Help me build a computer for $1000-$1500

GarmonXD

New Member
I'm going to be getting a job sometime soon (I'm 17) and i'll be saving up my money for quite a while to buy a new rig. Right now i'm using a stock Acer Aspire 3100 (trust me, don't look at the specs, you might vomit)

I've been wanting a new PC for a while, and as much as i love a laptop, they seem to be much more expensive to upgrade and to find a good one for gaming, SO, having said that, I'm looking to buy a desktop, and a good one for once.

Right now I'm looking at this website and this basic rig, i'll post the specs and then the link.

Case: Nzxt Guardian 921 Gaming Tower Case w/420W Power Supply

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 (2x 3.0Ghz/6mb L2 Cache/1333FSB)

Power Supply:
Standard

Processor cooling: Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink

Motherboard: Asus P5KPL-CM Intel G31 Chipset w/ 6 Channels,
Gb LAN,
S-ATA 3Gb/s,
USB 2.0,
Single PCI-EMB

Memory: 2GB (2x 1gb) DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module
Corsair-Value or Major Brand

Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 3450 256mb PCI-Express x16 (UPGRADING LATER)

Video Card Brand: Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA

Hard Drive: 320 GB Hard Drive [Serial- ATA-II, 3gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]

CD/DVD Drive: LG 20x Dual Format/Double Layer DVD-R/RW + CDR/RW DRIVE Black

Sound Card: 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard

Speaker System: 600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer speaker system

Network Card: Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)

Flash Media Reader/Writer: 12 in 1 Internal Flash Media Card Reader/Writer Black

Operating System:
None, Pre-formatted Hard Drive only

All of that for $510-$530

Link: http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=119

I know about things like.. RAM, Processor speed, Video Card speed/capacity and clearly, HDD space. Those are just the stock specs up there, and like i said, its only $510-$530 so i'd have money left over to upgrade and buy things i need. Is there any things on here you would upgrade? And what other stuff do i need to buy/should i buy.

Yeah, i dont know much about motherboards, power supplies etc so that is why i came here, to be educated and get help! Thanks guys

tl;dr, Need new computer. Found good specs. What do i upgrade

I forgot to mention, My computer has about.. 48gb or something free (in the beginning) and i still have PLENTY left. If i bought something like.. 500gb, it'd last me a long time. But i'd probably buy dual 500gb's so i'll never have to change or upgrade them again, and maybe, i'd be able to just pop out the D-Drive or have a portable hard drive as D:\

ANOTHER QUICK QUESTION

What would be cheaper, buying a computer thats already put together and working, with an OS, good graphics card etc, or building my own? (aka, all the specs above, and upgrading a bunch of it)? I'm looking at Alienware's at the moment. What are your experiences with them?

Edit: They seem a bit overpriced...?
 
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do you allready have an OS disc that you havnt used? if not then get windows vista basic.

also,

you dont need a sound card unless your into midi

network card is un needed

get the 500 watt not the 420
 
I'll probably toss money into Vista Premium or perhaps Ultimate (I'm currently using Home Basic.. Its kind of bland and lacking some features but its good)

This might sound stupid but.. Network card? What EXACTLY is it.

And yeah, i don't need a giant sound card that will allow my speakers to shatter all the windows in a 500 mile radius, i'm happy with a run-of-the-mill soundcard.
 
I suggest you either build your own or buy a PC with the spec you want. IMO, there is no point to buy a low end PC and upgrade everything.
 
dude, just get rid of that sound card unless your into midi thats all im sayin

and a network card is pretty much used for, if your mobos network card died or you need a more powerfull one (but u dont)
*its wat you hook up your eithernet/phone line to
 
I suggest you either build your own or buy a PC with the spec you want. IMO, there is no point to buy a low end PC and upgrade everything.

Exactly, You could but a computer close to mine with that. All and all mine was 2500 but that's with 22 monitor, surround sound speakers, and SLi setup. And the freaking 400 dollar Rampage 2 extreme.....
 
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