Looking at getting a new PC

[Rijuhn]

My current PC will be turning 7 years old this November and it’s been a few years since I couldn’t play top of the line games anymore. I want some feedback from you guys on what to look out for in terms of deals and how to avoid over-priced stuff. I’m not planning on getting Vista any time soon, if that affects anything.

My current specs are:

Dell Dimension 4300
1.6GHz (Early) Pentium 4
512MB of SDRAM
80GB HD

Beyond those specs I don’t know what else to look for in a computer, and I’m wanting some clarification on technologies like dual-core processors, 64-bit processors, front side bus, and new technologies with graphic cards.

I was considering staying with Dell since I can finance with them for about $45/month, and since I never really had problems with this PC. But the problem is they make you buy extra stuff that I already have: a sound card, keyboard, mouse, etc. I wasn’t sure if there’s any websites to avoid or that I should totally check out.

Thanks everyone for your help.

[Nicholas Steel]

New Pentium 4's, Dual core's, Core and Core 2 series processors from Intel are 64bit capable and will run in 64bit mode if you have a 64bit O/S. (or 32bit mode if you have a 32bit O/S duh)

The Core 2 series is currently the best in performance and cool operation. My Core 2 DUO e6750 currently tops around 40 degree's Celsius when under extreme load (EG: CPU Benchmarks) where as my dads Pentium 4 2.8ghz reaches around 80 or so when under load. The Core 2 series also has A infinitely quieter fan then previous generations of CPU's too :P I can't hear it at all unless i open my case and even then it is quiet.

With Video Cards you should aim for ones that use A high memory bus (higher then 256bit) if you want to run games at high quality settings. The NVIDIA 6800, 79x0, 260 & 280 series achieve this. The 8800, 9800 cards perform worse then the ones already mentioned (in supported games) due to them only having a 256bit bus which greatly hampers there performance, I also do not know anything about ATI so I can't offer help on choosing one of there products.

Motherboard, I have stuck with ASUS but may one day move to another company, I am not really tech savvy when it comes to choosing A Motherboard and as such, can't really offer any help other then the obvious. Make sure the one you choose supports what you want/need.

Hard Disks are dirt cheap these days and for less then 93$ AUD you can buy A 500gig Sata II Seagate 7200.11 hard drive :)

[Rijuhn]

Thank you for clarifying a few things for me. You mentioned some things that I would've never previously considered. I was looking at NewEgg.com, but I'm wondering if Breaker has any more of those deals that he's always finding.

[Cloral]

Your old computer sounds a lot like the old computer I just got rid of. Like yours it was about seven years old.

[AlexMax]

Thank you for clarifying a few things for me. You mentioned some things that I would've never previously considered. I was looking at NewEgg.com, but I'm wondering if Breaker has any more of those deals that he's always finding.

Unless you are buying a bottom of the barrel PC, you can't get a sweeter deal than one of Tech Report's System Builder Guides (http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15381). They go through and price out the best computer you can build for $500, $1,000, $1,500 and "sky is the limit without being dumb and spending money on worthless shit". I built their $1,000 "Grand Experiment" a few months ago and couldn't be happier, it's a fucking monster and cost me around 800 bucks. The biggest piece of good news is that now that IDE is being replaced by SATA, the amount of cable clutter is cut by a considerable amount and your system no longer looks like a tangled mess when you're done with it.

The only tricky part when building your own machine is the CPU fan on newer Intel processors, those fuckers are hard as fuck to install and I still don't think I got mine on entirely right since it runs around 10 degrees hotter than it should. If you can, get a custom cooler with a retention bracket instead of bothering with those horrible plastic stock coolers simply because the custom cooler will be easier to install..

[Rijuhn]

Thanks AlexMax! That's just the kind of article that I was looking for. No kind of website that's skewing details because they're selling something.