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Buying a New Computer
Tiger Direct ^

Posted on 09/20/2007 4:16:14 AM PDT by Lost Dutchman

Hello Everyone, I am looking to buy a new computer.

I have been out of the market for about 5 years now and I am way behind on current tech. I would appreciate any and all advice on what to get.

I have included the system I am currently contemplating below.

(CybertronPC AMD Gaming PC – AMD Athlon 64 3800+, 1GB PC5400 (667MHz) DDR2, 250GB SATA II, DL DVD±RW, 2 Asus nVidia 7300GT 256MB Video Cards, Gigabit LAN, NO OS, Silver/Black X-Plorer, Speakers)

Here is a list of my requirements: Must be below $1,500.00, Video for 2 monitors, DVD Burner, 200+ GB HD, No Onboard video card, Onboard sound card OK, (I am too damn deaf to care) No VISTA.

I do a lot of internet on my system. (I also F@H)

I play some games but they are along the lines of WoW, Civ IV and AoE III. I am looking to get into Multi-Media.

Once again, any and all suggestions are welcome.

Thank you for your time and knowledge.

Sean O. aka Lost Dutchman


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: bestbuy; circuitcity; computers; operatingsystems
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1 posted on 09/20/2007 4:16:15 AM PDT by Lost Dutchman
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To: Lost Dutchman
Do you live in the big city or will you mail order?

Frys had a quad core HP system with everything my little heart desired for under $900 last week. Wait for it again - it was a real beaut.

When you look at your F@H points here:

http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s=&u=276174

look at the blue banner overhead for Extreme Deals. You’ll need IE to allow the EXTREMEOverclocking.com site to get click-ponts, but they have some really good deals.

I tend to stay away from Dell consumer systems, especially notebooks.

For what you are doing, get a desktop system. If you want to rack up the points for F@H, get a quad-core system.

In general, buy an AMD 4800+ to get the additional L2 cache.

Buying an Intel Core 2 Duo is even better. Aim for the E6750 and E6850 if you can find affordable systems.

Stay away from Vista if you can. I find it too frustrating to teach folks that are used to XP. It seems that M$ has set up the security features to convince us to stop computing completely.

If you buy a refurbished system get a store warranty. I know, pure profit for the store, but you need a hammer if anything needs repair in 91 days.

Look closely at the new iMacs. Everything you will want, plus an easier time to relearn the operating system.

Best purchase today for Intel quad core:

ZT Affinity 7401Ti Minitower for $799

For Dual 2 Core:

HP REFURB¹: Pavilion a1720n Minitower for $449 at CompUSA.com

For AMD:

HP Pavilion Media Center m7750n Refurbished (AMD 64x2 5000+/2GB Memory/400GB) at Frys for $529.

Add in a decent 24” screen and you’ll be in new computing lands.

If you end up needing more memory, look here:

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory for $62.99 after Rebate, Shipped Free! (from EOC Deals)

And for that 24” flat panel:

Mwave - KDS 24 Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor with 1920x1200 Resolution, HDMI, 5ms Response and 400cd/m2 Brightness for Only $379.99!

Or just save time and energy and get this:

http://shop2.outpost.com/template/computersmac

2 posted on 09/20/2007 6:21:44 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Lost Dutchman; Swordmaker

Any comments from the Apple side of the world?

Any price reductions between now and Thanksgiving?


3 posted on 09/20/2007 6:22:58 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Lost Dutchman

I’m not buying any new computers for awhile. I’ve read too much about Vista and have no desire to have to deal with it till they get bugs out of it.


4 posted on 09/20/2007 7:14:00 AM PDT by Lawgvr1955 (You can never have too much cowbell !!)
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To: Echo Talon
Can you give us an update on what is the fastest system available and your current recommendations?
5 posted on 09/20/2007 7:25:20 AM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
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To: Lawgvr1955

Something new I noticed about Tiger Direct, they now allow you to choose XP as your OS.


6 posted on 09/20/2007 7:26:19 AM PDT by Vision ("Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him." Jeremiah 17:7)
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To: texas booster

I use to live in the big city (Phoenix, AZ) and I loved Fry’s there. Now I am in backwater Maine. I will be going mailorder.

