What to look for when shopping around for new pc
 

I'm thinking about getting something a little better then the Dell OptiPlex I've been running the last couple of years. What should I look for while I am looking dual processor, memory, expansion? I'm not a gammer but I like the media portion of a pc.

Thanks


Also how can you tell what processor are in a pc. I do a system information from the accessories file menu it has two processors listed and both have this:

x86 family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3 GenuineIntel~4784 Mhz

Can anyone translate that to english?

Assuming you have XP, go to control panel, and then if I remember correct, its under System and Security, and it'll tell you what processor you have. Its obviously a 32bit Intel, but other than that I'm not really sure.

You only said PC, and not desktop or laptop, but I'm assuming your looking for a desktop. I would mostly look for things such as 4gigs or more of ram, AMD processor (I would never buy a Intel, but thats just me), Windows 7 (obviously, but some older models are still out there with Vista and no free upgrade, but its not to common to find one), x64 (64 bit) processor is the only way to go I think, and a BluRay drive would be nice (DVD+RW minimum but thats pretty much the standard), yada yada. Personally, I would go to ibuypower.com and build one you like. You can build a kickass computer for less than 2k, or a very very nice one for 1k or less. Hard to say what to get or anything though since you didn't really give a budget.

Apple
 

Can you say Apple? We have several PC's in our home. My wife has a very nice HP laptop that has been with us for just over 5 years now and it is still going strong. We have two Dell laptops, and our 14 year old just bought himself a Toshiba laptop for gaming and doing all of the usual email, research, and school projects. Our 13 year old has a Dell laptop, but we have not been too pleased with that one. My personal PC is one that I built myself and it is now 16 years old. I started with an expandable motherboard and worked my way up from there. It is an AMD Athalon 1.8ghz with dual hard dirves, and 4 gig of ram, and I use a LCD flat panel ITV 26" multi system TV/monitor for my aging eyes. I do allot of case work at home, so bigger is better for me.

I am looking at some of the newer stuff as well. The first thing I try to notice is the RAM, which these days is a must if you do not want to spend allot of time waiting on your PC to get things done if you are one of those who does more than one thing at a time. 4gig is the least I would put up with nowa days. Our BX has a couple of HP mini towers that come with a dual core intel 2.6gig processor, 6 & 8 gig DDR3 RAM, which would be my choice. Some of the Apple PC's now come with 8, 12, or 16 gig of RAM which is unbelievable thinking of where we were with these just ten years ago. Those two units run about $500 to $600.

Most of my friends are raving about the Apple PC's saying that they were diehard microsoft geeks until they began using the Apple PC. Those that have them claim that they are the best thing going right now. I sure do not know.

i'd say if you can get used to em try an apple...but i'm a pc fan, i just belive that apple's are better for non-gaming.
i built my PC for nothing by using bits that no one else wants and the end product is...
3.4ghz dual core 775 socket
2GB ddr2 ram
1x 40gb IDE drive for windows only (if it crashes, no biggie,,,just replace with spare one)
1x 160gb drive for...well...you know :lol:
DVD burner/ram drive
512 graphics card w/ HDMI support
crap load of SATA ports.

if you wanna get a cheap pc, build it yourself and it ends up better than the retail store pc's like mine did :rofl:

True
 

That is true. Build it yourself and end up with a kicka$$ system, plus you learn some things about computers along the way. If you do some research you can find out exactly what you want and need first, and come up with your own configuration. You need to determine what type of processor you want to use first. Then select the motherboard that matches up with that processor. When you pick out the mostherboard you need to really look into what it has available for the rest of the stuff you want on your system such as graphics and audio. One of the most important things to make sure of is that you not only have space for allot of RAM, but that the motherboard and processor allows enough RAM to suit your taste. Like I stated earlier at least 4gig is a must, but if you can get even higher RAM space the better your system will run such as 6 or 8 gig. The gigahertz of the processor and the number of RAM will determine how fast your computer works when multi-tasking. Once you build the system you can have someone else help you with the software like the "OS" operating system, Anti-Virus, Word, and whatever else you wish to have on it.

