branded/preassembled one, as you don't need to worry about what fits together and warranty support etc (if I remember correctly Dell have pretty good onsite warranty).

And next - is your budget just for the computer tower, or the whole system, i.e. monitor/speakers/keyboard/mouse too? That will heavily affect choice of parts..

Regarding being upgradable.. most, if not all computers can be upgraded later on with more RAM/hard drives etc.

I'm from nyc, im thinking about buying the parts through online sites ie: newegg. And im going to get my friend to build it but he's currently out of the state for vacation.

A good place to start for a computer build is always Newegg.com

Is this including a monitor, keyboard, operating system, and mouse? Or do you have some spares?

Ok, what I've got is only temporary, as the combo deals on Newegg might run out or change, so yeah.

LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

COOLER MASTER Elite RC-330-KKR1 Black Computer Case 350W Power Supply - Retail

Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 3.5" Hard Drive

Foxconn A79A-S AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

PowerColor HD4770 PCI-E 2.0 x16 Graphics Card

LG Black bezel SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model GDR-H20N - OEM

Patriot Extreme Performance 2x2GB DDR2 800 RAM

AMD Phenom II X4 920 BE + Windows Vista Ultimate

Total Price W/o S&H: $822.42

The last item has a $100 - off combo price, so that's good.

^Lol was put while I was finding the stuff. I agree. Also the build above is "upgradeable", but the graphics and CPU aren't, as the power supply that comes with the case can't handle much more than what's already in it. It can be upgraded with RAM and Hard drives, but that's about it. The graphics I selected is pretty much the best bang-for-your-buck graphics card, and can handle most modern games.

Yeah i'm only looking for the tower, my boyfriend has mouse, keyboard and all that good stuff already. is PowerColor a good graphics card? i usually mainly hear about geforce and nividia? And is there perhaps any other towers compatible? I'm hoping for a good amount of fans to prevent it from overheating.

[Musicality]

Wait, what do you mean only the tower? If you just buy the tower, it's just going to be an empty case.

There are two main graphics card companies: ATI and NVidia.

They each have their own partners, that have different names. The one I chose is an ATI card, for $100. It's good but not the best, and it runs really cool, and silent.

Nvidia Geforce is a name for their desktop graphics cards, and you will usually find it under other names like EVGA, BFG, XFX, etc.

[WeEzY]

my setup is better

ASUS M3A78-EM AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - $80 - $10 (EMCLSLS32) = $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131324

OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $61- $25MIR = $36
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227289

AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor - $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...pk=phenom%20940

COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $60
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...%20master%20590

Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply - $120 - $50MIR = $70
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=373110

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827136153

EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $205 - $20MIR = $185
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130433

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive - $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822136319

Windows 7 Release Candidate - FREE
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

total comes out to $711 after MIR and before shipping. you wont be able to upgrade the processor anymore though but the 940 is the best AM2 chip out there

this is a non-overclocker edition =). if you want parts to overclock, just ask

[Musicality]

The Windows 7 RC will expire by June 2010, and start shutting down bihourly by March, so it's not suitable to have on a computer, other than those who have a working computer and just want to try. Unless we're allowed to suggest certain ILLEGAL activities to attain a non-expiring operating system Generally I would not include MIR's for a total price, as rebates can be unreliable and a hassle. If you did not count the MIR and the OS, your price would be around $900 I'll try to find a build with MIR, if that's what the OP wants.

[mace]

Well I'm from Australia so prices and parts availability is different here, (Foxconn as an example is a brand rarely seen here). A quick look at both configs that you guys have posted..

and I like WeEzY's one better. Mainly because he's included a better video card, power supply, and case in there. Though.. as you said theres ~$95 worth of MIR's in there. Windows 7 could be a good idea because I would assume that it would be released by the time the RC starts shutting itself down bi-hourly - you could just buy a key and activate it to the full version, hopefully saving a complete OS reinstall if you bought vista now and wanted windows 7 later...

[hikki]

Nowadays, it just almost seems to cost the same to order parts and assemble from scratch as it does to have another place put it together.

Go to http://www.ibuypower.com/ and you can setup a pretty strong system with a MS operating system for under $800....

[mace]

Nowadays, it just almost seems to cost the same to order parts and assemble from scratch as it does to have another place put it together.

Go to http://www.ibuypower.com/ and you can setup a pretty strong system with a MS operating system for under $800....

Wow, they look alright actually! I don't know of anything similar here in Australia. Though they do have to make money somewhere, looks to me as though they've cut costs on the video cards, particularly for the <$800 machines. A GTX 260+ costs almost $100 more than a 9800GT which is in the $800 machine spec (Gamer Paladin 950) - and it's a 2.5GHz quad core there vs the 3.0GHz quad core in the posts above.

