Sovereign Is Afraid The Compy Will Die Soon...

[Sovereign]

After a power outage, it took about an hour to turn on my going on 10-year-old iMac. It's high time for a new compy, but I don't think I'll have saved enough money until the end of the year. I have an idea what I want in my next computer:

1) Speed, speed, speed. >3 GHz (quad-core if I can swing it)
2) Space, space, space. At least 5GB RAM and 500GB hard drive
3) Nasty video card. I'm not a gamer, but I like to know I could be if I wanted to. :smallsmile:
4) ~21" widescreen full HD monitor
5) Blu-ray player is optional

Two problems:
1) Space to put all this in. If it can be squashed into a laptop, that would be cool, too. :smallbiggrin:
2) Can all this be had for less than $1000?

[Thunder Hammer]

After a power outage, it took about an hour to turn on my going on 10-year-old iMac. It's high time for a new compy, but I don't think I'll have saved enough money until the end of the year. I have an idea what I want in my next computer:

1) Speed, speed, speed. >3 GHz (quad-core if I can swing it)
2) Space, space, space. At least 5GB RAM and 500GB hard drive
3) Nasty video card. I'm not a gamer, but I like to know I could be if I wanted to. :smallsmile:
4) ~21" widescreen full HD monitor
5) Blu-ray player is optional

Two problems:
1) Space to put all this in. If it can be squashed into a laptop, that would be cool, too. :smallbiggrin:
2) Can all this be had for less than $1000?

I think so, but you need to go through a good computer store that sells close to wholesale prices, not your local jo-computer shop and not your dept store and maybe best buy.

This company is Canadian (as am I), and sells computers for whole sale prices to consumers. If you're American you want to find a company like this. I'm sure other posters can recommend something good.

http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc/

And it looks like this pc is close to what you want.

http://pc.ncix.com/ncixpc/ncixpc.cfm?uuid=0A7CDC13-41A4-439E-9D20ED706478B433-3377584

[factotum]

Whether all that can be had for that money depends on whether you're still married to the idea of having a Mac or if a Windows PC will work for you. A MacBook or Mac Mini for that money would have nowhere near the specified spec. Having said that, a 21" display on a laptop is something you're unlikely to find at that price point, either, even assuming they're available at all--the largest laptop display I've ever seen is 17", although they tend to pack in more pixels to that space than your typical desktop monitor does.

[Sovereign]

This computer will definitely be a Windows PC. I've be able to avoid the Mac cost issue (the one I have now I got in a "we're not carrying Macs anymore, ever" sale), but now I can't.

And, looking around, I see that screens on laptops are no bigger than 17", and that's fine if I wind up going that way.

[Erloas]

There aren't many quad core processors over 3GHz and I really don't think there are any for a laptop. Also, in all but a few situations a lower GHz quad core will be faster then a higher GHz dual core. Also the GHz is only directly relevant between the same processor line because the newer architectures are able to do more with each GHz then the previous ones.

Secondly, 5GB of RAM is an odd choice, you'll either find 4GB, 6GB or rarely 8GB. 4GB is the "standard" for systems now, and really all you need for "normal" use. So while more is always better, unless you have some specific tasks that will make good use of more then 4GB I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Video cards are a bit trickier in laptops, mostly because its hard to find great comparisons between them because they can't be changed so its hard to get directly comparable benchmarks from them. Its easy enough to get a decent one, but its also a little harder to give direct advice on what to look for.

As mentioned, if you want over about 17" for a display on a laptop then you'll need a secondary display. Which is easy enough to do, but probably not going to fit into a $1000 budget. Of course you can get the laptop now and get a second monitor any time you like, if your budget goes up.

Looking at Blu-Ray drives they are getting more common and cheaper, its probably doable at your price range with some other changes to your requirements.

If you wanted to build your own desktop it shouldn't be hard to get all of your requirements at close to $1000. You will get a lot more power in the system for that price compared to a laptop and a lot more options to customize.

