Buying a new computer

[Refund!]

I'm in Canada, so canadian currency, and looking to buy a new computer around 1000 or less. using it for mainly games and random internet shit and i don't know much about vid cards, brand name quality, etc.

suggestions and/or links would be much appreciated

[geekbot]

The big question: Laptop or Desktop?

The main things I would get is at least 1G of RAM, (maybe more for Vista). 2nd, get the biggest HD that's reasonable/affordable. The rest isn't as big of a deal, in my opinion.

Do it yourself guide: http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200706.ars

Can't really go wrong with Dell (although I'm sure plenty will disagree but they do a lot of business)
http://www.dell.com/

Don't forget Apple (17" iMac for around $1000, don't forget the student discount):
http://www.apple.com/imac/

Macs switch back and forth to Windows pretty easily now. But you have to buy a copy of Windows to use it.

[Ewan]

Try and get a system with a Intel Core 2 Duo processor. They're not too expensive, and are a lot better than the current AMD generation of processors, although apparently AMD's next lot will be awesome. Also, they overclock well if that appeals to you at all.

I would definitely get 2GB+ of RAM, especially if you're going for Vista. It's not VITAL but RAM is dirt cheap at the moment.

As far as graphics cards go, I've got a 320MB GeForce 8800GTS and am perfectly happy with it. From what I've heard, the 640MB GTS isn't worth getting unless you have an especially large monitor. The 8800GTX is meant to be pretty awesome but I doubt it'd fit in to your budget. All the nVidia 8-series cards are DirectX10 compatible, as are the new ATI cards (2900). I have heard that the new ATI ones are not great, but I'm not too clued up on them to be quite honest.

If you're not bothered about DirectX10, then both the top-range, previous generation ATI and nVidia cards (x1900 and 7900) are meant to be pretty good and are now pretty cheap too.

As far as OS goes, I'd definitely recommend going for the step up to Vista. It gets a lot of hate, but a lot of it is unfounded. People will complain that it uses a lot of RAM, but this is in fact a good thing. It uses what isn't being used for useful functions such as SuperFetch (pre-loading programs you use often). A lot of people complain about the new User Account Control (it asks for confirmation before doing anything that an Administrator account is required for). Once you've done all your major installing (first few days) it's really not that annoying, and you CAN turn it off anyway if it really bugs you that much. I have Vista and I am perfectly happy with it.

As far as versions of Vista go, Home Premium seems the most popular. It has all the decent features that make Vista Vista (aero, all that stuff). Try and find an OEM version, they are cheaper (although you can't move the license to another computer once you've activated it, which you can do with the retail version).

For 32-bit vs 64-bit Windows you may as well get the 64-bit version. Vista 64-bit hasn't got a lot of the compatibility issues that XP 64-bit had. The only problem is that drivers must be signed, but unless you're planning on putting some old/obscure hardware in, it shouldn't be a problem. It just seems silly to get a 32-bit version. (FYI, all Intel Core 2 Duo the current generation AMD processors are 64-bit). Also, if you're ever planning on having 4GB or more of RAM, a 64-bit OS is required as 32-bit Windows cannot address more than 4GB of ram.

Also, you should probably specify if you're going to build a system (i.e. buy parts from somewhere like newegg) or buy a pre-built system (dell, gateway, etc.) so people can give you info on them too.

Some handy sites:

http://shsc.info/PCPartsPickingGuide - Handy for deciding on what to buy, is a few months out of date, but not much has changed since then (only major thing missing is the newest generation ATI cards).
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk - Good for reviews/benchmarking
Also, for stuff like this, Wikipedia and especially Google are your friend.


Sorry for the large and not particularly well written post, but I hope it helps.

[Refund!]

thanks a lot and i'm looking mainly for a desktop computer. i'm buying a laptop in 2+ years just 'cause i'll use it for post secondary more then high school and if i buy now it'll need upgrades etc. that i can just get to begin with

it's gonna be a pre-built system, some sort of bundle

and a wide screen monitor around 19"

[kthx]

I would really advise not getting Vista yet for your OS. Right now everybody is working on ways to crash Vista, find backdoors through its security features, and they will succeed. So basically you are going to spend alot of money on an OS that is buggy and easily penetrated with viruses and shit. Just stick with XP right now, and get your regular lineup for virus removal (delete norton). Trust me, you can upgrade to vista later but.. I used 98 up until about.. a year and a half ago and I loved it, very simplistic and nobody codes viruses for outdated OS's.

[Ewan]

I would really advise not getting Vista yet for your OS. Right now everybody is working on ways to crash Vista, find backdoors through its security features, and they will succeed. So basically you are going to spend alot of money on an OS that is buggy and easily penetrated with viruses and shit. Just stick with XP right now, and get your regular lineup for virus removal (delete norton). Trust me, you can upgrade to vista later but.. I used 98 up until about.. a year and a half ago and I loved it, very simplistic and nobody codes viruses for outdated OS's.

I don't really think you know what you're talking about.