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New computer

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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
Well im looking to get a new computer for school, which I will be starting here soon. I already have a G4 Powerbook for most of my actual schoolwork, but I would like a fast pc deskop too.

I want to do gaming, video editing, 3d editing (have not done a lot of this, but it is an interest), photoshop, general internet browsing. I will probably end up dual booting linux and windows; linux is another one of my recent interests.

I have to talk to my grandparents (they are the ones paying for it) but I dont think I can go above $2000. Budget may be less then $2000, but it wont be less then $1400.

I pretty much wont buy anything but ATI and AMD, unless someone has something to say here that will change my mind, so here is what I was looking at:

AMD X2 4600 64
MSI mobo
2 gigs ram(2x 1 gig sticks)
80gig HDD (probably will end up getting an external 200gig or something)
ATI x850 platnum 256mb
Win XP pro 64 bit

$1800 from cyberpowerinc.com (have used them before, like them a lot)

does this sound good? do you think it will be worth wating for the Mobos that support dual ATI cards to come out? Is that a good price? Any other suggestions?

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 26 2005 10:29PM
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agentorange
Posts: 258 - Karma: 10
jsut go dell or build your own.

Jul 26 2005 10:34PM
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tuckeredoutfilms
Posts: 665 - Karma: 41
Ive never ordered from them(I build my own computers(, but i have heard great things about Monarch computers... google them
I would get a 120gig hard drive if you are gonna be doing editing... its only a little bit more, and io wouldnt get anything other than a Western Digital Hard drive

Jul 26 2005 10:49PM
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rrjames
Posts: 298 - Karma: 15
dude if yer rents are gonna buy it get a high end apple desktop there great for editing and gaming, the only problem with gaming on an apple is buying the games typicaly you have to go online to buy them but i have come accross copys of halo in mac format at best buy

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I ate a lava lamp it wasn't lava
Jul 26 2005 10:52PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
I like macs, dont get me wrong, but I already have a G4 powerbook for stuff (including Final Cut if i so choose).

Macs simply = less bang for your buck then PCs. also, I play Counterstrike and Half Life 2. they dont ahve those for macs. I dont want to have this problem for any other game. also, games (soem) such as Doom 3, for a good example run slower on macs because of crappy coding.

I have a nice mac laptop that is portable, I want linux expeirence and I want a good gaming pc.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 26 2005 11:00PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
dell sucks, i know what im doing. and i would build my own from newegg or tigerdirect, but this is honestly cheaper! also, newegg and tiger dont have quite as new parts (AMD X2) last time i checked.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 26 2005 11:03PM
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m1garand
Posts: 3343 - Karma: 15
yea dual core is definitely the way to go right now, especially if someone else picks up the tab :D. i would have to recommend sticking with the 4200 tho because the 4600 will cost you like an extra $250 for a minimal performance increase (200 mhz faster, same cache), you can google around for some benchmarks to see what i mean. 2 gigs sounds sweet (personally i think a gig is enough unless you want to run 3ds / maya / ps / lightwave / doom 3 / hl2 all at the same time... but make sure you get low latency shit, it counts bigtime for gaming. as far as the video goes, the 7800gtx (529 at newegg) hands down beats the x850 right now, but if you must have ATI, the R520 should be out next monthish, you might not be able to get your hands on one until sept tho. o yea and a sata drive is a must, preferably raptor, but you might be a little squished funds wise when going dual core. 1800 sounds decent, depending on full specs, mostly because that includes xp pro.

for linux, go ubuntu (deb based), you'll be happy you did.


The Scoop on Poop:
http://www.heptune.com/poop.html
Jul 26 2005 11:35PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
I already have Ubunti on my PIII here, so ya, good choice i guess

may be a little tight on funds to go sata, but if i get a 4200 instead of a 4800...

the videocard will be a hard issue. I have jsut had such bad expirences with nvidia. I got a comp witha ATI 9600 se with 256 and like a halof a year later, i spent a little more on a 5700LE in a different computer and the 9600 outproforms it no questions asked! ati just seems to hold value better.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 27 2005 12:20AM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
mmmm. idk, I tryed going with the 4200 and then got a 74 gig sata raptor and instead of the 850, i could get 2 nvidia 6800s with 256 each and it would still be a few $ cheaper then what i was originally looking at.

will it be really that much better going with the 2 6800 (not GTs mind you) then the ATI x8500 PE?

also, can i OC the AMD X2/would it be a good idea?

