HtownBillsFan Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I know you can through Gateway and Dell. Are there any other sites that you can do this? We use our computer for mainly photos, music, email, surfing the internet, and want to get into DVD burning to back up DVD movies (kids ruining them). Want to get the most out of my bucks. Looking to spend about a thousand. We are both teachers so we would like PowerPoint and Excel. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yall Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I like ibuypower.com. Granted, it's mostly for gaming PC's (as is alienware.com but they are $$$) but you can spec out a pretty cheap machine there. Give it a try and then compare to Dell or Gateway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBud Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 If you have the hardware background, there are suppliers of chassis, motherboard, processor that you can access on-line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMadCap Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I know you can through Gateway and Dell. Are there any other sites that you can do this? We use our computer for mainly photos, music, email, surfing the internet, and want to get into DVD burning to back up DVD movies (kids ruining them). Want to get the most out of my bucks. Looking to spend about a thousand. We are both teachers so we would like PowerPoint and Excel. Thanks I HIGHLY recommend building yourself, provided you know how. It's not as difficult as you would image, and you will save lots of dough. Not only can you get exactly what you want, but you also do not have lots of bogus software installed automatically when you get the machine, as DELL, HP, and every other manufacturer includes. Also, if something breaks, you just buy a new part and swap it out, you don't have to deal with crappy customer service, troubleshooting online, and shipping your box back to some warehouse somewhere in TX to get lost. This actually happened to me, and took me nearly one year to get my computer back, and it never got fixed. I will NEVER buy a prebuilt again, EVER... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helmet_hair Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I know you can through Gateway and Dell. Are there any other sites that you can do this? We use our computer for mainly photos, music, email, surfing the internet, and want to get into DVD burning to back up DVD movies (kids ruining them). Want to get the most out of my bucks. Looking to spend about a thousand. We are both teachers so we would like PowerPoint and Excel. Thanks Well, with that type of demand you’re going to have to build your own. You’re going to need an Intel Quad core, 4 Gigs internal, a large 10,000RPM hard drive, Dual Nvidia GeForce 8800’s graphic cards (slide connection), liquid cooled, and a litescribe DVD writer. What else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I know you can through Gateway and Dell. Are there any other sites that you can do this? We use our computer for mainly photos, music, email, surfing the internet, and want to get into DVD burning to back up DVD movies (kids ruining them). Want to get the most out of my bucks. Looking to spend about a thousand. We are both teachers so we would like PowerPoint and Excel. Thanks Frankly, if that's all you're using your computer for, my opinion is to just buy a cheap Dell and be done with it. Pretty much any computer they sell will fit your needs. You could also build your own if you want. You'll need the following components: Case Power supply (sometimes comes with the case) motherboard CPU memory video card harddrive DVD burner It's generally cheaper to buy from Dell, but you'll get better components and faster speeds if you build yourself. Again though, if you're just doing basic stuff, you're probably better off just buying a Dell for $600 and be done with it. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 If your after a gaming rig its better to build your own. Because of the expense of high end graphics cards and memory, I think its more cost effective to do that. Plus you can select the best components possible for cheaper. This is important when it comes to more efficient PSU's and better performing hard drives for example. If your looking to run office apps and basic stuff like web surfing, I would just go Dell. I bought a pc for my wife and it really wasnt worth my while to build it. Just got a $500 rig off of Dell. Did the same thing for my mother. Also, if something goes wrong with it, its on Dell and I dont have my wife screaming at me about how I built a $hitty computer. I built my pc because I use it a lot for gaming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HtownBillsFan Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 went through Dell and built this for about $1100: PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB) edit OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium + Belkin Easy Transfer Cable edit MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16X DVD ROM Drive and 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo edit MONITOR 19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel edit VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache edit SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse edit FLOPPY & MEDIA READER 13 in 1 Media Card Reader edit MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Is this a decent package? