Forbidden Donut

I'd like nothing more than to build you a kickass system (and for what you wan't, I could prolly do it for ~600 or less) but I could never suggest anything other than a custom built system.

Good hunting though...

PS:for the love of God, please do not spend that much on a basic gaming PC!!! For what you want, you shouldnt need to spend more than 1K.

PSS:Heres a small suggestion, at least something to go by. The Phenoms are pretty good, I bought one for my friend and it outdoes my Intel Q6600. Also the ATI 4850 is farely impressive for the cost. I know it comes with a keyboard but most towers you buy will. Also AMD doesnt change their socket very much so should leave room for cpu upgrade in the future, also PCI x16 leaves some room too.

Yes, you do want a Mac.

Have you considered getting a dell with Ubuntu preloaded? I don't know if they still include all the dumb dell crap, but I suspect they wouldn't simply because of the huge pain in the ass involved in making them work properly.

I'm also of the opinion that you shouldn't buy more than you need, but if you've got 1.5k to spend, you can get a machine that will meet your current needs for a couple years longer than a 1k machine. Just something to consider. People I work with make the mistake of getting the computer that just scrapes by for their needs thinking it'll cut mustard for as long as they treat it well. But we're in an upswing in the rate of technology advancements at the moment, so it's really just a personal balancing game.

At the high end, 512 MB video cards might be the sweet spot. At the low end you don't want to drop below 256, and that might not handle DIII when it comes out. PCI-e is crucial, if you can even find other cards anymore...

I'm a big fan of Seagate hard drives. They just updated their firmware whose last two iterations were plagued by issues. They have a retarded fast access speed two-platter terabyte drive. It's tits. Their 1.5 TB Barracuda is <150 bucks, and is what I'm rockin' at home. Big fan since that firmware update...

I don't know a WHOLE lot about processors, or game requirements therefore really. Since the whole core 2 duo thing, the numbers don't quite mean as much as they used to.

I also don't know much about prebuilt systems that aren't Dells... and that's only because I work with them.

Feel free to nitpick my advice guys. I don't have specific models, but maybe you can use some of these stats to look for a prebuilt. Good luck.

If you buy a Dell computer, I will personally see to it that your first born child is crucified.

Dell and Gateway were both over priced and not customizable enough. HP wasn't bad. I think the one I'm going to get, and it's more then I originally wanted to spend, is one built by Digital Storm. I tried to add up the parts and software on NewEgg to compare the cost of building it myself, and there is not a whole lot of difference in price. If anyone has any comments or recommendations, or thinks they can build a similar system cheaper...The specs I've settled on are:

Chassis Model: Antec Nine Hundred Two
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz Digital Storm Certified by mushkin enhanced (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 896MB (216 Cores) (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: Standard Factory Heat-sink and Fan
Liquid Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a H20: Stage 3 Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Blue)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my processor
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Windows Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) With Windows 7 Upgrade Coupon
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: McAfee Internet Security (Includes: AntiVirus, FireWall and AntiSpyware)
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-10 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/

I'm not going to sort through their fine print, but make sure that installing new ram or new vid cards and the like won't void your warranty. I'm about 90% sure it will, unfortunately.

The last thing you want to do is try to go SLI only to void your warranty, or try to go SLI only to have them tell you that you must ship to them and pay them for the install in order to keep your warranty!

I'm more of a fan of AMD atm than intel. The phenom II processors seem to me to have more bang for the buck than the corei7s.

edit: this is regarding pheylan's post not malisk's

You'll want to immediately remove McAfee and install something that actually works. Otherwise that's much more shit than I thought you'd want. Dowit.

/Yeah, Dell's are shit. But IME, so are most pre-builts...

You should check out the new Macbooks. They're pretty awesome.

-dan

My favorite feature:
Non-removable batteries.

Apple will replace your battery for you for free... http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro/service/battery/


What is the point of bitching about that? Unless you need ultra portability with your machine, and are going to be somewhere without electricity for long periods of time, and if that is the case, might I introduce you to the Macbook Air?

Rooting out the fanbois, mostly.

How you doin?

I guess I can address the actual question though, instead of just being a dick. Many people purchase laptops with the intention of taking them with them while they travel, sometimes on planes where they will "be somewhere without electricity for long periods of time". The Dell Latitude D630 they issue here at Gore comes with a 9 cell battery installed and a second 6 cell as well. You can purchase a 12 cell, if you're going on absurdly long trips. If you start taking long trips with the Macbook you dropped 1500 bucks on while you were in college, you will soon find that it would be super nice to have the option of slapping another one in there. And then your option seems to be listen to the hype and buy a macbook air for another grand and change. It's not about servicing, it's about scalability, which I appreciate in my technology. While not necessary for everybody this kind of decision making is crippling Apple's (completely legit IMO) capability to make inroads in both laptop and desktop sales numbers.

As far as macbook air is concerned.

you're an idiot if you don't think apple laptops are the greatest thing ever