Custom rigs

Next year i intend to be spending 2000 on a laptop and 2000 on a desktop. Laptop mainly for school work but for that cash would like it to serve some sort of purpose more than just word proccessor, and the desktop is meant to be a gaming rig, capable of pumping some high frames per second. More emphasis on the desktop, for 2000 what should i be looking to get?

definately go dual core, whether that is AMD or intel ... its your choice ... before the core duo's came out i would have gone for AMD but those core 2 duo's look fucking nice!

video card i would pick nvidia ... not because i think they are better than ati ... simply because nvidia driver are much better than ati drivers ...

go for SATA hard drives ... dont bother with an expensive audio card unless you plan on using it (music production etc.)

get ATLEAST a gig of ram ddr2 if you can.

and i have a suggestion for your laptop too ... dont shoot me, but i reckon you should get a macbook, this is for a few reasons ...

1. they are pretty
2. they run windows AND mac os x
3. they have the best design in the pc industry
4. its a perfect size for uni life (not heavy either)
5. because apple owns you

[Ethos posting]

2000 on a laptop?... basically a portable media player with a word processer . as xfodder stated , get a mac if you must get a laptop. and tweak the fucker out


as for main pc , best to ask when you got the cash in your hands "prices change very fast"

7800's are quite nice , all the ones i have used in the last few pc's i have built have worked well "SLI for the win" tho they run quite hot , even in a case with fans to the hilt . 7900's id stay away from , we had a bit of trouble with them and the price is nasty .

I also had some minor problems with the top end ASUS mobo's , a bios update fixed it tho , they have trouble with sata hard dives .. "data errors " but as i said , flash the bios and alls good .

id recommend spending the extra $120 on a good power supply, especially if your putting some heavy load on it , last stock psu i got spat 2 feet of sparks out the vents on the back of it when i tryed the first boot . and another top end thermaltake psu we got for a dule core sli comp filed the room with smoke in about 2 mins due to a factory fault "anidised coating smokes up good .."

anyways i could rant on more but as i said , let us know when you got the cash .

good point there ... a quality power supply is essential, especially for new video cards because they need more juice! id go a antec or something along those lines ...

i forgot to mention motherboards ... asus are shite ... plain and simple ... every single person i know that has bought an asus motherboard has had to replace it because it kicked the bucket ... personally i love gigabyte motherboards, ive upgraded my motherboard 4 times over the years and all of them still work! including my original motherboard which i bought in 2002! ... so buy a gigabyte!

but as ethos said ... prices change over night so once you have the moolah, then start planning your custom build ...

sucks you live in nz nighty the prices are freaking crazy over there!

a macbook here costs 1749 ... in nz its 2079!

Indeed, i was highly considering hitting 2 gigs of ddr2 ram, although how much difference will it make?

Duel linked graphics cards/ hard drives and liquid cooling. All of these things sound fancy and fast, but are the worth the cash?

You have to love university scholarships. It leaves me with some cash to play around with

sata drives are defently worth it .. and they are the same price as there ata counterpart .

SLI vid cards , kinda one of those things that you defently want ... if you got the cash .. trick is to buy one in the shop and ebay the other .. not quite as expencive then .. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE SAME CARD THO ..

ati's crossfire , i havent heard good things about , but i have not built a crossfire system yet so i cant say for my self

water cooling , vapor etc . i installed water cooling on my pc simply because of the fact i was shareing a 3x3 unventolated room with no windows with another person during summer in queensland ..... fucking hot ... and yes there is the added OOooooooo ... factor of tubes N shit hanging out your pc . be carefull setting it up tho , get some plummers glue (blu glue) incase you get a leek on your pump or res tank , "dont glue the tubes in place cause its a pain in the ass to cut them off iff you get a new case , mobo , cpu , or basicly have to remove it for some reason

2gig of ram , i dident notice a major differnce ...... 2GIG of fucking nice high speed ram with a $450 price tag, yeah it loaded shit faster