Most importantly do your research first. Read up on everything you can find for the kind of stuff you are thinking of using. Don't make a move until you have decided on what you want and check it out with someone you trust that knows computers. Don't trust some schmuck that works at Best Buy. He just wants to sell you the stuff that is overflowing in their store room and look good to his boss. If you do it the hard way you will not regret it. Even if you do manage to setup the best system you have ever had as soon as you get your system completed and start to use it you can bet that half of it will be obsolete or outdated. Still I have a system that I built in 1994 and it still kicks butt. Of course I have updated it twice since then with better hard drives, and more RAM. The only thing that has ever gone bad on me was the video card, which got damaged during shipping from one country to another. I also bought the Logitech 9600 5.1 surround system, which is still one of the best ever made. After 16 years my system still works great and still has room for improvements.

You can do allot of your shopping on line at places like TigerDirect, Overstock.com, Amizon.com, Cheapguys computers.com, and a whole host of others and compare prices to make sure that you get the best deal available. Watch for sales and take yoru time acquiring what you want at rock bottom prices. Best of luck.

i've been a long time mac user, but i just bought a toshiba satellite 15" laptop to use flight simulator software (all my macs have pre-intel chips). i have to say, i'm really surprised how much machine i got for $550. it has the new dual core intel i3 chip (2.25mhz i believe), 4 gigs of RAM (on a LAPTOP!) and a 360 gig hard drive.

i held my breath when i installed Phoenix and ran it for the first time. i have it at the highest quality settings, at the highest resolution.... it runs flawlessly! supposedly the new intel chips (i3, i5 and i7) are better at gaming due to the hyper-threading. i don't even have a dedicated video card!

so.... i'm singing the praises of this little sucker. it moves, and moves fast...and was cheap (compared to macs, at least).

16 yrs!!! What's it called? An Abacus?:lol:

I'm from the built it yourself school but that's not for everyone. Though it's not difficult it could be a headache if you are a novice and you run into problems. Check out Tomshardware. They have charts comparing cpus, graphics, memory with various applications. This will give you a good baseline on what you can expect.

I haven't trusted Tomshardware for years. He gets paid under the table from manufacurers and as a result, is hardware reviews have always been slanted and biased and the forum isn't much better. Anandtech, overclock.net or hardocp.com are better choices.

If you can swing the cost, go with an quad core as that will greatly extend the life of your PC usage down the road as everything is becoming multi core based. Do no less then 4 gigs of RAM, 6 is even better and HDD's are so cheap nowadays you can get a 600gig- 1 terabyte drive for screaming low deals in most machines. Onboard video is fine if you don't plan on gaming. Decent 5.1 onboard sound is fine as well for your use.

FYI, your old machine is running an older Pentium 4 which was top of the line back in 2003-2004. Needless to say, it wouldn't hold a candle to todays current dual and quad cores, either AMD or Intel. Download and run CPU ID and it will tell you everything about your hardware specs, and then some

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

You can get a nice specced machine for less built on an AMD quad core, but Intels quads will still beat it in most areas, they just cost a bit more. I"m also from the "build your own" camp, but for alot of tech challenged people, its simply not the best option. I build gaming rigs like this for myself as gaming and PC's are my primary hobby as well as career.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...SFF/night2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../silence15.jpg

Just a headsup, I may be building a friend a new computer... So he doesn't need anything MAJORLY fast, but would like something up to the 21st century.
Fry's always has some nice deals, but as long as you don't overclock too hard, or at all, you'll be fine.

I'm thinking this deal is a nice deal, a 3.4 Quad Core (AMD Phenom II X4 965), with a Gigabyte GA-MA785GMT-UD2....

Both items are getting some good reviews on newegg and elsewhere, and is quite cheap at Fry's.
Unsure if you have a Fry's near your place, but Fry's deals are usually B&M (Brick and Mortar), and sometimes even variable for each county/district/state, etc.

http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/...28353324&type=

Not sure Fry's price, but I'd say Newegg is one of the cheaper plaaces to buy things. I always use GearXS. There extremely cheap on practically everything. I bought a WD 1 terabyte harddrive from them like 2 years ago it was only like $150. Now there less than $100 I think.

Ha ha ha ha
 

Yes funny poke. My son just picked up that new Toshiba laptop and is still confused as to why my machine is faster than his. So yes it is an older model, but that is why I was lead in the direction to build my own system in the first place. If you chose wisely on the motherboard it leaves you room to improve upon the components you put into your PC. Yes the processor is 16 years old, but that shows you just how reliable they can be when you make the right choice. I am looking now pricing out stuff for my next generation PC, but my R/C purchases come first since this PC is still running fine. With all of the great goodies comming out in the R/C world I don't want to miss out on some of the great products that are available. MonsterMike's new Maxx center diff/motor mount is at the top of my list, and I plan to pick up two or three of them. So my ideas for a new PC just have to wait.

