Post Your PC

[daileyxplanet]

EDIT: Good God, I didn't realize that was so gargantuan.

 

[Vitamin X]

I mock you and your silly overpriced Apple Macintosh-Book.

 

[daileyxplanet]

I got it gently used for $600, more than half. Plus you can't even get a slightly-less-than-crappy Windows laptop.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

and





and I also mock your apple

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

I got it gently used for $600, more than half. Plus you can't even get a slightly-less-than-crappy Windows laptop.

Not true. I got my kick ass laptop for around $550.

 

[daileyxplanet]

Must've been a great deal. I used to own a crappy Acer that I got for around $500. That was almost two years ago, though.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

Yeah. It was one hell of a deal. I'll try to get the specs.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

15" Ultrabright monitor
250 gigabyte hard drive
3 gig RAM
T7550 Centrino Core 2 Duo Processor
Vista

 

[Vitamin X]

I got it gently used for $600, more than half. Plus you can't even get a slightly-less-than-crappy Windows laptop.

Lolz. You're full of shit. I got my 14.1" ASUS for $567 just this past week. It has:

Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 2.0Ghz
NVIDIA Geforce 9300M GS Graphics card with 512mb of dedicated memory
4GB of RAM
250GB hard drive
And 64-bit Vista, which isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people made it out to be. I think people are just resistant to change. I like how it works, actually, right after I turned User Account Controls off.

It also has 5 USB ports (including one hybrid eSATA to hook up to an external RAID if I want to), a 5-in-1 media card reader, a Firewire out, and an HDMI and VGA out as well. Gigabit Ethernet as well as 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN, too. Most of the time I'm working with it, I hook up the VGA to my old desktop's 19" widescreen monitor, and use that dual set-up, but I've also hooked up the HDMI port to my 30" LCD HDTV and then I can put my downloaded episodes of LOST (which I'm trying to catch up on) as well as anything else on my computer on full-screen on there, in 1080i.

I got my computer specifically because I like to use it for video editing, but I didn't want to pay a lot for a laptop with a good graphics card- bit of a conundrum until I found my guy, which happened to be refurbed. There's some pretty good advice about refurbed vs. new on a laptop, though: Whatever problems the laptop is going to have, it's already had them and it's been fixed and re-packaged by the manufacturer, so you should be good to go. I'm installing Adobe CS4 on it later today, and I'm pretty stoked to see how well it runs. It already kicks the crap out of my friend's 15" Macbook Pro, display wise- hell, it's better than my old desktop, which was a really nice set-up, it was just void of an expensive DDR3 graphics card and a huge hard drive.

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

Fuuuuuuuuuuucking hell. That's one murderous laptop, VitX. I was always worried about Asus though, didn't know how well they'd hold up.

 

[Vitamin X]

ASUS is a hell of a quality brand. My last desktop was built off a barebones ASUS kit, and it was sexy. Their customer service is shit, though. I always go between them and HP for deciding between the best PC Manufacturer.

 

[daileyxplanet]

Hmm... never heard of an ASUS will have to check it out if I need to.

 

[Vitamin X]

ASUS is most famous these days for the eeePC, those tiny little 8-10" laptops that don't have a DVD drive and run either Linux or a light version of XP on it. Good stuff, but their laptops normally are pretty pricey and are designed for the high-end user, except apparently the one I have now.

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

I have a computer.

 

[HarleyQuinn]

ASUS is a hell of a quality brand. My last desktop was built off a barebones ASUS kit, and it was sexy. Their customer service is shit, though. I always go between them and HP for deciding between the best PC Manufacturer.

Yesterday I just got the ASUS K50IJ-BNC5 for $649.99 at Best Buy.

15.6" Display
4 GB RAM
500 GB Hard Drive
Dual Core with 2.3 GHz Processor Speed
4 USB Ports
802.11 b/g/n built-in wireless LAN
6 hours of battery life

 

[Thoth]

My PC is self-built:

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0
Intel Core i7-920 2.66 GHZ Quad Core Processor
6 GB RAM
Radeon 5750
23 Inch LG Monitor
1 1-TB Hard Drive, 1 500-GB Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner

 

[Smues]

Thoth saved me from having to remember what my motherboard was called, because I used the same one. Thanks copy/paste!

My self-built PC:

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Motherboard with USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0
Intel Core i7-950 3.07 GHZ Quad Core Processor
8 GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 465
23 Inch ASUS 3D Monitor
1 128MB SSD ,1 1-TB Hard Drive
Dual Layer DVD Burner
Blu-ray burner

- The SSD is the boot drive and I put the resource hog programs/ones I use the most on there, everything else goes on the terrabyte drive.
- I got added the 3D setup with the intention of using it as a cheaper alternative to a 3d TV to watch 3d blu-ray. Unfortunately that hasn't worked out so well as I've only been able to get 2 of the 5 discs I've bought to work so far. However, 3-d gaming works great and has gotten me re-interested in PC gaming.
-When I first built the thing I just put in one 4gb stick of ram. It worked well enough to run the machine and pass nay diagnostic checks, but was broken enough to randomly crash the PC. Took me FOREVER to figure out that the ram was the problem, which made me feel real stupid because I used to always say 'whatever the problem, the ram would ALSO be the cause.' Stupid ram.