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 27 2005 12:50AM
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E-ZRider
Posts: 1791 - Karma: 13
no dell

I Love Head

Jul 27 2005 1:30AM
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SSteezle
Posts: 9221 - Karma: 9,939
get an alienware!!!

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Jul 27 2005 8:04AM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
HELL NO! what a huge waste of money that would be. they are not ONE BIT better then other computers you can buy from other places, NOT ONE BIT! Just because all they have are fast gaming mechines (which isnt even true anymore) doesnt mean that you cant get soemthing just as good for cheaper elseware.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 27 2005 11:02AM
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Itsbackfliptime
Posts: 18901 - Karma: 75
^will the cases have sweet aliens?

Mac 'n' Steeze Movie Mac 'n' Steeze Trailer
Jul 27 2005 12:21PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
get an Apple G5.

because I like poop.
Jul 27 2005 12:21PM
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CTripper
Posts: 6520 - Karma: 20
where the hell do you get all this money to crash beemers and buy new ones and own two computers as a high school student?

-chris
Jul 27 2005 5:47PM
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acoustikrage
Posts: 1001 - Karma: 10
i really suggest that you go ask about his on a computer forum like neowin.net. but since you have $2000 to spend, i don't think you could go wrong with anything.

Jul 27 2005 6:42PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
that, and I know what im doing, sorta. I am asking on compuiter forums too. and I have no clue how much I have to spend really, but i think atleast $1400

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 27 2005 10:19PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
who are you to judge me?

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Jul 27 2005 10:31PM
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Itsbackfliptime
Posts: 18901 - Karma: 75
he already has a frickin mac. GEEZ

Mac 'n' Steeze Movie Mac 'n' Steeze Trailer
Jul 27 2005 11:15PM
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greenhat06
Posts: 2 - Karma: 10
I have a Powerbook G4 too. Why the hell would you go back to a PC? I have NEVER heard anybody say this? Get a G5 iMac, or a a low end Powermac. Don't go back to PC's you idiot! If you're worried about gaming (why everyone doesnt seem to like Macs), they are switching to Intels soon and then you can have all the games as PC'ers. Just don't switch back. You will regret it, and all for Half Life? Yea, and if you want video editing, why would you lean towards PC's? BAD MOVE

Jul 28 2005 11:14AM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
very not true. just because they are going to run on x86 architecture, does not mean you will be able to run anything that runs on windows. can you run windows games on linux very easily? how about Solaris x86?

No, if you know how to use it, windows is not much more of a pain in the ass then Mac OSX is. Its really not that hard at all. Dont use kazaa (use biuttorrent). Get AVG free version. Get a free firewall. Even with all that crap running, i would still venture to say that PCs are faster per $1.00 you spend on them! I like both, but I think that many mac people are way too arogant about their computers and ignotant about PCs to judge them the way they do. That being said, however, I can definatly see why SOME people like macs more.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 2 2005 11:06AM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
also, im not switching. im going to keep the laptop.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 2 2005 11:07AM
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SkiBumDreams
Posts: 560 - Karma: 10
goin with the sli setup is probably a good idea. that is the way things are heading and if at any point you need to upgrade, you will be better off going down the sli road.

on another note i would definitely get two hard drives at least and set them in a raid configuration, striped probably because you will gain a lot of performance there. my read write and seek times right now on a 3 year old machine are better than a single 10000 rpm raptor!

another thing to note win 64 bit edition is well... crap. there are no drivers for nealry anything out that work with it. win 64 bit has a lot of bugs to work out yet and technically isnt really even at beta status yet. so i would be prepared to install norm xp on it instead or triple boot with ubuntu 64 bit and xp.

the thing to remember about 64 bit processors is right now there are a very very small amount of aps that can take any kind of advantage from it over a 32 bit proc. in time everything will move that way but probably not in the real near future.

