PC Setup
Out of context: Reply #28
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let me reinforce the opinion of either 1) building it yourself or 2) having a geeky friend help build it or 3) having a place build one to your specs
if you're spending £500 (which is about $800), you can easily buy all your equipment from one place and have them build it for you. that's what i did. have them price match other local places - if they're cool, they'll do it for your business.
although i built the last computer i had (pentium iii 550 MHz), this time around (almost 2 years ago), i spent about the amount you want to spend at my local shop and they put it together for me - without charging me to do so. this, to me, is customer service - and rightly so. if i'm spending $800, you will be putting that thing together for me. :)
i did a lot of research before buying my equipment, and it led me to Asus for my motherboard. they are ROCK SOLID. i have a Pentium 4 1.6 GHZ, and the Asus motherboard is a P4T-E with 512MB of RDRAM (my next upgrade will be to the P4T533 series).
I had problems with an AMD board (decided to go budget several years ago - what a mistake). stay with the proven leader - Intel. compatible with EVERYTHING. no problems.
For video, there is no contest - Nvidia-based cards (GeForce 4 Ti series are the best you can buy). Fuck ATI - their drivers are for shit and everyone in the gaming world already knows this.
Nvidia is the proven leader. I personally have a GeForce 4 Ti 4200.
OS - I use Windows XP Pro.
Soundcard - Audigy by Creative Labs.
good luck with your purchase.. let us know what you get.