New Computer - Help me with the Specs

[Siesatia]

Ok, so I'm getting a new computer for my birthday, and the deal is, I supply the specs, parents pay for half of it. What specs should I get, its obviously going to be a gaming computer.

I'm thinking:

2.3+ Duo/Quad Core Processer
2GB RAM
250 GB Drive
75 GB Backup Drive

Havn't gotten a good idea on a card. Post suggestions, this thing needs to last a while in terms of technology and games.

[Arizona Nova]

Go all out on HDs man. They have drive combos that can go up to a terabyte and further.

Also, I personally recommend getting a Dell. Yes, I know they made those hateful "Dude!" commercials, and all that, but if you go all out on their service plan it seriously rocks. At the very least, in case of hardware failure, you'll get free replacements, if you opt not to get a technician sent to straight where you live to replace it - again, for free.

[Central Facehuggeria]

Alternatively, if you're comfortable with hardware, I can suggest building your own. You can build a competitive gaming computer for less than half of what you'd pay for the very same shabang from dell or HP.

If you positively need e-peen, you can get something from alienware or falcon or some hyper-expensive custom gaming firm. That's what I did; I bought from Alienware once simply so that I could say "I bought an alienware computer. Rawr." Now I plan to use the wonderful case that I got my alienware in for upgrades. It's humongous, with lots of room for new drives. Plus, it's got some extra fans mounted in strategic locations, for maximum win. However, the gaming OEMs will gouge you even more than the big guys.

Now, onto specifics:

2.3+ Duo/Quad Core Processer

Quad? I can't think of a single game in existance or development (besides Supreme Commander) that even supports a quad core. Though Crysis might, when it comes out. I think you'd be safe with just a dual core. Though if you positively demand top performance, you'll probably have to go with a quad. However, from what I understand, quad cores are incredibly expensive right now.

2GB RAM

Good, but if it's meant to last awhile, you might want to bump that up to four gigs. You can never have too much RAM. It'll let you store all those girnormous fan-made 2800x2800 high-res textures, for maximum prettyness. Plus, more RAM is good for Vista too, because Vista, like any windows OS, hogs RAM nastily.

250 GB Drive
75 GB Backup Drive

Good enough. AZN might suggest a huge HD, but I've found that a mere 160 gig is sufficient for my purposes. And, knowing me, I have a lot of porn. Really, it's hard to watch more than a hundred and fifty gigs of porn, so I think two hundred fifty gigs with 75 gigs for critical files and the OS is perfectly fine.

Havn't gotten a good idea on a card.

8800 GTX. If your motherboard supports SLI, you can eventually get two to run any current and foreseeable next-gen game. I don't even know what ATI's equivelent card is, but from what I've heard, ATI is a ways behind Nvidia at the moment. Though this could change at any time.

Post suggestions, this thing needs to last a while in terms of technology and games.

Don't get cheapo no-name RAM. Shell out for the good stuff. Kingston or Corsair, for instance. Also, get a reliable motherboard. Lots of people go with ASUS, but I've never had any experience with them. Either way, you really want a good motherboard because if it goes, it can take the whole rest of the computer with it.

Also, you're probably going to need a beefy power supply. 500 watts sounds like a good number, though 650 might be warranted too. That way you'll have enough for any concievable upgrades you might make, too.

[Arizona Nova]

Let not CF entice you! Yea, my laptop's motherboard did indeed go south - or at least the sound card - and Dell sent a technician to my college who replaced the whole thing. I am writing to you on a computer that has had that happen, and has just had its HD replaced and its operating system and everything else reinstalled, and if anything it is running faster and more beautifully than ever before. All of that cost me nothing, except the pain and agony you would get anyway from a frankencomputer failure.

The reason I buy computers from a manufacturer is the same reasons I prefer Subway for sandwiches. They know what the fuck they're doing, and they pick ingredients which at least taste good, even if they're not supposedly high-quality. I usually end up either picking parts which are cheap but fold up and die in a matter of months or am driven to get high-end hardware which still goes obsolete as soon as you open the box. The extra you're paying is for that awesome service, as well as a single point of reference in case a computer part fails. Do you really think you're going to get that warranty part from that obscure Japanese computer company in any human-tolerable amount of time? Do you really think you'll be able to locate all the driver discs for those cobbled on peripherals after a crash? Don't think "What can I put in this computer?" when you're building/buying it. Think "What will be the least pain in the ass to get up and running again once it (inevitably) dies?"

