Wayfarers of Veeshan

I'm interested in upgrading my PC. I want to make sure I am
not going to replace too soon so will be shooting for the following

3+Ghz processor
1-2+ G RAM
radeon 9600-9800 sound card
80+ G HD
DVD r/w?

I don't want to spend more than $1500. Anyway, I am interested
in what rigs everyone else has.

Regards,
Chanzia

It's all in the motherboard. Everything else is an easy upgrade as you feel it's needed. Even the motherboard isn't that bad. I haven't bought a new 'system' in years, but over time everything has been upgraded a few times. Just make sure you initially buy something you can upgrade. Keep in mind that a lot of Dell, Compaq, etc systems are proprietary and hard (impossible sometimes) to upgrade. Not that they aren't great machines. Dell has some really nice deals and configurations but in my experience once they have your money their service is horrible. I've heard great things about HP customer service but have no personal experience there.

Some companies geared towards high performance gaming machines are:

http://www.outsideloop.com (VERY nice guys and always willing to help)
http://www.hypersonic-pc.com (where my system originally came from...the seem a little pricey these days though)

and the place I order most of my stuff from:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com (formerly googlegear)
I don't know anything about their systems as I've only ordered parts from them, but they have good prices.

There's always pricewatch, but be very careful there. Scammers are everywhere. Make sure you verify that the company you are ordering from actually exists. http://www.pricewatch.com
If you wade through the mud there are some good deals to be had.

_________________
Trapped in Veeshan. Send food.

Good place for ordering parts:

http://www.newegg.com/
I'm recieved really superb service from these guys in the rare instance that I need an rma or a replacement.

If you can afford 'em here another couple whole unit houses dedicated to making machines for gamers ... usually BY gamers.

http://www.alienware.com/

http://www.voodoopc.com/

http://www.falcon-nw.com/

Please note that the above three can be QUITE pricey ... just an FYI.
I'm sure that most of us wouldn't choose to afford their system, but they are tested for gaming and assembled for gaming.

Zbik beat me to it.. but if price is what matters I check most of the time.

If you are fairly knowledgable about what's out there.. I like for checking prices and or ordering.

I've currently got a 2.2 ghz AMD with 1 gig ram, 120gig 7200rpm HD, a DVD -R/RW ( that I always plan to make big use of but never find the time), an MSI motherboard (failed once and factory replaced it), and a GForce 4 ti4200 vid card. Plays EQ Very well. Obviously who knows what the new zones will do to it hehe but for everything existing in game now it's great.

_________________

70 Bard, at your service
Elder, Wayfarer of Veeshan

Also, , , Irodanise (52 Pal), Irodanes (31 Rog), Iroardanis (19 BL), Sinadori (25 SK), Dreminal (32 Dru)

Oh! Great new place to search and do price compares:

http://froogle.google.com/

The system I'll be building sounds pretty close to what you are looking for. Parts not including OS and monitor will cost me about $1200-1300.

_________________
-- Mindbender Llaffer Outloud
L70 ENC
<select name=Skills>
<option>78 past 1750
<option>272 from 2100
<option>Jewelry:300+Trophy
<option>Tailoring:259+Geerlok
<option>Pottery:256+Geerlok
<option>Smithing:256+15%
<option>Fletching:254+Geerlok
<option>Baking:252+Geerlok
<option>Brewing:251+Geerlok
<option>Research:202+Geerlok
<option>Alcohol Tolerance:200
<option>Fishing:182
</select>

One thing to keep in mind if you arent gonna want to do another upgrade anytime soon is the new changes that are going to occur. Should be by June of this year the motherboard designs will be changing to the new official BTX standard of board design, AMD will have their AMD 64 dual channel chips out in plenty of supply,DDR 2 memory will take over the memory slots design,the current AGP slot for video cards will be going bye-bye with the new PCI Express slots with the higher bandwidth,video cards will be made for this new type of slot, and Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drives that are faster utilizing all the new busses will be the norm for pc's, add to this a new type of power supply for the new BTX MB designs. This is the 1st time that this many changes have occured at once in pc history. So you may want to wait just a bit so that your pc wont be an legacy type within 3-6 months of your purchase of one. Hope this helps in your decision process.

I think Iro was the only one that posted his rig.

Cough up the info people!

Chanzia.

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
512MB Dual Channel DDR (1 pair, speedmatched)
Abit NF7-S motherboard
Chaintech A-GT61 128MB Geforce 4 Ti 4600
Plextor 12/10/32A CD/RW
Lian Li PC60 Aluminum Case
Sun 22" Monitor

Advent speakers w/ sub

gigabyte k7 triton kt600 motherboard
athlon 2700
1gb ram (2x512)
80gb 7200rpm maxtor hdd
geforce ti4600 128mb
22" sony trinitron monitor
antec aluminum case
logitech wireless keyboard and mouse
creative 4 point surround speakers w/ sub

and most importantly...
comfy chair
headphones

_________________
Trapped in Veeshan. Send food.

_________________
-- Mindbender Llaffer Outloud
L70 ENC
<select name=Skills>
<option>78 past 1750
<option>272 from 2100
<option>Jewelry:300+Trophy
<option>Tailoring:259+Geerlok
<option>Pottery:256+Geerlok
<option>Smithing:256+15%
<option>Fletching:254+Geerlok
<option>Baking:252+Geerlok
<option>Brewing:251+Geerlok
<option>Research:202+Geerlok
<option>Alcohol Tolerance:200
<option>Fishing:182
</select>

Rig

2.4 ghz Intel Cpu
333mhz bus speed gigbyte motherboard
1 gig 2700 corsair ram
128 meg Geforce 4 AGP video card
60 gig WD 7200 rpm drive with 8meg cache
Soundblaster Pro
Creative Labs DVD (old)
Zoom modem for dialup

Friends rig (dream system)

3.3 Intel with Hyperthreading (note EQ apparently doesn't like this see my mention in locking up thread)
2gig matched 3700 Ram
800 bus speed "springdale" motherboard
Geforce FX with 256 meg ram
zoom modem
Dvd read write
soundblaster 7.1 channel sound

(this machine runs 4 starwars accounts at same time or 2 EQ over dialup no problem)

_________________



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