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Need help buying a new computer
Mizab
Member Posts: 149
I am looking for some advice on buying a computer for my son. He is a student so needs to be able to use some programs for writing papers and store stuff. He also enjoys video games so would like it to be a system good enough to play most games now I am not talking top of the line or some monster system just something so he can play games on his free time. I was just going to get him a generic Dell with some upgrades to ram and video card. Someone told me its just cheaper and smarter to buy a good system though then buy a video card to go along with it since the video cards dell puts in suck I was told. Well I have tried to research this and ask some of the kids I work with but they keep just talking about some crazy monster machine like alien ware and things like that and well after spending 800 dollars on a ps3 for my son I really don't want to spend another like 2000-3000 dollars on him and have to hear about why does he get that then everyone will want some more too.
So I have kind of figured the min system requierments for his computer. I want it to have atleast like a 3.5g processs atleast 1g-1.5 ram and like 80g hard drive would like if processer and ram could be higher but thats what I will settle for also would like to get him a pretty good video card. I am looking to spend around 800-1000 dollars and I just need the computer my work has tons of extra keyboards mouse's and monitors around.
Thanks for any help can give or if can just point me in the right direction that would be great too.
Comments
With $1000.00 you could easily get a pretty damn good top line computer if you build it.
Hell, and he'd prolly love helping you build it too
I recommend going with www.ibuypower.com as they are a great manufacturer and offer reasonable prices. Just make sure you get a good processor (try to get a duo one) and 1gig of RAM (2 gigs if he plays high end games).
As for a video card, if he wants to play every game he has on maximum settings, you might want to consider getting him a 7900GT. If he's a casual one, a 7600GT is very affordable andshould more than cut it.
I would recommend you get him a larger hard drive than 80gb... Get him around 200, that will last him a LONG time and isn't much more pricey than 80gb.
Also, make sure to check the front page of this website and enter the holiday contest because they offer a printable 50 dollar rebate on any I Buy Power computer!
I hope this helped, have a merry Christmas!
I've heard good things about the iBuyPower systems as well. Like the previous poster, definitely bump the memory to a minimum of 1024 MB (1 GB) and improve the video card. If cost is a factor and you can't get the 7900GT, then the 7600GT is a good alternative because the Gigabyte motherboard is an SLI board so you can always slot another 7600GT into it to run both cards in SLI mode down the road to get slightly better performance than a single 7900GT card. If you do spring for the 7900GT, the SLI option is also available down the road for those cards which will push your video performance pretty high. Also, it looks like they are running a special to bump the 160GB drive to 200GB for $12.00. That's definitely worth it.
Edited to add video card information.
why not go with the gamer fx system its liquid cooled and meets all requirments that you need. its 999 free shipping right now so tax brings it over just a tad.