so ive had an IBM laptop for almost 3 years now. for a laptop its been great. and runs pretty much anything fine. i can multitask withphotoshop and aim and firefox and itunes and a bunch of stuff and its fine, and for the most part ive been able to enjoy games with it (played the first battlefield, sims, star wars battlefront, ea sports games..currently play WoW). but there are lots of games i have wanted to play but havent been able to, besides the fact that i just do a lot with computers and would really like a good desktop.

ive been looking around and honestly i havent found anything that could touch dell's prices for customizable computers.

im lookin at around 3.4GHz processor, 2Gigs of Ram, GeForce 6800. something around those specs.
last night on dell (with a 15% off coupon) i was able to spec one out with the above, as well as an 80GB HD at 10000rpms, and 19inch flat panel for right at 2000.

i guess basically i was wondering if anyone knows anywhere, anyway i could get a better deal than that, or if thats the best im gonna do. i def dont have the money to get one right now but as soon as i have the money (whenever that is) im planning on getting one

thanks

10/7/2005 2:45:33 PM

unless you're gonna build it yourself or pay someone local to build it for you, you're not gonna find much better deals than dell. Granted you might find some shady e-bay deal or the like but good luck with warranty issues.

my only suggestion is to get a good 3-4 year warranty on it. other than that, looks like a good machine.

10/7/2005 2:57:09 PM

If it were me I would try to get something from Velocity Micro. I am using one of their laptops right now and they are very good for the money. There is a link right below that shows their gaming systems and they might be around your price range, and I think you will be much happier with one of these over a Dell.

http://www.velocitymicro.com/category.php?cid=12

If you are wanting to play games you might want to look at seeing if you can get a GeForce 7800gt though. The price difference online is pretty small between the 6800's and the new 7800 gts, especially when you look at the performance difference. Also when you say there was a 19in flat panel you should make sure that it is the digital flat panel b/c I have heard that the others one suck.

You might have already known this but I figured I would make my recommendations anyways.

10/7/2005 3:00:00 PM

that'd be a nice ass computer... you can get the parts and built it yourself for a bit less but for some people the warranty and lack of hassle that dell offers is worth the extra money. We usually use Gateway products at work (the CEO will NOT let me order anything else, it's annoying..) and lately their warranty has sucked, I've been waiting two months for a replacement hard drive among other things. Anyways, not a bad price, get a good warranty if you're going to get one from them though since thats what theyre good for

10/7/2005 5:23:32 PM

^your CEO is a fucking retard, and if you ever want him to switch to Dell (like he should), lemme know and I'll give you the garaunteed lines to feed em.

CalledToArms: Build it yourself. For what you want, you will save significantly by parting it together, get much more performance and configurability.

Go with an AMD 64 X2 processor, 2gig ram, Geforce 7800GT (on dell for $314 right now) and the 20" Dell 2001FP (its MUCH better than the 19" or the widescreen 20") which is also on sale for $464 right now.

10/7/2005 8:08:00 PM

^ he is indeed a retard and has too much money to care...I've told him, even had everything setup so we'd have $20K of credit for net 90 terms vs having to literally mail gateway a check everytime we order and he still refused to get anything from them. PM me the line if you for some reason can't post it here

10/7/2005 8:19:30 PM

You simply ask him, would he buy a car on the word of a farmer that can only speak chinese?

If he says no, which any rational person should, then you say, then how can you warrant making the decisions on what computers to buy (implying he doesn't understand what the fuck he is talking about).

If he doesn't understand the connection, he is too stupid to be rational and you are fucked. Next option is to go print out the reliability ratings from PC Magazine (zdnet) and show him how fucking awful gateway is (not to mention more expensive).

10/7/2005 8:27:28 PM

hehe, the chances of him making the connection are slim to none... we're talking about a below average IQ cocky asshole here with a high school education who got lucky as hell and knows about one thing and one thing only....painting plastics

10/7/2005 8:31:31 PM

you can adapt that argument to anything outside of painting plastics that he HAD to rely on the expertise of others for.

If he has an accountant or book keeper, ask why he doesnt keep his own books and do his own payroll, same for taxes.

Theres a hundred ways to skin this cat.

10/7/2005 8:34:05 PM

i will try my best next time we have to order.. i even had his wife talked completely into buying stuff from dell (she owns half the company and has him by the balls) and she still couldn't even convince him. he's too caught up on looks and wants everything to match..so its gateway for practically everything for him, oh well. i'll give it a shot next time

10/7/2005 10:26:55 PM

thanks for all the replies folks, ill look into them more and do some research in the near future

10/7/2005 11:04:35 PM

Do you really think it is cheaper to build it yourself anymore? I built my first one years back and it was cheaper. I still build my own but that is b/c I keep using parts from my previous computers which means I don't spend as much money everytime I upgrade. If I were to build a completely new system right now I don't think I could beat some of the prices of the larger vendors.

10/8/2005 11:33:59 AM

the only way i could build that cheap of a computer now would be to use parts off tww

10/8/2005 12:46:32 PM

I built a machine LAST august, with better specs on everything than CalledToArms originally posted, in a SFF, for less.

For computers over $1500 bucks, you can pretty much always get better parts and save a signficant amount of money doing it yourself. It's the budget stuff that the vendors have locked up.

10/8/2005 4:47:35 PM

this is a good start
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=356103

10/8/2005 5:09:54 PM

i am pricing a build on newegg, with a 4200+ 64X2, 4 gig of ram, 2X 6600/256mb cards on a dual slot sli motherboard, ect, and so far it is well under 2000 WITH a 17 inch lcd.