 

[Ripper]

I was giving some advice about a laptop purchase the other day, and when others chimed in, I truely understood how incredibly deep the Mac advertising has penetrated into peoples minds. I was in awe and impressed.

Basically they were explaining why buying a $1000 Macbook was a better investment than buying a 650 Sony Vaio with a better processor, more ram, better graphics, more hardrive space and the company is rated higher in terms of durability.

I salute Apple. They are amazing. I wish I had the marketing savy to pull that off. I would come out with the Atari again and convince everyone its a better console than anything out there. MONEY BAYBEE.

My ultra cheap HTPC/PC I am using now until I make a new monster:

AMD Athlon II X4
4 gigs of ram
HD5450

Cost me about $175.00 to build using a old case and powersupply.

 

[HSJ]

Yesterday I bought this for $600 at Best Buy.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+/+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Processor+/+14.5%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Midnight+Blue/1258693.p?id=1218243760774&skuId=1258693&st=dv5-2135dx&cp=1&lp=1


14.5" Display
4 GB RAM
500 GB Hard Drive
AMD Turion™ II (2.4 GHz)

 

[Rendclaw]

I have been researching systems for the last four days after seeing I am getting like $1200 back from my taxes.. I figure to spend about 750-800 for a good system, but I am going to have to basically build a system of my own since all of the systems I want don;t have Win 7 Pro (I want it for the XP mode), and Magic Micro will build a system to my specs, but for over $900. So here is the list of components I'm going to pull off of Newegg:

ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

DIAMOND 5670PE51G Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

OCZ StealthXstream II OCZ600SXS2 600W ATX12V v2.2/ EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDX945FBGIBOX

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M4B1333C9

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98B

ASUS Xonar DS 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Audio Card

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case


All of that for $840... Magic Micro wants like $950 for about the same components.

 

[Thoth]

I have been researching systems for the last four days after seeing I am getting like $1200 back from my taxes.. I figure to spend about 750-800 for a good system, but I am going to have to basically build a system of my own since all of the systems I want don;t have Win 7 Pro (I want it for the XP mode), and Magic Micro will build a system to my specs, but for over $900. So here is the list of components I'm going to pull off of Newegg:

ASUS M4A88T-M LE AM3 AMD 880G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

DIAMOND 5670PE51G Radeon HD 5670 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

OCZ StealthXstream II OCZ600SXS2 600W ATX12V v2.2/ EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Power Supply

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor HDX945FBGIBOX

CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model CMX8GX3M4B1333C9

Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98B

ASUS Xonar DS 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Audio Card

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus RR-B10-212P-G1 "Heatpipe Direct Contact" Long Life Sleeve 120mm CPU Cooler Compatible Intel

Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case


All of that for $840... Magic Micro wants like $950 for about the same components.

I see you're going for a Radeon 5670; I'd say go for at least a 5750 or a 5770, or go to the next generation and get a 6850. Maybe you don't want to play games now, but what if you do later?

 

[J]

http://www.joshuastroud.com/newcomputer.html

Put that together 2 days ago. Of course, the chipset for the CPU is getting recalled, but until that happens it's a beast machine.

I got a 2nd video card on the way for SLi, too.

 

[Rendclaw]

Nah, I have never been big into PC gaming at all, too much of a time sink. The 5670 is great performance at a good price point.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

I have a Dell Inspiron I got four birthdays ago. It burns DVDs and CDs and does internet and spreadsheets. That's literally all I use a computer for, outside of work.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

I have a pretty decent out-of-the-box HP that I use at home. My custom 6+ year old Dell is still running strong at my Grandma's house.

 

[Vitamin X]

I was giving some advice about a laptop purchase the other day, and when others chimed in, I truely understood how incredibly deep the Mac advertising has penetrated into peoples minds. I was in awe and impressed.

Basically they were explaining why buying a $1000 Macbook was a better investment than buying a 650 Sony Vaio with a better processor, more ram, better graphics, more hardrive space and the company is rated higher in terms of durability.

I salute Apple. They are amazing. I wish I had the marketing savy to pull that off. I would come out with the Atari again and convince everyone its a better console than anything out there. MONEY BAYBEE.

My ultra cheap HTPC/PC I am using now until I make a new monster:

AMD Athlon II X4
4 gigs of ram
HD5450

Cost me about $175.00 to build using a old case and powersupply.

