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[AppleMIX]

Hey, I'm buying new computer for my 4th year of college. I know a lot about computers, however I never actually built one. Which kind of puts me at a disadvantage. I want a PC that is teh ROXXORS but I don't know how to build one.

With that said, here is a computer that I built off HP's website.

AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 5000+ dual-core - 2.6GHz
4GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (4x1024)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, DVI-I, TV-out, HDMI
02.11 b/g Wireless LAN PCI Card
400GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi, 24-bit Xtreme Fidelity
Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers

And a 19 inch wide-screen LCD monitor.

All for 1454.99

Is that pretty good, or could I do better? Should I just learn how to build one? What else can you tell me?

 

[Defcon]

I was just fooling around the other day and built something a lot better than that for the same price on cyberpowerpc.com.

 

[Nick]

Oh. So it's not a Mac.

 

[MaX_PL]

find a mac with those specs at that price...

thats right, you cant.

 

[Kung Fu Jedi]

I was just fooling around the other day and built something a lot better than that for the same price on cyberpowerpc.com.

I'm sure you did. But caveat emptor...

 

[RSP]

- no intel cpu
- sub 20" display
- 2.1 speakers is hip for "stereo sound" aka 1980's material.

 

[AppleMIX]

I was just fooling around the other day and built something a lot better than that for the same price on cyberpowerpc.com.

Just checked it out, pretty damn awesome.

 

[Defcon]

Just checked it out, pretty damn awesome.

Forgot to mention, it was without a monitor. Still, you should be able to build an E6800, 2 gig ram, 8800 GTS for $1500 easy.

 

[Draft]

Building it yourself is pretty easy and you'll learn a lot. Don't just think of the money you save parting it out yourself instead of having HP or Cyberpower build it for you. Think of the time and money you'll save being able to diagnose common hardware and software errors with the knowledge you gain from building your own system.

Considering how ubiquitous PCs have become, it's really a shame most people are terrified of cracking them open or mucking around with the OS. I mean, think of it like your car. Sure, you could pay a dude $200 to replace your brake pads. Or you could spend half an hour doing it yourself for the cost of the pads.

 

[storybook77]

Building it yourself is pretty easy and you'll learn a lot. Don't just think of the money you save parting it out yourself instead of having HP or Cyberpower build it for you. Think of the time and money you'll save being able to diagnose common hardware and software errors with the knowledge you gain from building your own system.

Considering how ubiquitous PCs have become, it's really a shame most people are terrified of cracking them open or mucking around with the OS. I mean, think of it like your car. Sure, you could pay a dude $200 to replace your brake pads. Or you could spend half an hour doing it yourself for the cost of the pads.

QFT. Also if you build one yourself, when the time comes that you want to upgrade just one or two components (cpu, memory, video card, etc...), you'll have the knowledge to just swap them out without having to buy a whole new system.

 

[RevenantKioku]

Or, you can just throw it out and buy a new one. A philosophy I adopted after becoming tired of ****ing around with my computers. There comes a point where you don't care, and just want shit to work.

 

[CrushDance]

Hey, I'm buying new computer for my 4th year of college. I know a lot about computers, however I never actually built one. Which kind of puts me at a disadvantage. I want a PC that is teh ROXXORS but I don't know how to build one.

With that said, here is a computer that I built off HP's website.

AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 5000+ dual-core - 2.6GHz
4GB DDR2-667MHz dual channel SDRAM (4x1024)
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT, DVI-I, TV-out, HDMI
02.11 b/g Wireless LAN PCI Card
400GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi, 24-bit Xtreme Fidelity
Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers

And a 19 inch wide-screen LCD monitor.

All for 1454.99

Is that pretty good, or could I do better? Should I just learn how to build one? What else can you tell me?

Listen to what Draft says.

Get rid of that athlon and get a E6850 for ~200. That alone will power through everything,
__________________________
check it out:

Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz E.P.P. Memory (2 x 1024) (0.2 lbs)
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TSD-500AS2 :: Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 500GB / 7200 / 16MB / Serial ATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive (1 lbs)
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ULT40054 :: Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire, Audio Ports and Ultra 700-Watt XVS Power Supply (30 lbs)
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Intel 975XBX2KR Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Viiv Ready / Audio / PCI Express / Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 & Firewire / Serial ATA / RAID (4.35 lbs)
In Stock
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Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22IN Widescreen LCD Black 1680X1050 3000:1 2MS VGA DVI-D HDCP
Check this box for EXPRESS COVERAGE for this item. ($19.72)
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In Stock
$394.44

Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Kit W/ LEDs
In Stock
$149.99

MSI nVidia GeForce 8800GTS OC 640MB DDR3 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
$474.70

Crucial Memory Hawg Squishy Toy *Promo Only*
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NCIX Heavy Duty Shipping Box
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Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive
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Express Coverage - with "ZERO Dead PIXEL" Exchange (See Terms & Conditions for Details) (22783)
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YOUR TOTAL $1,770.82
_________________

I added a ton of useless stuff to see just how much money I could waste and it only came to $1770 CAD, only thing not in there was the quad core(qx6600) Because at the time the price drops hadn't come yet. But it's still around $1700 now including the quad core with the price drops.

You cannot go wrong doing it yourself. You learn so much and you feel really happy after putting it all together and making it work. It's your own.

Nothing wrong with going OEM built but like I showed you, you can get much better for much less if you do it yourself.

I'll be building mine come January when Penryn processors come out.