Help me pick out a new computer!

[Nostromo]

They take advantage of overclocking and put a Hell of a lot of fans in it .

It will probably sound like an helicopter...

I don't see a monitor

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Vince278
Haven't been able to play Civ4 yet. Can't wait too much longer.

Yeah, I hate playing Civ4 so freaking slow. There is absolutely no way that I can play the huge maps .

[q=nostromo]I don't see a monitor[/q]

There isn't any. I'm probably going to get one from Buy.com (well, once my refund comes through).

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh, and Vista is scheduled to come out in the 1st half of 2007.. and that's just what is scheduled. If I'm waiting for Vista and it slips, Imran will be a sad bunny.

[alva]

Creative Labs SBS350 2.1 Channel Stereo Speaker System with Compact Subwoofer - Black (+$49.00)

Your 7.1 soundcard is really going to pay with a speaker set like this.

[Az]

OMG A CLONE!!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by alva

Creative Labs SBS350 2.1 Channel Stereo Speaker System with Compact Subwoofer - Black (+$49.00)

Your 7.1 soundcard is really going to pay with a speaker set like this.

True, but I'm doing it for upgradability. That's the one thing I really dislike with a laptop... an inability to upgrade much.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hmm... on another forum they are saying I should go to a Dual Core system. That would require me to move up to a higher model (the current one doesn't have it) and make me spend about $200 more. Is it worth it?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Here is the Dual Core System:

Your System Price (excludes shipping): $1954
Velocity Micro
800-303-7866

Competition Gaming Systems : Gamer's Edgeâ„¢ DualXâ„¢
Base Price: 1795.00 Your Price: 1954 Weight: 75 lbs
Case
GX Blue - Velocity Micro Classic Case - Pure Aluminum for maximum cooling, matching aluminum drive covers, 2 x 120mm fans (-$35.00)
LX Wheel Kit
None
Power Supply
500 Watt Velocity Microâ„¢ Power Supply with Dual Blue Lighted Fans
Power Cable
Standard Power Cable
Case Lights
None
Motherboard
Asus® A8N SLI - NVIDIA® nForce™ 4 SLI MCP, PCI Express Motherboard with DDR
AMD® Processor
AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ Processor with Dual Core Technology, 939-pin (+$35.00)
CPU Cooling
Arctic Cooling® Freezer 64 Heatsink with Ultra Quiet Fan and Copper Heat Pipes, plus Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound
DDR Memory
1024MB Mushkinâ„¢ PC3200 DDR400 Blue Series CL2 Low Latency Enhanced Memory with Heat Spreader(2x512)
PCX Video
256MB eVGA™ NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7800 GT, PCI-Express, 2 x DVI
Video Cooling
VideoCoolâ„¢ Positive Pressure Airflow System - Speed adjustable, with light (+$35.00)
Video Tuning
Basic 3D Video Performance Tuning & Optimization
Monitor
None
Audio
Creative Labs SoundBlaster® Audigy™ 4, high performance 7.1 channel sound - Velocity Micro Exclusive! (+$75.00)
Speakers
Creative Labs SBS350 2.1 Channel Stereo Speaker System with Compact Subwoofer - Black (+$49.00)
5.00 lbs
Hard Drive 1
120GB Western Digital WD1200JD 7200rpm SATA/150, 8MB Cache (-$25.00)
Hard Drive 2
None
Optical Drive 1
16x Lite On® DVD+/-RW/CD-RW Dual Layer, Black Bezel
Optical Drive 2
16x DVD/48x CD-RW Lite On® Combo Drive, Black Bezel
Floppy Drive & Media
Reader
1.44MB Floppy Drive, Black Bezel
Network Adapter
Integrated 10/100/1000MBps Gigabit Ethernet Network Adapter
Network Adapter 2 or WiFi
Adapter
None
WiFi Router
None
Modem
None
FireWire
2 Integrated IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports, 1 front & 1 rear
USB 2.0 Ports
8 USB 2.0 Ports, 2 front & 6 rear (2 rear ports may be unavailable in some configurations due to available resources)
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home w/Service Pack 2 on original CD, Installed & Performance Tuned
Page 3
Pricing good for 24 hours from time of creation unless approved by a sales associate. Component options may change due to availability.
*Systems containing items, selections, or specifications marked with " * " or asterisk are non-refundable after 3 days from order date due to their fully custom-built nature.
**8-hour warranty response time may not be available in all areas. Please read our warranty details for more complete information.
Productivity Software
Corel® WordPerfect® Office 11 - includes WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations ($99 retail value)
Software Bundle
FREE - Nero Digital Creation Suite - Capture, Edit, and Author Video with immersive Dolby 5.1 Surround, plus Photo Editing Suite
Benchmark Software
NEW - FutureMark® 3DMark06® Velocity Micro Basic Edition - gaming performance benchmark software
Security Software
McAfee® VirusScan® 2006 Antivirus - Pre-installed with 12 month subscription (+$40.00)
Recovery Disk
Custom DVD Restore Disk, returns your system hard drive to the original factory installation
Internal Cables
Standard Premium Ribbon IDE and Floppy Cables
Keyboard
Velocity Microâ„¢ Deluxe Multimedia & Internet Keyboard with volume control, custom made by Creative Labs - Black
Mouse
None (Or select a Cordless Keyboard/Mouse Combo) (-$15.00)
Network Cable
None
MP3 Player
None
Printers
None
Printer Cable
None
Digital Camera
None
Game Control 1
None
Game Control 2
None
Power Protection
None
Battery Backup
None
T-Shirt
FREE Velocity Microâ„¢ Limited Edition T-shirt in Blue, size XL
Assembly
Immaculate custom hand wiring and origami-style folded drive cables for ultimate air flow, assembled in Richmond, Virginia, USA
Quality Assurance
Individual custom testing for complete component and software functionality, signed by the system builder and QA inspector
Documentation
Owner's Portfolio with Velocity Micro manual, driver disks, and accessory pack
Installation
None
Warranty**
1 Year Standard Parts & Labor Limited Warranty, 1 Year Regular Business Hours Support, and Depot Repair Service
Upgrade Plan
Lifetime Upgrade Plan - For a $99 fee, you may return your system for cleaning, maintenance, discounted upgrades, and tuning

