1500 dollar PC

[dusematic]

Would yours look something like this:  http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200606.ars/3?

Or would you just go to Dell, slap on a 35% off coupon, and save yourself the hassle by getting the best Dimension they had available? 

[Engels]

Would yours look something like this:  http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200606.ars/3?

Or would you just go to Dell, slap on a 35% off coupon, and save yourself the hassle by getting the best Dimension they had available? 

Depends on what you want to use it for. I would not recommend a Dimension for gaming; I'd go for an Dell XPS if you're going to do that. However, you have to use a Pentium D to stay even remotely within the same price range as the above rig, and that's just sad.

[Strazos]

Holy Fuck. 250GB HDD?!!? For $80!?!?

Zoinks.

Oh, yeah, I would definately build something like that if I was building a fresh system today.

[Trippy]

Would yours look something like this:  http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200606.ars/3?

Or would you just go to Dell, slap on a 35% off coupon, and save yourself the hassle by getting the best Dimension they had available? 

Approximately. I'd go with an ASUS motherboard, NVIDIA GPU, and something like an Antec P150 case. I have both the non-bundled power supply version of the SLK 3800B and the P150 and while the SLK 3800B is a fine case the P150 is a better and quieter case design and it has a better (and quieter) power supply, though of course it's more expensive. I'd also get a heatpipe heatsink like a Zalman or a Ninja Scythe (though the Scythe can be a very tight fit in those Antec cases depending on the position of the CPU socket) which adds another $35 - $55 to the cost.

I've been building my own PCs since I got out of college so I definitely wouldn't go the Dell route.

[Samwise]

I've only built one PC to date, but it was a sufficiently positive experience that I'll be doing it again.  It was only a few hours of work, and I ended up saving about a thousand dollars over buying a comparable Dell/Alienware machine.

[Arrrgh]

Conroe hits in a few days.  You can either get one of those, or take advantage of the huge sales on the old chip machines they're going to be trying to unload.

[WindiaN]

building it insures quality parts across the board who knows where dell cuts corners on the parts it doesn't list. You can snag a 45% coupon every now and then which could change your mind though :o

[Krakrok]

Recently dropped $788 on a Dell Dimension E510 ($1187 before 35% off). This is my 'TV' machine so I skimped on the monitor because I have it plugged into an Infocus X2a. I've built systems for years but lately I can't beat Dell.

D Proc 930 Dual core 3Ghz 800FSB
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz (2x512M)
17 inch E176FP Analog Flat Panel
256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X600 SE HyperMemory
160GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/ 8MB cache
Media Center Edition 2005
16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio+Keyboard+Mouse+Modem


That Ars page is messed up. It lists the ATI Radeon X1800XT 512MB and then gives a review and price for the hard drive? WTF.. where is the video price? I've seen Geforce 7800's on rebate for ~$219 so however much the X1800XT is, is probably too much.

[Fabricated]

An ABit board? What a fucking awful guide.

[dusematic]

is an abit motherboard really that bad?  ars people usually seem to know what's up.

[Trippy]

is an abit motherboard really that bad?  ars people usually seem to know what's up.

No it's not. They no longer have the "rep" they used to have when they were the overclocking pioneers (no jumpers? woohoo!) though they've been trying to regain some of that back with their Fatality line. ASUS and DFI are the top two "enthusiast's board" manufacturers right now, I would say, with others like ABIT, Gigabyte, and MSI just below them.

Edit: fixed typo

[Yegolev]

That's more or less how I'd go I think, without scouring the bleeding-edge to verify.  ASUS mobo, Crucial RAM, otherwise looks OK.  Personally I have had no probems with a Seagate after all these years, so I'll go with what I know and get a Seagate high-RPM SATA for a new boot disk (although WD has some sexy units).  I still have the same full tower case I have had for years, and I will keep my current PSU and media drives.  I have lately been thinking that I need to cowboy up and get away from the onboard sound, and $100 for a card seems reasonable.  The problem I have just now is that I will have to at least buy a mobo, CPU and GFX when I upgrade, which is even more unappealing since my 6800GT is still performing well in most situations.

I would not buy a Dell even with a coupon.  I might as well order a bride from Russia.  When other people ask me to build them a computer, though, I tell them that Dells are exactly what they need.

[Fabricated]

is an abit motherboard really that bad?  ars people usually seem to know what's up.

