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Need some computer help.


sneakytaffer

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I need a good gaming computer that I can buy that is cheap as possible. I don't want a piece of crap computer, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on one. I prefer a gaming computer that can easily play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Custom made computer sites would be good, but does anybody know any sites that sell affordable, upgradable, custom made gaming computers? So far, the best site I can find is:

 

www.stealthmachines.com

 

 

Is this the best site I can get?

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cheap as possible. I don't want a piece of crap computer, and I don't want to spend a lot of money on one

 

With all this in mind, I must totally agree with ungoliant.

 

Look, keeping up with computer technology as a day to day thing is a miserable muck. But delving in on a once in every couple of years isn't so bad. Find a shop like Fry's, see what they have as specials in the MB CPU sets, google the stuff and make sure it's of some use. Get a quality case/PS, some RAM, and the best video card you can get with what your budget still affords... take your time building it (the only real bother is the fan/heat-sink bit -- just be careful and diligent and calm and do it correctly).

 

If you want to save money and get a good deal? It's the only way.

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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Get a quality case/PS

 

emphasis on the power supply unit more-so than the case. do not, i repeat do NOT cheap out on the PSU "because it only provides electricity, who cares?" IMO this is the #1 reason that most PC building noobs fail to get everything right on the first try. in fact even if you splurge on a fancy one, double check your graphics card and other devices to make sure your PSU has the proper connectors (and enough of them) and provides enough juice to handle everything working together.

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If you've been out of the loop on hardware for a while, take your budget to a popular hardware forum. They'll give you a good starting point, illuminate any new variables to consider, point out what's bullshit marketing (ie designed to confuse the consumer) and what the new standards are (or where there's a lack of a standard) etc. For them, it's a hobby based around conspicuous consumption (actually, searching for new hardware is basically an effort in learning how to be a "good consumer"; it's not really that technical at all), but use them to your advantage.

 

It's kind of hilarious, actually, but a lot of these hardware enthusiasts largely use all of that expensive, top-of-the-line hardware for ... searching for more deals on the latest and greatest hardware and posting on hardware forums. The only time you really hear them talking about games (or any other application that demands that much power) is when they're benchmarking.

 

But when interacting with them, take note of two things:

1) Let go of your pride and don't take their petty attitudes seriously. A lot of these types are predisposed to anti-social, antagonizing behavior. You'll get a lot better results if you don't respond to that behavior and permit them to remain on their imaginary pedestals.

2) Watch out for the fanboys. Some forums are littered with these guys, and they're a terrible source of good information. The steampowered.com Hardware forums seem pretty impartial to me.

 

Also, if you can stomach their attitude, try to make connections with a member who seems to have some pretty high hardware turnover. You can get some great deals this way, and--while they may largely be assholes--they are almost always honest.

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With all this in mind, I must totally agree with ungoliant.

 

Look, keeping up with computer technology as a day to day thing is a miserable muck. But delving in on a once in every couple of years isn't so bad. Find a shop like Fry's, see what they have as specials in the MB CPU sets, google the stuff and make sure it's of some use. Get a quality case/PS, some RAM, and the best video card you can get with what your budget still affords... take your time building it (the only real bother is the fan/heat-sink bit -- just be careful and diligent and calm and do it correctly).

 

If you want to save money and get a good deal? It's the only way.

 

 

 

I don't mean to upgrade my computer daily, I just want to be able to play the games I have and buy a few newer games. When you say to build my own PC, do you mean to buy every part separately and build it from scratch, or have it custom made like www.stealthmachines.com ?

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Hi

 

I answer these sorta questiuons over at the ttlg forum, if you give me your location, budget and what you want to do with your pc I will hunt down a suitable spec and suppiler.

 

:-)

 

 

 

Thanks, but you really don't have to do all of that just for me. I am pretty sure I will find something on my own. I just need to figure out how make my own computer.

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A site I'd recommend, depending on where you live, is newegg.com. They have pretty good prices and you can read customer review on products.

