If we're talking new computers, there's a couple of things I need to improve on. I used to have a Geforce 2 MX/200 but my roommate gave me his 'faulty' (the only thing it does wrong is shimmer and shift the images onscreen at a cold startup, nothing bad else) Radeon 9600 XT (128 MB), so I reckon I could wait for a while before I get myself a decent videocard.

I have a really old CRT screen, but it's still working fine, so that can wait. I definitely need a new mobo (mine's waaaay too old, it's a Biostar M7VIB) and a new processor (I currently have an AMD 1500+ [1333 MHz]). All in all acceptable, but my computer is starting to slow down a tad bit too much to my liking. Any advice what I should get (reasonable prices! I'm a student! Without a job!)

Well, what is your price range? It really depends on how much of a budget you're on. For a graphics card get yourself an XFX Geforce 6600gt (unless you can stretch to a 6800gt) and get yourself an Abit AV8 3rd eye motherboard and a socket 939 Athlon 64 3000 (winchester core, make sure of this)

That is, if you can afford it. A cheaper solution would be to buy a 3100+ Sempron, and overclock it heaps (which works fine on air) but the A64 would give better gaming performance.

As I see it, the key factors in a new system are an SLI capable 939(amd) mobo (the A8N-SLI is an excellent choice.)

A midrange 939 pin Athlon64 (say, the 3000 or 3200) offer great bang for buck, and AFAIC are in the "sweet spot" of value for money. As someone else stated, make sure it's a 939 - you can upgrade such a CPU to the hotter Athlon 64-FX cpu later on.

At least 1GB of ram is needed (and is sufficient, but more won't hurt)

And of course, since ATI hasn't got an SLI solution on the market, that leaves the GeForce series cards (which are a better choice for upcoming shader-3 games anyways) I recommend a pair of 6600GTs, or possibly a single 6800GT which you can follow up with a second 6800GT when you can afford it.

Definitely get a pair of SATA hard drives, setup in Raid-0 they are blazingly fast.

Sink the rest into the best PSU (antec is on the top of my list) you can buy, the rest of the incidentals allowing.

[ 01-13-2005, 09:17 PM: Message edited by: Sir Krustin ]

<font color=plum>Heya <font color=white>Klorox</font>.

I haven't read all the posts and advice given so far, but I know you've recieved lots of good tips from the people here.

From my own experience, if you are not knowledgeable enough about computers to feel comfortable building your own, I would take the specs given by the people here and go to Dell's website to look for a system with comparable specs. I know the younger generation don't particularly like Dell and Gateway and the other guys, but for those of us who aren't as knowledgeable about computers, it is better to let someone who knows what they are doing build the machine for us.

Dell has great support and will even send a tech to your house within 24-48 hrs after receiving a service call. And you should be able to find a complete system for a LOT less than $2,000....in fact, you should be able to find a suitable system for as little as $1,000 from Dell.

That's just my [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img] </font>

You guys are lucky over there, we don't get any of that around here, they just have a calling office which takes you to people who eveidently don't have a clue about what they are talking about, which is why they tell you to "hold on" for a fewminutes all the time, and end up charging you big bucks as it is an international call.

<span style="color: lightblue">There's a reason for that. Dell tend to "tatoo" hardrives. Meaning, the OS is on a hidden partition that you can't format, short of using the Dell Disk. Want to put on a newer version of the OS, fully (not an upgrade)? Sorry, can't do that.

I'll second Cerek's comments. Being from NY myself, and needing a new computer (I'm logging on from a public library right now), I've asked a few pwople at work and everyone is very happy with a Dell.

You can get a decent CPU (assuming the other components you have work ok) for about $400. Nice! And they'll ship it for free.

400$ for a decent CPU is much. Too much.

400$ for a CPU that's only decent is a bit too much. You can get a 64-bit 3200+ for that, and still have some mony left over for an ASUS Star Ice jet cooler. Which rocks btw.

Re. Dell - I had a friend recently phoned me all happy and smiley to crow over the great deal he got from Dell and how he would now be able to play games like Scared and VtMB.......

Sounds nice, says I - what's the graphics?

Intel Xtreme says he.....

NO NO and a thousand times NO says I.

Upshot was that he had to hunt down a PCI graphics card, because not only did his Dell have c**p integrated graphics, but the mobo had no AGP capability.

No idea what Dell is doing now we have PCI Express, but be warned... :(