Customized computer?

[Deadfire]

That, and if you end up taking your computer to Best Buy or FS to be fixed for something, 95% of the time they will have absolutely no clue what they're doing. I've seen many a computer come out of Best Buy with more problems than when they went in.

Ouch.. was that a shot at me for any reason there mage?

I worked hard for my position of where I am, and I can asure you I know what the heck I'm doing. Also this 95% bullshit, where did you pull that from? I don't insult your workplace don't fuck with mine

I don't get your logic here either, what is different about the parts you telling him to get compared to pre-built parts. It's the same break down rate, no matter how you look at it. Building it yourself means you have nothing for warrenty if it fails as all the companies you bought parts from will blame the others for the reason they don't work right and thus more trouble. As well, he is a new user, not someone who understands the fine dealings of these machines. Things here are based on skill level what may be easy for me and you may be harder for someone else.

Now to the one point I agree with yes you don't need such a expensive computer. What I think your trying to do is future-proofing yourself. So thats why I'm suggesting things around what you looked at there. I'm not the person using this computer and if your happy with it then there you go.

[mage]

It wasn't any shot at you, it's just the truth. You may know what you're doing, but from what I've experienced (and heard from pretty much everyone) is that people working at places like BestBuy usually have no clue what they're doing.

[BioAlien]

before buying your computer, wait until AMD release they 4 core prossesor lol

[complich8]

yeah, there's problems with bestbuy's support, among others.

And I agree with the assessments here: (1) you don't need a $1100 media center pc to photoshop, nor to download and watch shows, nor to do anything else.

I'll second Mage's suggestion of parts. Really, anything reasonably modern will work for what you want. In fact, I do quite a bit more than that on my aging dell poweredge 400SC (p4-2.4 northwood ht, 1gb ecc ddr400 dual channel, came with onboard sata and a couple open drive bays). For what you're asking, you don't even need a pci-e generation system ... straight-up agp/pci would work fine.

I also second the suggetsion on price. A homebuilt system that meets those needs wouldn't be more than a couple hundred bucks. If you watch the deal sites (slickdeals.net being a good example) you might find a deal on a dell or something to that effect, if you really really want to go the prebuilt route.

Further, media center pc's are built for a particular purpose, and they're sold at a premium to people who want to buy prebuilt systems tailored to that purpose. If you're buying a media center pc, you're probably paying $200+ more for the system than you would if you were buying the same specs without the "media center" moniker.

Lastly, AMD launching socket-am2, as well as Intel's impending launch of conroe, will both spell lower costs for older generation hardware. That means right now is an excellent time not to throw your money at computer hardware.

[naruto=pwnage]

thanks for the suggestions, but I think I'll spend my money however I want. plus It's going to be waiting a while before I buy it anyways. since I have to rasie the money first at twenty bucks a week

Mage, I'm not JUST going to use it for internet browsing. I want to get a new computer becuause my current laptop isn't exactly built for heavy downloading. it wasn't really built for multitasking and sure as shit wasn't built for vid editing. I'll name once again what I want to do with it:
-internet browsing(duh)
-downloading of lots of anime and programs
-watching anime and running programs
-a very good possibility I'll want to edit videos

and in general I want to have good RAM as well because I want my comp to run really fast and smoothly with no problem. plus I want future proofing, since programs are getting bigger and better all the time.

[mage]

thanks for the suggestions, but I think I'll spend my money however I want. plus It's going to be waiting a while before I buy it anyways. since I have to rasie the money first at twenty bucks a week

Mage, I'm not JUST going to use it for internet browsing. I want to get a new computer becuause my current laptop isn't exactly built for heavy downloading. it wasn't really built for multitasking and sure as shit wasn't built for vid editing. I'll name once again what I want to do with it:
-internet browsing(duh)
-downloading of lots of anime and programs
-watching anime and running programs
-a very good possibility I'll want to edit videos

and in general I want to have good RAM as well because I want my comp to run really fast and smoothly with no problem. plus I want future proofing, since programs are getting bigger and better all the time.

1) Internet browsing: any computer will do.

2) Downloading anime: Again, any computer will do as long as you have a large hard drive unless you intend to just burn your anime.

3) Multitasking while watching anime: Any modern computer will do this fine

4) video editing: Unless you're doing some hardcore editing (eg. professional), the computer I prescribed will do just fine.

5) Futureproofing: There's really nothing to futureproof here. It's a 64bit cpu which will accomodate 64bit applications with Windows Vista if you choose to run that OS when it comes out, you aren't playing games so you don't need a PCI-E slot (agp is fine), and again, since you aren't playing games, you don't need an expensive hardcore CPU. And finally, if you built a computer with the parts I listed, you will be able to use basically any and every program just fine for years to come.

6) Upgradability: You seem to be concerned only with wanting to add more hard drives an ram. All computers are upgradable in this way. The CPU is Socket 754, which is now slightly outdated with the release of Socket 939 and AM2, but that doesn't matter for what you're going to be using the computer for. With socket 754, you can still upgrade the CPU to something better later on if you so choose.

7) RAM: Since you mentioned ram, the ram I linked to in my parts list is perfectly fine. I'm a hardcore gamer and I run 1gb and everything runs perfectly. You will have no problems with 1gb unless you do extremely heavy photoshop work or video editing, in which case you should probably upgrade to 2gb.

I guess it just comes down to how much money you're willing to waste.

[darkshadow]

7) RAM: Since you mentioned ram, the ram I linked to in my parts list is perfectly fine. I'm a hardcore gamer and I run 1gb and everything runs perfectly. You will have no problems with 1gb unless you do extremely heavy photoshop work or video editing, in which case you should probably upgrade to 2gb.

I guess it just comes down to how much money you're willing to waste.

i say go for 2gb of ram, i do lots of editing and photoshop, or any kind of other proffesional editing ( being it 3d, 2d or video), will speed up significantly with more then 1gb of ram, this is even more so if you are gonna spend more then an hour editing the same thing.

[Board of Command]

I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but you're best off waiting a little longer for AM2 to mature a bit. 939 is becoming the 754 of this generation.

Better yet, wait for the Big C to come out next month before doing anything. Even if you don't plan on buying it, its release is bound to shake the market. Right now is the worst possible time to get a new system.

[Deadfire]

It wasn't any shot at you, it's just the truth. You may know what you're doing, but from what I've experienced (and heard from pretty much everyone) is that people working at places like BestBuy usually have no clue what they're doing.

Ya, I kind of went off on that. I have had that be told to me many times at work, and thus I get pissed off really easily about that. Only a few more months of school however and I will be out of there. The truth is I can agree that it's a problem in the US that there are those computer that come out of there worse. I personally don't see that much happening with my workplace in Canada, nor the consumer reviews we have gotten at other stores. However I will say that I know of computers that we were to repair and have made either worse or because of a error with our parts sources have in turn made even a small repair turn to be tricky to explain to a person because of the result. As well I'm not there all the time so there could have been issues I haven't known (Or cared) about.

More to the point about this thread I agree with mage on his advice in his above post. As it's basing it on your needs as you have dealt it out to us. If there is something your doing the requires more then that you need to tell us this.

Also the quote Comp:

That means right now is an excellent time not to throw your money at computer hardware.

What do you mean? There never has been a excellent time to throw your money at computer hardware