Your best bet is to hook up with a firend who knows computers somewhat and learn from them, but do not take everythign they tell you as Gospal. Purchase one of those build your own PC's for dummies books to start off with. Learn teh basics and move forward slowly. If you make a purchase here and there as you find really good deals it can be a little bit easier on your wallet by not breaking the bank all at one time. That way you can also spend a little bit more on getting the best stuff you can aford as well. Like anything it is a learning curve and you can make mistakes to. Take your time and do it the right way as it applies to your own thought process. Nothing is perfect, but anyone can build a very classy system on their own. Good luck with that.

Combo deal at Newegg.com
-Intel i5 750
-Seagate 1500GB HHD
-G.Skill 4GB RAM
-Gigabyte motherboard
-700W PSU
-NZXT LEXA PC enclosure (case)

extras (but required)

-POWERCOLOR 5670 Video Card (for media)
-Zalman CNPS 9700 CPU heatsink
-Windows 7 Home Premium


With that great deal of a combo, along with the 9700 CPU heatsink, you can overclock the i5 processor from 2.66GHz to roughly 3.6GHz no problem on the stock Vcore (CPU voltage). This system will do anything you want it to do, even play games, albeit with lower settings. Plenty of HD space, processing power and RAM.

$830

Oh, I forgot to mention you have to build this system, which you may not want to do, so if you have any friends who can do it for you, go for it.

You should be able to find out what processor you have just by right clicking on my computer and clicking properties. It should be under the default tab (General).

Otherwise, I think it is far cheaper (and better) to build your own.

If for whatever reason you do not build your own, do yourself a favor, make sure it is one what comes with a disc that allows you to re-install windows.

Then, the SECOND you get your new, shiny computer home, reformat it and reload windows yourself and then get the latest drivers for all the components off the manufacturer website.

I did this for my laptop and it ran so much better than when I used it for 2 days with the factory installed "Special Dell Edition Driver."

Also, I'd definitely go with a Quad Core since, like other have said, it will extend the time before you'll need to upgrade your computer again.

zeropointbug definitely built you a solid computer above, and you'll more than likely never ever find a computer with comparable specs for even close to that price.

Everything there looks great, except I'd replace the Seagate with a Western Digital HD (albeit maybe more expensive, but Seagate is the same company as Maxtor, which are TERRIBLE). Rarely have I heard anything bad about WD.

I'd also probably swap out the video card for an Nvidia one, but I just happen to be an Nvidia guy - just me though.

mine has less fans :mdr:....i'm with brianG with PC's as well:lol: although that looks like the same CPU cooler that i have, but i dont have them silly light up-power wasting fans
modded my powersupply to take a quieter fan, cut a rough hole in side of case and stuffed 4 more USB ports in it.
man...to give you an idea...my case is sooooo old that it has had EVERY single pentium in it!! it has all the stickers across the front to prove it :lol:
pent 1-4 stickers:lol:

Well, I'm just gonna throw this out there.
The Dell 8100xps has as good of specs as what you can build, for 650.
i5 650
3gb ddr3
500gb hd
310 Video

IMO, if your not looking for a gamer, it's a very good deal. If you want to run a Video card that draws big power, and overclock, then I would look in a differeny direction. But for a plug and play, good computer, it's the best I've found.

BTW from Microcenter you can save some money if you decide to build from scratch. They are cheaper on most things.

BP-Revo, ya I am a WD guy myself for the last few years as they are quieter and faster, but the latest drives from Seagate (who bought Maxtor, yes horrible, but they are still there own quality) are the fastest available, and are actually near silent too, but it also depends on the SATA controller on the motherboard. Also, the ATI media cards are better than NVIDIA ones at the moment, I am not a fanboy, I just get what is the best overall value as far as performance/price/overclocking ability goes. I am currently using a Radeon 5770 wicked little card, very little power usage and can crunch anything you throw at it.

Overall, the PC I built there is a sure fire way to get top notch performance for everything but gaming.

