New Computer

OK guys, I think its time for me to get a new computer. I have been
looking for about 2 weeks now and I think i have found the one I want.
The HP d1400y Series desktop. Of coursethey give you options to
customize, and this is what I came up with. Keep in mind that I'm only
14, and my parents aren't paying a dime for this computer, so I am
gunna pay monthly. And I didn't completely go all out on pimping it in
the options do to me not being able to ge ta job until January. (P.S.
in the specs you cant see that I also ordered a nice headset and a nice
fancy gaming mouse, because I don't have a spare laser mouse, and my
brother broke my headset)





So is that worth buying? Taking into my money issue. Also, what
settings do you think I can run on it to get at least 25 - 30 fps on
CS:S?

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Its nothing at all special. Looks like you're paying a lot of money for it, too. HP are evil. Check out www.ebuyer.com, I can assure you that they'll cut a significant chunck out of your final bill. Also, why on earth are you buying work's and encarta? Google superseeded encarta years ago, works, is just evil too. I wouldent order this if I were you.

No, it isn't worth it.

For $1,400 you could have a computer with a 7800 GTX and 2 gigs of ram (64-bit processor too)

Not worth the price at all.

I would suggest, not going with any "brand name" computer. This includes, but isn't limited to: Gateway, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc.

Honestly, I'd recommend building your own ... it's fairly simple, has a tremendous amount of documentation, and well worth the effort. But, if you're up to that or not, that's up to you.

The only downside would be there's no customer support for "the whole package", but customer support is really never that helpful from Dell and the likes.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

that's kinda expensive innit :smile: try cheaper sites :biggrin:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Hopeing to finaly build one myself at some point soonish. so far im playing about with:

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603828 - Motherboard [?93.91 including VAT]

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=604050 - gfx card [?209.74 including VAT]

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/MPartspecs.Asp?mtbpoid=3C326C07A5CA7304&WSMD=A8N%2DSLI&WSPN=CT2KIT6472Z40B

• Memory[?96.34]

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603779 -
HDD [?60.98
including VAT]

[url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Seagate2.html [/url] [?74.32 including VAT]

[url]http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603779 [/url]
[?60.98 including VAT]

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=604897 -
Case [?38.80 including
VAT] *

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=603754 - CPU [?103.78 including VAT]

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=602960 -
PSU [?58.63
including VAT]

http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=604774 -
DVD [?34.37
including VAT]

[url]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/lcd17.html [/url]
[?170.32 including VAT] *

?941.19

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My Pit

9-in-1 card reader? Do you need that?! Save yourself dinner money and get a 5-in-1 :smile:

And, do you really want to trust the Intel on-board sound card?

I would buy a AMD-System cause its cheaper and better :smile: , i have AMD Systems only.

(CPU) 1-AMD Clawhammer 3400 1024 L2, 2199MHz (0% Load) (RAM) usage: 285/512MB (55.66%) (HDDs) 160GB (VGA) NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 (OS) Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 1 (5.1 - 2600)

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Mess with the best, die like the rest

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Crono</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>I would suggest, not going with any "brand name" computer. This includes, but isn't limited to: Gateway, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc.

Honestly, I'd recommend building your own

</DIV></DIV>
I bought a new Dell last week instead of building one myself (I've built 2 of my previous PCs). I found it to be the most competitive pre-built PC in terms of price I could find in the UK, indeed not much more than buying all the bits separately and assembling it myself. Plus it rids me of the headache of finding a problem, isolating the problem component and dealing with getting it replaced.

Ultimately not everyone is interested in the satisfaction of building their own PC, eeking out every last bit of performance or getting the absolute best value-for-money around. Horses for courses I guess. :smile:

Hi Windows,

I am currently using a pre-built PC. And I have to admit: I don't like it at all. I've got a Pentium 4 simulated 3 GHz dual processor. Which is like a joke. Hyper threading for nothing; only higher costs.

By your components very cheap (I advise: AMD; or if you want NO Pentium) and merge them together by yourself or go for a noname brand.

