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General discussion

I have a budget of $1300 to $1500

Apr 24, 2005 2:51PM PDT

To purchase a desktop computer. Since the 64 bit era is coming i will like to get a PC that is compatible. What will be the best computer to get with this budget? If possible i will like to have a printer and warranty included with this budget..

Thank you in advance...

Raul

Discussion is locked

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RE:
Apr 24, 2005 3:17PM PDT

eMachines T6212, comes with SOcket 939 AMD ATHLON 64 3200+ and has PCI-Express (x16) slot for upgrade. Cost $600, at bestbuy, there's a deal with LCD. Spend the rest of budget, on a decent video card, more ram, or a bigger lcd, or maybe even a processor upgrade, and you've got a great gaming pc.
Roger

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i would agree...
Apr 25, 2005 5:38AM PDT

grab that computer and add:

-512 MB RAM
-decent video card (Nvidia 6600 GT)
-printer (if not included)
-LCD (probly can add one for less than buying one)

You can use the rest of ur budget later on on a better CPU

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um, as for gaming
Apr 25, 2005 12:19PM PDT

uh, CRT's are better for gaming in terms of not ghosting, cost, and the fact that it offers better image (LCD's just have issues with gaming (cheap ones, $1000+ LCD's usually don't, but the $150 special would)

also the 6600GT for PCIE is good
but if it were me, i'd just get the 6600nU to save a bit of money, and OC it the extra little bit

other options are:

Radeon X600XT
Radeon X700Pro
Radeon X700XT

a great video card in the sub $300 arena is the Radeon X800XL, which is about 5% slower than the 6800 Ultra


BUT
Radeon won't fully support DirectX 9.0c (no FP32 of PS3.0, GeForce 6 has those features) so i'd just keep that in mind

peronsally i'd just build it myself though
a DFI LanParty board for Socket 939, Athlon64 3500+, 1GB of dual channel PC 3200 DDR, 120GB hard drive, WinXP Home, GeForce 6600GT or Radeon X800XL
it'd be nice
price it out at www.newegg.com

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RE: Build Your Own
Apr 25, 2005 2:07PM PDT

Thermaltake VB1000SNS Soprano ATX Mid Tower Case w/NO PS (Silver)-76
Thermaltake W0044 ATX 12V Power Supply-75
ASUS A8V-E Deluxe Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard-177
AMD Athlon 64 3500+512k 0.13micron (939) (Retail Box-w-Fan)-267
COOLER MASTER KHC-L91-U1 92mm Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink-50
COOLER MASTER SAF-S12-E1 120 x 120 x 25mm SuperFlo Cooling Fan-13
Arctic SIlver Premium Photosynthetic SIlver Thermal Compound Arctic Silver 5-8
Kingston HyperX Series Dual Kits 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200-360
Maxtor 250GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model 7Y250M0, OEM Drive Only + Thermaltake SATA Cable-142(limited-time offer)-142
SONY CRX320A/U Beige IDE Combo Drive-57
Microsoft Windows XP Home w/Service Pack 2-93
eVGA 6600 GT 128MB DDR3/PCI-E/TV-Out/Dual-DVI-177
Mitsumi USB2.0 Digital Card Reader/Writer W/FD INTERNAL, Model FA404A/404M-24
KVM Switch-40.00
Logitech X-230-30
Creative Blaster Modem-19
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS-89
Cut/change some options and change the video card if you want and you spent your entire budget, for a great machine.
Roger

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Related question
Apr 25, 2005 2:27PM PDT

I have also read alot of good things about emachine, annd I am on the verge of getting this system myself. I am comfortable enough to do the upgrades you guys mention, but do not know enough, or more improtantly have enought time or patience to build my own bottoms up.

Only question:
when you say "u could use the rest of your budget later on a CPU"... I have added memory, added a slave hard drive two times to pc's, added a video card, cd burner, ethernet port etc. So I am at least ok around the PC and adding stuff. Is adding a UPGRADED CPU basically as easy. Obviously you need to get one that is compatable to the motherboard etc. How easy or hard is that, just t get a compatable one? If I get the Athoon 3200, then later can I simply get the Athlon 3500 (for example)?

