Buying A New Computer

[NoJabbaNoBogRoll]

I'm looking to buy a new computer to run all the new games that will come out over the next few years easily.

My current specs are in my sig.

I'd like to know what you suggest, and whether I'd be best buying a whole computer or all the parts individually.

[Steve R Jones]

Most people on this site will tell you to build your own if you know how or want to learn how.

[GiPilot12]

Here, almost everyone will tell you to build, so the information we need most of all is budget ie how much do you want to spend?

[carl33p]

It doesnt look like you can reuse any of the parts from your Current PC. (Besides the hard drive, and possibly optical drive)

In "the next few years" basically every current PC will be outdated for gaming. But if you wanted this PC to last for "a while" you will want a Quad Core CPU and a 8800series GPU. Which means your looking upward of about 1K$ for the Tower.

Tell us WHAT is included in your budget: Tower, Moniter, keyboard, speakers, etc?

[NoJabbaNoBogRoll]

I'll need everything in the tower new, however I may be switching the hard drives over as I'll be using the new computer, and it might be less trouble that way.

Already have the new keyboard and mouse.

So I need the tower, monitor (preferably flat, but not essential), and speakers.

What can I get for £500 ($1,000)?

[JimRune]

For about $1,000 you're not going to get much, unfortunately. An 8800GTX alone is close to $500.. If you really want the thing to last, you go with an 8800 Ultra.. Now that's getting to the $600 mark. Had you asked this a few months ago, I would have said the same about Intel's quad line, however their Q6600 is down to about $260 and it can be overclocked like a beast (assuming you get the G0 stepping)! You'd want 4GB of RAM with a quad and GTX or Ultra, might be able to get away with 2, not sure entirely. Mobo is at least $100, widescreen monitor is maybe $200, $100(?) with PSU of .. I dunno, 600W? Probably won't need a sound card with a quad. Bottom line is, if you want that PC to last for years, you're gonna have to spend big bucks now. $1,000 won't cut it when you have processing power doubling every 18 months!

[vantwej]

Build up your "dream machine"..
Buy a decent mb and processor and as your budget increases bring in the heavy's!
My next Display cards will be 2 x ASUS (OCd) HD2900 ATI's

[gcrussell1]

Save your money on a GPU right now - a previous-generation GPU (such as a decent 8600-series card) will save you a ton of money, while delivering upper- (but not top-)tier performance on almost any game that's out. Considering that GPU generations switch over as often as they do, it's better to stick to slightly older cards and just upgrade when you need to - you'll sacrifice a bit of here-and-now performance (but not much), but you save money in the long run.

That's just my opinion, however, and I'm certainly not as qualified on this matter as many of the posters here, but the bottom line is that you're not gonna put an 8800-series GPU in a computer you put together for under 500 quid unless you seriously skimp on everything else. Like vantwej said, you can always upgrade a home-built computer later with better GPUs and more RAM (if it's supported), but if you're building on a bad foundation (read: mobo), you can only go so far.

Bottom line, though: 500 quid won't build a computer that'll play current games respectably in 3 years... really, no amount of money would be likely to put that computer together today, because today's technology will be chopped liver in 3 years. Focus on building something that'll fit what you need now, and that has the upgradeability to last another year or two with an occasional facelift.

[Chuckiechan]

A thou will build you a nice rig. The problem now is everything has changed. 20 pin power supply, AGP, gone. Ram has changed

Your floppy, your CD/DVR.

A good board and chip on todays Fry's add is less than $ 200 with a dual core AMD 6000. It will have LAN and Audio built in

A gig of ram.. ~ $ 75

Video card - $ 150.00

A Case - too many to list

I'd start with the basics. Get a nice case with a good power supply.
Get a good board with a nice chip and two gigs of ram.
A good video card - spend at least ~ $ 150 here.

This should keep you going for a year or two

[NoJabbaNoBogRoll]

Using this page: http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Syste...builder/GAMER1

Can anyone advise me?