PC Setup
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- unknown0
stay away from Linux if your a newbie to PCs
- unknown0
why?
- atomica0
Personal experience/opinions, don't do dell if you're going for manufactured, definitely try and do a build it yourself, heck get something barebones, halfway there for starters. Processor opinion would be an AMD Athlon, overall i've had better look/lifespan with em, Pentiums aren't bad, but for the price diff, athlons the smarter choice, vid card, I like ATI Radeons, I've had great luck with mine ,and know others who have the same. GeForce's are nice also, but don't skimp on the price by getting an MX Geforce, only settle for a Ti.... the performance difference is huge. As for OS, I'm very pro WinXP Pro (not _home edition_) Microsoft's got something very good going on with it, and its very very stable. Of course, all this is from personal experience and based on my opinion, you'll be making the final decisions, so good luck... don't be afraid to build... I've had more complcated times following lego block instructions than building any of my pcs
- sp0
I like Win XP Pro edition - with all the updates and the power tools...
But, (and I'm not anti-Microsoft) I prefer Linux over any OS.
It's just more powerful. It has bugs. What OS doesn't? I will admit that. But, it utilizes the system better than Windows.
Um, I don't have any screen shots of UT2003...but here's one of my desktop, Mozilla, and nestra NES emulator...yea..
:)
- unknown0
still go Win XP Pro first then move to Linux....
Linus is limited in software and what you can do on it btw.
- sp0
Ha. I disagree. To date, the ONLY application I can't find an open-source alternative for is Flash. And, if you work hard enoug, you can solve that via WINE.
:)
- unknown0
its just a hassle to go with linux.... at this point..
- lament0
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.