I am saving up my money to buy a computer, but I don't know what kind. I would like one of the best ones out there now, but I only have about $1000 right now ( I get 250 every other week though). What kind of computer would be best. Also what kind of monitor should I get, I want a flat-screen but thats all I know.

wow 250 that's alot of money :D. you can buy really good computers for 1000 bucks. check out one of those emachines, they're not the greatest but they're really good entry level computers.

there might be other companies too but i don't know, maybe someone else will though. you won't have enough for a lcd monitor so go with a 19" flat screen.

Well if you want to spend less money on a comp I suggest buying a package (like a monitor and CPU together for one price)! DONT BUY A MAC!!!!!!!!!!! THEY'RE EVIL COMP's PRETTY ON THE OUTSIDE BUT UGLY ON THE INSIDE!!! I would also steer clear of a compaq. Dells are ok i guess! There's honestly no "best" computer out there! Why don't you go to a comp store outlet or a place where you can use computers before you buy them, that's the way I bought my new computer!


BTW I have a DELL I honestly like dells but mine was not those you see on the commercials (those are really bad). I got my CPU seperate and monitor as well (17" flat screen :D ) yet it is more expensive if your not in a military family. The PX (a military fort army store) sells them cheaper with no tax.



It's all up to you in the end!

NOOOooo!!!! DON'T BUY A MAC, they're evil and the people who bought them went to the dark side of the force :lol:

My computer is a midnight grey Dell with Windows XP.

Er...woot?

Dont buy a compaq, whatever you do. They are evil, horrible and pieces of uhh do not used masked profanity.

I guess it really depends what you want to use it for. I got one of them 'clones' and it works perfectly.

And as far as moniters, get a flat screen or an LCD. a 17 inch LCD moniter is about $500 CDN or something. so go with a flat screen. They cost justr as much as a normal non-flat screen moniter., .. I think.

remember that you get what you pay for.

Dells, for example, are cheap. both in price and quality of materials. the one I have, which we got when Dell was still a little on the expensive side (before they got ultra-competetive), for example, has only 2 fans in it. most computers have 3. instead of doing it the right way and having a fan on the power supply, the CPU, and a case fan, there's one on the power supply and one on the CPU, with a weird plastic thing that directs air from the CPU out where the case fan should be. so the case is pretty much left without a fan. any part in the thing that doesn't have to be decent because of the name (like the CPU, the video card, etc. since you see the brand on all those kinds of components when you configure it), is cheap.

and since Dell would most definately be considered more reputable that something like emachines, I'd hate to think what it's like inside one of those.

the solution? get the parts and build it yourself :P there are tons of tutorials out there on the Internet, if you feel up to the (slight) challenge :P

OMG, i had no idea MACs and compaqs were that bad! my friend has a mac and she says its just fine. whats wrong with them?

i just built a new computer a week ago.

$129 Asus motherboard
$119 amd Athlon XP 2200
$50 case
$69 geforce4 mx440
i had a burner from my old computer, 17 inch monitor, and a 20 gig harddrive also, so i didnt spend money on those

then i bought a cool fan and some nice looking cables for 30 buck
i think it was all a really good deal

get alteast a 17 inch monitor, and its not a big deal if its flat screen or not, should be able to get one for 130 or so

I just recently got a "new" comp, and was thinking about getting an LCD moniter (all i needed was a moniter). an LCD is nice, and small, great for people who dont have a lot of space. but, they r really expensive compared to CRT moniters. I think in a year or two, LCD's should be so much more cheaper. Also, LCD's are VERY fragile. You cant really touch them,(the screen) and you cannot clean them with windex or a cleaning solution like you can w/ a crt. LCD moniters also only last about two years, whereas a CRT can last a little bit longer. LCD's, if run for an extended amount of time, are prone (sp?) to pixel burn. Which means that you will have while lines down the screen. But, i really dont think that should be a problem b/c you probably dont have your moniter running 24/7, but it can still happen if you get a cheap one. I actually ended up getting a NEC flat screen CRT moniter. Its up to you though!! :)

Originally posted by Superstar
OMG, i had no idea MACs and compaqs were that bad! my friend has a mac and she says its just fine. whats wrong with them?

a lot of people are either too lazy to change their habits, too lazy to learn a new OS, or they just don't know any better- some people hear others with actual experience say they're bad, so they spread that around. personally, I think of the major desktop operating systems, you probably can't get much worse than Windows. but in terms of hardware, I've heard relatively good things about Mac hardware compared to PC hardware. I think this kind of issue shares things in common wih Linux- some people have bad experiences with it or they just choose not to learn it and they complain, then others start saying it's bad too, when it's really not. how many people get crashes/freezes/BSODs in Windows and put up with/accept it without complaining too much?

but the main (pretty much the only) complaint about Macs is a relative lack of software. since Windows is the most used desktop OS, there is more software available for it.

and for those of you that would say "but my school has Macs and their horrible!!", think about this: schools usually have older, slightly junkier computers. you can't really form an honest opinion about any computer hardware or software based on school computers alone :)

Originally posted by Superstar
OMG, i had no idea MACs and compaqs were that bad! my friend has a mac and she says its just fine. whats wrong with them?

