Buying a new computer, Help me out!Follow

Well, my Dell Dimension 4400 is getting sort of old. Not that it was ever worth a crap, but it's now unbearable. I'll be using my computer mostly for entertainment- Internet, file sharing, WMP, the occasional Microsoft Word for school...and I'm thinking about moving from PS2 to CPU for FFXI.

I'm sure lots of you out there know your technology. Can I please get some advice? What kind of graphics card should I get? How much memory? Sound card? etc...

I can navigate pretty easily through my computer, but I have no clue how it works and what makes it good/bad. Any kind of explaining or links to desktops $1000-$1800 would be nice.

Thanks for your help!

Not true, buy a Socket 939 system now and you are ready for a dual core machine. Much more compelling than an Athlon XP 3200+ IMHO. The price of Socket 939 motherboards is coming down all the time and you should be able to pick up something decent for ~$150 US and a chip to go with (A64 3000+) it for about the same price. RAM is nice and cheap so 1GB is a good amount to get. Insist on lifetime warranty RAM. ^^


Truth be told you probably won't be able to buy Athlon XP's/Socket A for much longer which means your upgrade cycle will be dramatically shorter than that of a socket 939 system i.e. That shiny new graphics card you want to buy in a years time won't fit in your motherboard.

If you have the money aim for Socket 939 and an Athlon 64, if not consider socket 754/Athlon 64(or Sempron) machine. Please don't buy a machine with a Via chipset. =)

Don't go buying an off the shelf brand name unless you really have to. Check your local computer stores first.

Mak sure you get SATA hard drives.

Almost any graphics card above $150 US should be more than suitable.

Nearly all motherboards come with half decent onboard sound these days.

Edited, Mon May 23 07:45:34 2005 by blowfin