New Computer

Hey!
I'm looking to buy a new computer, and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for good PC's. My maximum budget is $2000 US, and I don't need a monitor.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
piirx

 

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I recommend Dell. Surf to www.dell.com and chose your dream machine

 

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You can get a top of the line system for $2000. Go wild, basically anything you pick out with that price range will be good quality.

The guys at Dell sure make some good commericals but you could save yourself a bunch of money if you built one yourself.

Pricewatch.com is a great place to start looking for components for a computer.

You probably don't want to spend your maximum budget, so you might not need the $500 top of the line video card or a newly-released serial ATA harddrive. But I recommend getting the best processor available with a motherboard that is also top quality (I've heard Asus makes good boards, I use one from MSI and its great too).

You mentioned you don't need a monitor, but are you "junking" the computer that previously was attached to the monitor? You should keep parts you could use, like the floppy drive (it'll save you $15), harddrive, cd-rom.

 

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I second A4Ever....go to the Dell

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(http://www.dell.com )

 

Yeah, I'm keeping the old computer, but the only thing I can really keep is the floppy drive, and maybe the cdrom. The rest of the components are pretty old.

Thanks,
piirx

 

Build your own. For two grand you could have a beast!

:m: Peace.

 

For the love of god make your own! Homebrewed machines are the most stable, reliable and most powerful computers I know.

With $2000 the sky is your limit! Go to www.newegg.com , here is what I recommend
-P4 3.0Ghz or higher with 512K of cache and 800Mhz FSB, also with duel processor emulation (hyperthreading)
-A Motherboard with Intel 875P chipset, 184pin Dual Channel DDR 400Mhz, Ultra ATA 133 or better, also if you want get one with Raid 0 and 1.
-2 512Mb DDR 400… specifically GeIL Golden Dragon DDR 512MB 400MHz.
-One 80Gb hard Drive Ultra ATA 133 or if you get a motherboard with raid: 2 60GB Hardrives Ultra ATA 133.
-Geforce FX 5900 or Radeon 9800 Pro
-DVD Burner with DVD-R,DVD+R,DVD-RW,DVD+RW,CD-R,CD-RW compatible write read ability.
-Get a new case just if your old case is not ATX compliant.

The best part is that AMD is coming out with there Athlon64 soon and Intel's Pentium 5 early next year is rumored to also be x86-64, which means in ~2-3 years time your new computer will be obsolete!, and I don’t mean obsolete as in underpowered I mean obsolete as in programs of that time will not work on it!

 

I have to say...

DON"T GET A DELL! It's proprietary junk! Your power supply dies... you can't buy a new one anywhere else other than from Dell. Among other things...

For that matter, I wouldn't recommend buying a computer from any major manufacturer... HP, ACER, Compaq, Sony, etc. Shop around online for a prebuilt system that is not made by these vendors. Many companies use top quality products and build them for sale.

I wouldn't suggest building your own unless you have a good amount of knowledge or want to learn how to. It can be frustrating.

I build computers myself, am in the process of A+ Certification and I also Overclock my PC like a son-of-a-gun. I learned everything from doing research by myself and enjoy it greatly but it is not for everyone!

You could buy a great system for little more than $1000. Don't go for top of the line, the performance increase is minimal and yes, in two years it will be considered a slow machine (heck, in 6 months it will be).

 

GuitarToadster:
-There are people still doing A+ certs? Aren't they pretty much useless now?

If you can afford buying a custom made machine, do that. I am pretty certain you could do it with $2000. If you're going to go that way try and buy the components that are the second or third from the top of the line. They are usually the best for their price.

If you can't or don't want to buy a custom built machine and you have to buy a prebuilt system from one of the companies mentioned by GuitarToadster, go with Sony. I have never had any problem with any Sony components or their technical support (I had to call in a few times for something not computer related) :bugeye: Actually, now that I think of it buying major brand pre-built computers is way better then buying no-name, cheap ass brand pre-built computers like E-Machine or Cicero. Now those brands are JUNK.

 

I just completed the A+ hardware test not long ago - once I pass the software portion I will be A+ certified.

A+ is very useful for people who want to become PC technicans, and as a starting point for more complex fields.

Maybe you got the idea that A+ is useless because everyone wants to go into major networking areas where all of the money is.

I personally don't want to keep track of IP addresses all day, worry about huge servers running at very high tempratures (knowing customers are going to bitch at my company when they go down, then my boss will bitch at me), deal with constantly changing security threats, or all of the other annoying and time consuming things that go into networking.

I'd rather work as a PC tech and make less money, than have an annoying high stress job and make more money.

 

Well I know a lot of computer workplaces that require more than A+ to be hired. These of course are the smaller, more personal places. I know if you want a job at Futureshop or CompuSmart all they require is A+. If you're fine with a job like that, then all the power to you.

 

Down here Smart PC and Future Computers don't ask for anything more than A+ They are local places, more like family owned and run.