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I just bought a new system this weekend It was a refurb emachines computer through Best Buy in Canada Intel Celeron D 356 Processor & 3.33GHz Processor Speed. 160GB Hard Drive (7200RPM) 512MB DDR memory for multitasking power, expandable up to 2GB. ATI Radeon X200 Based Integrated Graphics up to 128MB of shared video memory. DVD+/-RW, 16X Multi-Format Double Layer(up to 8.5GB with Double Layer Media) I/O Ports: 5 x USB 2.0 (1 Media Reader, 4 Back), 1 x VGA External Connector, 1 x Serial Port, 1 x Parallel Port, 2 x PS/2 Ports, 5 x Audio Ports (2 Front, 3 Back) MS Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 operating system preinstalled; other software package includes Microsoft Works, Microsoft Money, Adobe Reader 7, CyberLink DVD Solution Suite-CyberLink PowerDVD (DVD Play), CyberLink Power2Go (DVD Burn), Microsoft Windows Media Player, RealNetworks RealPlayer, Quicktime, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Toolbar, eMachines BigFix I bought it pretty much to use as a base to build on for gaming and AutoCAD for drafting I do. I already had a 200 gig Harddrive I am going to hook up as a secondary drive for music and videos, and a 256mb video card to put in it. I payed $400 Canadian for the system (all taxes included) and it came with a keyboard, mouse and speakers. Then I bought at a Future Shop a 19" wide screen LCD monitor for another $275 with Taxes. So far I have just under $700 tied up in a system that will do more then what you need it to do. There really isn't anything special that you are planning to do with it that could not be purchased in a prebuilt unit. Most sytems now come witha DVD burner, and 100+ gig hard drives so photo storage would be no problem. 512mb of ram is enough to listen to music while running another program or 2 and internet access is no problem. Excel and Powerpoint run no problem with those requirements either. You could easily get a prebuilt system for around $500 for what you want to do with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 went through Dell and built this for about $1100:PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB) edit OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium + Belkin Easy Transfer Cable edit MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16X DVD ROM Drive and 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo edit MONITOR 19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel edit VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache edit SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse edit FLOPPY & MEDIA READER 13 in 1 Media Card Reader edit MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Is this a decent package? That's overkill and expensive. You can do better. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan in San Diego Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 went through Dell and built this for about $1100:PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB) edit OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium + Belkin Easy Transfer Cable edit MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16X DVD ROM Drive and 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo edit MONITOR 19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel edit VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache edit SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse edit FLOPPY & MEDIA READER 13 in 1 Media Card Reader edit MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Is this a decent package? Whats the Belkin Easy Transfer Cable edit ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udonkey Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 Most sytems now come witha DVD burner, and 100+ gig hard drives so photo storage would be no problem. 512mb of ram is enough to listen to music while running another program or 2 and internet access is no problem. Excel and Powerpoint run no problem with those requirements either. You could easily get a prebuilt system for around $500 for what you want to do with it As an advanced user, and someone who sells these things for a living, 512mb is NOT enough RAM on a new system...especially since all new computers will ship with Windows Vista, which needs 1gb at a minimum to run properly. Besides, I think that you'll find the Celeron D, the integrated graphics card, and the 512mb to provide a huge bottleneck for you when you get into gaming. I bought an Intel Core 2 system, 1gb of RAM (I have since installed 2gb more, for a total of 3,072mb of RAM), 250gb hard drive, DVD rom and DVD RW, and a 20" widescreen monitor for ~700-750 from Dell's outlet (refurb)...I got it cheaper, as an employee, but the $700-750 is before my discount Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 As an advanced user, and someone who sells these things for a living, 512mb is NOT enough RAM on a new system...especially since all new computers will ship with Windows Vista, which needs 1gb at a minimum to run properly. Besides, I think that you'll find the Celeron D, the integrated graphics card, and the 512mb to provide a huge bottleneck for you when you get into gaming. I bought an Intel Core 2 system, 1gb of RAM (I have since installed 2gb more, for a total of 3,072mb of RAM), 250gb hard drive, DVD rom and DVD RW, and a 20" widescreen monitor for ~700-750 from Dell's outlet (refurb)...I got it cheaper, as an employee, but the $700-750 is before my discount Thats if you are looking to using Vista, right now I won't upgrade that for atleast a year. Also too, I only bought it to use as a base for building onto. I have a replacement video card for it and will be upgrading the RAM soon too. I am not into hardcore gaming, mostly just NHL, NFL games, some driving games, and Battlefield so I'm not worried about getting an ultimate gaming machine right now. Its more for games on the side and Drafting at home That is a pretty good deal for what you got through Dell, but prices are also in Canadian funds, so thats like $500-600 US if you really break it down. I bought a Laptop through Dell last year and got a good deal through a friend who gets the discount from Dell since he deals with them in his networking buisness. 