10/8/2005 11:52:22 PM

^sli is a complete waste of money

10/8/2005 11:57:37 PM

well, am i better off with sli, wich i have on the baord i am looking at, and 2 cards that cost about 100 each, or a single $200 card?

10/9/2005 12:05:16 AM

I would get sli if that was an option, it is not a waste of money unless you don't play games at all. I would get 2 gigs of RAM though and put that extra money towards a 7800gt or a larger monitor. I don't think you will see much performance gain in going from 2 gigs to 4 gigs right now, this is assuming that you are using your system for gaming and some productivity apps. Also the 1 7800gt should out perform the 2 6600's in parallel. The upside to this is increased performance and also the ability to add another 7800gt in the future when your system requires more video horse power instead of having to ditch both of your 6600's and buy a new video card.

10/9/2005 12:17:47 AM

^not should, the 7800 will DEMOLISH two 6600's in SLI.

hell a 6800Ultra is faster in most benchmarks.

There's no need for more than 2gb of ram.

But yea go ahead and get the SLI board, might as well.

10/9/2005 12:31:21 AM

the sytem build i am lookign at is aimed mroe at video editing than gaming. The sli board is being offered at a discount as a combo deal with the 4200+, and a good chunk of the price is the hard drives. 4X 250 gig SATA 2 hardrives, and the only reason i went with 2X6600 cards was i was not sure weather i could find a single card for under 200 that would outpreform the twin card setup. If you know of one that would be a better idea for video editing with some gaming, let me know.


Will a single 6800/256 mb outpreform 2X 6600/256 mb cards? as a 6800 is the nicest nvidia card i see for under 200. So far i have not been looking at ati cards due to wanting the option of using sli

[Edited on October 9, 2005 at 12:55 AM. Reason : asdf]

10/9/2005 12:52:41 AM

ati cards can do sli using crossfire. and two 6600gt's will cost you more like 250.

if you are doing dv editing, why are you even going with two 6600's?

an ati x300 is all you need and then some. you dont use the video card for shit doing video work, unless you are going to be doing a lot of 3d compositing and animation in after effects.

but in any case, get the 7800gt from dell right now for 314 (check slickdeals), its the cost of a 6800ulta and best card out there.

if you are doing dv, definitely get 4gb of ram.

10/9/2005 2:39:32 AM

going with 4 gig of ram already, the max the baord will handle. Need enough video to run most games, and to do some 3d stuff for ont he fly rendering and the like. the dual 6600/256mb combo was the cheapest setup i saw for dual card that would give decent game framrate for $200. Hell, it was the cheapest pair of 256 mb cards i saw.

10/9/2005 2:41:44 AM

after a lot of research and pricing components not even on-sale/rebates i have decided it is going to save me a a VERY noticeable amount of money to build it myself. just from new egg last night, not even looking for rebates i was looking at:

COMPONENT (PRICE)
--------------------------------
256MB GeForce 6800 GT ($275)
Gigabyte MB ($106)
AMD Athalon-64bit 3700+ ($244)
Maxtor 120GB HD ($67)
2GB (2x1GB) CAS2 RAM ($253)
CD-RW/DVD ($28)
500W Power Supply (2 fans) ($50)
Case (~$100)
Windows XP Professional ($69)
---------------------
TOTAL 1192
---------------------

same comparable computer from dell of alienware, even without a monitor, is over 2000 bucks.

i also saw some good cases with a power supply included for around $100 as well. and with rebates and all closer to Christmas i could very easily get this for under $1100 dollars.

10/25/2005 3:52:53 PM

A64 3000+ revE
DFI Lanparty nF4 ultra-D

I would go with that CPU/mobo combo and save $100 and get a 7800GT, but thats just me. You can probably get that cpu up to 2.4ghz with good air flow and it would be comparable to the 3700+.

10/25/2005 7:37:54 PM

its something to think about but i think im gonna stick with getting a nice MB and the best processor i can afford and get the 6800GT. the 6800GT will allow me to play anything i want to for quite some time. and a video card is a lot more practical to me. plus IMO, the ~second best graphics card is always the most money efficient as far as what you pay for and what you get. the newest ones are always way overrpriced

10/25/2005 8:59:05 PM

I suppose it depends on how you look at it because a 7800GT is only around $50 more than a 6800GT so it seems like the better buy in my opinion. But if you want the faster processor I can understand. Most people do not want to go through the hastle of OCing. You can always overclock the 6800GT to ultra speeds so its deffinitly not a terrible buy for $270 by any means.

10/25/2005 9:21:11 PM

OR, if you bid on my 6800GT OC that i'm selling you can get away with it even cheaper

unless you need PCI-e which mine is AGP

10/25/2005 9:24:53 PM

im pretty sure im lookin for a pci-e heh

^^ the 7800GTs i saw were over 100 more. if they are only 50 id def consider it and just get the same setup with a 7800GT instead of a 6800GT

10/25/2005 9:27:01 PM

mm yea just looked on new egg. with rebates there were some around 329. if i can keep it under 1200 id def get the 7800GT instead

im excited. now i just have to get all the money. im hoping to get it around Christmas time

10/25/2005 9:36:20 PM

egg had a sale on friday to get the XFX 7800GT for $299 AND you get COD2 with that. I'm sure they will have more closer to the holiday season just keep an eye out. Good luck with the build.

10/25/2005 9:45:17 PM

thanks man yea im gonna wait till decemberish to get this thing.
i figured with the chance on good rebates i could get this under 1100 possibly. thatd be a very good deal

10/25/2005 10:00:49 PM