V8KOMX3 wrote:I would reccommened any atx tower with 350 or more pws(power), athlon 64 or p4 3+ghz ( reccommend the p4 because it has been around awhile and problems are known but athlon is great just very new).
Actually there are more issues with Pentium 4's thatn Athlon 64's, specifically the Prescott generation, with heat issues, and if you have a Prescott P4, you cannot install Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. The Athlon 64 is actually more mature than a P4, Intel changed it's core many times in it's existance than AMD's Athlon 64's. And that's one thing about Intel, they like to change sockets very often, which can easilly limit your computer's upgrade capability overnight. AMD's socket 939 platform is great, it has budget chips such as the Athlon64 3000+ that goes for ~C$275, or you can go upto an Athlon FX-55, the fastest CPU on the market, for ~C$1118, and in the future, a BIOS flash will allow you to use a dual-core processor when they come out later (I dont remember the release schedual on those)
Tunes67 wrote:FSB (Front Side Bus) Is not "crucial" to performance of all computers. The new AMD 64bit CPU's dont even have a FSB. The FSB is the "Roadway" that your processor uses to transfer data back and forth from the memory controller (chipset) to your RAM. In the newer AMD 64 bit systems, the memory controller is built into the processor itself eliminating the need for the controller being built into the chipset on the motherboard, thus eliminating the need for the "Crucial" FSB speed. Intel platforms still use the chipset/memory controller design and so the FSB is still important to those machines.
Just to slightly elaborate, the benefit to the memory controller on the processor (of an Athlon 64) than on the motherboard with the chipset is:
-Lower latency, less distance to travel for information
-The CPU can talk to the system RAM directly, not only resulting is less waiting, but it functions at the same speed at the processor's speed, instead of the speed of the Front Side Bus
Tunes67 wrote:3) More cost effective. If you call Dell or any other computer manufacturer and rattle off a list of all the specific parts you want in your computer.. you will find that your eventual cost of the machine will be almost double what you can buy & build it for yourself.
Their prices are horrible, what they do for their computers is put the computer itself at a lower-than-competitive price to draw in the customer, so those basic systems are a good value, however, the prices of upgrades or add-on components are usually 50%-100% more expensive than buying them off the shelf. What I've seen them do is add-in components to the package that you can't take out, like a wireless router, and that you have to pay for, very sneaky.
1) Little or no warranty. This depends on where you buy your parts of course.
http://www.newegg.com or
http://www.zipzoomfly.com are great places to buy components and have a excellent reputation for handling returns. (though sometimes you gotta get a little "annoyed" on the phone with newegg.. but they have always come through on those few occasions where I had to return something) [/quote]
Typically warranties are 3-5 years on major components like motherboard and cpu. I know MSI (motherboard manufacturer) has a 3 year warranty on their motherboard, which is one of the reason why I use their motherboards in my CarPC, (I just replaced mine last week), another benefit to MSI is they have a depot in Canada to allow quicker turn arounds. That's one thing about living in Canada, it can complicate warranty service to Manufacturers. Like Asus, they make great motherboards, but if it needs to be sent out for repairs, it has to go back to California, making it a 4-6 week turnaround, they don't bother with a Canadian service depot since they sell more motherboars in California than in Canada. Warranty on processors varies as well cause you can buy them in 2 flavors, Retail or OEM. Retail box processors come in a sealed box with a cooling fan and usually have a 3 year warranty, maybe longer. OEM chips are sold in bundles in a rack, designed to be sold to system builders, they come at a cheaper price, but they not only don't come with a cooling fan, but only have a 1 year warranty. RAM, you can get with a lifetime warranty. Hard drives have warranties from 1 years to 3 to 5 years depending on manufacturer and model. The Western Digitial SATA 10'000rpm Raptor drive have a 5 year warranty
POwer supplies, never judge them by their wattage, cause there are ways to legally falsly advertise it, you do get what you pay for. There are 2 ways you can tell a power supply is good, first is by weight, good power supplies are very heavy, but also is to compare the amperage on each rail, specifically the +12v, +5v and +3.3v. Higher amperage means higher power output. Even in the brand name power supplies, i've seen a 450w from one company with the same amperages (or very very close) to a 550w from another company. And try to get a power supply that are approved by the CPU manufactures, it will ensure good power, cause dirty power can cause system instabilities, and cheap power supplies, when they die, they have a good change of taking out something in the system with it, and approved power supply with have an internal surge protection so that doesn't happen.
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I want to be able to play some games on it with good performance. I want to get into playing Counterstrike and World of Warcraft. I figured the off the shelf variety wouldn't be very user friendly when it came to upgrades. Whats a good starting point for internet gaming and other media playing? Should I just go to a small shop and get someone to build me something?
and that about sums it up. I dont' know how much you know about computers right now, so i've given alot of detail. If you know alot about me, i didnt' mean to insult you, just helping out lol
