Confused and need help.

[Chimera778]

I have recently been wanting to buy a new computer and have been shopping around, but I am now more confused than before I even started, I hope maybe some people here more knowledgable than myself can lend some help.

I am looking for something fast, probably the best I can get for 1700 or less.

What is the big difference between intel and AMD? I prefer Intel just becasue I am a little more familiar with the brand, but I have a AMD right now and it works just fine.

What is DDR3 memory? is it so much better than DDR2? and if I can afford it, should I go with a quad core over a duo? It just sounds faster, but I have no idea about the technology behind it? is i7 even better?

What about hard drives? I never even thought about them much, I always thought they were the same, shows how much I know.

What is the latest graphics card from nVidia? I thought it was the 9800, but now I am thinking for some reason that I am wrong about that? Is ATI as good as nVidia still?

As much as I would like to build my own, I have no idea how to do that and have little faith in my ability to learn, so I have resigned myself to knowing that I will likely be ripped off in a store.

Thank you for any help, I assure you it is greatly apreciated.

 

[_-..zKiLLA..-_]

Well welcome to the forums

first off we need to know some stuff. What are you gonna be doing? (gaming, interwebz, etc.) if gaming, what resolution do you plan to play on? if you plan to game (from the likes of your budget thats what im thinking) then i would reccomend a core 2 duo because games dont use all 4 cores yet. but if you plan to do multitasking then a quad core suites ur needs. Im gonna assume your gonna be gaming because of your budget

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131297

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227289

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115054

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102768

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

x2 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

Total comes to $1,286.91

and the rest is for a case, mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

What is the big difference between intel and AMD? I prefer Intel just becasue I am a little more familiar with the brand, but I have a AMD right now and it works just fine.

The Intel CPU's are just outright faster than their AMD counterparts.

What is DDR3 memory? is it so much better than DDR2? and if I can afford it, should I go with a quad core over a duo? It just sounds faster, but I have no idea about the technology behind it? is i7 even better?

DDR3 is the new memory standard needed for the Core i7 systems. DDR2 is plenty for the current crop of motherboards and CPUs

What about hard drives? I never even thought about them much, I always thought they were the same, shows how much I know

The top manufacturer's are Seagate and Western Digital. It really boils down to how large a drive do you want and your budget.

What is the latest graphics card from nVidia? I thought it was the 9800, but now I am thinking for some reason that I am wrong about that? Is ATI as good as nVidia still?

The GTX 280 is the latest anfd greatest from Nvidia. It's about the fastest single GPU card available

As much as I would like to build my own, I have no idea how to do that and have little faith in my ability to learn, so I have resigned myself to knowing that I will likely be ripped off in a store.

Thank you for any help, I assure you it is greatly apreciated.

If you really don't want to build your own. iBUYPOWER has some new killer systems based on the Intel Core i7 CPU. The Gamer Paladin F850 or F750 would be excellent gaming computers. They are also fully configurable.

 

[Chimera778]

Yes, I am really getting this to play games on, I am looking for something that can play the latest batch of games (Far Cry 2, etc. but especially Fallout 3) and still be good for the next couple of years at least.

I was looking at the iBUYPOWER site and those do look nice, but I have some questions about them. For one, they seem much cheaper than for similar specs than what i was looking at with dell, HP, etc. How is this possible? are they reliable? I have no experience with them, so I don't know anything about them.

Thank you very much for the help and advice so far.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

I'm not really sure how they are able to price their systems lower than Dell, other then you're not paying for the "prestigious" Dell or HP name tags. They do build reliable systems from what I have read. In fact my father in law just purchased a system from them and is very happy with the computer and their service.

They also have a very good rating at Resellerratings: iBUYPOWER Customer Satisfaction Rating