Then is it as simple as (with the power off -duh) popping the old one out, and putting the new one in? I am not off welding parts together or anything am I (smile).

I like the emachine idea - seems easy and a lot les than your budget.

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RE:
Apr 25, 2005 2:52PM PDT

You will have to know how to attach the heatsink and fan. And as long as your bios supports it, it's just plug-and-play pretty much. Not sure if your bios supports it as most oems make their own bios... Check to see if your motherboard manual says you can. Also the processor upgrade might require you to modify the psu, which is burdensome in oem cases. But i don't think you need that. Just make sure about bios.
ROger

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enought time or patience to build my own
Apr 28, 2005 1:55AM PDT
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Changing processors....
Apr 28, 2005 4:17AM PDT

Well, if you purchased the T6212 emachine with the Athlon 64 3200 processor, installed a decent PCI-Express video card (for gaming), then it should last several years, even for gaming. The 512MB of RAM is currently adequate, and the expense of adding more should be as required (including smooth playing of games). IMO future changing out the 3200 processer to 3800 may be an advantage to a gamer (like Damasta), but for normal computing is not worth it.

Building a computer is not for everyone. Someone may be able to build one in 2-3 hours, but a newbie would probably take many countless hours to understand & still require help. There are many, many sites to go to giving instructions on how to build a computer. I just reviewed the CNet instruction class on building, and newbies do require help. There are many ways to make mistakes and even at least two CNet Moderators, at least one who has built countless computers, require some help. For those that want the experience (and took clock's apart as a kid...I did), pride, bragging ego, have patience/time, and can self warranty, then building is great.

What I think is best for newbies who are not inclined to build, is to learn enough about computers (and that can take months/years) then assemble a list of components (knowing quality) and have a company build (really it's assemble), letting them make the mistakes to correct with their warranty, instead of you fishing around with only the parts warranty which don't help out on most problems.

One company I know of charges $49 to build and has an excellent list of quality components/parts, usually about the same price as parts from Newegg, but some are a little higher (I guess that is how they make a little proffit).

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profit
Apr 28, 2005 5:35PM PDT

Lots of ways to make a profit. Even shipping cost is one. skip

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it doesn't take 2-3 hours to build a computer
Apr 28, 2005 6:20PM PDT

it takes only less than hour to build a computer, what really takes 2-3 hours is to install the OS and drivers for everything to work right.

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If u can a deal from Dell its cheaper to buy
Apr 28, 2005 6:17PM PDT

if you know how to build computers you need to check the prices sometimes its cheaper buy a brand name , the best is DEll for just cases and MB that it uses also some of the deals they have especially this month they are giving alot away like free printer and 17" or 19" LCD, The other companies are a pain to add hardware like harddrives, because you don't know whose Motherboard is used plus the cases are small and pain to take apart. You need to get the parts cheap to match brand name since you get OS for nothing.
I just brought from DELL different computers, I couldn't build them for the price I got them. I got was Dimension 8400 has Intel Motherboard with intel 915G chipset which has Matrix RAID onboard. I brought HomeXP,Intel made 775socket with Matrix RAID, intel540 cpu,512meg ram,80gb sata drive,48x cdrom, ATI X300 128meg PCIE video card NIC and Ultrasharp 17" LCD with 16ms refresh and Dell 720 Printer for $599. I plan to sell X300 and 80GB Sata drive and replace with either Nvidia 6800GT or ATI X800/850 video card and turn on the RAID and put in 2 @250gb sata drives, soundblaster Audigy2 Platinum,2@ DVD Dual Layer Burners all for less than $1000. the other was Windows Media Center 2005, Intel 560 CPU, 512meg ram, 160gb sata drive,soundblaster Audigy2, 256meg Nvidia 6800GT,16X DVDrom, 16X DVD Dual layer Burner,56K modem, NICand 3 year warranty for $725, I just missed a XPS generation 4 with intel560 2gb ram,audigy2,256meg Nvidia 6800GT PciE video, 16XDVD Dual layer burner,2@250GB Sata Drives for $1220. parts along cost $1500 without OS.