I'm looking to buy a new computerFollow

Do you want to buy componments and put them together DIY? If so, www.pricewatch.com for price checking.

with your price range, you can go top notch (well, high end anyway, avoid the very very new hardware, as they are at their very peak prices)

I would recommand an AMD Athlon64 3000+, a good quality motherboard with PCI-Express slot, and SATA (also look for good onboard sound and nic), 1G DDR ram (no real benefit to go over 1G, some tests even show over 1G slows down the system tiny bit), nVidia GeForce 6800/6600 PCI-E, couple SATA HDs if you aren't using the old ones, a DVD/CD ROM or writer if you want, a good case and 400W+ power supply.

That'll be around $800 - $1.2k range.

You can go for Intel CPU if you like, but stay with northwood core, avoid prescott.

If you are looking for a prebuilt system, either Dell (very low to no ability to upgrade), or alienware (expensive, but good quality startard hardware)

If you don't mind paying a premium for a name, then these are kind of fun.

Or you can build it yourself. Some place like newegg.com has all the components, but you'll have to figure out what fits with what. The chassis is build by Shuttle.

For your price range, you can probably afford a PCI-Express 256MB video card like the NVIDIA 6800's. Go for the smaller 10K RPM SATA drive over more capacity at a slower speed. I wouldn't worry too much about the latest/greatest processor but make sure it has an 800MHz front side bus and is hyperthreading (dual core is better but not so common yet and not as cheap). A 3.0GHz hyperthreading is probably not so much worse than a 3.8GHz hyperthreading to justify the few hundred dollars. And 1GB dual-channel PC3200 RAM is probably fine. Maybe go for 2GB for two-boxing.

Then make sure you get a PC that has a PCI-e slot so you can upgrade the video card.

He doesn't want to build it.

PC CLUB will take you computer and add and swap for about $180 labor they give you a 90 warranty just like Alienware and you save $300-$400 bucks and still have your existing hard drive (no endless reloading of stuff or paying another $80 for transfer

I plan on playing a single character on my exhisting computer and 2-boxing on the new computer.

I've been looking at alienware. What are your thoughts on this computer?

http://alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_7500/area-51_7500_specs.aspx?SysCode=PC-AREA51-7500-R1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

I know alienware is a bit more expensive then other sites. Do you have any other recomendations where I can buy a quality machine at a reasonable price?

Thanks for all your help so far. I really appreciate it.

If you aren't building it, buy a name brand like Dell or HP (Not Compaq though). Alienware you are paying a premium for the name not the hardware. IMO Buy a Dell, pay for the extended warranty. Buy it as a "small business" instead of home, their business support is actually good, their home support is all outsourced. The amount of money your are talking about will actually get you a really nice system plus a good sized LCD or a really kick butt system with no monitor if you already have one.

HP owns Compaq. So I bet a lot of their components and tech support are the same.

Edited, Sat Sep 3 11:51:53 2005 by JoltinJoe

DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL DELL>.. if you have acsess to military aafess.com ... than you can get there top gamin pc del xps somehitn for about 1400 with really good stats... actually probablly cheaper than that if you check back regularly ...I shopped and shopped and shopped for a new pc ... and Dell by far had the best value and options.

no gateway for me ... my old gateway is horrible
friends of mine own an aleinware ..they payed top dollar ..and my little dell is right on par with there alienware....

i would never ever go to best buy or walmart and jsut by a compaq hp or whatever they are selling ..just call dell ...

And? Gateway owns Emachine but I doubt you'll find anyone with the slghtest bit of tech knowedge claim they are even comparable computers. When companies merge they don't put all their inventory in a huge pile and mix it up.

hmh ok well i guess i should clarify that I did not buy my pc directly from dell ..i got thgouh military AAFES.com so maybe this is why I have nothing bad to say about dell. Then again I have never had to deal with Dell's customer service and such ..so yeah if the general opinion is bad on them then /sigh

There's alot of boxes out there, but all-in-all your gonna end up spending some money if you really want a true gaming machine.

I built a box several years ago, but saved my plat and built a Dell off the their site last year. And I would put it against anything out there.

9100 (1st generation XPS sleeper)
P4, 3.2 (desk top model for both processor and motherboard)
2 Gigs RAMM
60 (7200 rpm) HD
256 Radeon video card

(for around 2500)

They don't make them any more, but the 2nd geneation XPS is very comparable to alienware (and yes you will pay alot for the name there); check around you should be able find something - either a mom and pop cpu store or on the market that is compatable with whatever you really want.

And of course if you don't want to build one, you could always get a friend to do it for you...

Anyways Good Luck :)

If you decide to buy from Alienware be prepared for 4 things:
1) to get a system that rocks...for about 6 months
2) to be ripped off
3) to have to contact the Better Business Bureau and
4) to hire an attorney.

I purchased a system from Alienware 6 years ago and bought their full coverage 3 year extended warranty. 6 months later the motherboard failed, the cpu would not boot up at all, and I contacted the company. They told me to mail it back and the board would be replaced. I did this and they sent it back saying they replaced the board but it was obviously the same board at it still did not work. I called them and they told me the tech did not replace the motherboard just the drivers. I told them the board was still not working and they told me to send it in again and they would replace it this time.

After going through this routine 3 times over a 5 month period and still not getting the board replaced, I contacted the Vice-president of Alienware and he told me he would presonally make sure the board was replaced and even told me to scratch my intials in the board that way I would see it had been replaced...well 1 month later I get it back and the same board was still in it with my intials still scratched in the back. I contacted him by email again and he said he was sorry but Alienware could not help me any further with my problem, even though it was still under warranty, but he did suggest I buy a new system from them to have a cpu that worked. I emailed him several more times over the next 3 weeks but he refused to contact me back. I wrote a letter to the president of the company and sent it registered mail and still got no response from anyone.

I submitted a complaint to the BBB and I was finally contacted by telephone by the owner of the company would said he never got my letter, even though I had the receipt signed by him. He did his best to sell me a new system instead of fixing the one I had. I spent almost an hour on the phone with him trying to get him to address the issue with them not fixing my cpu and all he said was " buy a new one and you won't have this problem".

I finally contacted an attorney who sent a letter to Alienware and they finally refunded the money I paid for the cpu. All told it was 9 months I spent trying to get them to honor the warranty and replace the motherboard.

Good luck if you decide to buy from them, you will regret it when have problems with the system.

Denaer