And I would think about that card reader thingy. Do you need one at all? And you should consider doing a system with two hard drives. One small 20 GBish for OS and swap file only. The other one for programmes and games. This will make your computer faster and more relyable (if you use defrag regularily). But they need to be two physical Hard drives. No partition. Thats crap. You could use folders as well if you use partitions.

And what do you need MS money for? I would leave it and go for a decent Anti Virus Software.

Regards.

Don't be offended; I think I sounded a little arduous. I'm just stressed out right now. Nothing personal.

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Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it

I'd suggest checking to see what alienware has: http://www.alienware.com

Until Later...

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

I'm with Crono here - every time I see a brand name PC I find myself
amazed at how over priced they are for their spec. In this case, if you
are paying that sort of price its really not right to be getting
onboard sound, no DVD drive and only a standard 6800. For that money,
even if you do go for prebuilt, I'd be wanting an Audigy ZS or
something, a decent DVDRW, and at least a 6800gt if not a 7800 range.
I'm not up on US pricing, so I could be way of the mark, but Crono
seems to be in the know about whats good for your money. A quick look
at Alienware also left me quite unimpressed - a lot of cash considering
most of the PC's weren't exactly cutting edge spec.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

The problem is I can't pay for everything at once and I need to pay
monthly. I don't have a job and im 14 years old guys. I'm like mowin
lawns and doing anything I can get money from, my parents say that
aren't paying for anything. So that kinda cuts out my custom computer
because you cant pay for it monthly. Unless you how I could do this....

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

ReNo said:
A quick look at Alienware also left me quite unimpressed - a lot of cash considering most of the PC's weren't exactly cutting edge spec.

I had a look at Alienware when considering what to buy. Looked mighty expensive - bascially the same spec PC ended up ?400 more than what I paid for my Dell.

i thought you had to be older then 14 for credit reasons to go for the monthly payments.
and just for the sake of talking about PCs my dream is:
Athlon FX-57
Dual 7800s
4 gig of RAM
4x100gb hard drive
8.1 Headphones (should they exist that is!)
with a fibre optic internet connection

but seriously though. go for a cheap comp and upgrade the components that you need to upgrade. thats what i did with my dell. (though i run css on low spec to get half decent fps, it needs an upgrade again)

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

Yeah, the process is that they technically buy it but i support the money, and if i dont, im gunna be a sorry little kid.

Anyway, I thought that was a decent computer, I mean it cant be any worse then my computer right now.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Windows 98 said:
Yeah, the process is that they technically buy it but i support the money, and if i dont, im gunna be a sorry little kid.

Anyway, I thought that was a decent computer, I mean it cant be any worse then my computer right now.

the computer you mentioned above is pretty good (go for a 64-bit processor they are faster i have had experience). in fact it is really good. but expensive. but hell if you can pay for it go for it!

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Bullet Control: $5000 for a bullet.
"I would blow your f**king head off! ...if I could afford it. I'm gonna get another job, start saving some money... then you a dead man!"

So you think I should buy it for my circumstances. I also have a Atholon 64 on the computer im on now.

Also im gunna mention, with the extra money Im making after January (im
makin like $100 a month, which is an extra liek $49) Im gunan keep and
save for better parts to upgrade.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Agreed with rival though, get a computer that has a 64bit processor. I
have one and to tell the truth, it's REAL good and fast :smile:

The graphics card is good.

Ram is also enough to be true, but leave out the Intel s**t.

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HL2 tutorials 'n' stuff: http://madedog.pri.ee
217.159.236.34:27050 - CSS Server - Clean | koffer.ee

Well, i can upgrade the proscessor, but its gunna cost a crap load. A
crap load I dont have.... Also I thought 3.0 ghz would be fast enough

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

I haven't read the entire thread but I agree with Crono and ReNo. I'll list out a few things I can think of

• Don't buy a branded machine. It's not worth the trouble. You're only

going to get a s**tty warranty and really horrible tech support.
Instead, build it yourself, or, if you can't do that, find a trusted
store run by a friend or some acquaintance and ask them to assemble one
for you.

-Look out for the AMD Dual cores as well. I have heard that they draw
lesser power and heat up less, AND they're a whole lot cheaper. I
haven't been following dual-cores too closely of late though, so please
verify this.