To add on to dude128's comments about macs.....Maybe the old macs weren't all that great, but with the release of Mac OSX 10, they're a whole lot better than any windows machine. Here's the key: OSX combines the usability of a well-organized GUI with the power, speed, and stability of a unix-base and better processor than any x86 and you get a wonderful os.

$69 geforce4 mx440

Ouch...my brother got that hmm like 6 months ago for $59 with tv out.

most computers have 3. instead of doing it the right way and having a fan on the power supply, the CPU, and a case fan, there's one on the power supply and one on the CPU, with a weird plastic thing that directs air from the CPU out where the case fan should be. so the case is pretty much left without a fan.

I don't know how powerful this system is, but not until recently, with more powerful computers, did they even consider using case fans. It used to be that any personal workstation you'd buy for your house would have two fans: one on the power supply and one on the processor. the fact that dell directs air directly off the processor and out of the case is good. blowing it into the already hot case and hoping it exits even with a case fan isn't all that spectacular.

even so, i wouldn't recommend a dell. my friend has a dell laptop and it's like 1.8ghz and it's slower than my friend's 1.0 athlon hp laptop. the dell has had tons of problems and the tech support is horrible. hp on the other hand has wonderful tech support and their stuff holds together pretty well. compaq, now that it is owned by hp, is also a good choice, though many have not recommened it. i have a feeling those who had problems with compaq had one of their old machines, before they had their merger with hp.

monitors...

this is really up to personal preference. lcds cost more but the image is crisp. i ahve a 19inch flat crt by samsung (the syncmaster 955df) with a .22 dot pitch so the picture is both crisp and i get a lot of desktop space (1600x1200 res) for only $200. i really ilke the 19 inch, as it gives me tons of space, but again that's just my preference

Originally posted by christiandude03
Ouch...my brother got that hmm like 6 months ago for $59 with tv out.

keep in mind that people here are from all over. alkaline39 is in Canada, so I'm guessing that it's $69 Canadian, not US$ :)

yeah you're probably right...still, though, isn't that a little higher, or not?

according to http://www.xe.com $69 CAD is around $51.53 USD :)

but anyway, back to the real topic of discussion:

sony. theirs ones for like $1300 with a dvd burner and 1.5ghz i think. alienware is the best brand but they're real expensive.

Sounds about right - i saw the geforce mx440 for about $50 a few days ago

i just built myself a new comp for 140$...100 for the motherboard and processor (1.5 GHz mega upgradable) and 40 for a case. i had the CD ROM, floppy, etc. so if you want to tear apart ur current comp and rake it for supplies, it wouldn't be that hard w/ a tutorial

well the geforce came with a 20 dollar rebate so 49 , i just havent sent it in yet

We use iMacs in my school. They're slow (but there's like 22 sharing two computer boxes, you know the ones with the motherboard inside...thats the actual CoMpUtEr) and you need to download something before you can download fonts (to my knowledge) and appart from that, they're pretty O.K. for me. It's just at our school, the kids think that computers will do something right away the second they click, and because that's pretty impossible, the just click and click and click...but, this just freezes the computer (because they're are so many people using it) every moniter freezes. That's annoying.
My computer costed $1,800, but it was for mum for her job...on the computer package, we got:
19 inch flat screen moniter
A pretty computer lol
with a CD drive (duh) a DVD drive and a CD burner drive. We want to get a DVD burner, too (like we will though :P)
A subwoofer and two speakers
A scanner + a printer (ok ok that was from the old computer)
&...a 56k modem...Windows 2000 Proffesional, and AutoCAD or something..lol
Anyway, hope you get a really cool computer! I hope you get a dream computer too... ;)

we recently built a comp...we had our really old gateway and we ordered a new motherboard, video card, cd/dvd burner (that doesnt work lol,) the floppy disk drive and e drive were already good so we used those and anything else u need inside a comp we bought lol (im not a very technical person...) but yea and we used my OLD gateway monitor its pretty big...not a flat screen....but i think its fine....i think gateways r pretty good comps the one i have is pretty fast but our gateway downstairs isnt...thats cuz my brother downloads all this crap from the internet and screws up the whole computer lol so yea it depends wat kind of stuff u do on the comp 2 make it slower or not sometimes...NE WAYS lol yea i talk 2 much....thast my comp story....