buying a new computer (need advice)
 

ok, its almost been 3 years and i can't put it off anymore. its a pain in the ass to transfer everything but this thing loads all the time and just doesn't cut it anymore.

so here are my questions:
i run windows 2000 right now, its been very good to me. much better than 98 was. should i stick with 2000 or go for the XP when i get this new computer?

the computer have now is AMD. its been good to me, should i keep the AMD or do pentiums have something over them?

i only have 40 gig hard drive, i want a lot more space but the larger the drive is there a bigger chance that it will crash sometime in the future?

what is a good hard drive brand? i alwahys hear of ppls drives crashing and that is one thing i really want to avoid.

is plextor still one of the best for cd-r drives? my old one has lasted me 5 years and is still going strong.

does IBM make quality computers? i was thinkiing of maybe just ordering one of those.

anything else i should look out for when buying a computer?

thanks

duuude, your gettin a dell

Upgrade to xp, stick w/ the amd processor (get a beastlier one? i'm pretty happy w/ my barton 3200), if your really worried about the drives, get two beastly ones from maxtor or western digital (personal preference, they're both pretty solid), and raid them, plextor still makes some very nice cd-rs / cd-rws so i'd probably go w/ a newer plextor. Depending on what your looking to spend, get a nice video card (nvidia / ati) and a gig or so of dual channelled ram.

With a rig like that, you shouldn't have too many problems, if your doing something heavy or just want to get out of hand, you can always add more ram, bigger drives, etc...

just my :2 cents:

Hahahaha.. (Note that the monitor and mouse isn't included).

Can I play Half Life 2 with the Tandy 5000 MC?

Order your parts online...have a dork build one for you. You can put together a monster for less than $1,200

Go with XP

AMD still are great chips. I have an Athlon XP 2600, works great and runs very cool.

Not sure, but I have a 60 gig that's a couple years old and works fine.

Well I've never had a hard drive crash, but I kind of like Seagate.

I don't think it matters that much, I had a Yamaha and it quit working, so I bought a no name CD R for cheap and it works great. They're so cheap now, I wouldn't worry too much about what brand you get.

IBM is quality stuff but expensive. Specs matter more than name brand, just get a decent motherboard, chip, at least 512 ram, and whatever else you need. I have a 'Great Quality' computer that cost $280, and it's been awesome, but I've never even heard of Great Quality before.

thanks for the replies guys. what about lcd monitors? they seem to be the way to go these days. what brand would you recommend? also what i a good motherboard? i think i've figured out what i want but now the only problem is getting it and putting it together. living in a largely rural area im pretty much the biggest computer geek i know but i don't know enough about computer hardware and such to do that myself. do you think computer shops would put together a PC for me?

i think you should get a dell and for sure go with a pentium is the best processor you can add also a nice flat screen.

The best in dell is the technical support. They have even something that if you drop like juice on the pc and it crashes they will give you a new one i think is the best choice.


:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

not interested in dell.

Better yet, build it up yourself. It's like connecting lego.

is it really that easy? i've never had much confidence that i know what im doing when messing around with computer hardware, lol.

Yes... if you know how to read instructions and know how to use a screw driver. Simple.

Theres not much to put together anyways.


Place the cpu connect the heat sink, or sinks (dual) on the mother board.


Grab the mother board screw it on the case side.


Jab the ram it, place your pci prefs ( network card, sound card. Jab in the video card...


Connect the ide or sata cables on the hd and then to the mb,,



Connect the power supply... and wing bam power the thing on.



Time to partiction the hd for the installing on the OS...


seeee it's a piece of cake.