Sorry guys. I feel like I asked a question and ran out on you. Life got busy but has returned to no life again. Some great info from everyone. I appreaciate everyone input and I agree with Jerry the that was a funny poke! lol. I am a little ashamed to tell you I work in the IT field, have for long time. I am stuck in the server room and basically have been getting paid good money to be the server/network grunt that only pushes buttons or runs a cable anymore. In the beginning my counter part and I tried to keep all the duties and permissions that went with our admin accounts. Was a losing battle and after a couple of years not winning. We gave into the idea of getting paid the same to do a lot less work. We now delegate to our counter parts in HQ to do the work we use to and to let us know when they have it completed. We then inform the clients it is done and take credit for a job well done. It takes some practice to sleep with your eyes open, keep the head bobs to a minimum all while resting one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse. I have lost touch with the desktop part and like my rcs piece them together with what is on hand. Sometime I am lucky and find some decent parts in our trash can at work. Thus, the reason I have no experience with a mac. I really need to combine my data onto a couple large hard drives. I have over 15 hard drive but have only managed to get 11 of them connected up at a time and still have a dvd writer attached. This is my current setup and has survived for some time. It's due to be blown by the air compressor again. Damn thing get's blown more often then I do. The links and info for doing it myself will help a lot. I think I can remember how to put one together, but had no real idea what was the best option to get for a desktop. Thanks again.

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...c/DSCF9512.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/c...c/DSCF9510.jpg

Freeze, your's looks all dressed up for a big night on the town. If you ever decide to cut the cords with it, let me know. I know just the DVD/VCR Recorder that would love to show her a good time.

:rofl:

BAD GEE :whip::no:

If my dad saw that on my desk, boy he would... well, yell at me...

That's a damn messy comp! And I thought my case needs some work (cable management)...

Whew, looks like you could use a new, larger case!

I didn't even know a motherboard could support 11 drives... wtf

I'm guessing a combination of USB adapters, using the SATA ports on the mobo, and PCI SATA cards is how he managed 11 drives.

Freeze, if you had to guess, how much is on those 11 drives? You could probably condense most of it on one or two 1 or 1.5 terabyte drives. You can get a 1 terabyte drive from GearXS for somewhere around $80.

Ah, true.
Yeah, I can see a sata to an adapter.
Meh, that's one computer that's a beast.
Watch all the 11 drives be 10GB besides one 30GB :P

Rawfuls it kind of like auto mechanic. The last thing he want to deal with when he gets off work is another car. The last thing I want to deal with is cables or any home pc problem. I do not tell anyone I know outside of work that I know anything about computers anymore. Soon as they know that the only time you hear from theml. I got a problem with my home computer. Too bad. This is my home cable management style. The patch panels and switches at work look sweet. Very professional and tight cable management, but at home..... f it, I got other things I would much rather do. lol


Squeeze ftw. The extra mobos and some usb to sata/ide adapters. Throw in a extra ps with the green and black jumpered to power the other drives. Got a couple fans from some old ML530 servers to keep them cool when they start gettting too warm. We all know heat kill electronics.

Can't remember the last time I actually spend money on anything related to a pc. It had to of been one of the usb to ide adapter. But we had those fail at work and once I dug them out of the special trash can at work. I got them home and found it was faulty power cords. Once I found the problem I fixed any of the ones at work the were having the problems also. So far I haven't found anything larger then a 500mb hd in the garbage at work. Last time I was looking at buying a hd those tb sizes were close to 200 bucks. They are down to 80 now? That's a good price.

I got two 80gb hard drive that are used for an OS. One's on standby and the others running the show. It get's a virus or goes down the other get slapped in to take over. The rest are just storage drive for data backups, DVD movies, music, pictures, etc. Got a couple 500gb, couple 400, and couple 320s, 1 250 and the rest are 120gb drive. I do have a 4gb hard drive but haven't found a reason to hook it up yet. lol Maxtor, Seagate, and WDs make up the melting pot and they are all accessable by my account from my pc or the other two older pcs that are on my lan. One out in the garage and the other I keep up and running in the kitchen nook so people (neighbors and friends) don't ask to use this workstation. They can use it to access the net or whatever from it as a with a guest account. Oh, and this older pc is setup for two flat screen monitors and two tv's all independent from each other. Kind of a cool setup. I found the picture that is in the picture to be just a little small for my eyes. Decided to put the old tv to use. The two ATI cards I got installed in here have teh svga output jack in addition to the dvi out connections and the sound system runs through my Sony 7.1 surround sound receiver. Like the auto mechanic sometime I do mess around with the engine in my own car. Just to see if it can be done really.

