Need Advices For New PC

[3R1C]

Hi all, I'm Eric @ Kelantan. psykhotik introduced me here.

I'm going to buy a desktop and was looking at this one from DELL.
--> http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/prod...sd1&l=en&s=bsd
I showed it to psykhotik n was told that I can build my own with a lower price. Performance wise, the new one must be able to run some photo editing programs such as Photoshop Elements 4.0 (should be very easy to achieve) and also let me play some latest games. I've missed out NFS MV & Carbon!

I'm not update with how's the market right now so basically have no idea wat specs to get. Hope you guys here are kind enough (as said by psykhotik ) to list down the parts for me. If possible, put down the market price too. Let's say my budget is at RM 2k ~ RM 3k.

Thanks a bunch!

[Adrian Wong]

Hello there, Eric!

So, you are looking to buy a new PC with a maximum budget of RM 3K? Do you already have a PC from which you can reuse some parts, e.g. your monitor?

[Adrian Wong]

But looking at the Dell specs, I think you can definitely get a much better PC for the same price...

Looking at the latest price lists here, you can get something like this...

- Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - about RM 650
- Any Intel i965-based motherboard - about RM 400
- Two 512MB PC2-533 DDR2 memory - about RM 375
- NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT - about RM 315
(go for the GDDR3 version)
- 19" Acer / Samsung LCD monitor @ 1440x900 - about RM 750-800
- Seagate 250GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA hard drive - about RM 275
- LITE-ON 20X DVD writer - about RM 145
- Case with 450W power supply - about RM 150

The total price is about RM 3060. Add maybe RM 30-40 for a mouse and keyboard combo.

It's a little more than your budget, but it's definitely better than the Dell system.

[3R1C]

Thanks Adrian. The list looks good to me. However I took the price list from a local PC Depot and a lot of the parts are not in their list. Might need to check with some other shops.

[Adrian Wong]

Hmm.. You must buy them only in Kelantan?

If you have someone here who can buy the parts for you, I think you will have a much wider choice and lower prices.

But if you do not have a choice, then honestly Dell is a good option. Mainly because of the service and warranty.

[SAMSAMHA]

don't forget about Windows, man. If you don't have a copy of Windows, that will add to the additional cost. I think if you got the Windows, building one maybe slightly cheaper, specially if you got parts to be re-used.

[peaz]

I'd like to suggest getting 2GB of RAM. seriously it's important if you plan to do a lot of photoshopping.

If you are going to go ahead with Dell (service and warranty is just uncomparable since your location is at Kelantan), you might just want to get it on a single slot 1GB. then buy your own 1GB and upgrade yourself to get it cheaper.

[3R1C]

thanks for the reply guys.
right now i'm considering the dell one since I don't have any old PC parts that can be re-use (currently on laptop). besides, I'll need to get a copy of windows xp. I think going with dell and upgrade it later on will be a better way.

[PsYkHoTiK]

Hmmm yea Dell does give good service, but for that price you could get better parts I think. The Pentium D you showed me is pretty old. A lower end Core 2 Duo would be real nice instead...

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by 3R1C

thanks for the reply guys.
right now i'm considering the dell one since I don't have any old PC parts that can be re-use (currently on laptop). besides, I'll need to get a copy of windows xp. I think going with dell and upgrade it later on will be a better way.

Okay, then try to get a single 1GB DIMM, like peaz suggested. Then you can easily and cheaply upgrade to 2GB.