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I don't mean to upgrade my computer daily, I just want to be able to play the games I have and buy a few newer games. When you say to build my own PC, do you mean to buy every part separately and build it from scratch, or have it custom made like www.stealthmachines.com ?

 

I know you don't want to upgrade daily that's what I was trying to say: that doing it every couple of years or so isn't so daunting (whereas keeping up with it as a profession is a miserable business...).

 

Yes, build it yourself, piece by piece. This is the best way to both save money and get a grip on exactly what you are getting. It is this way with everything in life, eh? All I wanted to convey was that this is something you can do, you have Google and you don't need any special tools, so it's very do-able.

Edited by aidakeeley

"A Rhapsody Of Feigned And Ill-Invented Nonsense" - Thomas Aikenhead, On Theology, ca. 1696

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I don't see the point in building a completely new rig here. All he needs is a bigger case, a video card, and a power supply.

 

If it seems overwhelming, treat it like 3 simple upgrades. Do them one at at time starting with the case, then the power supply, and finally the video card. Each time check to see that the system starts up and everything works.

 

You'll learn plenty from this experience and later if you're feeling confident, which you should because this is easy stuff, then you can build a computer from scratch.

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if you have to get a new motherboard dont get a too cheap a one, get one that supports recognising what chips and cards you plug into it, ones where you have to fiddle with setting the settings via a bunch of pins on the motherboard can seriously break everything, also get a mother board where the manual is a paper one, you dont want a manual thats on disk, specially when the computer your upgrading is the one you use to read the disk.

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I don't see the point in building a completely new rig here. All he needs is a bigger case, a video card, and a power supply.

 

If it seems overwhelming, treat it like 3 simple upgrades. Do them one at at time starting with the case, then the power supply, and finally the video card. Each time check to see that the system starts up and everything works.

 

You'll learn plenty from this experience and later if you're feeling confident, which you should because this is easy stuff, then you can build a computer from scratch.

 

 

 

I did think about that, but the main reason I can't is because of the game I want to play. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare requires a better motherboard AND a better CPU than the one I have now.

 

The main problem is that I am having a hard time choosing the right motherboard and CPU for gaming purposes. There are so many versions of these things and I don't know exactly what would be best and not too expensive. If I can get these two things figured out, I am pretty sure I can take care of the rest.

 

 

 

 

How about this? Is this a pretty decent motherboard for gaming?

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131363&cm_re=ddr3_motherboard-_-13-131-363-_-Product

Edited by sneakytaffer

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The main problem is that I am having a hard time choosing the right motherboard and CPU for gaming purposes.

Dude... as I said before gimme yer budget and I will spec a system for you..

 

Also give me your complete specs of your current system so I can see if any parts can be re-used.

Edited by Bikerdude
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I think in this case, the PSU is sufficient because the graphics card (well, if you could call it that) draws only very little power.

 

Sneaky, if you have the option, then have the gc replaced with at least a HD4850 (go for a bigger PSU while you're at it). The HD4850 is a lot more powerful (and costs around 80 Euro's in Germany), which should help you in TDM a lot.

 

As for the Athlon II CPU, 3 GHz is sufficient. The hard disk is a little small for my liking, but that's entirely up to you. If you still have your old HDDs, you can use them as well and save the money for a bigger one.

 

But I'd definitely replace the PSU, 350W is waaaaaaay too little if you ever decide to upgrade the graphics card. Don't start with anything under 500W, where 550W or higher is better - after all, you'll want to be able to upgrade your computer, right?

 

 

My Eigenvalue is bigger than your Eigenvalue.

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  • 2 weeks later...

They've got a pretty decent system on Woot today and I was reminded of this thread.

 

The price is the same as the back to school special you found but there are a few things worth noting...

 

  • it's bundled with an operating system
  • it has a quad core
  • it has 1TB of the hard drive space
  • it has 6GB of memory

 

The only downside is Woot only offers one product per day so if you don't act today you'll lose out.

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