Need help buying a new desktop computer.?

Question

I need a new computer and have no idea how to shop for one. I'd use it for RPGs, bills, CDs/MP3s, spreadsheets and school work. I'd like one with good graphics that doesn't take a year to get moving (Mine now is slow as molasses). What kind should I get?

Ok, or someone could actually help me here instead of being sarcastic or using me for points.

Answer 1

First thing, have you considered upgrading your existing system? It's slow right now but for about £100 at a computer fair it could be the flying along with a 64-bit Sempron processor (only downside to a Sempron 64-bit in comparison to an Athlon 64-bit is that it's only got 256Kb cache where as the Athlon as 512Kb). Also as you already own a computer I take it you've already got a legally licenced copy of Windows XP, this will save you money (even if you don't upgrade your existing computer get a computer with no OS or Linux installed then put the XP on your old computer onto the new one, and get rid of your old one as a computer without XP.

Also with the operating system, you might want to consider waiting for a few months as Vista will be launched soon, which will make XP yesterdays technology, make sure also that the computer you buy is Vista compatible.

There are a few things to consider when buying a computer though:

Processor
Speed - years ago the speed of the processor used to make a difference but now it just seems to be a way of the CPU manufacturers getting more money out of us, at the end of the day most of the stuff the CPU used to do now has been pawned off onto other devices such as GPU's for graphics and Sound Processors for sound so quite a lot of the time the CPU is just sat there twiddling it's thumbs, the main thing the CPU does do is organize multi-tasking though.
Chip name - Sempron, this is a budget chip it has half the amount of cache as an Athlon chip hence the reason it's cheaper (Cache is a small amount of really fast memory that the computer transfers info to from normal memory (DIMMs) before it's about to use it). Sempron is available both in 64-bit and 32-bit varietys, far better to go for the 64-bit version as quite often the 32-bit version works out more expensive.
Athlon - This is available in a few flavours, both 32 and 64-bit versions (as above recommended to go for the 64-bit version over the 32-bit. In addition to this the Athlon is also available as a dual core processor (Athlon X2). A dual core processor allows genuine multi-tasking. You're probably thinking a computer already multi-tasks, yes it does, but most PCs multi-task using software multi-tasking, where-by Windows allocates a percentage of the actual CPU time available to each program, giving higher priority to programs that are selected, however for years there have been a number of other computers available that use hardware multi-tasking (the main one was computers based on the Motorola 680x0 series of CPU's (Amiga, Apple Mac), this relaxes the pressure off the OS and speeds things up alot (hence the reason why the Mac and Amiga's could run things a lot faster than the PC equivalent). So it certainly is advantageous to have a dual core processor if your budget stretches to this.

That's processors covered let's move on to memory

Memory

Not much to say really about memory, 1Gb should be more than fine at the moment (unless you get a graphics card that shares the memory then it might be better to have 1.5Gb or 2Gb). Also speed of memory - the memory will only run at the clock speed of the CPU, so get memory that matches (unless it works out cheaper to buy faster memory). Memory that runs faster than the CPU clock speed will just slow down to the same speed as the CPU (like putting a Ferrari engine in a Robin Reliant)

Hard Drive
One word about HDD - SATA. Make sure you get a SATA hard drive as they run a lot more faster than a IDE (ATA) hard drive (and the case wont have as many thick wires. As for DVD drives, SATA doesn't really matter for these as they don't go fast enough to make use of the high speeds of SATA, the only advantage with a SATA DVD is smaller cables which improves airflow in the case.

Video
The two main players in video cards are either ATi or nVidia, both make equally good cards. I prefer ATi as it seems to have better support for OpenGL than nVidia. If it doesn't have either ATi or nVidia on the graphics card it's not worth bothering unless you only want to do word-processing/internet surfing on your computer. Also memory wise, 128Mb of graphics memory should be fine, but most of the time a 256Mb card isn't much more expensive. If you want to use your computer for gaming it's probably best to stay clear of any computers that have shared graphics memory (except on laptops, as most laptop have only shared memory), as these cards leech off your system memory.

Sound card...

Quite often this card is underlooked, most people think that as long as it makes noise it doesn't matter, a CMI card does the same as a Creative Labs one just cheaper. Sorry to destroy these thoughts but this is not the case. A lot of the cheap cards rely on software to produce sound, not hardware, this puts more pressure on the CPU, especially when you are playing games or using the computer to play MP3s. Creative Labs is probably one of the best consumer based sound cards (without going into the specialist m-Audio type cards) and most of the latest Creative Labs cards (mainly after the Audigy) have an on-board sound processor, this produces the sound, rather than allowing the CPU to do it, lifting the load off the CPU. So with this your probably better trying to get anything with a Creative Labs Audigy inside (or better - Audigy2, X-Fi Fatal1ty)

Anyway that's about all the information that you should need to make your decision below I've listed what I think is quite a good spec of computer:

AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual Core processor 3800+
1Gb Memory - DDR2-800
200Gb Hard Drive - SATA
256Mb ATi Radeon X1600 GPU
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty Soundcard
Windows XP 64-bit edition (or use your old computers XP until Vista 64-bit comes out)

Hope this helps

Answer 2

you are not a heavy users or a gamer so most new PCs will do. I recommend a Pentium 4 dual core, 800 MHz front end bus, a DVD -rw / CD -rw combo, 1Gb of RAM, 250GB Hard drive, and for the eyes a 17 inch or larger Flat panel display. Running windows XP 64 and Office 2003 Professional.... If you wait till the end of the year you might be able to get the new Windows Vista and Office Vista.

Answer 3

I would not buy one until I had looked at the iMac. Now with Intel processor, you can boot in Windows if absolutely necessary, but the Mac OS is the finest on the face of the earth. Fast, slick, smooth.

If you just want a low price basic computer, get a Dell with 17" flat screen.

Answer 4

I bought 250 Dell systems for the place I work.
They have been good.
I have 11 computers at my home, 2 are Dell, 1 HP, 1 Compaq and the rest I built myself.
I'd get another Dell if I needed another one.
With price wars on computers, you can't build one for what you can buy one for.

Answer 5

i have an hp and i prefer this over a dell two things i would check next time i buy one first if i can add on inside or is it all integrated where as i cant and the graphics card must be good.i have a broadband hookup through our phone co. its high speed and yes it is no more dial-up ever again if you want e-mail me and ill try and answer any questions free. good luck

Answer 6

This is an easy one, send me the money by check in the mail, and I will pick you out the best computer in the world, give me a couple of thousand on the check, and I will give you everything else back with a receipt.

Answer 7

Sony Vaio Computer with windows XP, Pentium (R) 4cpu, 2.53GHZ, 2.54GHZ, 504 MB of RAM.

Answer 8

I could build you one. And no i am not being sarcastic. i could put anything in there that you want.

you can email me at [e-mail] for more questions.

Answer 9

i just needed two points.thanks

Answer 10

www.dell.com