f13.net forums - New Computer advice.

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July 23, 2025, 10:59:36 AM

we're back, baby

So, my old PC blew up a few weeks ago and I am looking to buy a new PC.

I am a gamer.. but not hardcore, anymore. I'm mainly into RPG games and MMO's... Bit burned out on FPS games overall.
I have pretty much $1000 bucks to get a new PC.
I've owned a couple gateways in the past, and never had any problems with them... but I'm not really looking to get another. I figured if I was going to get a new one I'd go for one of the lesser named brands where I won't have to worry about as much when it comes to upgrading in the future, and spending hours getting rid of the crapware that the big companies stuff on their pc's.

I've basically looked around and decided to get this:

Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600(2.4GHz)
Processor Main Features 64 bit Quad-Core Processor
Cache Per Processor 8MB
Memory 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800
Hard Drive 500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
Optical Drive 1 20X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Dual Layer
Optical Drive 2 16X DVD-ROM
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT 512MB
Audio Realtek ALC888 HD Audio Flexible 8-channel audio with jack sensing
Ethernet Supports 10/100/1000 Ethernet by Realtek RTL8211BL
Keyboard 104 PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Optical Wheel PS/2 Mouse
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
Special Features Apevia X-Jupiter Jr. Mid-Tower 420W Case

That PC is at about 950 bucks. I'm also going to bump the RAM to 4GB.
I'm kind of lazy when it comes to building a PC for myself.. and after doing some price comparison I could basically build the same PC with the same parts, but I'd have to buy a new OS anyway.

This PC is made by CyberpowerPC, I've looked for some reviews about their stuff.. and it doesn't seem to be a bad company overall.

So any suggestions are welcome.

If you can bump the 8600GT to an 8800GT, you will not want for video-card awesomeness for another two years. 8800GTs are hard to find and a bit marked-up right now, though. Still, the difference is substantial.

Aye, I'm going to upgrade my card over time. I'm not too worried about having top of the line graphics atm, since most of the games I play alot are a couple years old anyway... and I was happy with the 6800gt I had before my computer died. I'll have to get a new PSU when I do that.

Mainly it's just a money issue atm. Need to make sure I have enough for my tuition next semester. hehe

Do you really want Vista for some reason? Since your old PC blew up I'm assuming that its copy of Windows XP isn't being used any longer. I've noticed that a lot of people don't realize that it's perfectly legitimate to just install and reregister their old Windows XP on their new machine as long as it isn't being used anywhere else anymore. That'll save you some money that you could spend on new toys. :)

Sorry if I'm telling you obvious stuff that you already knew.

Yeah I'm kind of meh on the whole Vista thing.

I'd like to stay with XP for a bit longer.. and I would have avoided it longer had my old PC not blown up. However, I think I'm just going to deal with it. I doubt Vista is going to go away and you pretty much need it anyway now for DX10 don't you? It's an OS I'm going to have to learn eventually.. so I might as well just go with it. I would have preferred to wait for the SP1 to hit, but so is life.

Also I lost my old Windows XP serial number. I had a small house fire a couple of years ago and lost a bunch of papers and junk. For some reason there was no XP serial sticker on my PC.

If you're going Vista on a Core 2-based machine, especially one you intend to put 4+ GB of RAM into, you might as well go straight for 64-bit Vista. I fail to see the point in 32-bit Vista at all.

That said, I'm running 64-bit Vista now and it's nice. But getting it was an unimaginable pain in the ass, since I didn't want to lay down the cash for Vista Ultimate - which is the only retail edition that comes with 64-bit discs. I ended up buying it off the online Windows Marketplace, downloading the installer, then using a third-party program to turn the installer into a bootable Vista install CD.

Not for the faint of heart.

lol.. that sounds like a pain in the ass Yoru.

Yeah I'm basically just maxing out my ram at 4gigs. Since that's the max on the 32 bit version. Upgrading to 64bit is probably something down the road for me.

My old machine only had 1 gig of ram... so all this is just icing on the cake for me. lol.

As it is the only reason I'm even getting a quad core is because the prices are on par with the core duo.

Meh, I got vista home premium (32bit) then just filled out an online form and paid $5 to have ms ship me the x64 disc.

Runs fine, and uses all 4 gig of memory, whereas the x32 showed 2.75 on the same chips.

You many want to get a case with a beefier power supply (or get a separate PS) so you don't limit as much your video card upgrade options in the future unless you don't mind upgrading the power supply at the same time as you do your video card.

Quote from: rattran on November 25, 2007, 06:05:15 PM

Yeah, that was an option, but I read it'd take 2-14 days for them to "process" my order, and then there's return shipping time. Impatience ftw. Oh ho ho ho. Reallllly?

Aside from the Windows Vista OS, I see nothing to critique on that setup. Stick with XP for now or, at the very worst, dual boot it. Vista is eventually going to be where it's at, thanks in part to Microsoft's fascist choice of foisting DirectX 10 though it, but in the meanwhile you're going to encounter a lot of stability and compatibility problems that are going to make you want that Windows XP partition.

Quote from: Trippy on November 25, 2007, 09:08:11 PM

Ya I'm probably going to upgrade the PSU over time. It'll probably be done before I get the new vid card.

Thanks for the advice everyone btw. awesome, for real

btw is there any reason to not get a quad core over a higher rated duo? I tend to update like every 4-5 years so I was thinking that quad was better for the long haul.