I only have a 128mb and 256mb on the video cards. Does having a 512mb video card help a lot by freeing up you processors?

Very true, once upon a time I told someone, well, my mom did, and now everyones emailing me about computer questions.

I never answer em, why? Because I "never got it".... :whistle:

Stressful looking
 

GEE just looking at your PC setup is stressful. Ya know if you got one of those Terrabite drives and combined everything that is important to you it would really make things much easier for you and it would only take up the space of the tower itself. Just a thought.

My best friend is an IT geek and we trade off for his PC skills and my mechanical skills. I help him out with his cars and he takes care of my computer needs. Otherwise the only people he deals with are his own family. Its a crack up watching him deal with his sisters telling them that the PC is working just fine so it must be the operator who is the problem.

I hate it when that happens. My teachers laptop was having problems and I fixed it for her, then before I know it every teacher in the school is asking me to fix there computers. :whip:

$$$$$
 

You just have to tell the first person that you do work for when he/she shares that information with others to tell them that you charge reasonably for your work. If there are hot teachers you can have some fun, and for those who are visually challenged money talks. In most cases people just do not know who to turn to for PC help, and for those places that do have PC servicing they charge through the nose for simple tasks, so jump on the band wagon and make yourself some side money under the table, or on the table if they look good.

Yup. Depends on which one you get, of course, but they can be bought that cheap rather easily. The Western Digital WD10EARS CaviarGP 1TB 64mb cache SATA II, yada yada would probably be my choice. Its more expensive than some 1TB drives, but well worthe the extra few $$. Its $117ish from GearXS.

http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product...ducts_id=12863

VERY true. :mdr: I graduated a couple years ago (and unfortunately none of the teachers were hot...), but next time a situation such as that arises, I will indeed make the most of it.

I'll look into a setup like this. I guess one thing that comes to mind is with the new mother boards can older card pci cards like an additional video card still be used? The memory is probably different then what is used on this mb. I was a little confused with the different types of cards which I didn't really pay much attention to prior to this either. APG, PCI, PCI-E, etc. Does anyone have a link to a place that might help me understand the different ones or how to identify them? Is the PCI slot outdated and not used on the new mother boards anymore?

Under the system properties on my pc it has intel Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz 4.78GHz, 3.25 GB of RAM. Is that 2 cpus? One a 3.20Ghz and one a 4.78GHz. I would of thought they would be the same speed. Visually, there is one huge heatsink with the fan shroud over it. A smaller black heat sink seperate from that one. I will have to check out the ram. I know I have 4 - 1mb chips of RAM installed but it's only showing 3.25gb of ram. How does this system compare to what's available? Slightly better then the abacus? Decent but on the verge or fossil fuel. Upgradable to improve it maybe video card with more memory?

PCI-E (AKA PCI-Express) is more common now for videocards. The older standard was AGP, but there aren't many AGP cards still around and even fewer mobos. a standard PCI is your usual slot for things such as RAID cards, wireless cards, etc.

Pc systems
 

What I have planned is to build a newer unit for myself and then give my 14 year old son this one as a hand me down. He is thrilled to get this one though, because it is a pretty good unit. Anyway you could always sell your outdated one for a few hundred dollars or donate it to charity(without the HD of course). Just do a little research and start by buying a good CPU that appeals to your sense of computer savy. Then find a desent motherboard to match the CPU for mounting, and one that has all of the latest periferals. I found a book called "The Ultimate Custom PC Builds" that gave me all of the items to look for and how to find the best ones. I am sure that it is outdated by now, but there has to be something out there similar that is up to 2010 standards that will lead you in the right direction. Once you read up on what the different components are and how they differ anyone can build a pretty good system from scratch. I had to acquire help formatting the drives and getting all of the best software installed, and that takes the longest of all to complete. Still it was not all that hard to do. Now I plan to do the same thing with todays technology and build something that will last another 10 years or so. This one is 16 years old and still runs great. Everytime something failed on it or got broken in shipment I just upgraded it with the newest replacement. I have replaced the motherboard(cracked), the Video card(cracked), the hard drives twice due to viruses, and upgraded the RAM to 4gig, and finally the sound card was updated to 5.1 surround.