Will the Mac REALLY do everything I need it to do? Including the Windows games I currently play?


7 posted on 09/20/2007 8:49:34 AM PDT by Lost Dutchman ("Weep for the future Na'Toth, Weep for us all." (G'Kar-Babylon 5))
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To: Lost Dutchman; Swordmaker

I’ll let Swordmaker comment on that one. Such a nice fat pitch over the plate deserves to be hit out of the park.

Yes, IMO the Mac can do everything a PC can do with less hassle. Sure its limited if, like me, something is added or removed every week. And OS X is not perfect and may need to be reloaded every so often if really buggered up.

Some Windows game may not play exactly right under emulation but most are just fine. We will need to look at the forums to get more details.

If you only upgrade every five years then take a strong look at the Mac. Much more stable than the PC over time.

But for Folding@home, nothing beats the quad cores running SMP for sheer points generated.


8 posted on 09/20/2007 9:16:40 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster
Any price reductions between now and Thanksgiving?

Apple generally doesn't reduce prices... they increase functionality at the same price point. Since the iMacs have just been refreshed with the 17" iMac being replaced by the low end 20" at the same price ($1199), I doubt you will see any price drops in iMacs before Thanksgiving... or after. What you may see is faster machines with more RAM and/or HD space at the same price.

What is due is a refresh of the Power Mac line.

9 posted on 09/20/2007 1:42:47 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: texas booster; Lost Dutchman
Yes, IMO the Mac can do everything a PC can do with less hassle. Sure its limited if, like me, something is added or removed every week. And OS X is not perfect and may need to be reloaded every so often if really buggered up.

I have been using OS X since it came out and have four Macs... three PowerPC and one Intel... and have never had to re-install the OS on any of them. In addition, I administer another 25 or so Macs (about half and half PPC or Intel) and have had to re-install only once on one of them... and the re-install took a little under 15 minutes. No applications had to be reinstalled and no data was lost. Applications, even on installation, are not permitted to modify system files. Essentially, I am saying that Mac's OS X doesn't get "buggered up."

Since a Mac can also run 100% of all Windows software either AS a Windows computer under Boot Camp, or in virtualization under Parallels or Fusion, it can certainly do everything a Windows machine can do. However, most Mac users find they will use the Windows side less and less as they find that the Mac solution is generally better and easier to use than the Windows solution.

Games run best under Boot Camp... Virtualization has about a 5-8% speed hit because it is running under/with OS X. Keep in mind that games that require the cutting edge graphics cards may not be as snappy on a Mac as they would be on a Games optimized Windows PC because the graphics cards a Mac are not really intended for high speed graphic games.

For the everyday user, the Mac can do everything they need... surfing the net safely (as of today, seven years after the introduction of OS X Server and six years after the introduction of OS X for the desktop, there are still ZERO virus, Spyware, and Adware in the wild for OS X!), safely open any email, download anything from safe sites without fear, and even run your computer without AV or anti-spyware. No software can be installed on your Mac without your permission including spyware or viruses. There is no Registry to get corrupted. Unlike on Windows, defragging is done in the background automatically and transparently with no user interaction... as are almost all other housekeeping chores. Microsoft Office for Mac is reportedly better than the Windows version... but Apple's own iWork suite is far cheaper and unless you are a power Word user, Pages will suit most people. Apple's Keynote beats MS Powerpoint hands down.

Security wise, at worst, any invading malware, if there were any, would only toast your user files and never touch the system files or any other user's files. The core of Apple's Mac OS X is an industrial strength FreeBSD UNIX which has been tested and fixed over almost 40 years of development in the open source community.

As Texas Booster said, the Mac is not intended for the do-it-yourselfer who loves to build his own computers or who wants to upgrade continually. However, Macs have a far longer than PC life expectancy. Macs that rolled off the assembly line 9 years ago using the old OS are still providing service today running OS X. Six your old machines can run the latest version of OSX... OS X.4.10... with no problem. Upgrades to OS X consistently result in faster application execution on the same hardware... sometimes remarkably faster execution on the order of 15-20% faster... where Windows upgrades most often result in slower execution of applications.