A 17" laptop tends to not be considered practically portable by most people. It will take up less room then a desktop but most people seem to give them their own dedicated desk space most of the time anyway. You will have a hard time finding a quad core in your budget in a laptop and probably not more then about 2-2.3GHz. It does have the advantage of coming pre-built though, which saves you that trouble if you don't want to do that.
Although you can get a pre-built desktop but the options any more are really limited because they are either really cheap or really expensive and most OEMs are putting more effort into their laptop offerings.

I would start off by checking out Newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com)
Check out what they have, find something that looks reasonable to you and link it here for us to advise on it. Its also the site to check out if you want to build it yourself (my preferred option).

[Sovereign]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147698

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147407

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147552

[Mad Wizard]

I doubt you'll be able to get that all in a laptop for under $1000, but it's quite possible in a desktop. I'd recommend building it yourself, if you weren't already planning to, to get the best prices. Check out the AMD Phenom II 965 for the processor - it's relatively cheap and fast (although I'm not certain that a slower i7 would necessarily be worse - there's more to it than sheer speed).

Also, when I read the title, I thought your computer was named Sovereign for some reason, like the Reaper from Mass Effect, which would be awesome.

[Sovereign]

The computer's name is **YODA** (even though it's blue). :smallbiggrin:

Building it myself sounds rather daunting. :smalleek:

[factotum]

Check out the AMD Phenom II 965 for the processor - it's relatively cheap and fast (although I'm not certain that a slower i7 would necessarily be worse - there's more to it than sheer speed).


You seem to be suggesting that an AMD Phenom II can match a Core i7 for sheer grunt, which is definitely not the case. (And note I have no bias toward Intel here, my PC at home has an Athlon II X3 in it :smallsmile:). In almost any benchmark a Core i7 will walk all over any AMD CPU you care to name--the brief glory days of the P4 era when AMD *did* have the fastest x86 CPU on the block are long gone, I'm afraid.

[Erloas]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147698

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147407

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883147552

The first one looks ok, but it seems very odd that they gave it a 5400RPM hard drive, its just a weird place to cut a corner and it will slow down the feel of the computer from slow load times.
The video card isn't great, but seeing as you aren't actually running any games its not going to make any difference. It will run them, the quality and resolution that it will run is the main issue though.

The second one looks well balanced, but it just has integrated video which isn't going to run much of anything in terms of games, and it looks like its a micro case which would make it hard to add a new video card in later. Its also a bit weird that it only has 2 channel audio, which isn't an issue if you listen to headphones or have a simple set of speakers, but personally I wouldn't go without at least 5.1 speakers now, though I know thats not the case with most people, especially if you don't have a lot of room.

The 3rd has the most processing power by a fair amount but is otherwise inferior to the first choice.

It seems like so many of the companies have switched over to the all-in-one designs, which I absolutely hate because they are just laptops without any portability and about the same cost and power and still no way of upgrading them.

I would suggest at least entertaining the thought of building your own system because I know you could get everything you mentioned at first that way. It really is pretty easy. And any more most people know a "that guy" that can fix computers that can help you put a system together if you don't think you can do it yourself.

[factotum]

It seems like so many of the companies have switched over to the all-in-one designs, which I absolutely hate because they are just laptops without any portability and about the same cost and power and still no way of upgrading them.

I would suggest at least entertaining the thought of building your own system because I know you could get everything you mentioned at first that way. It really is pretty easy.

They do it because it's cheap to build--compare the cost of a motherboard with integrated graphics to the cost of one with a PCI-E slot and a separate graphics card! Heck, I've done the same thing myself if all I needed was a cheap PC to run as a server or something.

As for your second point, I agree totally. Building a PC can be a bit fiddly (it's not something I would attempt if I had shaky hands or something) but it's certainly not difficult. If you don't fancy the idea of building one completely from scratch you could get a "barebones" PC from the likes of Shuttle where half the work is already done for you--those also tend to be smaller and more portable than a full-size ATX case, at the expense of having limited expansion options.

[Soilborn]

One thing that won't hurt: go to Alienware and see what they've got. Build your own PC: what they lay out as far as hardware options will most likely function together beautifully.

When you've found a layout you like, jot down the specs, buy the parts individually, and assemble the monster yourself for a third of the price.