Looking for a new 'puter

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GTD

And I can't seem to find any manufacturer (beside Alienware) that
offers the higher-end ATI cards. Anyone have an idea of where I can
look at such a system, preferably with and AMD cpu? Thanks. .
 
Carl said:
buy the bits and build it!
Click to expand...

I've done that, with every system I've had since my 486 sx-25. Bored
with all that, can't be bothered.

So, any answer that fits the actual question I asked???
 
AMD is not the right CPU choice today if you are looking high-end (as
you apparently are). Core 2 Duo is better than anything offered by AMD
(or, previously, by Intel). Most people are going with the E6600 (about
$320), but if you want to drop $1,000 on just the CPU, you can do that
also. Core 2 Duo is both faster and runs cooler/lower power than any
previous desktop CPU family, and by a large margin. Nothing else is
even close.

From your description, you may be one of the people who should consider
a custom build rather than an off-the-shelf system. But before giving
up, go to the Dell web site and see what video options they offer in
their higher end product lines, they may have what you are looking for.
Note, Dell now owns Alienware.
 
There are lots of good reasons for building your own computer from parts
(and I myself do that, have never owned a prebuilt desktop), but saving
money, regretfully, is not one of them. In terms of cost, you can do
better at Dell (although you probably can't get exactly what you want).
 
AMD is not the right CPU choice today if you are looking high-end (as
you apparently are). Core 2 Duo is better than anything offered by AMD
(or, previously, by Intel). Most people are going with the E6600 (about
$320), but if you want to drop $1,000 on just the CPU, you can do that
also. Core 2 Duo is both faster and runs cooler/lower power than any
previous desktop CPU family, and by a large margin. Nothing else is
even close.

From your description, you may be one of the people who should consider
a custom build rather than an off-the-shelf system. But before giving
up, go to the Dell web site and see what video options they offer in
their higher end product lines, they may have what you are looking for.
Note, Dell now owns Alienware.
Click to expand...

I don't care for Intel CPUs, just my personal experience and opinion,
so I will be going with AMD. . .

I've already built systems, about a dozen since my 486sx-25. I really
don't want to spend all the time and BS that goes along with it, it's
quite a bore. I checked both alienware and dell, and although dell had
some good deals, they don't have anything that can be configured the
way I want it.
 
Barry Watzman said:
There are lots of good reasons for building your own computer from parts
(and I myself do that, have never owned a prebuilt desktop), but saving
money, regretfully, is not one of them. In terms of cost, you can do
better at Dell (although you probably can't get exactly what you want).
Click to expand...
That's not really true. This argument is an old one but it's still holds
true that if you are into PC's and want the best parts, it's cheaper, a lot
cheaper to build your own.
I just built a new PC last month. I'd never buy Dell just because to many of
it's parts are proprietary. Which makes upgrading a hassle. So I compared
prices with Velocity Micro because they offer a way to built your own PC
online and they use the very best parts, plus their prices are not out of
this world compared to Falcon, or Voodoo.
The PC I put together online would have cost me $2,235 with out shipping.
I knew I could do better then that so I went to Newegg and found the same
parts. The CPU was the base that I built the whole system around and it's
the same as the one in the VM PC, the Core2Duo E6600. But then I started
upgrading most of the parts, better MB,RAM,Case, and went from one 200GB WD
HD with 8MB cache to two 320MB Seagates with 16MB cache. The graphic's card
was pretty much apples to apples. The online PC had a Nvidia 7950 with
512MB, and I wanted to stick with ATI so I went with the x1900xt(256). I
bought XP Home upgrade for $50 ($100 with $50 rebate) and the same PS as the
online PC which was the Antec 550watt TP 2.0. (very nice PS)
Almost every part I bought from Newegg had a rebate so I saved $140 all
total.
Ok so the online PC was going to cost me $2,235 and I'm not sure what the
shipping was going to be, but I'm sure it was up there. All my parts came to
$1,500 shipped.
Minus the $140 in rebates for a grand total of $1,360. Took three days to
get all the parts. Then took me around 4 hours (I took my time and enjoyed
myself) to put it all together. Every part worked and it's a very nice PC,
if I do say so myself :)
So I saved at lest $875 and got a much better PC. That's not saving just a
little in my book!
And let me say one more thing. Today putting a PC together is so much easer
then it was just a few years ago. With SATA, and the new MB's that are very
user friendly it's really not that hard to do. JLC
 
http://www.voodoopc.com/system/quotekitchen.aspx?productID=1097
http://www.velocitymicro.com/wizard.php?iid=1

Just to be clear, are you looking for a system with one ATi card, or two in
Crossfire? Most advertised SLI-ready systems, when you customize them before
ordering, offer the option of a single X1900 or X1950 card.

An AMD system with Crossfire may be slightly harder to find (aside from the
above mentioned VoodooPC system). Such a setup requires a motherboard with
an ATi chipset, which has a lower *perceived* quality than nVidia or Intel
chipsets, and some OEMs are thus reluctant to carry it.

Dell owns Alienware now, so don't expect too much overlap between their
offerings.

Can't you always ask your local small PC store to build a whitebox system
for you? This way you enjoy personalized service and easier tech
support/RMA.
 
http://www.voodoopc.com/system/quotekitchen.aspx?productID=1097
http://www.velocitymicro.com/wizard.php?iid=1

Just to be clear, are you looking for a system with one ATi card, or two in
Crossfire? Most advertised SLI-ready systems, when you customize them before
ordering, offer the option of a single X1900 or X1950 card.

An AMD system with Crossfire may be slightly harder to find (aside from the
above mentioned VoodooPC system). Such a setup requires a motherboard with
an ATi chipset, which has a lower *perceived* quality than nVidia or Intel
chipsets, and some OEMs are thus reluctant to carry it.

Dell owns Alienware now, so don't expect too much overlap between their
offerings.

Can't you always ask your local small PC store to build a whitebox system
for you? This way you enjoy personalized service and easier tech
support/RMA.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, as for local PC store, only one within 100
miles, and they are not top-of-the-line. More for home PC fpr
non-techies
 
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