New Computer

[streamlina]

Hey, im in the market for a new computer. mine right now is about 4 years old. Im wondering what type of computer i should get. id use it mostly for gaming, i also wanna be able to install the windows coming out. So if u have any ideas thanks

[XtraNtnse]

custom home built :)

[mcovey]

i agree, make your own. I did and it came out nice.

if you cant do that I like my gateway, and if you're in the market for gaming, look at www.cyberpowerinc.com or alienware. Falcon Northwests are ripoffs, IMO.

[mcovey]

mm, I love opera.

The session saving is so much better than firefox (no matter when it crashes/closes, the session is saved), mouse gestures, neato sidebars, takes less ram with 500 tabs open, tons of skins, awesome mail client, newsgroups and IRC (well the IRC client still needs work)... hide it in the system tray, quick enable/disable of proxies, java, javascript, sounds, popups... better rendering engine than firefox (actually they've both got good/bad points), and support for all the best of firefox WITH extensions, built right in.

[hawkburn]

The windows coming out? You mean longhorn? That's not coming out anytime soon. In about 2 years if we're lucky. And the necessary specs arent available, and most likely wont be available till the final is almost at launch. I would say though to build you own. I did, came out wonderful.

[Malakai1911]

Depends on your budget, and what you're looking to do.

Strict Budget?
MSI K7N2 Delta-L
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Socket A)

Decent budget?
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
AMD Athlon64 3200+ (Socket 754)

Large Budget?
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum
AMD Athlon64 3500+ (Socket 939)

Then throw in at least 2 sticks of 256MB RAM (512MB total), preferably OCZ (or 2 512MB sticks if you feel like having 1GB of ram).

Get a decent gaming card, at least a Radeon 9600XT. Some prefer nVidia, check around for benchmarks relavant to games you play, but as a rule of thumb, the 9600XT is really a good baseline card.

Lite-On 8x DVD +/- Burner is like $80 now, (or for a budget machine) get a nice Lite-On 52X CD Burner for like $30.

Hard drives are your choice as to size and type, stick with a decent brand, many people have different experiences with different manufacturers, so look around. (I prefer WD drives, but some dont. It's like that with many parts, though.)

Sound? You could use the onboard sound, or get a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or SB! Live for a step up. For a premier sound experience, Audigy2's are nice.

Lastly, dont skimp on the power supply, I prefer buying Antec cases, because they come with
(very reliable) Antec power supplies.

Grab things from Newegg, or ZipZoomFly. Or pricewatch to look around, whatever.

edit: If you get my suggestion system #2 or #3, you will be able to take advantage of the new (upcoming) "Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" or whatever they want to call it now. I'd make a good bet that longhorn would also support Athlon 64's.