Best Computer

dinkydo53545

Baseband Member
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Hi, everyone, I am new to the forum. My Army son got me hooked on computers, ppc , music , movies and Mochas . I also do Data entry at home for 8 hrs a day so I am pretty much computer life person. Love it. You cant get enough of the web.

Anyway, I have a 1 1/2 yr old T3104 emachine. Been searching for a new computer ,the more I look, the more my husband and I get confused. I have narrowed it down to one I saw in the Best Buy add this week but still have doubts , since I dont really need the printer. We look on Newegg and e-cost but still not sure what is the best for my needs. So I would like to get some suggestions from you all.

Here's my needs: I use audio constantly ( listening to radio shows all day through internet) and do alot of recording doing the day to listen later. , use lots of video for games, want speed.

Want to spend about $800. doesnt have to be a package deal, just want a good system.

Hope someone can help

Charlene
 
I the best way to go is to build it yourself. It is normally cheaper, better then a store bought system, and you build so you get just the things you need.
 
This, fits better in the general hardware/software section.

What do you do with your computer? We can help you find things better if we know more about what you do. Do you just need a basic office computer (Something that can do data entry, and web-surfing but not much more) or are you into a little gamming?

Also, would you want to try building your own, or are you looking for a pre-built computer?
 
Here is a quick good build:

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe 2.13GH
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115016-$186.00
Mobo
MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130081- $149.99
HDD
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261 - $64.99
RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145034- $107.00
PSU
COOLMAX CW-650T EPS12V 650W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817159056- $109.00
GPU
EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062 - $89.99
Optical
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106055- $30.99

Total= $757.96 w/o shipping or tax

Then you pick out a case and you are good to go!
 
Well on that budget I'd recommend building your own PC and tuning it to a higher end system. I see you say you do some gaming but it sounds like basically you want a do a little of everything PC.

Are you guys comfortable building your own? Its so much more cost effective because like I said you can manually tweak everything. A example a x6800 dual core is right around $900 dollars. I paid $300 at the time for my E6600 dual core which is basically the same processor minus a unlocked multiplier and a lower clock 2.4ghz vs 2.93ghz x6800. But I overclocked it myself and it will kill a x6800 now. I saved $600 dollars just by doing that myself. If I bought a prebuilt one most likely I could not tweak the bios and would be stuck at 2.4ghz forcing you to buy a higher end model if you wanted something faster.

I'll await the ya I wanna build my own confirmation then will see what we can build ya.
 
Thanks for all the great help. I think we are looking for one that is already put together. I think building it ourselves would be over whelming. We saw a couple in last week's at Best Buy but decided to wait and this week's Sunday add had a better one but not sure if its good enough.

I dont need it for data entry or work. I put lot of personal programs on it, I use a program constantly called Replay A/V that records tons of radio stations/music . I sometimes record 5 programs at one time. I need something that will keep up with them and not keep stopping.
My old computer , makes my audio that I am listening to ) skip everytime I use the mouse to do something else at the same time , say , check my hotmail. So that is my main concern, multi-tasking, I guess.
 
Well it sounds like you definately need to go dual core. Thats pretty much the norm on all computer today anyways I guess. Most of the systems your going to be looking at in best buy are going to come with Vista as the operating system. Here's what you want to get a good experience IE not dragging and quick snappy performance.

You want a Core2duo processor for the best CPU. Most of them will be configured with most likely E6400 processors which will do you just fine. You'll want to make sure you have at least 2 gigs of ram. Most are likely to have 667Mhz ram in them try and look for one that has 800mhz ram in them.

3rd you want a dedicated Graphics card do not buy anything with intergrated video. Not sure what the norm is for harddrives as far as prebuilts i'll assume 250gig-400gig drives. If you use it as a media center you'll want at least a 400 gig drive that should give you a easy 125hrs of high quality recorded tv or alot more radio stations recorded.

I'd recommend seeing if they have the 64bit option of Vista Home Premium you'll get a better experience since you'll be recording lots of radio stuff. Much more user friendly the 64bit just future proofs your PC by not locking you in down the road at 3.25gigs.

That should help you out some. If your feeling nervous about possibly building your own check out this thread I wrote on building your own PC. Its really not as hard as people think the only downside is you don't have that 800 number you can just call if something goes wrong you have to troubleshoot it yourself and contact manufactures etc. In the end though I feel its worth it cause like I said you can then tweak it to preform to a much higher end system.

A simple analogy would be you buy a new car with a 5 year warranty. Your not allowed to do anything to the motor etc or it voids the warranty. Custom building your not limited to that and can literally turbo charge your system to dust computers running the same hardware. Only difference would be your system is tuned. But anyways heres that thread.

http://www.computerforums.org/showthread.php?t=57597

Hope that helps some feel free to PM me if you have any questions. If you find a system you like you can post a link and i'll let you know if it should meet your needs.
 
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