-DVD drive? I don't see a DVD drive. At least get yourself a DVD
reader, they're very cheap. A combo DVD/CD writer would be excellent
TBH.

-Not enough USB ports. Only two? You will use them up and have no space left

-Go for a separate audio card if you can afford it. Heck, my
five-year-old es1371 gives better sound than my "new" intel onboard
card.

-Encarta?! Works?! Waste of money. Use Wikipedia, and you'll eventually "acquire" Office anyway (it's inevitable, methinks).

I have recently seen a machine with similar specs built for around
$1100 give or take 50 based on the conversion rate and inflation and
suchlike. And don't worry about your CSS framerates. They should be
very good with this setup.

Edit: Just saw your post above. Gigahertz aren't the best indicator of
performance. Look for benchmarks and stress-tests on the net for a
gaming PC with a similar setup. You'll often notice that all the
gigahertzes and megahertzes that Intel and AMD claim don't equate to
performance gains.

Ill end this whole thing right now (pointless posts that is)

First of all, it comes with encarta for free. Second of all, I cant make one because I cant pay monthly for it.

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

Windows, why don't you consider upgrading your current computer instead of buying a whole new one. Salvaging parts is where the money savings begin!

Also, with buying parts, you don't have to buy everything all at once. Buy what you can when you can. Or, just save your money, the only guarantee there is that by the time you go to buy all the stuff it'll all be cheaper.

Also, just for the record, Don't buy Alienware. They're the only company that builds decent computers, but for Christ sake, they cost 3 times as much! For WHAT? They even stopped using really nice parts. Abit motherboard? I SPIT ON ABIT!!

There are more reasons not to buy a brand pre-built computer besides getting ripped off though. You'll notice a lot of parts they buy *cough*Harddrive*cough* are very hard to find because they're products that would never sell by themselves. Why? They don't work. Simple as that. And no Fujitsu hard drives DON'T work.

But, sadly, there are more annoying things ... especially if you EVER want to upgrade ANYTHING in the machine. HP has a handy little feature that doesn't allow the HDD to be wiped. It's very odd. Dell has it set up so if anything stops working in the computer ... including one of their many unneeded case fans: the machine will not boot ... or even turn on. You have to send it back to them ... that takes money and it probably won't happen within your warranty (I don't know if their warranties changed though)

Gateway .... let's just not talk about them.

Compaq is the worst. They're the kings of skimping on parts.

Something all these companies have in common is that if you built a identical computer it'd cost much less (we're talking hundreds of dollars).

On a side note: parts are friggin' expensive in the UK! That machine that KornFlakes put together is insanely expensive.

Bottom line: save money
This way, you'd end up paying less ... but, I'd really suggest upgrading what you have! List those specs and I'll show you how easy ... and cheap it'd be.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Cant I create a .bat that wipes my harddirve and reformat it? Also, The
debate is not on how s**tty companies are. Its on "Should I buy it
considering my circumstances"

And the reason I don't want to upgrade my computer that I'm using now
is because this is my family's computer. And this is going to be my own
personal computer.... up in my room... not to be bother to be getting
off every 10 minutes so my sister can "put on an away message" like
anyone cares about her. Or botherd by my brother saying that Ive been
on long enough and he wants to play Guild Wars (like 30 minutes)

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

win98, if your parents are willing to put their names to the contract of purchase from dell, surely they would do the same from a components supplier that offers the same deal. most suppliers that i've seen will give you credit terms if you spend a certain amount, which is normally way below the cost that you're contemplating atm.

though that being said, i still think it's a bad thing for someone so young to be jumping into a life of credit card debt. save your money and get the best that you can for it. you'll enjoy it more.

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i eat paint

So that kinda cuts out my custom computer because you cant pay for it monthly.

Exactly like Crono said, there is no reason why you should order all the components at the same time. Why don't you order the motherboard first, and then order the CPU, the memory, the HDD, the graphics card...one thing at a time. It's no different than paying monthly. In fact, it's more flexible. If you can't cough up the money for a month, just wait until next month when you have saved enough to buy the next component.

That's what I would do if I were in your shoes. Order things from NewEgg--I've had a great experience shopping with them. That's how I built my current computer.

