My desktop just stalled when trying to turn it on; I had to cut the power and try a second time. Thankfully it worked, but its left me a bit uneasy. Thus I'm beginning to look at desktops, since I've had this one for three years, and now I'm a bit nervous about how much life it has left in it.
Anyways, I'm not looking for a computer dedicated to gaming, though I'd like it to be able to play some games. I'll mostly be using it for writing up papers and surfing the internet. I would like it to have the potential to play Civilization V and maybe a couple other games at a reasonable capacity, but other than that I don't have much of a reason for it to be insanely powerful.
Not being very familiar with the way the various brands stack up against each other, I'm looking for some input. I will say that my current ability to purchase online is currently limited to Amazon. I'll also say that If I do decide to get one sooner rather than waiting for my current one to die, I'd probably want it to be a maximum of $500, though cheaper is certainly better.
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I thought I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today. Oh how I wish he'd go away.
Five hundred dollar computers are notorious for integrated graphics cards. Which will not play nicely with Civ V. I suggest you man up and spend 700 on a really nice system. That extra 200 can really do a lot.
But if not you can make a good system for 500 easily.
But man I'd go Mac. You could drop 2,500 on a macbook that could run Civ V on medium settings no problem.
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"...you should try reading my posts being getting all emo." --FoxMetal
Also, since my computer ends up getting used as a family computer, I did some talking with my dad about price, and he thought maybe I should consider something pricier as well, with the idea that it would take longer for it to get old. Given its status as somewhat of a family computer, I may be able to convince him to help me pay for it, so I'll probably be able to go a bit higher. I'd not like to go quite this high, but when I mentioned that it might be $700, he said that such a computer would probably be good, as it would take longer to become "old" and that I should maybe even consider going up to $1000. I don't know if I want to go quite that high, but I think I have more flexibility price wise than I originally thought.
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I thought I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today. Oh how I wish he'd go away.
Would you be willing to build it?
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"...you should try reading my posts being getting all emo." --FoxMetal
No, the prospect of doing that scares me to death.
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I thought I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today. Oh how I wish he'd go away.
Aw, it's not that bad, plus it's a lot of fun and you will get more bang for your buck.
But if your heart is set against it you can still get a pretty good system. Especially for 1000. My first good computer was a pre-made 1000 dollar machine.
I'll look at Amazon in a bit and see what I can find. Though others might know more about pre-build machines.
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"...you should try reading my posts being getting all emo." --FoxMetal
Oh, just clarifying; if I get it online, it has to be from Amazon, but it can also be from a chain store, like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or such.
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I thought I saw upon the stair a little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today. Oh how I wish he'd go away.
Travis, can one in fact build a computer without specialized tools and deep knowledge of hardware?
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"If I pick nine, you'd better not be racist against me!"
"No promises, niney."
I got an Inspiron 570 from Dell.com recently. Including a new monitor, the build I decided on ended up being a bit more than $700, including shipping. I don't play a lot of games but I have Heroes of Might and Magic V, The Sims 3, and Civilization IV on it and they all run well on the highest settings. StarCraft II even runs well, but only on the lowest settings.
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x is an irrational number if and only if the set { nx mod 1 | n is a natural number } is dense in [0,1].
@Kodi: Absolutely. If you ever want help doing so, he and/or I can guide you through it.
I built my computer for $550 (though, I had already bought my monitor, which is a HD 1080p 26" TV that I got for $200). Building the computer is really easy. You basically just plug things together. The only difference between building a desktop computer and a piece of IKEA furniture is that you have to handle the pieces delicately, oh and actually read the directions. Finding the best pieces would be the hardest part, but not the assembly. I don't know what you mean by "specialized tools." I think the only tool I used was a small phillips screwdriver to put in the mother board and such. You also don't need "deep knowledge." I mean, it'd help to have someone who has some sort of experience help you, but I'm sure you'd be able to figure it out just by doing a little research.
Anyway, you don't really save a whole lot of money building your own anymore. I saw a few at OfficeMax for about the same price and were only a little worse than mine. Just for the love of god don't get one from Walmart. Those things are over priced pieces of garbage.
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Holy **** we're in the Matrix? - Willis
Huh. For some reason I thought you needed to have an intimate knowledge of what all the pieces did in order to put them together. I guess manufacturers have done a lot to standardize their hardware.
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"If I pick nine, you'd better not be racist against me!"
"No promises, niney."
@Cheez: It depends what you build. The lower-end the computer, the less beneficial it is to build your own (and at some price points you should not build your own).
From: Kodiologist
Huh. For some reason I thought you needed to have an intimate knowledge of what all the pieces did in order to put them together. I guess manufacturers have done a lot to standardize their hardware.
Just from trying to get my Frankenputer to keep running, it seems like the biggest thing is making sure that you don't draw more power than your power supply can give you. Otherwise it's make sure you have a slot A for tab B, but those seem to be pretty standardized.
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Set signature in options page.
Basically, your power supply is like the Giving Tree.
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Set signature in options page.