He has a really old obsolete thing that he is finally getting rid of and he wants a good machine without spending too much.
I've told him that he is going to want to buy online and look for good sales, but he doesn't know what he needs and I'm not exactly sure what would be good in terms of current products myself. Since he is trying to avoid paying too much for stuff I imagine he will want most of the stuff he orders to be discounted in some way.
As I see it the shopping list consists of:
1) Finding a good tower 2) Finding a good (but probably not top of the line) graphics card to put in said tower. 3) Finding a good monitor to connect to said tower
I don't know enough about tower specs to know exactly what needs to be prioritized. afaik the motherboard is the most important thing when you're getting a tower that is already put together. You can always add more RAM (bought on sale of course =P) after the fact.
But basically I know more than him just not enough to make a well informed buying decision.
newegg constantly has computer bundles on sale, so that's a start. newegg should be the answer anyway since you'll know and get details of the parts inside. only excuse is if you live in Cali 'cause they get taxed.
go with an AMD based computer for max performance at low prices. ATI vid cards then become the main priority 'cause they work better with AMD and tend to be cheaper too (though the difference between ATI and NVIDIA in price isn't that high usually). Intel is in some ways better, but 90% of stuff has no real difference. that 10% is basically physx (which you can do with AMD anyway by just getting a separate vid card if you really want to) and some stuff related to emulators. otherwise, that's it.
also know the kind of tower you're after. odds are, a mid tower would be it since it's large enough to do what you want 9/10 times, a full tower's friggin' huge, and smaller ones are just too small to mess around with most of the time.
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The future must protect the clone's past. "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
- motherboard must have DDR3 RAM. usually not a problem, but sometimes you'll find a DDR2 one for some reason.
- motherboard preferably has some stuff that'll keep it safe from becoming obsolete - SATA III connectors (6.0 as you'll see it called a lot) are a good idea to find. USB 3.0 ain't a bad thing either but that's always a fixable attribute. most have an eSATA port outside too, and that's also a useful thing to have. shouldn't be hard, and any good case has 'em.
- case must be able to perform good ventilation. this is the most important thing about a case. size directly relates to this as well so... yeah. if it can stay cool, you've got a computer that will last. if it can't, it will die fast.
- power supply must be of 1) a good, respected brand that has reviews where it matters (tom's hardware, [h], etc - user reviews from newegg help too), 2) with a good amount of juice in it. power supply is argued as the most important part of the computer sometimes because of how overlooked it gets. personally i put it behind the motherboard since you can always adjust that one, but i also make sure i have a PSU that can take the load i want after some basic expansion plans (aka, i overkill it to be sure i'll be fine later). the amount you need all depends on what you're doing. but to that end, most bundles would have one anyway.
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The future must protect the clone's past. "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
From: Wanglicious | #004 oh yeah, as for computer priorities:
- motherboard must have DDR3 RAM. usually not a problem, but sometimes you'll find a DDR2 one for some reason.
- motherboard preferably has some stuff that'll keep it safe from becoming obsolete - SATA III connectors (6.0 as you'll see it called a lot) are a good idea to find. USB 3.0 ain't a bad thing either but that's always a fixable attribute. most have an eSATA port outside too, and that's also a useful thing to have. shouldn't be hard, and any good case has 'em.
- case must be able to perform good ventilation. this is the most important thing about a case. size directly relates to this as well so... yeah. if it can stay cool, you've got a computer that will last. if it can't, it will die fast.
- power supply must be of 1) a good, respected brand that has reviews where it matters (tom's hardware, [h], etc - user reviews from newegg help too), 2) with a good amount of juice in it. power supply is argued as the most important part of the computer sometimes because of how overlooked it gets. personally i put it behind the motherboard since you can always adjust that one, but i also make sure i have a PSU that can take the load i want after some basic expansion plans (aka, i overkill it to be sure i'll be fine later). the amount you need all depends on what you're doing. but to that end, most bundles would have one anyway.
This is exactly the kind of stuff I needed to know, thank you.
We do live in Cali so I guess he's going to get Taxed on his online purchases, but will you be available to look over some stuff I find on newegg before I shoot the information over to him?
Basically this stuff is so helpful because I understood everything you said, but I did not have the knowledge of all those things myself, whereas that post would have been more or less incomprehensible for him.
Notes: -It is Sata2, not Sata3. -I don't know if 480W is a large enough power supply. -Not crazy about the GPU. Looking over it's benchmarks on another site and it seems pretty middle of the pack. It should handle all of the stuff he's interested in now, but I don't see much of a future in the card.
Probably still going to leave this tower in the 'maybe' pile for now though.
yeah sure. there's a decent amount of b8ers who work with and have built their computers, so some might be able to help out on some specifics as well. one tip at least is that newegg does do constant sales, so waiting a couple days to see what offers come up ain't a bad idea. another is their 'shell shocker' stuff, which is really them lining up half a dozen daily deals every day set for X time (and two that are 12 hours apiece, save the weekend), and computer bundles have been very popular in them.
budget is probably the bigger thing he needs to worry about if he wants to also get a new monitor. you can easily spend half of what the computer cost on a monitor. alternatively, twice as much. wide range on that one, so if he really wants a new one he should settle on price and size for it. $100 can probably get you a 19" on sale, but if you want a 22" or better you'll probably be in the $150~ range and up. once again, i'd wait for a good sale on that one 'cause it's pretty frequent to see 22" or 24" going for a lot less.