512mb is enough for the average user though who is only going to use it for internet access, and microsoft office programs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 went through Dell and built this for about $1100:PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB) edit OPERATING SYSTEM FREE Upgrade to Windows Vista Home Premium + Belkin Easy Transfer Cable edit MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16X DVD ROM Drive and 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo edit MONITOR 19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel edit VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache edit SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse edit FLOPPY & MEDIA READER 13 in 1 Media Card Reader edit MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet Is this a decent package? I would also have to agree that for what you plan on doing with it, that is some serious overkill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshockeyguy7 Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I'm a high end gamer, having trouble deciding between getting a high end notebook or desktop, notebook would make more sense because I am in college, and i kind of need the portability, but I know with a desktop I can get the performance i really need. What do some of the other PC guru's on here think about this purchase from ibuypower.com for the price. Case ( Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Blue ) Case Lighting ( Cold Cathode Neon Light Blue ) Power Supply ( Standard Case Power Supply ) Processor ( Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6400 (2x 2.13GHz/2MB L2 Cache/1066FSB) ) Free Software/Game ( [Free] iBUYPOWER Aegis Case - for your Games, Accessories, Disks, Manuals ... etc. --- $19.99 value ) Processor Cooling ( [New !!!] iBUYPOWER Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit --- [for INTEL CPU] ) Motherboard ( Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB ) Memory ( 2048MB [1024MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand ) Video Card ( NVIDIA GeForce 7950GT 512MB w/DVI + TV Out Video ) Video Card Brand ( === High Performance === eVGA Brand Video Card Powered by NVIDIA ) Hard Drive ( 320 GB HARD DRIVE [serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache] ) 2nd Hard Drive ( None ) External Raid Hard Drives [uSB 2.0/eSATA] ( None ) CD/DVD Drive ( 16x DVD-ROM Drive Blue ) CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( [** Special !!! ***] 18X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Blue ) Sound Card ( Dolby Digital Surround 7.1 Sound Card ) Speaker System ( None ) Fax Modem ( None ) Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) ) Floppy Drive ( None ) Monitor ( None ) 2nd Monitor ( None ) Keyboard ( Logitech Deluxe Keyboard Black ) Mouse ( Logitech Optical Internet Mouse Black ) Meter Display ( Thermal Temperature LCD Display Blue ) Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None ) Operation System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium ) Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None ) IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( None ) USB Flash Drive ( None ) TV Tuner ( None ) Video Camera ( None ) Headset ( None ) Power Protection ( None ) Printer ( None ) Printer Cable ( None ) Wireless Network Adapter ( [special !!!] Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps PCI Adapter ) Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support ) Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days ) total - 1528.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 I would also have to agree that for what you plan on doing with it, that is some serious overkill How much does Microsoft Office cost? That could take up a couple hundred no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 How much does Microsoft Office cost? That could take up a couple hundred no? A couple hundred what? I bought Microsoft Office through the college I went to (they made it manditory) and it was the student version for $250 canadian at the time. If your refer to space, Office is maybe a couple gigs, no more then 10 (I think its 8) I wasn't refering to the programs that were listed, just the system itself seems like alot of overkill to run what he's looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udonkey Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 How much does Microsoft Office cost? That could take up a couple hundred no? Office Home and Student 2007 is $149 - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 At the risk of hijacking the thread, what games are you playing jshockeyguy? Pretty much exclusively a PC gamer myself. Mess around a little with my sons 360 from time to time though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetbaboo Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 newegg if you want to custom build cyberpowerpc.com if you want someone else to custom build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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