Should i buy this and upgrade?

J

jeffgonth

New Member
Hi. I'm finishing school this december and i'm begining to look around for a computer for when i start working.I'm not really sure what my budget will be (but since i will most likely work in the metalurgical area my salary should be decent). I want to play games, go on the internet and burn dvd.

I was looking around and it seems that the vast majority of the people think that it's best to custom build a computer rather than one already built. I'm sure that i would be able to build one myself but i'm a bit lazy and i also don't know anything about computer parts.

One computer that i was looking was this one :
http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10089891&catid=
Keep in mind that the price is in canadian $
http://www.gateway.com/retail/gm5478.php

I'm not really sure if this thing is good so i'll need your oponion on this one

I was thinking that i could buy that but i beleive that i would have to add some ram (8 gig would be nice but are the 1 X 2048 mb out yet?), buy a new video card (at least a geforce 8800) and a new power supply since the one that come with must be pretty bad (a guy at futurshop once assured my friend that a 350 watt would be plenty enough for his new 1950 xt:P)

So i guess that all those upgrades will cost me quite a lot but i could buy them gradually.

The other solution would be that i use the next 3-4 months while i'm broke to look up things about building a computer.

If anyone have any advices about building or places to buy the parts (ebay?) i would really appreciate

thank you for your time
 
if you go about your way, (that is buy a pre-built and gradually upgrade) seems like you will spend way more in the long run as compared to if you buy everything in one shot and build it yourself... well, that is just my opinion...

as place to look for parts, im not to familiar with what other people in Canada use since I only know one of them
www.tigerdirect.ca

personally, I would avoid ebay. I have been hearing about scam lately from ebay... but my friend had had a good deal from there so I guess if you are willing to take the risk :)
 
u can also try http://www.newegg.com i dont know about the CA money or shipping though.

and as far as the memory goes, i dont know anyone exept BIG servers that would even consider useing 8 gigs of ram. 2gigs is what people shoot for when building a gameing rig. and 4gigs if you have the money, but unless your a HARDCORE gamer i wouldn't get it.

and as far as a prebuilt rig. that one looks pretty good.
 
Of course it is a better idea to build yourself but if you are not feeling confident enough or do not want to bother learning, you can always use some sites that will build the computer with the parts you ask.

If you live in Quebec, not sure if they deliver or anything, but there is CIPC, its in french so I don't know if you can use it or OrdiGros. Most likely yes if you are in Quebec tho. And if you give us your budget and your needs, many people here will be willing to help you.

Otherwise, some very well priced canadian sites are: , Direct Canada or Memory Express.

But one thing is sure, if you are broke, I'd definitively wait until you can get some money, unless you really need a computer.
 
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thank you guys. and yes i do live in quebec and speak both english and french. Not sure why i didn't think about CIPC, i used to hear about it a lot when watching "mnet".

I dont really need a computer right now but the one i'm using is not really recent. It's a P4 2.66mhz with 756 mb ram, 80 gig hard drive and a ati 9600 xt 256 mb card. I can barely run any game and it is slow as hell. i mainly use it to burn dvd right now.
 
Heheh Jeff, if it can make you feel better, u can have a look at the computer in my sig... I just upgraded the RAM like a week ago, before I had 256mb.

What are the games you play with it ?
 
Just say NO to Gateway!! Also Dell, HP, Compaq, Acer and every big computer builder out there.

They make their money by buying cheap parts installing them in custom case's that have custom motherboards installed and can not be upgraded. That way every time you want to step up, you have to buy a whole new system from them.

Just say NO! And build your own!
 
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