Now I just want something faster and more modern in components. The case I have is an old Thermaltake and it weighs like 20lbs empty.

It's not bad the way it is. At work we have several network drives connecting to the desktop G:. H: I: N: M: W: plus maybe one or two local drives C: and/or D: it's just a matter of remember what is were. It can be thought of as having all your eggs in one basket. Everything stored on a single drive and if that drive goes so does all the data to an extent. There ways to recover it depending on what happens but the worst case is it is totally gone. I would love to have a large hard drive to back up the data I have on the smaller drive that I feel is important onto. I would still run the seperate drive even if I had one large drive. Old school I suppose. I still use DOS when ever I can to copy data through batch files.

When I first got into PC tweenty years ago. I wasn't a geek or the stereo type and people didn't relate the cowboy boots and belt buckled, beer guzzling, pool playing, always had a new joke guy as a person that worked on computers. There were the pretty girls I tried to impress and helped, several friends and co-workers I would help out just because I thought I could. So everyone puts thier time in helping out with others person pc problems just becasue hell we all like to help people out. The hardest part is getting someone to ask for help. The exception is the home computer. No challenge finding someone who will ask for help there. This thread for example lol It changes after a while. The home computer is a different beast all together vs a place that has corparate computers set up to a standard. You have the same software, setup the same way, running on the same hardware platfrom form cubicle to cubicle. Consistent from one workstation to the other. The problem on one is the same on the other and fixed in the same way. Home pcs ran the gammet from TSR80s to the 3' tall tower 386 power house that had a cdrom and a zip drive for backups. Different software, drivers, you don't know what the hell they installed or did to the pc or when it was working properly the last time. Just a pita and always took longer to fix then what you figured it would. I just found it easier to skirt around the quesitons of what I did for a living and found the person was more then happy to talk about themselves then to hear about what I actually did. The one word every loves to hear more then any other is their own name. We all like to talk about ourselve no matter how humble we are. Once I was told that I found it was easier to get laid listening intently to the female that was about to steal my heart then taking about writing code in Basic. If they did find out and ask a question about it. I would let them know I don't know what could be the problem but would check into what it might be while I was at work and offer to get the next beer.

See look how I ramble on talking about myself. Sorry, it would appear that I am in a rambling mood and should probably go find something more productive to do. lol



Taking my own advice and signing off for a while, but wanted to say thanks for the input from everyone and your willingness to help out.

Guy

If your worried about losing data or whatnot, I would simply have a harddrive (SATA because its clearly faster than IDE) for the OS and such, then have everything condensed onto one large drive set as a slave. Then, if your still worried about it, get two ($80x2 wouldn't be that bad for security and piece of mind) and run them in RAID1 config. Exact mirror of the first that way if one fails, you always have the second. If you go that route though, theres really no need for one for the OS and such though.

Yes, that would be the best way to go. The 80gb os drive I use are the sata drives. It is time consuming transfering data to a different HD. Usually a xcopy command or two ran in a batch file overnight. Even if it is from one sata to antoher sata connected to the mb the large files take some time.

On the servers were run the raid (raid5 I believe) through the array controller. Is that the same way for a desktop? Meaning you need a controller that can do it? Is it built into todays mb or is a seperate controller needed?

I too have been shopping around for a new PC (half-heartedly though). Trying to determine goals and what I want out of it, I came up with this:

To be able to totally hand-pick your components that you can overclock, and assemble them yourself, shopping at Newegg, TigerDirect, etc is the best route. The trouble with this is you kinda have to know what works with what. Pretty easy, just read carefully. Also, the OS doesn't come with it, so that's an extra cost; which can be substantial if you want Windows. If I do this, I usually make sure to get components that aren't obsolete. Yeah, you can get a good price on a mobo, but it might only be capable of running the latest of a dead line of CPU socket type. Also, don't skimp on the PSU. Buy bigger than you need so you can upgrade the CPU, video, etc down the road.

Or, you can get an HP, Dell, etc system that use OEM stuff for a decent price. These systems work as-is but offer little to no overclocking. And from experience, any upgrading has to be done carefully because of mobo support and power supply limitations. Speaking of PSUs: these systems usually come with the bare minimum needed to run these systems from what I've seen.

