OK, so I need to buy a new computer in order to come out of my 2 year retirement from online first person shooters.

You guys have posted the specs that you think I'll need for HL2 and TF2 (and I'm assuming, FF), and I've been looking around. I've checked out Dell's website, HP's website, and IBM's website (IBM seems to mainly make workstations for businesses). Their "gaming" machines are WAY too $$$$, and the cheaper models don't seem to come with video cards..

Do you guys buy from these companies or do you build your own? I suppose I can pay a local shop to build me one, also - I just don't know.


Traditionally I've built my own, but I was thinking about going the route of just buying it this time. What do you guys do?

Internet/word processing machine for some office somewhere = buy a dell.

Gaming machine for personal use = BUILD YOUR OWN. (hands down)

Even on the $2000+ gaming machines, the companies tend to cut several corners, and don't always use optimal combinations – not to mention you can usually build the same machine for half that much, even if the case isn’t as pretty, sans modding.
_________________
"We're very sorry Mr. Shroeder, but the cat refuses to get in the box."
Thothie

Well if i were to upgrade right now i would be looking at the intel dual core duo's. They seem to be the best bang for the buck right now, even though i am an amd guy for many years. Also a fan of nvidia, have a 7800 gt its pretty nice. Sound i got the creative, forgot which one though but they all are pretty good. Just goto newegg.com thats where i buy all my stuff, and start peicing together, you can save a wishlist and stuff.

I agree with Thoth and fixxor. Building your own gaming PC is the way to go, and I've had good luck with Newegg in the past. Used them for the last two computers I built. Even built a media PC for the 'rents with a mini-case - was especially proud of that one, being under $750 thanks to specials. =D

One way to figure out where the deals are is to see who buys each of the parts. Usually internet PC stores list how many of each item has been purchased; the combination of original release date and number of people who've bought it is a good indicator of a worthwhile product (generally).

Build it.

.....If you build it...they will come........

BUILD IT.

And the reason why is:


Computer components are DIRT FUCKING CHEAP right now. I just bought a 3ghz dual core Athlon 6000+ for a friend of mine for $185.

Intel and AMD are battling it out because Intel has quad core procs and amd doesn't. Amd lowered their prices to compete, Intel answered by lowering theirs, and AMD lowered theirs AGAIN.


Buy components RIGHT NOW and build your machine. You won't regret it.

--Locane

Build it

On a side note, on building it, you may have no choice, unless you want to stick with Vista.

I've been looking into several laptops today, and have had this experience with certain bulk-rate desktops, that very often hardware components are designed to work exclusively with Vista.

At the very least, you may wind up looking for all the hardware drivers on your own, and since sometimes components for these are designed for a specific manufacturer, very often, the non-Vista drivers simply do not exist.

Compaq/HP, Toshiba, Gateway/eMachine, all do this on a regular basis.

It wasn't too long ago I got a high end pre-built system for an office that needed to be "downgraded" from Vista to XP. I spent quite a bit of time combing for all the drivers for the thing, and indeed, found them all in the end, but found out there was some tweak with the Gateway eMachine custom bios for the motherboard that made it incompatible with both the standard intel BIOS updates for its motherboard’s chipset, and a critical Windows XP security upgrade. (This may or may not have been deliberate, but also very typical, as I’m just beginning to discover – these things are very often designed so they cannot be downgraded.)

In the end the company had to take it back and order another desktop from another distrubter. - I got paid, but hosed quite a bit given the time spent on it.

Geez... I'll probably end up building it... but with a $$$ emergency room bill and a dent in my car I want to get repaired, it looks like it won't be a quick as I'd hoped.