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The future must protect the clone's past. "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
Yeah, I told him that patience is going to be a big deal when trying to budget the expenses and so it sounds like he's fine not having a computer in like a week or something. But I doubt he wants to wait longer than a month to get it all pieced together either.
mm... if he's going for a gaming rig, i'd probably start with a minimum of 500W on the power supply. and a week should be fine.
but to speed this search up:
1) how much space does his place have. there's two main kinds of motherboards he has a choice of, ATX and Micro-ATX. the latter's what you'll find computers under a foot and a half have, while the former's what everything else uses. the main one you'll find most people run are mid-towers, which run between a foot and a half and two feet usually. taht's just how tall they get though, how long varies a lot so there's no real measure to that. but if he's got the room, a mid tower would probably be best. you get enough space to mess around with peacefully but it's not friggin' huge like a full tower can be.
2) how much is he willing to spend. since you're not building it the price probably ain't as cheap as it could be, but a good sale can make most of that off by a couple bucks.
3) how much tinkering with the insides is willing to be done. RAM is cheap nowadays, constantly you'll find 8GB of RAM going for $50. vid cards are notorious for dropping quickly as new tech comes in, and hard drives don't even need to be mentioned with how insane that's been. those are 3 of the easiest parts to switch out in a computer (or in a hard drive's case, put in as the case should have a couple extra slots for more) and require minimal knowledge - you open it up, if you're replacing something you unplug anything connecting to it and take that item out, put the new one in. so long as you're grounded to avoid static electrcity (touch something of similar metal beforehand, even part of the case will help, and stay in contact with it for the easiest way to fix that) you should be fine.
the 3rd one is the one that matters most to price. if you're willing to do a bit of work, then your options open tremendously - as does the price range you're dealing with.
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The future must protect the clone's past. "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.
The way it sounds, it seems like your friend just wants a computer for everyday, general use. If that's the case, there is no reason for you to go and build one for him. He'll do just fine with a Dell/HP/Lenovo. The processor, RAM, and graphics card are all upgradable anyway.
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The word "friend" has been made meaningless due to social networking sites.
to piggy back on that, an example. right now, if i wanted to build a new computer for gaming that will be able to play all modern games on medium to high settings between now and a couple years from now, i would need:
- a case. can easily get a very good one for $40-$80. - a motherboard. can easily get a good one that's future proof for the next couple years at $80-$120. (total: $120-$200.) - a vid card. basic rule that works: Intel-NVIDIA, AMD-ATI. you can mix 'em up sure, but those tend to be the lines drawn. partially because AMD owns ATI. price range here can go to $50 to $120. personally, i stick with the middle ground if i can there, as $80 does you a lot nowadays. (total: $170-$320)
- a CPU. this is normally the most expensive part, however that can be midigated with some planning. this is something that you MUST examine your motherboard for if you're building. putting it this way, when picking a motherboard you first have to decide what kind of CPU you're willing to take. a dual core? a quad core? a motherboard that can do both? these days a quad core is pretty cheap and still very high quality. nothing's been demanding them outright, so really you're good. and for the interesting part with planning: if your motherboard can do it, you could start with a dual core as they're REALLY cheap then later upgrade to a quad core, when it is REALLY cheap, and be consistently on point. that route in mind, your price range here - within reason - goes from $60 to $300. most will land around $100-$150. (total: $230-$620)
- RAM. cheap. $50-60 gets you 8GB. more than enough. 4GB is down to like, $30. (total: $260-$680)
- a power supply. this one can vary a lot in pricing, and if you want a brand to work with that 99% of the time is a great product, Corsair is it (and good luck finding pre-made computers with that). there are plenty of other brands out there that are great as well, but Corsair has a very, very good reputation in terms of staying cool, being reliable, well made, and maximizing the juice it can put out. they tend to be priced a little higher than most others but it's for good reason, and half the time the Corsair will be putting out better output and have lower temps despite being 100W lower because the other is simply too inefficient. research on your own though, and you can get something of similar quality for a good deal less. does take effort and luck. price range is technically $50-$160, though i would not skimp on this too much and wholely recommend you start looking around $70 for a min (total: $330-$740)
if i already have a keyboard or mouse, then i don't need them. if i want new ones sure i can get 'em, and the price range there can go anywhere from $20 for a combo where both are fine to $100 for the keyboard and $80 for the mouse. honestly, great gaming mice exist at $50 or less already, sometimes even $20. gaming keyboards can be gotten in the same way, though make it $40. wouldn't spend more than $60 on the two parts anyway, especially not until you get used to the new stuff.
if i already have a hard drive, i'm set. but i can easily just find 1TB for $50-$70 regularly. sometimes 2TB at $70. and for smaller, 500GB at $30-$40 has been done.
once you're done, that's a computer that'll last you quite some time. though the cost up front is a bit worrysome, realize that if you have a good case, power supply, and motherboard you don't NEED to upgrade them anymore, saving costs. already went over CPU. RAM will keep being cheap and easy to expand. HDD's a joke. so you might spend $400~ on a computer starting from next to nothing, but it'll last at least a generation of games and $100-$200 upgrades you to another gen easy. buying a pre-built version of that computer rings you at least $600 for the cheapo version.
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The future must protect the clone's past. "Maybe it's a tentacle, molesting the planet itself. - Aschen Brodel.