The degrees, diploma's, or certification you need are more based on the type of work you are doing, and not your employer.

For example, you'd need top notch qualification to work at Intel developing chips that have millions of transistors which can only be seen with an electron microscope.

 

Being certified in anything is far from useless.

A+ certified would be considered mandatory if you plan on running a business upgrading/building and repairing computers (which I plan to do). After I get the A+ certified I will then get N+ certified for networking, but it is not neccessary to start up a small home based business building computers.

As far as I know A+ certification is like the starting point from which people who want to work on computers should AT LEAST finish. I would not trust too many techs to fix my computers if they did not have the minimum of A+ under their belt.

I would have to agree with getting a Sony of out that lot of vendors, any of the others are just as bad as buying an eMachine... JUNK.

 

Sorry guys, maybe I am just a little psycho when it comes to other people working on MY computer. I require someone to have more than an A+ cert. before I allow them to touch my computer. Now if they had an A+ , a N+, and MCSE, then I know that they have put the extra effort into their training ancd can thoroughly understand the workings of my PC (not to say you wouldn't, I just know that they have those little peices of papers that say they have met educational standards).

 

Sounds to me you would be like me... prefer to work on your own problem. I have never brought a computer in for repair and never will have to, I just do it myself. I have years of hands on experience with hardware and software, now just need to get those useless little pieces of paper to "prove" I know what I have been doing for years.

 

Hello Everyone!
Actually, I got A+ certified a couple of years back, and I've worked part time as a computer technician for a little while, so I think I wouldn't have too many issues with building my own computer. The only problem is that I don't really have the time required, so I was thinking that I could just get a simple model, something like a Dell Dimension 8300.

I was fairly close to ordering AlienWare, which I hear is pretty good, but when I saw the case that they were using close up I changed my mind.

As for Sony, I never really thought about it; I hearded that they made decent laptops, but I haven't heard any other good reviews about their desktops. I'll try and look into it though.

Thanks,
piirx

 

If possible I would build your own computer. This way you can get exactly what you want, and construct it yourself. Also, if something goes wrong, you will likely be able to identify the problem as you're the one who built it. When you buy from a brand company, you really don't know what goes on during the construction process (like if one of the people building it drops a harddrive then picks it back up and still uses it, there by shipping you a system with a drive that has bad sectors - which you might be able to return on a warranty and RMA, but of course that is a hassle).

I would personally recommend

A 3GHz Pentium 4 with hyperthreading

I would recommend this motherboard

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket478/p4p800-d/overview.htm

I would recommend this RAM (you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to correctly view the link)

http://www.corsairmicro.com/main/products/specs/cmx512-2700c2.pdf

For a harddrive, if you're looking for performance I'd go with this

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/WD360GD.asp

If you're looking for capacity I'd go with this

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=38

I'd get this video card

http://us.hercules.com/products/showpage.php?p=55&b=0&f=1

I'd get this sound card

http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory=461&category=461&product=471

I'd look for these speakers

http://www.americas.creative.com/products/product.asp?maincategory=3&category=15&product=220

I'd recommend getting a power supply from Enermax, check here

http://www.enermax.com.tw/product.htm

Or you could get one from Antec

I can't really give a recommendation on a CD or DVD writer, I haven't been following that area really closely, so I don't know what CD writers can properly write weak sectors, or what DVD writers work the best.

If you must resort to buying brand name, I would recommend these 2 companies.

http://www.voodoo.ca/

http://www.falcon-nw.com/

As for our other discussion

A+ is not required for running a business, nor are another other computer certs. For a business you need to learn marketing strategies, social skills, and how to buy and sell for profit.

There is a guy I know who runs a computer shop, and he doesn't know crap from crap, he has all of his techs do anything remotely complicated for him. But he is the one who fills out all of the paper work, orders all of the parts, and speaks with customers.

Testify, no offense or anything, you can choose who you want to touch your PC and what not, but your PC is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. In a computer shop, you may get over hundreds of PCs a day that need repair, not just one from a single customer, nor PCs with identical specs.

Personal knowledge speaks for itself, but many employers like to see pieces of paper, unfortunately....... They may not give someone a chance to show their abilities in front of them, simply because they don't have the piece of paper.

 

Clarentavious,

You know www.newegg.com is a very easy all-in-one placed to buy all the parts needed, for very cheap and with great return policies.

piirx,

I usually assemble a computer in under an hour, 3-4 for OS installation. I do computer repair for a living, my step father is a electronic engineer and I have been doing this since I was a child) Most mother boards come with a manual in which is all the instructions you needed to assemble your computer, windows 2000 and Xp are simple follow the steps installation.

 

I have heard newegg is a very good place, however I was pointing out specific products themselves, not places to buy them.

 

I couldn't agree more. If I were hiring for a business, that little A+ piece of paper wouldn't be enough for me, because it doesn't take a whole lot to actually get it.