New PC

[athee]

Hi, I am looking for a new PC and I would like some suggestions. I currently run a Mac G4 but I would like something more for gaming. G4 is more like a MediaPC. I heard of the new mac coming with the possibility (boot camp or something similar) to run XP on it. There was already Virtual PC (Slowww) and other stuff but boot camp is suppose to run XP faster than a similar PC. I would like to buy a Mac or a PC. Should I look more on Alien Ware or shoud I wait for the new mac? Give me clues and hint. Thank you for your suggestions and sorry for my poor english ! Ohh by they way... 2000-2500$

[Sparda]

You have $2000 to burn on a new computer?! Well then, lets get too it, i'd vote for a PC if you are going to be gaming. I hate to admiti but if you are gaming you need windows (:(). So rember to save some for windows, it's £95 here in England (you don't need the pro version, but it adds things that microsoft for some reason removed in the Home version). Right now it's not wise to get a totaly expencive graphics card (unless you don't intend on getting Vista) as they are all DirectX 9. Actualy... check out this thread.

[armadaender]

At your price range, you could build your own machine that would be far more powerful than any alienware box at that same price. My suggestion would be to look around at what processor you find suitable, mobo, graphics card, etc and build your own. For 2000 you could have one hell of a box and that's the route I would take.

As for boot camp, it's already out (check out apple's site to learn more) and there are cases in which the core duos are out performing pcs of similar attributes (I believe Tom's Hardware performed that test). Anyway, you must have an intel based mac for boot camp to work and if your a fan boy of mac, you could spend your 2000-2500 on a macbook pro or intel core g5 and boot xp, thus giving you a cool-looking, expensive gaming machine.

[programertobe]

i built a gaming PC for about 600$.

3.06 Ghz CPU

512 GB of RAM

256 MB Graphics card (could be upgraded)

and such. you don't have to go too expensive unless you want something like an AMD FX-60

[Sparda]

I built a gaming PC for £800:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+

1024MB of DDR400 Kingstone RAM

Asus A8N5X motherboard

Gainward BLISS 7900GTX with 512MB GDDR3 RAM

250GB Maxtor hard drive (UATA 133)

*forgoten name of* DVD-ROM drive

Antec P180 case

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-64P Heatsink + Fan

(The power supplie is confusing) On the website I bought it off is said 320W, however, the manual I got with it was for the 380W, 430W, 480W and 550W modles. So I guess it's 380W, there is no labling on the power supplie it's self from what I remeber.

Note: 1024MB of RAM is not enough! I cannot afford more RAM at this moment so to improve perforamce a bit I have added a unused (but working fine) 3GB hard drive, formated to FAT32 and use that as 2048MB of pagefile. I put this on the same chain as the DVD-ROM drive, so in theory it would increase performance slightly more becasue the motherboards IDE controler would not have to keep switching positions in the chain.

[metatron]

DFI Lanparty UT CFX3200-DR MB

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo

2GB CORSAIR XMS

Western Digital Raptor 150GB

HITACHI Deskstar 500GB

PLEXTOR 18X DVD±R DVD Burner

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS

XFX PV-T71F-YDF9 GeForce 7900 GTX

Antec NeoHE 500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply

COOLER MASTER Liquid Cooling System

Linkworld Computer Case

All the needed cables.

Thermaltake Cooling Fan

$1989 or £1,066.84

[athee]

By the way, canadian money (90% USA$). What do you think about www.ibuypower.com .Should I buy it on this. I think I should go for a 2g ram with 2X250GB HardDrive and 3.2 GHZ.

[nate]

I am experiencing the same problem, as I have $2-3k (US) to spend on a gaming LAPTOP. I know that gaming laptops are taboo for some people, but its a requirement for my school.

I lack the know how to make a laptop and I don't want to spend too much on a graphics card that is going to be out of date in a year or so. So I need some help.

I need to run win pro, but I am more than willing to get a Mac. (If boot camp doesn't slow down windows any)

I don't care if it looks like crap on the outside, but it needs to run well with some of the newest games on the market.

