Getting a new computer...

[stretchypanda]

Okay, so, I got a hefty refund on my scholarships and financial aid, and finally convinced my dad that the money in the refund is for my personal use, however frivolous I wish to be, so I want to use the money to get a laptop. My dad told me to shop around for something, but I'm really not sure where to start. I'd LIKE to get a Vaio-somethingorother, but my dad gets a corporate discount from Dell, so I'm probably going to have to go that route unless I can convince my dad that something else is superior.

The point of my thread:
I don't exactly know what I want, except... you know, a screen and a keyboard (hah)... and that I have roughly $3000. If anyone could offer any suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

[soccr743]

Go with a laptop from alienware (http://www.alienware.com). They make very nice products that will definitely fit in that price range. They are much better then the POS stuff you get from Dell...

-----Soccr743-----

[blahblah18]

I used to think that, but no longer like Alienware laptops due to the fact that they overheat every 15 seconds, and for Panda's uses she doesn't need nearly that powerful of a machine... an Inspiron 8500 from Dell or something liek that woudl be fine, it would be just under 2 grand, and then you'dhave your discount too

[Squeek]

My recommendation if you go with Dell:

Wait for a sale that fits your needs. I waited a bit too long for my new computer, but ended up with 15% off, then 150 off after that. It was quite a discount.

The other discounts were like "FREE DVD DRIVE UPGRADE!" when it's only about 20 dollars more...

Yea, I'm not good with laptops. I hate laptops. Keep me out of this.

~Squeek

[Pooping_Panda]

try www.voodoocomputers.com

[deposition]

What price range are you talking about?

[Pooping_Panda]

Originally Posted by stretchypanda

and that I have roughly $3000.

[Anticrombie0909]

Ok hi everyone else in the thread gtfo

You have $3000 to blow on a PC. This means you have been granted a gift from god. I haven't properly been geeky all weekend, so here it goes.

First thing I've got to ask you. Are you absolutely dead-set on getting a laptop? I mean, if the mobility is that important, go right ahead. Just know you get significantly more bang for your buck, plus a longer lifetime for your PC, if you get a desktop.

If you really want a laptop, you can't go wrong with www.voodoopc.com , www.alienware.com , www.falcon-nw.com ...you'll have less customization, so you don't really need to worry about choosing badly, although I would recommend Alienware over the others if ONLY because they are upgradeable, something which (to my knowledge) has not been implemented in other companies' laptops yet.

If you want a desktop, any of the above will work, I would also recommend www.velocitymicro.com . They're a little less common as the above, but I assure you they are every bit as good. You can also try www.ibuypower.com which has excellent and fully customizable systems. Whichever you buy, make sure you have:

-AT LEAST a 450W PSU (Power Source)
-AT LEAST an Athlon 3500+ or P4 equivalent - although ideally, with your budget, you can go as high as a 4000+ or FX-53/55
-I would recommend a PCI Express Mobo (motherboard), such as the nForce 4 (which supports SLI, more on that later)
-AT LEAST a Western Digital/Seagate/Maxtor 200 Gb HDD. You can vary that higher or lower, depending on how much you're planning to store, but you shouldn't have less than that. If you're planning on more than 400, I'd say grab a couple of 200s and put them in RAID 0. I'm not going to bother explaning this unless you're planning on doing it.
-AT LEAST 1 Gb of PC3200 RAM from a name brand (Seagate, Maxtor, etc). Anything over 2 Gb is superfluous.
-If you're using this for gaming, I would recommend an X800XT OR a GeForce 6800 Ultra. However, at this point, I would recommend the GeForce, assuming your mobo is SLI enabled. If you're not planning on gaming at all, then this really doesn't matter, though it's a crime to have a PC as tricked out as yours without a beastly GPU (graphics processing unit).
=> What is SLI? SLI stands for Scan Line Interweave. Basically, it allows you to throw in another video card next to the first (assuming they're the same kind) and have them both render at the same time. What does this mean? Super performance boosts in GPU intensive games. At this point, with your kind of awesome rig, one GeForce 6800 is going to kick ass on pretty much anything anyway. But if, in a year, you decide it's not performing as well, having SLI lets you throw in another one to extend the longevity of your PC.

HI MONITORS AND KEYBOARDS

For keyboards, it's a matter of personal preference, although I would recommend www.saitekusa.com . I have one, it's beautiful, I love it.

Monitors...I would recommend you snag a nice CRT over an LCD. Why? Well, I don't trust LCDs, tell you the truth. They're not good for gaming- blacks are never really black, even with giant contrast ratios, and you get awful ghosting with anything less than .21 ms response time. And of course, they're expensive like none other, and extremely fragile. Plus, pixel burnouts are unavoidable and common.

No, I am not a fan of LCDs. CRTs will give you excellent picture, no ghosting, and they're a LOT cheaper. The only downside is that they're gigantic, but if you're spending $3000 on a PC I think you can make space.

Anything else, just ask.

[/technology geek]

[deltro300111]

I highly reccomend you build your own, save your money, and get the top of the line of everything, (use the rest for beer )

I'll elaborate later, but I've got to go for trumpet lessons >.<

[Draigun]

I have a VAIO PCG-K15 notebook. It's just like an average notebook, though. Same problems..around the same speed. The wireless is nice. AND ONE THING I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IS THE "X-BRITE" MONITOR. It brings out so much color and everything. It's absolutely beautiful.