_______________________________________

Gotta Love the Midwest

I have reinvented myself from CmuSkiFreak
Aug 2 2005 1:44PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
so having a striped raid with 2 7500 rpm HDDs is like one 15,000 rpm HDD?



__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 2 2005 3:11PM
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m1garand
Posts: 3343 - Karma: 15
well you will get better overall throughput with the raid setup, but seek times won't be better (vs non raid) because that is dependant on the hdd. i personally just have one 74gb raptor on my gaming rig and it's plenty fast. but yea sata150s w/ striping is pretty uber. btw the x2 3800 just came out like last week and it apparently is a good overclocker for like $80 less than the 4200. i will probably be building a system on one of these chips in the next couple weeks or so.


The Scoop on Poop:
http://www.heptune.com/poop.html
Aug 2 2005 8:47PM
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acoustikrage
Posts: 1001 - Karma: 10
i don't think that's right. there are also different types of raid setups. the most common are raid 0 and raid 1. raid 0 basically combines two drives into one and raid 1 is data mirroring, so two drives will have identical content for backup in case one of the drives fails.

Aug 2 2005 9:04PM
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*Fujative*
Posts: 8554 - Karma: 183
NO DELL! OR EMACHINES! OR SONY! OR WHATEVER! MAKE YOUR OWN! WITH $1800, YOU CAN MAKE A KICK ASS COMPUTER!


Stewie: Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but you're a total bitch.
eat.breathe.sleep.ski
Aug 2 2005 9:36PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
umm wow, no crap. thats what im doing. newegg and tigerdirect are the same price.

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 3 2005 4:10AM
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agingeri
Posts: 199 - Karma: 10
Wait until 2006 so you can dual-boot Mac and Windows on one machine!

I'm drooling already...

----------------- See my website, Common Sense: www.ThoseDamnLiberals.org I'm an atheist/moralist. My parents were hippies. Both my grandfathers were Mennonite conscientious objectors in WWII. It's com
Aug 3 2005 11:49PM
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RaginCajun
Posts: 316 - Karma: 10
man you guys know what youre talking about.





if carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up
Aug 3 2005 11:52PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
well I take it back. tigerdirect and newegg are about $200 cheaper, so that is what I will do. I wrote down the prices of all of what I want off each site and then calculated which was cheapest. each were pretty close, but if I buy some parts for each place, it is about $120 cheaper then just buying from one or the other. therefore it is about $320 cheaper then cyberpower.

I found this GREAT deal too:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1476861&Sku=C261-3025%20R

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 4 2005 4:09PM
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JackBach
Posts: 4155 - Karma: -5
I just built a new one the other day. Pretty sick, IMO and pretty damn cheap. I'll def. never buy a Dell again.

We are the resistance, our last line of defense. Bred to fight for our promised land. Rebels at heart they will hunt us till the ends of the earth.
Aug 4 2005 5:18PM
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jarossamdb7
Posts: 6322 - Karma: -10
k. made my purchase:

AMD FX-55
Aspire case with 420 watt PS and 2 80mm fans
2 thermaltake 120mm fans
arcticool heatsink and cpu fan
2 gigs (2x 1 gig sticks) patriot overclocking ram
DFI nforce4 mobo
ATI X850 PL (found one for $350!)
NEC Dual Layer DVD burner
2 160 gig maxtor SATA HDDS

this is the best computer I will have ever used, let alone owned!

__
the next time your about to make a racial slur stop, think about all the delicious foods that come from his or her country and channel your energy towards the purchase of your next international delight.

-guttermouth


Aug 5 2005 2:32PM
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m1garand
Posts: 3343 - Karma: 15
very sick setup dude, i hope you like it. you should run 3dmark05 on that badass and let us know how it does.


The Scoop on Poop:
http://www.heptune.com/poop.html
Aug 5 2005 7:51PM
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agingeri
Posts: 199 - Karma: 10
"this is the best computer I will have ever used, let alone owned!"

Unless you count usability and overall experience, in which case I'm betting you'll still prefer your Powerbook.

But I'm being glib...

----------------- See my website, Common Sense: www.ThoseDamnLiberals.org I'm an atheist/moralist. My parents were hippies. Both my grandfathers were Mennonite conscientious objectors in WWII. It's com
Aug 7 2005 1:19AM
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