help picking a brand of computer

[indoplaya313]

hey all
ive been trying to watch some AVI unlicensed(legal to download) anime on my computer. It has worked really well with winamp in the past, and i only had trouble at the beginning with this comp. I ordered it through www.cyberpowerpc.com, i know now its a mistake.
On one of my other comps, i tried the same thing(gateway) on that pc, and it worked perfectly fine. when i open an AVI file, it says that windows explorer encountered an error and needs to shut down. same thing with the winamp.
this pc has really given me trouble from the start, and i know it was a mistake buying it. it is a quite powerful system
AMD Athalon 4000+
1 Gb Ram
160 GB hard drive
ATI Radeon x800xl

i just dont know why ive been having repeated problems with it. I really do want a customized computer, but i dont want one with major problems with the one i buy

i ask this of you
1- please try to help me with my winamp/windows explorer/computer problem

2- please please, recommend me a good custom computer maker, or a good brand like Dell or Sony, or some very good brand of computer that is good, and will play lots of games such as City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, and everything else, with very good frame rates and very good visual graphics and a smooth sailing graphics card, with lots of ram, and a decent-great processor
also, maybe if it could do multimedia things, like burn dvd's, edit home movies, and other things

i dont want to spend too much, maybe around $900-1300 tops
can you please provide me with your honest honest opinions on computers that are customized and meet most hardcore gamers/general computer users, that would be great, and also some info on brands like DEll, SONY, and HP
it should also have Microsoft Office Small Buissness.

 

[filocardhustler]

well first off, in your case I wouldn't even consider tne brand named computer, your going to pay more for less performance than you would in a custom. I probably don't live in your country but I can recommend some parts that will work well for you.

for the graphics, go something like 6600gt, 6800GS, GT or Ultra, 7800GT from worse to best, I wouldn't recommend ATI, NVIDIA is easily dominating the market at this point and thier cards perform superior.

For processor, you should go for an AMD64 at lowest and you may even consider dual core. 3700 San Diego is a good place to start.

Make sure you get a quality motherboard like DFI, I like gigabyte and ASUS whcih have been reliable for me so you might want to consider them as well.

you should aim to get 1gb of DDR400 memory, some quality modules can be found from OCZ, G skill, Kingston for lower budget.

Just make sure your board has plenty of features, a custom built made properly has just about as much chance of error as a brand, the hardware doesn't what issues you get in software, merely increases performance.

And secondly I don't know anything about brand computers, I had a HP which was alright but for 3000 dollars didn't really cut it.

 

[fury36]

Dont you have a computer shop somewhere, you could go there and ask them to build you a custom computer... you can usualy just take all the things uve bought there and they will put it together for a reasonable price.

Yeah get a DFI Lanparty motherboard, they are very good. You should also think about getting G.Skill ram, very good for overclocking, so is the DFI motherboard, the AMD 64 3700+ is a good processor to overclock aswell.

Oh and finally custom pc's r always better then all the other big brand computer companys, if ur gonna be doing hardcore-gaming like you said, you dont wanna go buying one of those systems coz they are a rip-off.

 

[indoplaya313]

yeah,
but with my gateway, the one that i bought from best buy
i never got ONE windows explorer error, and i never got one crash. this comp has crashed 3 times in the past 2 months, and each time ive been indebted to my wonderful backup discs.

i just want a comp that will work and not have ANY errors like that

there is a shop by me: www.nanosys1.com
please customize a comp for me there, or tell me which parts to get from there and give me the total
thanks

www.nanosys1.com

 

[fury36]

Do you really have to limit it down to one web-site, trust me man, we know very good sites for this kinda stuff, like www.newegg.com for example, dont know any other american sites but loads of people on here do.

We could make u a list on here, which is fully compatible, with links underneath each item...

 

[indoplaya313]

well, that is the only local store for me. I would never put a comp together myself, and i dont know anyone who has, so i would really like to avoid putting a comp together myself, does newegg.com assemble a pc as well?

please try making a list with only www.nanosys1.com only, but if you have to make one with newegg list

thank you

 

[macdude425]

Newegg does not build the machine for you, you have to do that yourself.

Seriously, PC building isn't as hard as you think it is. I've put together 4 PCs, and it was easy. I've had more trouble installing lightbulbs (I'm dead serious...)

 

[indoplaya313]

ok,
but id like someone to maybe put together a list for me through nanosys1.com if you want, you can do one for newegg too, and maybe the nanosystems people will assemble the parts for me


edit: i customized a comp with ibuypower.com

Case ( Raidmax Scorpio-868 ATX Mid-Tower Case w/420W Power Supply Black )
Case Lighting ( Neon Light Blue )
Power Supply ( Standard Case Power Supply )
Processor ( [939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 3500+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game --- Half Life 2 Download Coupon with purchase of any AMD-64 based systems or Mobile Turion notebook )
Processor Cooling ( Certified CPU Fan and Heatsink )
Motherboard ( eVGA nForce-4 SLI Chipset Dual DDR w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, Dual PCI-E MB )
Memory ( 1024 MB [512MB X2] DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair XMS w/ Heat Spreader )
Video Card ( [PCI-Express 16x] Nvidia Geforce 6800XT 256MB w/DVI + TV Out Video )
Hard Drive ( [Special !!!] 200 GB HARD DRIVE Maxtor 200 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA-133 8MB Cache Hard Drive )
2nd Hard Drive ( None )
Raid Controller ( None )
Raid Configuration ( None )
CD/DVD Drive ( 16x DVD-ROM Drive Black )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( NEC ND-3540A Dual Format/Double Layer 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive Black )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Speaker System ( Cintre RW-6510 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers + Subwoofer )
Fax Modem ( None )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Floppy Drive ( None )
Monitor ( None )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Keyboard ( Combo: Multi-Media/Internet Keyboard + Optical Internet Mouse Black )
Mouse ( None )
Meter Display ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack-2 )
Additional Software ( MS Office 2003 Small business Edition )
Case Round Cable ( Professional wiring for all cables inside the system tower )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( None )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
MP3 Player ( None )
TV Tuner ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Headset ( None )
Power Protection ( None )
Printer ( None )
Printer Cable ( None )
Warranty ( Warranty Service iBUYPOWER Deluxe Warranty Package(Standard Warranty plus: First Year On-site Service and 24/7 Phone Support) )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

 

[indoplaya313]

edit:
i ran spyware scans for my winamp problem, with a virus scan as well, and they still are not working

any other ideas? or do i need a new comp?

 

[tommy8748]

Hmmm... You can try to reboot (factory restore) your computer usually worked for me when I was getting the same error message with other programs. Find your system restore disk which usually comes with the computer.