The final thing is that Mac users actually enjoy using their computers... they don't have to fight the computer to get work done. They don't have to wait for startup (when I do restart my Macbook Pro, it is ready for me to work in under 18 seconds... but most of the time it's just asleep and is ready in under 2 seconds...), they are not experiencing slow downs due to the overhead of the anti-ware downloading and scanning all the time... and they never experience the Windows rot that slows down a Windows machine over time. The Macs just work.

10 posted on 09/20/2007 2:16:22 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: Lost Dutchman

Try this one:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2967395&CatId=2479#detailspecs

Pick up some extra RAM at newegg.com and take your pick of 256Mb video cards and you are still sitting comfortably under $1500.


11 posted on 09/20/2007 2:27:52 PM PDT by Anitius Severinus Boethius
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To: Lost Dutchman; texas booster
Lost and Tex, check out this FR thread on an article at the Wall Street Journal where a long time PC Windows user at the WSJ is contemplating switching to Mac and asked the readers for their opinions:

Wall Street Journal: Readers endorse switch to Mac.

and its related Wall Street Journal article...

But most importantly, read the real-time forum at the WSJ on the article.

This will get you a good idea of what real switchers have experienced.

12 posted on 09/20/2007 3:02:27 PM PDT by Swordmaker (Remember, the proper pronunciation of IE is "AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEE)
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To: Swordmaker; Lost Dutchman
There you have it. A completely unbiased response from Swordmaker regarding Macs. Seriously.

I keep about 60 PCs running for various folks, most of them older citizens who email and surf. I will assure you that most of them would be better served with a Mac. It might even be cheaper for me since I seldom charge them for the time I spend keeping their systems running.

I have helped friends reinstall OS X at least three times. I have reloaded Winders ???? times.

If you find a modern iMac, it should meet your needs. If you really want a cutting edge video card then get a Mac that allows replacement of the card.

In most cases the most recent Macs will be fine.

13 posted on 09/20/2007 4:00:36 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Anitius Severinus Boethius
This is a great buy since it includes a three year warranty for the same price as I found.

Of course I spend my life bottom-feeding and finding refurbished systems with legal Windows. This is still a great price when you consider the warranty and the cost of a legal copy of Vista.

Folding@home prefers additional L2 cache, but the E4400 will still work just fine.

14 posted on 09/20/2007 4:10:49 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: Lawgvr1955

Go with Linux.


15 posted on 09/20/2007 9:54:15 PM PDT by Westlander (Unleash the Neutron Bomb)
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To: Lost Dutchman

Any decision yet?


16 posted on 09/21/2007 5:14:52 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

Still confering with CinC Home. I am leaning towards a Mac, but she is still set on a PC. Would we be able to network together? And can a Mac run two monitors?


17 posted on 09/21/2007 7:33:04 PM PDT by Lost Dutchman ("Weep for the future Na'Toth, Weep for us all." (G'Kar-Babylon 5))
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To: Lost Dutchman
Buy one of each. ;)

No problem with networking anymore. Many years ago one of my network guys built a 400 node Mac network. It can be done much, much easier now.

18 posted on 09/21/2007 8:17:31 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: texas booster

The Great and Powerful Commander-in-Chief of the house has spoken... *hehe* My wife and I decided to stay with PCs for the moment. Sorry :(

Here is what we are ordering through Tiger Direct. I will include an after-action report when they arrive and get set up.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1487928&sku=V133-2964

Details:

Visionman AMD Gaming PC - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 2GB DDR2, (2) 250GB SATA-II HDDs, 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW w/ Lightscribe, NVIDIA 8600GT 256MB, Gigabit LAN, NO O/S