No it's not. They no longer have the "rep" they used to have when they were the overclocking pioneers (no jumpers? woohoo!) though they've been trying to regain some of that back with their Fatality line. ASUS and DFI are the top two "enthusiast's board" manufacturers right now, I would say, with others like ABIT, Gigabyte, and MSI just below them.

Edit: fixed typo

DFI sucks a lot too. Every one I know who has used a recent DFI board has had nothing but problems.

[Strazos]

Asus is win, gg.

[Sky]

I love my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (DD5.1 onboard hardware). I'm going to hate upgrading it, best mobo I've ever had.

A couple pcs back I was using ABIT and had lots of problems, but that was many years ago. My P2, 400 iirc, ran on a P2B board that died, then the replacement P2B died, and the P3B that was in it when I retired it was always buggy. I was going to use it as a server some years ago and it was never worth the hassle nor the cost of upgrading.

Crucial ftw, never had a problem with their RAM at home or work.

[Moaner]

I have that exact board (the Abit KN8-Ultra) and have had 0 problems with it.  As a matter of fact, this is the first machine I've built that has actually exceeded my expectations.  I threw a AMD 4000+ San Diego, 1gb ram, 250gb sataII, and a eVga 7800gt in it.  I have never been happier with my computer.

I would not hesitate to build that machine.

[Hoax]

Would look something like that for sure, I hate to say it though but I still can't bring myself to consider AMD.  If I bought one I would want to overclock it and that just isn't something I feel like dealing with.  So basically I'm waiting for there to be some hype about Intel making a chip that most people think doesn't suck for the price (if it ever happens again, if not AMD it is) before I build my next rig.  This one should last another 1-2 years though with a second gig of the top of the line memory it has now and possibly a video card upgrade (although I think I should be ok on that front).

[Strazos]

I also have an A7N8X Deluxe, and I love it...I'm gonna miss it when I do an overhaul eventually, but hopefully the Asus board that takes its place will be even better.

[Sky]

Hoax, the Conroes look pretty nice. I'll probably jump into one of those next year if I can swing it. Not sure where the dislike for AMD comes from, my Barton has been a champ, and they've gotten much better since that.

[Hoax]

Not dislike, just fear of the unknown.  I've watched some people do stupid things and fuck up cpu's/mobo's via overclocking but the first two times I built a rig not overclocking an AMD meant Intel was actually a better bang/buck ratio.  I'm not even sure if that is true anymore though.  I've heard that AMD has been gaining rapidly for some time now.

[Engels]

Well, it used to be the case that the mid-range AMDs were always better and cheaper than the Intel chips. Up until this new Conroe, the AMD top chip beat Intel's top chip, and for a lower price. Both are now stable chips. Back in the stone age, AMD was less stable and prone to splodin if you overclocked it, but that hasn't been true since the AMD 64s came out.

[dusematic]

What's the best site that collects all the coupons and deals?  I had a sweet one bookmarked but I lost it.

[Strazos]

I always buy from Newegg, coupon or not.

[Kenrick]

I always buy from Newegg, coupon or not.

Fo' shilzzle.

 

[Krakrok]

I watch the TechBargains, Woot, and DealMeIn.net rss feeds.

[Lt.Dan]

What's the best site that collects all the coupons and deals?  I had a sweet one bookmarked but I lost it.

edealinfo.com or something - there may a hyphen in there somewhere.

[schild]

eDealinfo.com is a good one.

DealMeIn.net is good as well.

Slickdeals has gone to shit.

[dusematic]

OK, here's my last question, would you rather have a 20 inch dell widescreen or a 20 inch dell reg monitor?  I'm going to pull the trigger tonight when I get back from work.  A 3.4 ghz/2gig ram/20 inch lcd monitor computer for a 1,000 bucks is too good a deal to pass up.  The vid card stinks, but I'll just buy a solid 150 dollar card and be done with it.

[Arrrgh]

If you wait till the 27th for the new chips to hit you can get a faster machine for about the same money.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q3/core2/index.x?pg=18

[bhodi]

Go widescreen, you'll never go back.

[Righ]

I think that at the moment it is worth waiting for Core 2 Duo chips. Or you could just spend $1500 on a case and fill it with ice and beer.

[Sky]

I agree with the two previous posts. Of course, by widescreen I mean a big screen hdtv :P

[Rasix]

I agree with the two previous posts. Of course, by widescreen I mean a big screen hdtv :P

That might push the PC past the $1500 mark.  Just maybe.

[Sky]

Well...there's a pc and then there are peripherals...

[dusematic]

Yeah but is Dell gonna be selling these Core 2 Duos in Dimensions?