Buying a new PC for holidays, need some advice and opinnions

[EJMM]

I'm looking for a good computer that offers great performance, be able to play games like gears of war smoothly, fast, etc... I want to know if this one will do the job (If I buy that one, I'll upgrade it's video card) i really know nothing about computers specs, or just a little, so I would appreciate your advice.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavil ... tDetail.do

or this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883107855

Which ones better overall?, or if you could recommend me one, my budget is from 600-700 dollars, no more.

Thanks.

[REivEN]

I think the best way to get a good new pc is talk to the PC Shop Owner and ask if they can make the PC in the store with youre selected parts

[VF501]

Intel CPUs get higher benchmark ratings then AMD chips for Gaming. And for gaming on a Intel Computer, stay away from Pentium Series because they don't handle games as well as Core 2, Centrino or Core2 Extreme chips.

I recommend the followig two computes from BestBuy, but they need a graphics upgrade which you said you dont mind doing. They're both Dells, so you could probably buy direct from the Dell site, but if there is a Best Buy in your area it would be faster.

At the 600-700 USD price Range for a pre-built ready to go computer, 2.66 GHz is about as fast as you can go for Core Clock Speed.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8008375005

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8010533213

My real suggestion would be you wait, and save up until you have around $1200 USD for a new computer. Because unless you build your own, 600-700 rarely gets computers that can play newer games at comfortable framerates and quality.

[guru]

Agreed on the Best Buy purchases.

I used to get all excited with newegg and pricewatch in the old days but after shipping and with less then good support once the items are shippied I have switched to the "walk into best buy and ask what systems are on sale".

Just get the most ram and best dedicated video card. Alot of times I get a cheap pc with 3 or 4 gigs ram then just buy a $120 vid card. Usually I can walk into best buy and the frotn area has like 5 systems in brown boxes that are just being sold off. Ive seen them for $300 sometimes no monitor , no extras but the towers were $700 or more the day before! Hardrive and other specs can be swapped out later if needed. I got my recent system for $200 off at best buy as the store clerk mis quoted the system and had to sell it at the offered price.

bb used to suck but now i saved alot and its a block away

[tsurugi13]

I recommend a custom. I built mine for about $700 and it runs crysis on very high at 40 fps. Plus, when something breaks, I know how to fix it.

[Dohnutt]

For that price range, custom is the best.

[Teancum]

Just don't buy from Circuit City. The employees talk like they ride the short bus to work every day.

[SilvaDalek]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8010533213

That is the one I bought, but wound up having to spend a good deal of money on upgrades. I purchased a new power supply, another fan, graphics card, and some gell cooling thing. Beside the fact that I heard it overheated and needed a buffed up power suppy, it was good. The RAM and proccessor were great, but lacked a graphics card.

[swbf_lase]

I think the second one would definitely be able to handle running the games smoothly. (Im liking the specs on that actually)

After looking at it again, it has a blu ray player! Hmm, if you have an hd display, it has an HDMI hook up..


(PS, 800th post )

[EJMM]

Guys i forgot to mention I do not live in USA, so it's kinda hard to make or create one with custom parts and then buy it from here, it's a lot easier to just buy a build one, just tell me, from those 2 options, which ones better overall?, I'm not a pc gamer, in fact i don't play much video games, but my brother does, the main reason he want to buy this new one is to play dawn of war 2, will one of these do to play with good performance? (if i buy the first one i'll upgrade it's graphics card), but between the two, which has better performance overall? like faster and stuff

[swbf_lase]

The first one by far. I just clicked on it as I hadnt before since it was circuit city XD

Yeah, Id go with the circuit city one. Ignore my previous post.

EDIT: Youre going to need to buy a new video card though.

[EJMM]

The first one by far. I just clicked on it as I hadnt before since it was circuit city XD

Yeah, Id go with the circuit city one. Ignore my previous post.

EDIT: You're going to need to buy a new video card though.

Yeah i know, I'll likely go for the 8500 GT or something like that, but thanks for your opinion, that's what i want to hear, any other thoughts?

[Delta 47]

If you would want to get a good PC for cheap and if you know how to put a PC together than you could get parts off of tigerdirect.com. Their parts are cheap and you could get a really nice one for under $500 but you would need to know how to put it together. You could find a tut one the internet its actually pretty simple.

[EJMM]

No i don't know how to build one and honestly is way easier to buy one that's already built, and besides, we don't want a monster just a good PC that's able to handle good games, is the circuit city one a good choice?

[VF501]

Nope, compared to the Second BestBuy computer I posted its not worth it. The Gateway with the Intel Quad Core is $20 USD cheaper, 200MHz faster, is the easily upgraded LGA775 socket type CPU, has the Same amount and physical type of RAM, has a full 140GB larger Harddrive, has a Multimedia Drive Bay (Memory Sticks, SD Cards, Compact Flash etc.). Plus Intel CPUs perform better on games.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8010533213

Its just flat out a better deal than the one from Circuit City. Overall both are roughly the same, but for $20 USD Less you get more with the Gateway, and Gateway is a pretty good company.

[swbf_lase]

Dont go for the Geforce 8500 GT. Go get a 9000 series. I have a Geforce 8500 and it struggles at crysis on Medium.

[EJMM]

Thanks for the advice, depends on my budget though!

I still have like half a month to decide which one we'll be getting, so post all your advices and opinions please, thanks

If you know of a good PC between 600 - 700 dollars(maybe a little bit more, like 20 or so bucks), please post it

[EJMM]

ok guys time has come, i have to decide this week which one we'll get, this are the options, please tell me which of the following is the best (Performance, value, value for the money, etc) I did a little research but as I know much about processors, ghz, etc.. well then I once more ask your advice, thanks..

These are the final options:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8014207604

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8014206836

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavil ... tDetail.do

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavil ... tDetail.do

[Dohnutt]

They're all pretty good computers, however, none of them have very good graphics cards. You could probably upgrade to a better one afterwards for like $150-200.

[VF501]

If you're willing to spend $819 USD on the AMD Phenom X4, then try this site

ibuypower.com

Haven't heard anything abd about them at all.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/conf ... spx?mid=72

With this setup its $951 USD, but its more than capable of playing anything out there, plus it includes a 20.1" Monitor. Plus you get the Intel E8400 3GHz Core 2 Duo CPU with 6MB L2 Cache memory, the best bang for the buck CPU out there, a nVidia 8800 GT 512MB VRAM Graphics card, so you have no reason to drop and additional $100+ and install it yourself.

For the $819 you spend on the HP Quad Core at Bestbuy, you only get a decent comp, with No monitor and Crap Graphics that you have to spend more to upgrade anyways. The Intel Quad Core from Circuit City is pretty good, but would cost roughly the same with the upgrades and a new montior.

I know a guy that build a computer with pretty much the same specs as the ibuypower one, and he can play Crysis on High at decent framerates, so it can handle any game out there.