Gift Computers

[Stickerr]

Originally Posted by Roxianna

I ended up getting the HP Pavilion Media Center a1610n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 1024 MB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive) from Amazon for $649.99.

1. Because it had 5 stars from reviews
2. Because it was cheap
3. Because HP has not yet pissed me off unlike Alienware, Dell and Sony

I am sure my son, the recipient, will want to upgrade the RAM some day, but its a decent machine that will get him back on the net so that we can exchange email, etc. while allowing his 3yr old daughter to play games on it.

You picked a good choice. Also AMD has a feature called AMD Live. You should really check that out.

AMD Live allows you to connect to your computer from anywhere in the world. If you have music, videos, pictures on you computer. You can view them easily and stream your music over the internet. If you have this hooked up to watch Cable on your computer. You also have the ability of watching TV over the internet. So say you watch TV through your computer through a tuner card. And you are 3,000 miles away. You can login to the AMD live stuff, and watch TV as if you were at home. It is truly amazing. Streaming content through the AMD live is very stable and reliable. There is alot you can do with it.

http://amdlive.com/

[peter]

Originally Posted by Shadow

if you want to build one here is a good deal nothing fancy video card might need updating

MB,CPU,Vid Card
http://www.newegg.com/product/Produc...82E16813131049
Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208009
Memory, free linux OS if you want to use
http://www.newegg.com/product/Produc...82E16820145440
HD,450Watt Power
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822135106

Total Price
99.99+39.99+136.49+68.98-15.00-10.00(rebates)=319.98

Need Microsoft OS?
http://www.buycheapsoftware.com/details~productID~1717.asp
+87.00
Total Price =407.45

Like I said maybe want to spend a bit more for a better memory card but I am pretty sure this would load anything out now minus most FPS, if you want to do a FPS you NEED a new video card

QFT, don't goto bestbuy, they will try and sell you some junk mobo with junky ram, but ZOMG a ATI 597394823 PRO MEGA XPACK CARD w/ TUNER.

Throw together a list of quality parts, abet a bit cheap, but from solid manuf. that will last 3+years.

[Fester-Rotcrotch]

Just for future reference, I highly recommend I-Buy-Power for gaming computers at reasonable prices.

I just ordered a new computer from them a few months ago, it costed me 600$ for a very capable machine. I won't delve into specifics, but it looks something like this:

1GB RAM
250GB HD
512MB nVidia brand graphics card
AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual-Core 3800+
Dual-Channel capable motherboard

I-Buy-Power constantly has offers and deals going on, mostly on their high end systems, but you can occasionally find something for a non-powerhouse machine as well.

http://www.ibuypower.com

Humbly,

Fester

[Aeos]

In my brief computer-buying experience, wait until the newest thing has come out (ie, a new processor) and splurge, getting all the best so you wont have to replace it for a few years. works like a charm.

[ayesac]

That would be totally Tubular, a 3 year old Computer Guru

[Kamujin]

Originally Posted by Roxianna

I ended up getting the HP Pavilion Media Center a1610n Desktop PC (AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+, 1024 MB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive) from Amazon for $649.99.

1. Because it had 5 stars from reviews
2. Because it was cheap
3. Because HP has not yet pissed me off unlike Alienware, Dell and Sony

I am sure my son, the recipient, will want to upgrade the RAM some day, but its a decent machine that will get him back on the net so that we can exchange email, etc. while allowing his 3yr old daughter to play games on it.

Every time I try to buy something from HP, they want to charge me more then DELL. Maybe its because I want to tweak my systems for my needs and HP get expensive as soon as you move away from their pre-configured systems.

Also, the AMD chips might be cheap, but they are not the best performance for your money deal going at this time. 1.5 years ago? Sure. But in the never ending game of leap frog, Intel is the current leader.

Dell pisses me off from time to time too, but they are super customizable and always the best value in my experience.

Alienware is a waste of money. I've owned 3 so far and only 1 didn't fall on its face. The worst of the 3 spent the first 9 months of its life going back and forth on a UPS truck because it was defective and they were too stupid to fix it.