I do warn you that there is a learning curve to build your own machine, especially if you haven't done it before. After I put mine together, it took me a whole month to troubleshoot it. You really have to be careful that all the components work together. I would call the manufacturers one by one to confirm compatibility issues.

I got a memory (Kingston) that was incompatible with the motherboard (ASUS), and it was very difficult to troubleshoot that. I kept on thinking it was the graphics card that was giving me grief (Radeon 9800 Pro).

But now I love my computer, and even I treasure the nightmare that I had with the troubleshooting process. :wink:

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Sorry I only read the first part of your comment Sachtmo, the reason Im
not buying it seperatly is because im impatient and I want one now.
Rather in 3 years (about how much it would take to accumulate the money)

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

No, you don't understand. I mean, it's a hardware thing. It can't be re-formatted or partitioned ... which is why I said "wiped".

Uh ... it wont take you three years to save up that kind of money. You're forgetting, if you payed and built it yourself it will cost hundreds less.

Right now, you could buy a 6800 Ultra, AMD 64 Chip with a MSI board (Creative Labs 8 Channel sound) for under $600 ... That is better then the machine you put together up there. And those are the main components (minus ram of course)

I'd suggest shelling out, eventually, to get the main parts. And, also, Dude, you're 14 ... milk Christmas and birthdays! (Or whatever holidays you may practice) Also, if you do a "pay plan", couldn't you have your parents pay upfront, then you pay them? That sounds like what you're describing anyway.

In any case, if you're really working at getting money for something ... just wait. If it'd take you three years to save up enough to build it on your own, imagine how long it'd take you to pay off a computer that's over $1000! Not to mention ... if you miss a payment you're going to get reamed with charges.

The only "problem" in this situation really is that you're impatient.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I guess I should just milk Christmas, Hannukah, and Birthdays. Though I
did just have a birthday and spent all the money on a PSP ^_^

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

You can start working at 14.......thats what I did to buy my machine. I was 15, bought it on credit from my dad ($700 all together) and gave him my paychecks for the next 7 monthes.

Didn't I say that im getting a job in jaunuary. Im reffing little kid hockey games. But until then I dont have a job

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http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/8521/windows981dk.jpg

Nickelplate is my dad

My suggestion is to set your price first, and then try to get the best machine you can for that price.

Its a much better strategy that what you are doing IMO.

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http://maze5.net

Didn't I say that im getting a job in jaunuary. Im reffing little kid hockey games. But until then I dont have a job

Then you should be patient. It's a learning process. A long road leads to patience. But.... hey: got a nice story:

Some time ago (when we were younger), a Buddy of mine wanted to purchase WorldOfWarcraft. I searched my trusted onlineshop and the price was decent. But they had a lot of enquiries; so it would have taken a couple of days for them to deliver.
Now he wanted to buy it at all costs, that day. So he got his moped, drove the the next city and went for that extra-expensive store. But they didn't have it in stock.

So he waisted gas, time and was pretty stressed out and disappointed as well.

The nutshell:
Being impatient doesn't do you any good. In fact: You hardly get the thing you want earlier.

And to go back to your question: "Should I buy it considering my circumstances"

The answer is: "No" - No brands at all; no prebuild if possible.

Crapceeper-
wishing you success

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Never try to be perfect - just try it and make the best out of it

Ordered a system myself just a couple of days ago, it should arrive
next week. AMD 64 3200+, GeForce 6600GT PCI-E and so on... The total
price with some OEM software was around 1000e.

I'm buying the computer from a local computer store just like my
previous computer and I'm pretty happy with them. You generally just
walk in, take a look around while waiting for your turn and then have
short chat with the guy in charge about the parts and seal the deal
when you're satisfied. They order the parts, assemble and test the
system and eventually call to you and tell you to pick it up and finish
the deal. Beats those preassembled brand PCs and is way easier than
building your own + you get warranty and somewhat good customer service.

i got a new box first =p , filled it with crap for parts , and slowly
worked up and now i've got an alright computer... though i had
1/15th the cashflow you've got

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.else /me ~kill you
www.arclan.net