Need recommendations

dustmite

Beta member
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Hi, everyone. I was hoping someone might be able to make a suggestion for me. I am looking to buy a computer, but I'm not really sure where to start. In the past I have put all my computers together myself, but I'm afraid I don't have time for that any more. Can someone suggest a good-value desktop? I am in grad school, so I'm on a pretty severe budget. I could maybe go as high as $600 but not much more. My needs are pretty basic; I don't need much since I don't game as much as I used to. Basically, if it can run The Orange Box at a decent resolution, it should meet my hardware needs. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 
How does this look? It's close to your budget, but it's a very good build. If you don't have the time to build it, I would be happy to build it for you at no charge.
Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5
PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 500 Watt
Mobo: ASUS P5Q
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8 GHz
Video Card: Galaxy 9600GT 512MB
Memory: Corsair 2X2 GB DDR2 800
Hard Drive: Western Digital 320GB
DVD Burner: LG 22X DVD Burner
Operating System: Windows 7 Release Candidate

Or if you still want to buy pre-built, you can go with this. But in my humble opinion, the custom built is a major value compared to the pre-built.
iBUYPOWER custom pre-built PC
 
Your first build was better 63083. seriously that ibuypower rig is worth $300


we just gotta lower the price of the motherboard to add keyboard and mouse but i know nothing about intel motherboards so idk. But hey dustmite do you need a monitor?
 
But Thats a great build man, your getting real good at finding some great deals on newegg.

I think maybe he should just go with an HD 3850 since he only plays orange box, its also not that bad of a card and it'll help lower costs of the build.
 
But Thats a great build man, your getting real good at finding some great deals on newegg.

I think maybe he should just go with an HD 3850 since he only plays orange box, its also not that bad of a card and it'll help lower costs of the build.

Thanks. I've been working on it. :D

And yeah, since he's only playing the orange box, the 3850 would be sufficient but the 9600GT would offer more power in the future if he decides to play some more games. Or is the 9600GT and HD3850 evenly matched?
 
I'm quite busy now...getting ready for my grad party tomorrow. Prod, you're the AMD guy here. Check and see what he could get out of an AMD build with $600...I have a feeling it might be a little bit more performance than the intel build. Not a whole bunch, but the money he'll save can go towards more RAM, a better MB or a better vid card or something. I'll look stuff up if I have time if no one posts and AMD build.

EDIT: Got caught up in computers again. What a surprise. Just posted this in another thread:
Great AMD Build
CPU
MB
RAM
GPU
PSU
Case
HDD
Optical

I didn't add it again from my previous except to factor in the last two items. Should total around $430 plus some for shipping (this is all factoring in the rebates). You could get a better graphics card or bigger hard drive or a larger PSU (for upgrade purposes later on) and still be way under budget.
 
You guys missed he doesn't have time to build one.

Check Office Depot. I scored a couple of amd based rigs for the office that work rather nicely. $400 each and come with optical mouse and keyboard.
 
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