Aside from that, for $3,000..I'd reccommend something much better than a VAIO. I'd say the VAIO range is maybe $1,250-2,000.

[stretchypanda]

Originally Posted by Anticrombie0909

First thing I've got to ask you. Are you absolutely dead-set on getting a laptop? I mean, if the mobility is that important, go right ahead. Just know you get significantly more bang for your buck, plus a longer lifetime for your PC, if you get a desktop.

I got a desktop as a sort of graduation present / the-only-computer-in-the-house-is-ten-years-old-and-if-you-take-it-to-college-we'll-have-nothing-else kind of thing, and I like it, but mobility is exactly what I need. My parents live hours upon hours away, and I like to bring my tower with me when I go home, both to have a computer we didn't get when I was in fifth grade and for security reasons. Now, my parents are stuck with the ancient computer and I'd like to get a laptop I can easily carry around wherever I go and give them my desktop... and that will most likely prompt me to ask how I go about getting all my files from PC to laptop, but that's for another day.

Oh, and thank you, everyone.

[SpookG]

if you're getting a laptop I would get an apple, only because they have this wonderful habit of working.

I recently was looking into getting a laptop for myself, and my home pc is a tower I built from scratch, which suits me well, since I mod it up and the such. I however, don't believe in doing that to a laptop, since if I am traveling I don't want to have to tech it, I just want it to work and do what I would need it to do while I'm away.

as for towers, there's a lot you can with that money, but you need to decide what you are going to be primarily using it for and then work from there. There wouldn't be any point in getting a 400 dollar video card if you aren't going to pushing it with games like half-life 2 and doom, etc.

I've put together computers for people in my spare time, and would be more than happy to help you out with it if you want.

[Ganondorf3000]

Just don't get any laptop like Dell, Compaq, or Gateway because they put software on your new laptop before you get it that you can't even get off and it's freaking annoying. Get something that you customize like at www.alienware.com www.voodoopc.com www.falcon-nw.com those are my recommendations for a new laptop.

[Anticrombie0909]

if you're getting a laptop I would get an apple, only because they have this wonderful habit of working.

I thought I told everyone to gtfo. How about giving good technology advice? Seriously, what a waste of money.

[stretchypanda]

Originally Posted by Anticrombie0909

I thought I told everyone to gtfo. How about giving good technology advice? Seriously, what a waste of money.

Haha. One of my best friends lives and breathes Apple. She was so proud of herself because this summer at the camp we worked at, a student had trouble with one of the Dell computers in the computer lab, and she couldn't find an RA who knew anything about non-Macs, so she poked around until she fixed the problem.

Silly Apple users... I think the only reason I like them is because they're cute... not a good enough reason.

[SpookG]

give me a break anti. If you don't know much about computing and just want to do basic functions, Apples are wonderful machines. The interfacing is wonderful, and unlike windows where you need to know what you're doing to set it up properly, that is already taken care of for you. It isn't an elitist attitude I'm pushing, it's just the truth. They also have better professional audio and video software over a PC, and if it wasn't for Microsoft losing a lawsuit and being forced to drop the price of Office to hit the student market (which it was ordered to by a Republican judge, I believe), Apple would of retained that dominance and probably would be having a bigger market share overall.

Just because you use your computer for something doesn't mean others do too, or that they know or want to know as much as you do about it. You are pushing high end hardware on her she might not even use, so what's the point of buying it if you never use it's full potential? that's a real waste of money.

[Anticrombie0909]

Well, my entire point is this. She's planning on spending $3000 on a PC, at least that's what I interpeted. As long as you're spending all that, might as well get the most for your money, don't you think? I mean, ok, the difference on laptops isn't as huge as it is on desktops, true. But if you look at the technical specs of it, the apple just can't compare to PCs when it comes to price for performance. Is she going to utilize all that performance? Maybe not now, but in three, four, five years when cutting edge isn't so cutting edge anymore, you can bet she'll be glad that she opted for an Athlon 3500 over a 1.67 Ghz PowerPC.

And hey, Windows isn't that complicated. We can turn that into a pissing contest because of the subjectivity, but really, it isn't. And the difference between PCs and Macs when it comes to audio and video editing software is miniscule at best. Besides, what's she more likely to do- super intensive video editing or everything else?

[stretchypanda]

Hm.. should have clarified on the money thing. Three thousand dollars is my limit, not necessarily what I'm looking at spending, although I haven't really seen anything ridiculously high-priced...

[deltro300111]

Ok,
I think you should get an OQO... Handheld PC,... $1899, 1ghz Ram, 20 gig hd, and monitor mouse, keyboard, pretty neat little deal, you could buy 2 and have an orgy

[Mindfields]

Originally Posted by soccr743

Go with a laptop from alienware (http://www.alienware.com). They make very nice products that will definitely fit in that price range. They are much better then the POS stuff you get from Dell...

-----Soccr743-----

I agree, AlienWare's stuff is very very nice looking. And I hate DELL. Alot. It's the kind my school has. They loaded it up with sooo much Microsoft Corporate crap that I plan on shoving a pencil up the USB Port. And hopefully they'll buy a buncha laptops or something.