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bobquasit ([personal profile] bobquasit) wrote2008-04-02 01:02 pm
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More computer stuff

Okay, here's a possibility. Tell me what you think. I'm not married to this or anything, and it's really more than I should spend...hell, it doesn't even include a monitor. And I'm still not determined to go to PCs for Everyone. So please be honest!

http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/System/Intel_2100_Series/4750

Has anyone tried NewEgg? Are they good?
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[identity profile] graceysbane.livejournal.com 2008-04-02 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I love Newegg! Most of my system was purchased there! In fact, I just got memory from them for Boo's computer cheaper than anyone else I could find.

[identity profile] oldwolf.livejournal.com 2008-04-02 05:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I've been a NewEgg customer for years. Also try TigerDirect.

What you might also do, since a budget is in the picture, is buy a "Barebones" and piece it together over time. Spreading your budget out and not making it be such a stress on purchasing issues.

Besides, there are lots of teenage techs out there that "Will Work 4 Pizza". Or cookies, or soda, or a homecooked meal.

[identity profile] unquietsoul5.livejournal.com 2008-04-02 07:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Only works if he has the skills of the folks near him that will do that. A teenage tech is worth exactly what he is paid, and comes with as much guarantee. None or close to it. Not a good idea.

[identity profile] unquietsoul5.livejournal.com 2008-04-02 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, looking at the PCs for everyone (and it's really hard to find in-depth current reviews on them in general) the video card on the listed machine would need to be upgraded for games (256 MB is not enough, believe me, that's why I have problems with my notebook, you want a full 512 MB on the video).

Also the DVD is 'normal' DVD, which means when Blue Ray is all that you can get (not that long in the future) you're not going to be using it for playing DVDs. Fine if you are only interested in older movies/shows that are on normal DVD, but those will start drying up over the next few years thanks to the standards change.

As you said, it maxes your budget and doesn't include a monitor, so that means to be functional you'll need to spend another $175 or more.


No word on New Egg, I haven't done any business with them.

[identity profile] bobquasit.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 12:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn. The twin turbo card is inadequate? The next step up is quite a bit more expensive.

And their only blu-ray drive is $359! That's not going to happen. Maybe I can get an external one later when the prices come down.

[identity profile] unquietsoul5.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Most of the external blu-ray devices I can find on the net are burners and fairly pricey ($600-$700 range).

One of the problems with Blu-ray is that you are going to need both software and hardware support, and whether anyone will be doing such for XP in the long run is a good question (since XP goes off the market officially in June of this year if Microsoft has any say about it).

It's one of these problems I'm pondering regarding my hope to eventually replace my laptop with a Mac Pro laptop... they don't have blue ray support for the Mac as yet.

As for the graphics, I have always found that no matter how good the graphics card is, it's the ram that makes the difference when using games etc. I've got a decent graphics card in my machine (for a 3 year old notebook) with my Radeon 9700 but it doesn't have enough ram (only 256m).

The graphics card problem is one of my other issues I have ... games today require more graphics power than playing a movie. I've been told that although the Mac Pro can be used for making movies and doing movie editing, that the graphics cards are a bit behind the curve for games. Which is one of the reasons it takes a few years for games to go from other platforms to the Mac.

All these new games require huge amounts of Ram. I can't run Civ4 on my notebook - and it crawls and occasionally stalls on Cindy's desktop (which is newer and has a slightly better graphics card... she has to turn off animated turn mode options in order to run it at all). She also only has the 256 ram for the card.

So my presumption is, games need more ram, and that means 512.

Staying up on this ever changing world of tech isn't easy. I'm behind the curve on lots of things (and like you I'm self taught on what I know, mostly from talking to people who work with things and from doing a lot of hands on stuff).

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