[Whaleboy]

I personally wouldn't wait for Vista. I'm only going to buy it when the first service pack comes out, like I did with XP. That'll likely be in a year to 18 months time, so now is the time to buy a computer that you'll replace with a Vista machine then.

Lots of people have been proposing systems that are very processor heavy and not much in the way of graphics. The 6600 was a good chip but it's time has passed. I have a 6600 GT, overclocked to 500Mhz on the core and 1100Ghz (effective) on the memory, and only this is good enough to keep it competitive with later chips.

A decent mid-range card now is the 6800GS, it's dated but it'll cope with most titles out now, and Vista as well if it must. A better bet would be the 7800GT whose price is rapidly falling because of competition with ATI.

RAM... for what you want, 1Gb minimum, 2Gb would be nice, but make sure it's paired overclockers RAM so the timings wont put excessive load on the processor. To be honest, I'd buy a decent pair of 512Mb modules, since 2Gb isn't necessary just yet. It'll be standard in 6 months, but I'd suggest spending the money on a better graphics card and hard disk.

As for the processor, the Athlon X2 3800 is a decent chip, more than good enough for what you want to do with it. Most games these days aren't CPU bound.

I know this is more geared towards those who build their own machines, but you wont go far wrong if you look for this kinda stuff in ready-made machines.

[Nostromo]

You don't need two optical drives Imran, even if you want to copy CDs.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by nostromo
You don't need two optical drives Imran, even if you want to copy CDs.

It makes it easier, though, doesn't it? And I'd only save $25 by removing it.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
I personally wouldn't wait for Vista. I'm only going to buy it when the first service pack comes out, like I did with XP. That'll likely be in a year to 18 months time, so now is the time to buy a computer that you'll replace with a Vista machine then.

Lots of people have been proposing systems that are very processor heavy and not much in the way of graphics. The 6600 was a good chip but it's time has passed. I have a 6600 GT, overclocked to 500Mhz on the core and 1100Ghz (effective) on the memory, and only this is good enough to keep it competitive with later chips.

A decent mid-range card now is the 6800GS, it's dated but it'll cope with most titles out now, and Vista as well if it must. A better bet would be the 7800GT whose price is rapidly falling because of competition with ATI.

RAM... for what you want, 1Gb minimum, 2Gb would be nice, but make sure it's paired overclockers RAM so the timings wont put excessive load on the processor. To be honest, I'd buy a decent pair of 512Mb modules, since 2Gb isn't necessary just yet. It'll be standard in 6 months, but I'd suggest spending the money on a better graphics card and hard disk.

As for the processor, the Athlon X2 3800 is a decent chip, more than good enough for what you want to do with it. Most games these days aren't CPU bound.

I know this is more geared towards those who build their own machines, but you wont go far wrong if you look for this kinda stuff in ready-made machines.

Thanks Whaleboy. That is sound advice.

I want to get a system that I can use for 5 years, so that's why I'm going for a better processor and I'm going for the GeForce 7800

[Whaleboy]

Thanks Whaleboy. That is sound advice.

I want to get a system that I can use for 5 years, so that's why I'm going for a better processor and I'm going for the GeForce 7800

No trub. Bare in mind your upgrade path is limited with todays systems as AMD is bringing out a new socket architecture this year, so socket 939 will be a dead duck soon. In other words, if you want a system that'll be up to speed for a while you'll certainly have to pay for it. Personally, I wouldn't worry too much about it, like I said, graphics are more important than CPU these days.

With regards to sound, make sure you get yourself a Creative X-FI card. I've been listening to Beethoven's "The Tempest", and before that, Smashing Pumpkins, and in both cases the upmixing is incredible! Well worth it

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yep, yep... In upgrading in the future, I'm not think of upgrading the processor, but rather the video card, sound card, etc.

X-Fi would make the rig (without a monitor) over $2000! I don't want to go over that (even though with the monitor, I have )

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Oh, and Vista is scheduled to come out in the 1st half of 2007.. and that's just what is scheduled. If I'm waiting for Vista and it slips, Imran will be a sad bunny.

I thought it was supposed to come out at the end of this year. Has it been delayed again?

Jesus...