Or, you can go to someplace like Alienware (which apparently is now run/owned by Dell) or IbuyPower (a place I've been looking at recently) and pick from a wole list of "aftermarket" parts. You might pay a little more, but at least everything works together guaranteed.

When shopping for the CPU, look for one that is at the sweet spot for price vs performace. This tends to be 2-3 models from the top. As long as the mobo supports the faster CPU for future upgrade later on (when the price becomes reasonable), there is no need to spend double the price for a marginally faster processor, at least to me.

As far as a MAC goes: My fiancee has one and it is pretty nice I guess. I personally don't like the way the OS works in general. Besides, it's just a pretty version of Linux anyway. It can run some games in a virtual environment, but that's just a PITA unless you like that kind of thing. You could also dual boot Windows and Linux/Mac, but that's a PITA as well. Mac-heads argue that they are better for graphics. I really don't see it because the same way overpriced (Adobe) software is available in Windows too. Mac heads also argue about the lack of viruses on the Mac. Well, I feel that's only because there are fewer of them out there and virus authors want to make the biggest effect with the largest computer base. And anyway, as long as you have a decent firewall and antivirus spyware protection, and don't do stupid things with the computer, it runs malware free. But the biggest thing to me is that there is VASTLY more software out there for Windows OS. Every time she wants to do something other than "work" stuff, we have to use my Windows PC because it actually does everything.

Thanks BrianG. Good info. I guess I am going to have to ask now. What is overclocking?

Overclocking is simply put, getting much more out of your CPU that it would at default speeds. Say, you have three choices of CPU's, a 2.8Ghz, 3Ghz, 3.2Ghz and the costs of each are 180, 210, and 300 respectively. Now, obviously the two cheaper ones have much better performance/dollar. So, if you do your buying right, get a decent motherboard and a good heatsink, you can drastically increase the clock speed or "Ghz" of your CPU. So, seeing as all three of these CPU's are basically identical, except for the fact that they are binned differently as far as quality (how they would handle high heat, high stress situations), the higher clocked ones can handle just a little bit more, but not much really. So, when you overclock, you can either OC as far as you can on default CPU core volts (which is pretty easy these days), or you can increase the core volts and take it much further, provided you have a good heatsink.

So, take the $210 3ghz chip for example, relatively comparable what you would get with a real CPU these days, you could increase clock speed to 3.6ghz to 3.8ghz (depends on your luck, as not all components are made equal). Now if you want to take it further, you can increase core volts from say 1.25 default volts to 1.35 volts (or vcore), then, you should be able to increase the speed up to 4.0ghz, or even 4.2ghz.

So you can see that by getting a lower end chip and getting a better heatsink instead with the money you save, you can increase the clock speed far past the most expensive chip model.

I would recommend a heatsink such as the Noctua NH-U12P, as it is very quiet and performs very well.

I used to overclock my rig a while back, but found it didn't really give me all that much more perceived performance for the heat it produced. Not to mention possibly reducing the lifespan of the CPU. Raising the speed and maybe core voltage (increased to make the CPU stable at the overclocked speed) will require more power and create more heat. It depends on what you plan to do with it: are you going to be running games or applications where every last MHz counts? If the answer is yes, then overclocking makes sense. If the answer is no, then you don't gain a whole lot other than faster benchmarks.

And it's not just about the CPU; some motherboards are more "overclocking friendly" than others. Will the switching FETs be able to handle the increase in current that an overclocked CPU will pull? Will the rest of the board remain stable at the higher speed? This is where research in the mobo you are looking at is needed. Some boards may say the can overclock to whatever level, but read user reviews to know the true story.

Reviews are everything yeah. I think if you don't even know what overclocking is, the the safest bet is to only use stock volts and OC as far as you can, as this does not increase power and heat much at all, it's when you increase core voltage when heat dissipation increases, and fast, as it's exponential to the voltage you are putting through it.

You don't really want to do what I do with overclocking, as I have a core 2 duo E8400 overclocked from the stock 3.0ghz to a very large OC of 4.2Ghz. Just as an example of how fast the heat dissipation can increase on the high end, going from 4.2ghz to 4.4ghz increases loaded system power consumption from ~200watts, to a massive 290watts. That is an extra 90watts extra from the little CPU cores, and for 200mhz extra , is NOT worth it, as you can see. If you are wondering how I measure power consumption, I have a wall outlet power meter.