I agree with you completely, but I've softened up on Macs a bit- and I've always been a Mac hater up until a year or two ago, as you could tell by the second post in this thread- mostly because they're well-built machines. As far as computers go when not building a gaming rig, I think Macs are a decent investment especially if you're going portable. The mini isn't a bad price at $699, but you buy that mostly for the form factor.. which is hard to duplicate from scratch if you're building a PC. The closest thing would be buying one of those microATX shuttle cases and cramming some work into those, but even then you're going to spend close to what you would on a mini and it won't ever look as good. Apple's laptops tend to have more consistent longer battery life too, and the OS is really nicely built for portable use, too.

I'm likely buying my girlfriend a Macbook Air since I broke her netbook a while back (I got mad at something and smacked it, which busted the hard drive ) and so I vowed to get her a laptop with a good SSD in it. She carries a lot of shit to school so I also figured the air would be nice and I've also been reading some reviews around the web about how good the MBA is, even besting the iMac (not a tough feat admittedly) in some speed tests. Their customer service is unparalleled, too. Having a Mac and AppleCare gets you a lot of peace of mind, and I think they're perfectly fine computers especially for people who don't want to deal with tinkering around with a computer or fixing them much. I'd still prefer Windows 7 over OSX as an OS, but that's what Boot Camp is for.

It's been a while since I posted in this thread, and I think I still have the same rig. I wanted to see how much an Apple equivalent of my laptop cost, and the closest I could find was the Macbook Pro since I was looking at having an HDMI and firewire out and 3D graphics as well as a decent processor, a lot of memory and most importantly battery life since my thing dies in about an hour when not plugged in. Brand new my laptop cost $950 (although I got it refurbed for $550) and the MBP is about $1100, so it's not that much of a premium. The MBP is greatly improved over the last couple years though, I'll have to note, and my laptop came out during the 2008 holiday season so, yeah. I still think the $999 Macbook is a waste, though. If they priced it around $600 or $700 that'd be better, but a grand for that shit is stupid.

 

[Just Burny]

I didn't see the CTDWAT page for video games/ tech, (if it exists please feel free to move this here) but figure this could almost be considered the pimp - improve your PC thread, seeing as everyone is talking about updating.

FYI

Staples WD MyBook Esstenials 1TB 49.50 YMMV
Staples has the Western Digital 1TB My Essentials on clearance for $49.50
Model # is wdbaaf0010hbk-n It is the USB 2.0 not 3.0
SKU is 819934


Also forgot to add the Western Digital My Essentials 500GB on clearance for $36.50
Model # is WDBAAA5000ABK-N Also USB 2.0 not 3.0
SKU is 820884

Some staples take office depot coupons too http://f.chtah.com/i/48/1237020949/20110201WCSng_32583710.pdf?cm_mmc=InternalEmail-_-20110201WCSng-_-Intro-_-10Off50Print - Mine didn't, with some b.s that they only take the cards (I think she thought I photo copied it [this was a woman, probably higher up the food chain who was walking by and not really paying attention]) of coupons, but I've read reports saying this one works, just buy a pen or something and save $10, or worse case scenerio it's still a 1TB hd for $55.

Also, when I was in a Staples near where I live and they had a WD 1.5TB listed for $21.50
-SKU: 821539

Now things to know about this:
1) This store didn't have it in stock (LA) When in enquiring it seemed that none of the stores around LA/SFV has it in stock, the only one coming up was a returns due to issues with the HDD.
2) When I checked the website it said the item was no longer being made (or something to that effect).

Really I think it's more of a pot luck to see if your local store still has them in stock.
I'm sure it's already mentioned here but it looks like the items only get the discount when it is being rung up, not when they check them in stock.

 

[oldskool]

Just ordered a new PSU to go with my new GTX 460. Fuckin ATI has shit drivers & I'm sick of playing L4D2's "hurry up before this damn thing locks up" mode.

 

[Rendclaw]

Yeah if you;re going to get a stonking graphics card, you have to upgrade your power supply, otherwise its lockup city...

heh, I got a 600 watter and I am not 100% sure its enough.... it hasn;t crashed or locked up yet which is good...

 

[Jaxxxson Mayhem]

I just had to replace mine after my desktop was down for almost 3 years. Upgraded from a 300 watt to a 500 watt. As soon as I replaced it I went through the process up updating XP and when it needed to restart, I restarted it and it wouldn't boot. It said it was missing a system config file. The desktop didn't come with recovery CDs so I had to download XP professional from Microsoft MSDNAA and tried to repair the OS using that. It didn't work. I had Home edition originally so it wouldn't work together. Now I had to create a live disc using Ubuntu to use a external hard drive to back up my hard drive so I can install 7. Hopefully it will create a windows.old folder with all of my files in there.