Anubis wrote:Today I went to PC Laptops, a local computer store with my old man to buy me a brand new compy. If you live in the Salt Lake, Utah area there is no better place than PC laptops. They are little more expensive but you get your money's worth. Every computer is custom made and they'll pretty much take care of your computer as long as you keep it, and replace any parts that is needed for free.
So any way I needed a brand new computer for school; the one I'm using right at this moment isn't cutting it. I never had any problems with it except for a few nasty malware attacks. However I needed a beast of a machine, because I'm going to use programs like photoshop, blender, for animation and 3D rendering, gaming, doing game mods as well, not to mention the occasional video edit. I also need it to keep for a while so I needed raw power, with room for upgrades so that it will handle future software with no problems.
So I ended up with a true monster! I think I'm a little afraid of it, and I don't even have it yet! (they have to build it custom, I'll be able to pick it up tomorrow.)
So lets start off by showing you what my CURRENT computer has under it's hood shall we?
The Sheep
Pentium 4 1.80 GHz CPU
1.24 Gigs of RAM (after an upgrade where it was 248 MB, I think)
Nvidia GeForce2 MX 100/200 video card(I think it's DirectX 7 compatible)
40 gig hard drive (OMG, that is so sad! That's like two standard xbox 360 HDD put together!)
It has six USB ports (none of which are 2.0)
One CD disk drive
One DVD disk drive (upgrade)
A wireless network card (upgrade)
Running Windows XP home and office
Now the BEAST!!!
http://www.pclaptops.com/machines/desktop.php?desktop=3
It is the following!
500 Watt Power supply
Asus P5N-D Mother Board
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4 GHz (That is some serious horse power!)
4 Gigs of RAM (can go up to eight!)
eVGA 9600 GT 512MB video card (DirectX 10 compatible!)
Two 250 Gig hard drives (that's 500 gigs all together)
One SATA DVDRW Disk Drive w/ Lightscribe
36 in 1 Internal Card Reader w/ USB
Running Windows Vista Ultimate
At the low, low price of
$2,558.58 that's BEFORE tax! I'll be paying my parents back for a better part of three years!!! two if I get a better job.
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/frown.gif)
I got you beat on most of that, mine is a custom built over time, assembled and upgraded to the point of insanity. You do got me beat on the motherboard and the processor as those are the hardest to upgrade.
- hard drive space totals up to 1.2 terrabytes, got a Raid array of two 500 gb SATA drives with a case fan blowing directly on the drives.
- 20"X13" widescreen HD LG monitor,
- Logitech G15 keyboard,
- Saitek GM-3200 gaming mouse,
- 3 gigs of ram(had to take out number 4, it kinda fried recently),
- AMD Athlon 64 Dualcore 3800 processor(2 ghz),
- running Windows XP proffessional.
- My video card is a AGP 512 mb video card, I think its a radeon, I honestly dont remember exactly what model. I got it used at dirt cheap from a freind.
- power supply is a 750 watt Thermaltake toughpower unit.
- Ive also got the Saiteck X52 flight control system, but ive never gotten to use it as I cant find any flight sims worth playing that can run with the controller anyways.
- a webcam with microphone and a pimpin stereo system.
- cd burner and a double layer DVD burner
- Few other little gadgets to boost performance that im too lazy to list including a USB/firewire controller card and a hardrive cooler unit.
I had a soundblaster Fatality sound card, but the damn thing doesnt run on Windows XP, so I had to stash it away in storage until they came out with XP friendly drivers.
Most of this was discount stuff, some of it was bought online at cheap websites, so It probably totals up to a pretty penny, but the case is the only thing on it thats almost completely worthless. Granted, I dont care much how the case looks, me baby has kicked the pants off of most computers. She might not have the kind of processor power that some people got, but she has all the upgrade capabilities of any other competing computer.
My point being, is that your best bet isnt to buy a computer from some store making that comp out to be all cool. You can get something half that price by assembling it yourself. The major issue is getting the parts that are compatible. Find a geeky freind to pick you out the right parts. Im not familiar enough to pick out the right parts. I got a geeky freind to do that part for me. Rest was easy. just like assembling a lincoln log set, only a hell of a lot more expensive. just remember, instructions that come with the mother board are WONDERFULLY helpful, so dont throw them away, no matter how much any geeky freinds tell you that you wont need em.
Last tip I can give you is to NEVER buy any parts on ebay, no matter how reputable the seller is, or how good the comments are, or how low the price is. I fell for all those and ended up spending a fortune on shipping, getting a computer case that broke and I couldnt return it, plus the power supply failed(hense why I have the toughpower) and the keyboard and all the case fans I bought from them were complete utter crap. Not a single product besides the case is something I can still even remotely use. All of them broke to the point that I had to throw them away. The case was duct tapable, so repairs were easy, it just looks like crap.
Buy from either new egg, zip zoom fly, or tiger direct. I went with zip zoom, but ive heard good and bad things about all three, so I suppose its just luck of the draw. Mostly good things, plus ive had mostly good experiences with zip zoom, so I really cant complain.
good luck,
CJ