As well, just because you don't need a massive HD now doesn't mean you won't later. OSes are on DVDs and soon all games will follow. All the sudden the multiple gigabyte full install for a classic like Baldur's Gate is going to seem like pocket change. If you go retarded and get Vista: Lobotomized Edition, you're going to have restore programs which are backing up information you won't have access to and won't be able to get rid of. You're going to need all the space you can get.

[Blademasters]

I'm with CF on this, I prefer to build my own. The problem with buying a desktop is most are either horribly overpriced, or horribly shite. As to processor, 2.2+ intel core 2 duo, 2 gb DDR2 ram should be sufficient, four right now is still more than you need unless you're playing WoW, Supcom, EVE, and rendering a movie in Premier at the same time, plus XP won't support 4gb completely - you are getting Vista, right? right? you know you want directX 10... anything over a 200gb hard drive is gonna be plenty unless you're editing movies and the like, in terms of graphics, there's really no point to getting an ATI card right now (or ever). Not much point getting two 8800GTXes in SLI, by the time games are around that actually need that much graphical processing, there will be much better cards out, a single 8800 should suffice.
I'm assuming, of course that price is even remotely a consideration. If not, fuckit, go all out.

EDIT: if you're building it, definetly get Kingston or Corsair RAM, and be sure to get a good powersupply... Those two components can and will make or break your computer.

[Flaming Souls]

Build your own or go to http://www.ibuypower.com
Also, I hope you are aware of http://www.newegg.com if you are going to build your own.

[Siesatia]

AZN - Its gotta be an HP, as I've told you in the past. It s a simple matter of there being excillent HP service in our area and we've never had to even pay for parts, much less them coming out here. (Did I mention I live near the East Coast equivilent of Silicon Valley and in a major Dot-Com area?).

I do in fact edit movies, quite large DVD Quality movies, probobly about 10 of them sit on my drive at a time before I can be arsed to move them to discs, so 200+ GB is required lest I have to uninstall all of my games.

4GB RAM Than, I was thinking such but since XP Didn't support it I was like, I'll do it later. I guess I'll be upgrading to Vista as well, especially since I found out the school my mom works out has a bajillion liscences of the Pro edition and I can nab one for free..

8800 GTX - Been looking at these but for some reason people kept harping on about compatability issues and the like. I guess with a whole new Motherboard this won't be a problem though.

Quad-Core - I have good sources in the industry (My Sister's Fiance who works for EA Games) who claims that every major game company is scrambling to take advantage of this, he says upgrade to one now and await the onslaught. ((Lucky for others the same games will be duel core compatable, but the mono-core will be phased out))

Case - It will be a standard HP Media Centre Shell, I've found those Alienware computer like to walk out of their dorm rooms, their the number one stolen computer systems.

Cooling - I'm reaaaaallllyyyy hoping for some sweet Liquid cooling, will tell you how it goes.


Someone comment.

[Central Facehuggeria]

Quad-Core - I have good sources in the industry (My Sister's Fiance who works for EA Games) who claims that every major game company is scrambling to take advantage of this, he says upgrade to one now and await the onslaught. ((Lucky for others the same games will be duel core compatable, but the mono-core will be phased out))

I'd wait until the price goes down, but it's your call.

Case - It will be a standard HP Media Centre Shell, I've found those Alienware computer like to walk out of their dorm rooms, their the number one stolen computer systems.

Makes sense. Fortunately, mine is too heavy to really 'walk' and has "Property of:" In big block letters written on the side. :p

Cooling - I'm reaaaaallllyyyy hoping for some sweet Liquid cooling, will tell you how it goes.

Eh, I have no experience with liquid cooling. It sounds awesome, but I don't know enough about the risk of spillage. Plus, you have to refil it with cooling liquid, which is never fun.

[Flaming Souls]

Sounds like a good plan to me, and I am also a staunch advocate of HP, as my mom is a very high level employee of HP and they have a major office within a mile of my house. So I get excellent service as well. But the plan you got looks good, and even if CG is saying to wait for prices to come down, if you're only paying half then they have come down...for you.

[Arizona Nova]

I don't trust HP. See if your Mom can make them trim down the software that comes with their printers, I hate that freaking stuff. You have to wipe out the startup entries in the registry and use the task manager to kill their processes directly if you want to get rid of it.