So far I've looked at Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo, Dell, HP, Sony and alot more. And Alienware is more bang for the buck.

Thanks for the help.

O yea, is it worth the extra $400 for Dual 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS - SLI Enabled (copied from Alienware)

[Employee]

I lack the know how to make a laptop

That is a extremely rare skill...... So yea I don't think I will ever really know but its possible :twisted: so yea if you want a gaming laptop and a school laptop I doubt you want an alienware if I were you with aproximently 2-3k I would look into Acer laptops or some guy suggjested to me an IBM they are supposively some of the toughest laptops around (good for carrying around a campus?) So yea check out

these are slightly more towards gaming on some of their models.

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/index.htm

these are slightly tilted to buisness but most likely capable for games.

http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s...egoryId=2035724

[armadaender]

Nate - I'd highly suggest Falcon Northwest. They have the all around best machines out there and for the right price. Alienware sells great computers too but you can get the same machine from FNW for a bit cheaper. Also, it will look a ton better. Unless you're into the whole sci-fi thing.

For specs I'd suggest anything dual core (AMD is by far the best), 100+gb hdd, 1+gb of ram and widescreen. If you're planning on doing some hard-core gaming, look into 2+gb or ram and the fasted hdd possible (7200 is the fastest that I know of for laptops) and get an external hdd for your massive storage needs.

This should be running you around 3 grand (US) depending on who you buy it from. Happy hunting and please let us know what you find.

[Snowy©]

Wait until after Aug if possiable some new CPU's/Dual CPU mobos over yond horizon! :)

[TANTRIC]

Heres the bottom line, my uncle has had multiple Falcon northwests and they are nothing but trouble, I have bought from Cyberpower and it seems to be the best i can buy from even though now its mostly what i built (all thats original anymore is the DVD-Burner) the computer worked great out the box plus they give you an option to have an OS which is lot of saved money and the selection is great. Although i would say build it yourself (i have 5 i built myself) the next best thing would have to be cyberpower

[Uncle Toxie]

Build your own, it's the only way to fly. Any of the boutique places like Falcon and Alienware overcharge. I'm sure they make a decent product but you can get what they sell cheaper and can get the components you want rather than the people they have deals with. I am still running an Athlon 64 3200 with a gig of RAM and a GeForce 6600. It runs great and plays all the games that I have thrown at it so far.

[stingwray]

Build your own, it's the only way to fly. Any of the boutique places like Falcon and Alienware overcharge.

They don't overcharge, they are a business that need to pay for overheads and the staff to build the computers.

Also companies do a lot of testing to see which hardware works well with what, you shouldn't get a machine that has compatibility problems from a company that builds them. Compatibility problems are few and far between these days but I have had motherboards that just completely didn't work with some graphics cards and ended out losing because I couldn't send it back faulty because it wasn't.

What you are paying for is piece of mind when you buy a prebuilt computer.

[Uncle Toxie]

They don't overcharge, they are a business that need to pay for overheads and the staff to build the computers.

You say tomato I say overcharge. :D . Seriously though, in the end I guess it depends on the person. If you have the disposible income and don't feel like jacking with building your own PC, go for it.

Personally, it takes the fun out of it for me, but that's me. I think you and I will have to agree to disagree on this one in the end though. As a former business owner I understand needing to cover overhead. Using it as an excuse to charge outrageous (in my own opinion) prices is rediculous. But, like I said; if that's what you want to do go for it. I am mostly full of shit anyways.

[TANTRIC]

Also companies do a lot of testing to see which hardware works well with what' date=' you shouldn't get a machine that has compatibility problems from a company that builds them. Compatibility problems are few and far between these days but I have had motherboards that just completely didn't work with some graphics cards and ended out losing because I couldn't send it back faulty because it wasn't.

[/quote']

Incase you didnt know falcon northwest has ALOT of compatability problems, for the Frag Box you needed to buy a controller seperatley just to make the hard drive work properly, and also trying to upgrade and alienware isnt the easiest thing to do.