im gonna buy a new desktop can anyone recommend a very good brand?

Question

i want it to be able to be really powerful games and graphics and ram????and sound memory

Answer 1

Do not buy a name brand machine. They are overpriced, use questionable quality parts and are very proprietary. You will get a MUCH better system, probably for a lot less money, by going to a small local shop and havign one custom built. This way you have full control over every component used in it, Bane brads are mostly a lot of hype for mediocre systems. A custom one also means fully standardized parts which can be swapped in and out as needs change and you have to upgrade.

That said, here are some suggestions.

1. Stick with AMD CPUs, Intel chips run hotter, cost more, and usually are slower than their AMD counterparts. Intel had a big jump on AMD in the beginning years ago, but AMD is seriously eating into their market share now. I use them exclusively for my own systems and for ones I build for folks.

2. Get as much as you possibly can up front. It is tempting to buy a stripped down econobox and worry about pgrades later, however this usually costs more money in the long run so get as good a system as your budget permits up front.

3. Do not use one of those cheap all in one motherboards. The ones that have video, sound, network etc all built into the motherboard. There are two reasons for not using them. The first reason is that the components on these boards are what are called HSP or Host Signal Processing systems. They use the machine's main CPU for functions that are normally carried out by a seperate subprocessor on a standard card. This puts a lot more load on the CPU and reduces performance significantly. The second reason is that if one component goes south on you, you need to replace the entire motherboard instead of just a card. And if a subsystem on the boar goes bad, it can also affect other components on the motherboard. Brand names typically like to use these because they are cheaper than a good quality board. It is usually okay to get a good Abit, Asus, Gigabyte or other reliable board with some things on it like network card and maybe sound, as long as you can turn the unwanted features off in the BIOS so you can put in a real card.

I have been building machines for folks for about 20 years now, from the days when the 80286 chips were brand new and I give this advice out a lot.

You might also want to consider building it your self. If you can read instructions and know how to use a screwdriver, you can put a great system together in less than an hour (not including time to put on software). There are doizens of websites with tutorials on how to do it online.

I hope this helps. I hate seeing folks get stuck with those cheap name brand boxes. Most of the ones who get them do not even know what they are missing since name brand boxes are all they have ever had.

Oh yes almost forgot. For hardware I recommend the following..

CPU AMD Athlon64X2 3200 or above
Motherboard Asus NForce Ultra or SLI board
RAM, 1-2GB of PC3200 DDR400 DIMMs The more the merrier
Video Nvidia Geforce 7600+ SLI
Hard Disk Seagate or Maxtor 300GB or above SATA II
NEC DVD-RW Burner

This is somewhat similar to my main system at home. It is at the upper end of the mid line machines. It is capable of playing just about any game out there, will run Vista easily when it comes out, and won't cost a lot. Mine with 2GB of RAM cost about $899 6 months ago, now probably around $700 for parts and an hour to build.

A few thingsa of note. Get a large enough case to cover your current needs with an eye to adding some more components later. I use a Thermaltake Swing mid-tower. It has 5 5.25" bays and 6 3.5" bays for plenty of drives. It also has optimized air flow for cooling and a filter on the intake fans to keep dust out of the system. For the CPU I use a Thermaltake Blue Orb II which looks great and keeps the CPU under 100d F.

One other thing. The board I recommended comes with about 5 PCI slots, 1 PCIE Video slot, and 2 PCIE general slots. As well as 4 SATA II hard drive interface jacks for hard disks. Most brand name boxes have like 2-3 PCI slots and that's it. The Asus board is very very easy to upgrade.

Answer 2

Although personally I'm an Apple fan, a Mac really is a different kettle of fish to a PC, and if you're already used to Windows (and particularly if you want to play games) it's a big leap that should only be made after careful consideration. As Windows PCs go I've had four Dells now and love 'em all. They make a series of PCs called XPS specifically for gaming and other demanding tasks.

Answer 3

Get a custom built PC but make sure the person building it for you knows what they are doing... if not then I'd go with a Dell... try to get something with an AMD processor instead of Intel

Answer 4

If you want something to look the business get yourself an iMac. In fact, get any Mac. If you want a work-horse stick to Dell or something equally ubiquitous.

Answer 5

Dell is quite cheap, but for th best deal, go to a computer shop

Answer 6

My company is a licensed Dell dealer, email me an i'll get you some specs and prices

whats your price range?

Answer 7

LMAO A Dell powerfull, no.
Alienware are by fare the best.

Answer 8

avoid hewlett packards or compaq if you like to maintain the comp yourself. very tight cases .build your own. you'll have something nobody else has and its a good learning experience.

Answer 9

Pine or mahogany polished makes really good desk top

Answer 10

Nothing beats a MAC for your demands. You'll have no complaints whatsoever.