Raidmax SMILODON Black ATX Gaming Case
- Mfr Part Number: ATX-612WB
- Case Type: Steel Mid Tower
- External Bays: 4x 5.25”; 2x 3.5”
- Internal Bays: 3x 3.5”
- Expansion Slots: 7
- Cooling System: 1x 80mm Blue LED Side Fan, 1x 80mm Side Fan; 1x 80mm Rear Fan
- Front I/O Panel: 2x USB2.0 Ports; 1x Speaker; 1x Mic
- Dimensions (WxDxH): 8 x 20 x 18.5 inches

Biostar TForce TF7025-M2 Motherboard
Based on the NVIDIA GeForce 7025+ nForce 630a (MCP68S) chipset, it supports DDR2 memory up to 4GB, PCI-e x16/x1, SATA2 with RAID, NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Graphics, 8-channel high-definition audio, and 10/100/1000 LAN. And this sophisticated motherboard supports Windows Vista Premium, HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, and HDCP.

- Socket: AM2
- Chipset: NVidia Geforce 7025 + nForce 630a
- Integrated VGA and DVI ports
- Integrated 8 Channel High Definition Audio
- Supports dual channel DDR2 800/667/533/400 DIMMs
- 1 x PCI-E x 16 / 1 x PCI-E x 1/ 2 x PCI
- Gigabit LAN
- 4 x SATA 3Gb/s - RAID 0,1,0+1,5

Dual-Core AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ CPU
AMD Introduces the Only Windows-Compatible 64-bit PC Processor! Built on AMD 64 architecture, the AMD Athlon 64 processor is designed to deliver outstanding levels of performance and customer-focused innovation to home and business users alike. Unlike any other CPU, this one has TWO cores! That means dual AMD64 4600’s compressed onto one chip! This kind of power simply cannot be beat!

- Socket: AM2
- Cache: 1MB (512KB per Core)
- 2.60GHz

2GB DDR2-667 Memory
For those who have been waiting for faster access times-crucial for high-level throughput…DDR2 memory maximizes system operation, and lets you get the most from your applications.

- Memory Size: 2GB (2 x 1GB)
- Memory Speed: DDR2-667
- Max RAM: 4GB

NVIDIA 8600GT 256MB PCI-E Video Card
Redefine your gaming reality with the GeForce® 8600 GT 256MB PCI Express graphics card featuring the world’s first DirectX® 10 GPU and a powerful unified architecture that delivers an incredibly true-to-life gaming experience.

- 256MB of DDRIII Memory
- 256-Bit PCI-e x16 Interface
- NVIDIA Quantum Effects™ Technology
- NVIDIA Lumenex™ Engine
- Shader Model 4.0
- NVIDIA PureVideo HD Technology

Dual (2) 250GB 7200RPM SATA-II Hard Drives
- Capacity: 500GBs (2 x 250GB)
- Speed: 7200RPM
- Interface: Serial-ATA
- Cache: 8MB

Integrated Serial-ATA RAID Controller
Visionman delivers another blockbuster performer with this integrated Serial-ATA RAID controller designed for EZ Mirror Setups. One of the many options that make this such an outstanding offer.

- Interface: 4 x SATA and 4 x SATAII
- RAID Function: (0, 1, 0+1)
- Mirror & Striping
- Speed: 150-300MB/second data transfer rate

20X Dual-Layer LiteOn DVDRW w/Lightscribe
From LiteOn – one of the most versatile high-performance half-height internal drives Visionman has ever offered. The LiteOn LH-20A1H DVD dual drive supports DVD+R / DVD-R / DVD+RW / DVD+R9(DL) / DVD-R9(DL) / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / DVD-ROM / CD-R / CD-RW / CD-ROM formats.

- Type: Internal
- Color: Black
- Speed: 20x
- Features SMART-BURN, SMART-X, & VAS, Lightscribe


19 posted on 09/23/2007 7:26:29 PM PDT by Lost Dutchman ("Weep for the future Na'Toth, Weep for us all." (G'Kar-Babylon 5))
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To: Lost Dutchman
What Momma wants, Momma gets, at least in my house.

BTW, I am a Windows guy. I just think that Macs are easier for most folks who don’t play with PCs the way I do.

You are gonna like the SPEED of this puppy, especially with that video card.

20 posted on 09/23/2007 10:14:32 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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