Well, I'm starting with a blank slate here, and a limit of about $3000 (Canadian). So... any recommendations? I'm open on everything except OS (I'm going with XP, sorry GBK).

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"May your gravity well be shallow, and your deBroglie wavelength short."

So like...$20 USD?

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(>º_º)> ±h³ ѳv³®-£ⁿd¡תּ9 §±ºr¥ <(º_º<) | (>º_º)> תּℓζ ШǿѓЖ§|-Юρ <(º_º<)

$2,257 USD.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

I'd get the best Athlon you can afford and as for video card, weeeell, if you see yourself playing more DirectX games and don't want a card with huge power requirements, go ATI OR if you are upgrading for Doom 3 and future games using it's engine, Nvidia.

Just make sure you get an Audigy 2 with good dolby speakers

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Cantina Cloud | BCF | The Massassian 1, 2 & 3 | Gonk WoW Petition <- SIGN!
Corrupting the kiddies since '97

^ ^ ^ What he said. For three grand Canadian you could probably go all out and prepare for 64 bit. Since you've got the money for it, get yourself quality parts instead of the cheaper stuff, especially concerning your RAM and motherboard. For video I'd go for a 6800, seeing as it already conforms to SM3.0 specs.

*waits for Dj Y's fanboy propaganda*

[edit] Check out www.tigerdirect.ca for prices if you haven't already.

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When guitars are outlawed, only outlaws will have guitars.

[This message has been edited by MaD CoW (edited July 28, 2004).]

I'd recommend cheaper soundcards such as the Fortissimo 7.1 or Hercules' other cards. They're usually 1/4 to 1/2 of the price of the Audigies, and just as good, they have all the same EAX stuff.

Edit: And they typically sound better, but you probably won't have high enough quality speakers or headphones to notice. I mean really high quality, as in $200+ Sennheiser headphones or home theater speakers that far outclass anything for PCs.

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Bassoon, n. A brazen instrument into which a fool blows out his brains.

[This message has been edited by Emon (edited July 28, 2004).]

AMD 64 3400+

Asus nForce3 motherboard

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or Catalina

DVD Dual Layer burner from cheapest vendor (preferrably Lite-On)

Probably want a CD-RW burner because DVD burners are SLOW for CDs and CD burners are only 30 US.

If you want to go cheap, just below X800 XT, nVidia 6800GT, if you can afford it, ATi X800 XT

2x512MB sticks of Kingston HyperX PC3200 memory

Raptor 36.7 (or whatever, can't remember exact numbers) gb HDD

Maxtor 250 GB 7200 RPM HDD

19" Samsung 997DF CRT monitor

I don't think I missed anything--I'd save the rest of the money for games/upgrades/more space (if you really need it). Hell you could even build 2 rigs for that price.

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There is no signature

The Case

Yeah I know I am just being a smart a$$


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ZGPC

A o_0 T WRarr! I

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"Bantha's are filthy animals.......I don't eat filthy animals."

"Laugh it up Fuzzball!"
-Han Solo

Take 2 pairs of pants, and staple them to the case.. that would be cool

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"Just remember -- No matter how bad things get, Northern Minnesota will always be there"
-- Garrison Keeler

For the case make sure it's an ATX formfactor, and got a 400 watt PSU, at least. 450+ would be preferable.

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There is no signature

Yoshi's system looks good. You could probably buy that and have a few dollars left over for a swanky case and some nice cooling.

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

Don't forget for Doom 3, and save some just in case the HL2 GOLD rumors are true.

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There is no signature

I thought you were getting a laptop for college.

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"Windows [n.]
A thirty-two bit extension and GUI shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor and sold by a two-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition."

Just don't buy anything Spiral did, and you'll get at least half of the worth of your money.

JediKirby

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jEDIkIRBY - Putting the Romance back into Necromancer.
Proud Leader of the Minnessassian Council

Live on, Adam.

Spiral wasted his money oh so horribly. *shakes head*. That's why I say listen to my advice. If something's out of your price range, I can work around that. Just don't take Spiral's route. 1000 dollars for that...urgh.

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There is no signature

Meh, I changed my mind. I figured that a desktop would pack a lot more power, and I don't really need a laptop for anything.

Anyways, thanks for all the advice. I don't have much experience building computers, but could I get a local computer store to do it or something?

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"May your gravity well be shallow, and your deBroglie wavelength short."

Noooooooooooo!

It is stupidly easy as you will learn! I built my first with very little knowledge. It is a great learning experience, and much easier than most people think. Just look for a good tutorial online to make sure you dont miss anything and you will be able to build your own rig in no time



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ZGPC

Fixed a little bit.


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[This message has been edited. Deal with it.]

He doesn't need Audigy 7.1, Catalinas/Santa Cruz's are just as good for audio.

2x74 gig raptors? That's about 360 US right there.

Seagate 200 gb? Why when you can get a maxtor 250. I've seen too many dead Seagates in my day.

If he's somewhat computer illiterate, would he even know how to use RAID?

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There is no signature

I got a laptop when I went to college and while it was conenient, I ended up building a new rig about a year later. You won't be disappointed.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

Always a good time to learn.

I never mentioned the Audigy. The Santa Cruz is old and the Catalina is overpriced for what you get. The Audiotrak card is the best perfoming Envy24 based solution, while the M-Audio is the most popular. Audiotrak makes wonderful drivers as well. The card is somewhat hard to come by though. If $100 is too much for a card, buy the $30 Chaintech card that uses the Envy24 chip.

I've never had a problem with Seagate; I'm running two in RAID 1 on my FreeBSD server. Seagate makes pretty reliable drives, probably better than Maxtor. WD has been good lately.

While it make cost $360 for the two hard drives, you must also take into account that he has over $2,000 to spend. If he has the money, why not spend it? He asked what he could get for $2,000, not $1,000. Anyway, it was just a suggestion

Also, you missed the case and the power supply. The power supply is one of the most important components of the PC. A bad PSU could considerably shorten the lifespan of your PC. Also, you'll have to consider options for cooling the system, including processor and case fans.

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[This message has been edited. Deal with it.]

Seconded. It is not only really easy, but very satisfying. My lastest PC is the first one I ever attempted to build and whilst I was more than a little bit nervous beforehand it was a piece of cake....and it really does give you an extra buzz when you crank it up that first time after assembling the various parts.

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Cantina Cloud | BCF | The Massassian 1, 2 & 3 | Gonk WoW Petition <- SIGN!
Corrupting the kiddies since '97

I addressed the case and PSU in my second post, and why spend 360 bucks on hard drives? For that price I could get a terabyte RAID stripe :P. But the Catalina's old, but still good, and the Santa Cruz is 50 bucks, more than an adequate price for the soundcard. If you want to pay for an Audigy, go for it. I just wouldn't shell out that much for a card to save my life. I'm off to go camping for the weekend, don't eff up kyle! You'll regret it forever.

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There is no signature

Audigies are like $AUS80 now... Really aint that much in the world of PC parts.

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.