A 9800GT would be ok at running say, Crysis at 19" monitor resolution, but higher than that or on higher settings and it's going to struggle. Newer games, particular RTS's are making heavy use of graphics effects etc nowadays too...

But yes, it does save on all the work for building the comp and they look pretty competitive in terms of pricing.

[MUGETSU]

I have an ibuypower computer off of Newegg that I just bought a few days ago!

My parents wouldn't let me use their money to buy parts and put it together myself so I had to buy a premade one.

Search newegg...its the ibuypower 928i.

If you want to see the specs for my build if it did go through, check out the other computer building thread!
It's $1300, comes with Core i7, 6GB of RAM, a GTX 285, 1TB drive, etc on a Asus P6T motherboard.

[RnBaddict]

Well isn't diablo 3 and starcraft 2 not release yet?
So how do we know if these part can run a game on the highest setting if no one has actually tested it?

If i am wrong and the game is release then correct me

Or are yu guys just putting part base on crysis benchmark?

[WeEzY]

no, the games arent released yet. just guessing at stuff.

well, if you dont want windows 7, get this. there always other options for cheap
Vista Ultimate Academic Upgrade - $64.95
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts...us/default.aspx
or
Windows Server 2008 - FREE
https://downloads.channel8.msdn.com/

[mace]

No they're not out yet, but games like the latest Company of Heroes expansion, Red Alert 3 or Dawn of War 2 are RTS's that are fairly graphics/effects intensive. My SLI 9600GT runs either game well on high/max settings (on my 19" mon) - so I'd expect a 9800GTX+/HD4850 to perform similarly. On the other hand, I've played these games on single GPU (8600GT/9600GT/8800GT) setups at internet cafe's and occasionally it can struggle at points in the game with lots of units on the screen. So I'd personally spec for a higher end graphics card...

[Musicality]

For an Upgrade, you would need an existing operating system to upgrade on top of

And as far as I can tell, Windows Server 2008 is also an RC, and it's not free

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008...it.aspx?pf=true

IBuyPower seems to be a respectable company, with good prices, and if you think their deals are worth it, go for it. I personally haven't tried it, as many of the people I seem to hear from say that they have bad customer support. You should look into custom PC makers (respectable, but not brand name pricing, like Alienware)

If you still want to try a build, here's a second one:


LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

Antec Sonata III, 500W Power Supply + Western Digital Caviar 640GB 7200RPM Hard Drive

2x HIS Hightech Radeon HD 4770 512MB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Video Card [You have to add, then update quantities to '2']

ASUS M4A78 Plus AM3/AM2+/AM2 Motherboard + OCZ 2x2GB 800Mhz Memory


AMD Phenom II X940 BE + Windows Vista Ultimate

TOTAL PRICE: $840.91 BEFORE MIR & SHIPPING, w/ $30 MIR

The above build, just swapped out an expensive motherboard for an OK one (somehow I picked an expensive high-end $200, my bad), picked a case with a better power supply, removed the DVD reader, and added a second HD4770. This one will have more performance than the GTX 260, and even the GTX280 in some situations. They have a relatively high power consumption, but not under load.

[RnBaddict]

Well my opinion is be on this is be on the safe side

Eithe

[mstar]

I wonder if that'll be enough to run it at max settings .

Minumum Requirements
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: ADSL 1 Mbit

Recommended Requirements
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512 MB RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2.
RAM: 2 GB
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

Optimal Requirements
GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 GHz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2GB with DualChannel mode

This meant supporting a wide range of hardware, from ATI Radeon 9800/NVIDIA GeForce FX's to the ATI Radeon HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForce G200s

Anyways, I highly doubt you will be able to go from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 LEGIT$$$. But don't forget, the following versions of Vista gets to upgrade to Windows 7 for free: Ultimate, Business, Home Premium.

[dot1q]

I believe Vista to 7 upgrade for free is only for pre-installed systems purchased after July 1st 2009.

Upgrade from RC to Final was never supported. 7 isn't an exception.

[mstar]

I believe Vista to 7 upgrade for free is only for pre-installed systems purchased after July 1st 2009.

Yep, just ran through the article again. Starting -after- July 1st.


http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=609&pgno=1

[lordbordem]

Upgrade from RC to Final was never supported. 7 isn't an exception.

well technically you can still do it but i would never upgrade from a beta to RC or RC to final, worth doing a clean install.

anyway Lifehacker shows how to do the upgrade, involves modifying the version number but it does allow the upgrade

http://lifehacker.com/5240931/lifehackers-...to-windows-7-rc