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My old dell has served me well for 6 years. it barely played WoW and it was great at WC3 and CS 1.6, but recently, it has been acting up. Ive been looking into buying a new PC, perferably totally under 700$. I already have a monitor, a 300 gig sata HD and a sata DVD burner that i would like to reuse. I would perfer a prebuilt machine. so first, should i go lap top or desktop? if i go desktop i obviously cannot reuse my items, but if i go laptop, well im a college student and it would be helpful. i would perfer desktop. I want to play games at a decent pace so that it wouldnt lag. how are places like ibuypower.com and cyberpowerpc.com? anyone have any experience? i would mostly be playing WC3 (which doesnt take much to run), watching tv shows/movies, multitasking, writing papers when school comes back around. so maybe a mix of a mid ranged gamer and a mid ranged media center prebuilt pc under 700$.

Website I got from Ben, and have bought stuff for work from, ibuypower.com... pre built machines, with warranties, with some great configuration options.

i do kinda wanna avoid dell cause i was having problems expanding my system. also, which OS should i use/look for? vista or xp?

i got vista just to play around with it on my new rig, but i see very little to no actual point to having it. there's nothing about it that makes it a "must-have" over xp. some people will gripe about stability problems and hw/sw incompatibilities, but those are usually the people who install vista on a 5 year old rig and expect everything to magically "just work."

DIY FTW, IMHO

i would but im too lazy and i dont feel like trouble shooting if it doesnt start up the first time.

If I remember correctly Ibuypower rigs have actually gotten good reviews from even computer gaming magazines. I didn't think much of them as most of those companies are pretty much crap. Apparently they do build quality machines for great prices. Personally I still recommend building your own, but if you really don't want to that might be a good option.

Cereb Daithi wrote:If I remember correctly Ibuypower rigs have actually gotten good reviews from even computer gaming magazines. I didn't think much of them as most of those companies are pretty much crap. Apparently they do build quality machines for great prices. Personally I still recommend building your own, but if you really don't want to that might be a good option.

they build quality schtuff for competitive prices. i'm sure if one were to spend a couple weeks scrounging around for parts, one could build a comparable rig for cheaper, but w/e. these days it really isn't that much cheaper to build a rig on your own vs. some of the pre-fab gaming comp. websites like ibuypower.com, and this way you get a better warranty.

I actually just read a review in .. I think it was PC Gamer mag.... praising their budget system which was around $7-800 I believe. And CnW is right. Warranties are very nice to have. Just promise you'll post a little review of your own if you go with the ibuypower system. I for one am very curious to see what sort of quality they have.

i <3 mine. definitely on par with a setup i would've built on my own, and just as cheap .

which one should i be looking for though? theres a couple on that site. ide probably go for one of the weekly specials. should i go amd or intel? etc.

Check out eCost as well... sometimes you can get a rediculous system there for cheap. But to the IBuyPower

wrxSIN wrote:which one should i be looking for though? theres a couple on that site.

whatever one you can afford.

wrxSIN wrote:ide probably go for one of the weekly specials. should i go amd or intel? etc.

there is no clearcut winner right now, but intel has been pulling back into the lead with it core2duo architecture. i've always built computers with intel procs. never was an amd fanboi. i've never had a single problem with any intel proc i've used. amd's were the winner of the cost-per-horsepower war for a while, but they're also famous for overheating problems a few years back. it would seem they've ironed out the kinks (from what i read. i'll never know because i won't be using them any time soon.).

chicken n waffles wrote:

wrxSIN wrote:which one should i be looking for though? theres a couple on that site.

whatever one you can afford.

wrxSIN wrote:ide probably go for one of the weekly specials. should i go amd or intel? etc.

there is no clearcut winner right now, but intel has been pulling back into the lead with it core2duo architecture. i've always built computers with intel procs. never was an amd fanboi. i've never had a single problem with any intel proc i've used. amd's were the winner of the cost-per-horsepower war for a while, but they're also famous for overheating problems a few years back. it would seem they've ironed out the kinks (from what i read. i'll never know because i won't be using them any time soon.).

sorry whatde you say? i was distracted by your avatar sike naw, but i might get a custom build one, if not, just pick the cheapest intel off the sight seems to work for me. ill post the specs when i get em together of the one im trying to build.

this is going to be my build most likely. from new egg. going with vista and most likely going to use this to play starcraft 2 and diablo 3 when it comes out. going to play TF2 with this also.

Qty. Product Description Savings Total Price
1
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819115037
Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy

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$189.99
1
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231166
Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy

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-$15.00 Instant
$104.99
$89.99
1
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Item #:N82E16822136073
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

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$79.99
1
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811119068
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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-$5.00 Instant
$54.99
$49.99
1
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3L ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813128337
Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy

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$89.99
1
ASUS Radeon HD 4850 EAH4850/HTDI/512M Video Card
Item #:N82E16814121253
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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-$5.00 Instant
$30.00 Mail-in Rebate
$199.99
$194.99
1
PC Power & Cooling S610EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply
Item #:N82E16817703005
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

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-$85.00 Instant
$20.00 Mail-in Rebate
$199.99
$114.99
Grand Total: $809.93
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Looks like a pretty good build up man

The only thing I'm not sure about is the GByte MoBo... I've just never really used one.

Anyone else got a review?

I've only used Asus mobos.

The rest of the components look good, though. No sound card for this?

--Alan

These guys always complain when you don't get a sound-card

I use on-board sound. like I can hear the difference with my crappy H/K desk speakers...

mm well i was planning on using my crappy small dell speakers anyways...i might consider but im already 100$ over budget lol. and the last years model of that mobo has like 1500 reveiews of 5 stars or something. this new one is like 15$ cheaper too.

i've had good luck with gbyte mobos - but haven't bought any new ones in a few years.

Cereb Daithi wrote:These guys always complain when you don't get a sound-card

I have nothing against onboard sound. I just thought that a gamer might want a separate card. For the most part, I'm quite happy with integrated sound. Integrated video on the other hand...

--Alan

i bought the parts!!! now the wait ensues!!! i will be playing tf2 also when this is built.

PC has been built with vista on it. its a nice pc, way better than my old one. BUT TF2 is giving me problems....

what kind of problems? is it just tf2 or is it any steam-based game?