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Building a computer for gaming/other entertainment.

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Here's a sampling of the deals. Go to slickdeals.net, hot deals (subforum), then search by title. I used 'desktops'. Some of these may be more than you need, but it gives you an idea of the "deal" market:

(some of these are dead, as well...)

HP Pavilion Media Center TV m8400f Desktop/Phenom 9500 Quad-Core/3072MB PC2 6400 DDR2 SDRAM/ 720GB- RB'd $485 w/ coupon + FS
Gateway GM5664 TV Desktop Phenom quad-core 9600/3GB DDR2/ TB Serial ATA II hard drive (2 x 500GB)/Blu-ray High-definition hybrid DVDRW -Refurb Dropped to $660w/ coupon+ FS
Here's a breakdown thread (it's changed some since the original post) for anyone looking to build a PC or HTPC:
Custom Built sleek and powerful Home Theater/Gaming Desktop $380+, dedicated HTPC $330+, AMD X2 6000+ or 5000+ Black, 780G mobo, 750gHD,4gb RAM, 8800GT, High Def TV Tuner card
With all of the stuff you'd want, it would cost more than $850 to build from scratch. The packages include the four USB ports, 1394 Firewire card, Ethernet, and all the stuff you don't think about until late in the build process. But most only come with a 250GB HD.
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Newegg even had one offered recently, though this was refurb (whereas most of the Dell/HP deals are new):
HP Pavilion A6357C (Refurbished) Desktop: Athlon 64 X2 5000+ 2.6 GHz, 3GB DDR2, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, ATSC/NTSC TV Tuner + Remote, Vista Home Premium $343 (expired)
 
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Haha, I'm looking through the deals and have come to the sad realization (again) that I know very little about this stuff. But it's definitely cheaper to get one of the deals than to buy everything myself and have a friend help put it together?
 
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All in all, with the cost of PC's these days, buy one from Dell and then add to it. Its the cheapest route.
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Cheaper, yes........higher quality? Not a chance. You get a Dell, you're gonna get a shitty motherboard, shitty quality ram, etc. I will price you out one from newegg and let you know what i come up with.
 
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3074326;1227043; said:
It would probably be important for me to tell you what I'd be doing on the computer.. I'll be playing games (online shooters, RPGs, etc. Not solitaire and minesweeper). I'll be recording and creating music, with multiple programs running at the same time. Usually a recording program, a loop program, sometimes a third program. I'm a Photoshop user. Then there's the common stuff like movies, music, internet browsing, etc.
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FWIW, NewEgg has a Gigabyte GeForce 8600 GT right now for $60 + a $20 mail-in rebate + a copy of Neverwinter Nights II.
 
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Put another way, you will very rarely use the full power of the 4850 & other cards, whereas the 8600 should still be plenty functional. A few years down the road you can always upgrade.
 
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Yeah gigabyte is fine. I did get the email, but haven't digested all of it yet.

My thinking is to hop on that outrageous price. You won't be outdated for years, and when that time comes, you can likely buy the 4850 for dirt cheap... bringing your total for both cards still well under the 4850 sticker price now. If you aren't a high end gamer you can certainly get by with that card.
 
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I would check out a barebones kit someplace like Tigerdirect.com. You can get that and then add parts like video cards later. I don't know anything about AMD, but if you go Intel I would get a quad core. My goal for bonus time next year is to get a quad core system with at least 2-3 TB on a RAID 5 array so that I can store all my files and not worry about backing up to other drives. Right now I have a 750 GB external that automatically backs up my data. I picked up a 22" lcd for $150 on Black Friday last year. That is a good time to find deals.
 
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exhawg;1228107; said:
I would check out a barebones kit someplace like Tigerdirect.com. You can get that and then add parts like video cards later. I don't know anything about AMD, but if you go Intel I would get a quad core. My goal for bonus time next year is to get a quad core system with at least 2-3 TB on a RAID 5 array so that I can store all my files and not worry about backing up to other drives. Right now I have a 750 GB external that automatically backs up my data. I picked up a 22" lcd for $150 on Black Friday last year. That is a good time to find deals.
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I was looking at Tigerdirect earlier. A friend of mine just got a computer from there recently for $499. The list that BrutusMaximus put together for me appears to be more powerful for the price than the stuff I saw on Tigerdirect, though. But as I've said a few times, I don't know too much about this stuff. :tongue2:

(This is the one my friend bought - EVGA nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 Barebone Kit - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.66GHz OEM, 2GB DDR2 PC6400, ATX Mid-Tower Case, 800 Watt Power Supply at TigerDirect.com)

jwinslow;1228061; said:
Yeah gigabyte is fine. I did get the email, but haven't digested all of it yet.
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Sweet. Just making sure because a few e-mails I've sent lately haven't reached their destinations for some reason.
 
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Really, this isn't a bad deal, just giving some alternatives:
79.99 - <img title="Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive" alt="Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive" width="60">
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A good drive, but you can find 750 models around this range, on sale... often from newegg. Most of those are rebate deals, however.

About 2 weeks ago:
Newegg has Hitachi 750GB SATA II OEM Internal Hard Drive for $89.99 after $20 Rebate with free shipping. Thanks SP33DFR34K.

Here's an alternative for $5 less:
Western Digital Caviar Green Power 500GB SATA Internal Hard Drive $70

Others:
Western Digital Caviar 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA II OEM Hard Drive $85
 
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