Sorry to be so late Gilly. It was a long night, but I see you have lots of views to chose from.
I’m past due to start with a new box myself, and am searching out something that I want to last for at least 5 years. Check ANYTHING I say with somebody like MilkToast, who really knows what they are talking about. All my thoughts are self gathered. :dizzy: (be careful of “EXPERTS”
)
First point is that just like you, many people have their refund checks in fist and are computer shopping. Prices DO reflect demand throughout the year, and the undisputed best time is during summer vacation when sales are at their lowest. If you can keep the $ stuffed in the mattress for another month, you’ll get what you want for as much as 25% less than when school starts again, before the holiday or when refund checks start burning holes in pockets.
Just from what I’ve seen, Dell has the best BASE prices, are reputable and provide support. BUT……… they are VERY capable at the sales desk and not a bargain with any add-ons you WILL want. They constantly switch the better feature for “free” and have the matching components “available” at the very full price.
I personally, have gone the tinker-toy route, since my first Trash-80, and plug the desired components together myself. That’s not as scary as it may first sound.
There are sites that will guide you through the matching components and give you a tone of information if you want to do a little digging. You have to decide how many dollars your hours are worth. Some sites just have the best prices while others have the most information. Like these:
http://www.pricingcentral.com/best/...components.html
http://www.pricewatch.com/
When you really look at it, your computer is just a processor (that does everything), some RAM memory (a place to do it), and a motherboard (to connect them and hang everything else on).
Right now AMD gives you the processor with the most bang for the buck and when I graph a curve, it’s easy to see that around 2.5 GHz is the sweet spot of $/performance.
I like the Athlon XP 2500 with Barton Core, for $75 - $80. The chip decides what RAM you need and you can get 512MB for about $120. Your applications dictate how much you need, but that’s about as little as I would go just to handle a good graphics package and do some multi tasking. You can always add memory very easily. Add a good chip cooler and heat sink for just a few bucks.
The manufacturers will tell you what boards they like with what chips and you pick something to match your extras. I like something with room for TWO hard drives. After screwing around some real virus problems just this year, when I knew better
, I’ll never have my applications on the same drive as my data. I put my OS and programs (which is where most software issues occur) and ALL my data on another. Address books, pictures,…. EVERY BIT of data! When I have a problem, I just reload the programs without loosing the my files. 80 GB of HD are about $75.
Pick out what you want for burner, to watch TV on (I already have a bigger TV
) or whatever. Chose a case that fits the motherboard and has at least 400 watts of power with some good fans. Cram it all in and do it for less than $6 bills. LOL
You can save a lot of dollars putting it together your self and you don’t have to touch a soldering gun to do it. Just read and plug. Now go talk to somebody that knows what they are doing.
