Best computer for gaming and web surfing???

I am goin to buy a new computr soon but dont know which brand is best herd alienware is a waste of $$ but dell b pretty good

It all depends on what model you choose. If you go with the cheapest Dell offered, then you won't be able to do more than web surfing, extremely light gaming if any, word processing, etc. If you opt for the higher class models with more memory, better processor, better video card, etc. then you can do whatever you want with it. It all comes down to what your willing to spend. Most brands have realible enough hardware, a lot of it is just preference and budget.

Dell bought Alienware. XPS sytems though are nice. What kinda money do you have to spend???

Also, lappie or desktop?

You will always get the best performance by building it yourself, but you sacrifice things like warranties and support options offered by major vendors. If you give an idea what sort of budget you have, I'm sure some helpful people in this forum could help you spec a machine - and there are countless tutorials on the internet of how to DIY.

I am lookin for a gaming laptop but dont reely know if if i want to build it myself cuz i dont know 2 much bout hardware

Also I have bout $600-900$ to spend:smokin:

Also I have bout $600-900$ to spend:smokin:
Add a 1 in front of that and you'll be able to get yourself a decent gaming laptop from any of the major vendors. But with a sub-$1000 budget you'll be pressed to find even a decent laptop that can run MS Word smoothly.

Building a computer is actually pretty straight forward, its the diagnosing problems that sucks. you can build a better system for 800 dollars han you could buy one for that same amount.

So if i did build it i could have a decent gamin computer forthat much??
ALSO I am willing to maybe go up to 1200

You won't be able to build a laptop yourself though.

Gaming and laptops generally don't go together. For a ~1000 budget, you're much, much better off going for a desktop that will allow you to upgrade it later on, as money allows.

I would look for something with a Core2Duo chip, good cooling so you can overclock it, 1gb of good quality, fast RAM and a single 80gb WD Raptor 10k hard drive to start with.

You'll have to talk to someone else here about a good graphics card - I'm out of the loop as I don't do much gaming.

>1000 go gaming desktop. Gotta go <1000 for gaming laptop and building a laptop ain't easy. could build a desktop for way >1000 and be pretty sweet and practicaly build it yourself.

I spent under $500 and got a 500 watt power supply, 1 gig of Corsair XMS2 series RAM, 250 gig Hard drive, asus motherboard (should spent a little more on this one), AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200, Asus X1550 PCI-Express video card, and a decent heat sinc, I have never had a problem with it yet as far as games go, Playing Halo nonstop for 8 to 10 hours I never saw the cpu heat go over 34 degrees celcius with all of my fans set on low, video card doesnt glitch and never had a problem with the game glitching. If I had a $800 budget, I would have gotten a better motherboard and maybe video card with another gig of RAM, but thats bout it. Building them is simply installing the pieces where they go, can tell by looking ussually, not to hard, then installing the opperating system and other programs, and to add the opperating system would probably be round 200or so there depending on which OS you want...

if you can afford it, it doesn't seem to make sense to me not to get a 8800GTS card (the GTX is overkill...). As stated by our resident IT expert, it also doesn't make sense not to get a core 2 duo processor as well as at least 1GB of Ram and 2GB if you can.
Bear in mind though that these two are going to cost you more than $500 by themselves and decent RAM isn't cheap either; at least $100 per GB.

Of course, you get what you pay for.
As mentioned, it's possible to build a machine for $500 that can play most games but the real question is, how much do you value quality graphics.

Have you looked at the minimum required and the recommended specs for the games that you play?
This might give you an idea of what numbers to keep in mind although I should say that I can't think of any games that a mid range core 2 duo and 8800GTS can't play. The 8 series cards is especially worth it considering the massive difference between DirectX 9 and DirectX 10.

This is about the best value/price gaming laptop that I could find. The graphics on this thing will let you play most games at decent settings, and it's a very good price for what you get. A Core2Duo will cost you about an extra $3-400 with similar options on a few other laptops I found, but this Turion 64 X2 should do the job nicely. I would buy this if I was in the market for one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220156

Build your own computer.

I spent under $500 and got a 500 watt power supply, 1 gig of Corsair XMS2 series RAM, 250 gig Hard drive, asus motherboard (should spent a little more on this one), AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200, Asus X1550 PCI-Express video card, and a decent heat sinc, I have never had a problem with it yet as far as games go, Playing Halo nonstop for 8 to 10 hours I never saw the cpu heat go over 34 degrees celcius with all of my fans set on low, video card doesnt glitch and never had a problem with the game glitching. If I had a $800 budget, I would have gotten a better motherboard and maybe video card with another gig of RAM, but thats bout it. Building them is simply installing the pieces where they go, can tell by looking ussually, not to hard, then installing the opperating system and other programs, and to add the opperating system would probably be round 200or so there depending on which OS you want...

You spent under $500 for an X2????

it's probably this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=AMD+Athlon+64+X2+4200&x=23&y=38)
they were expensive 2 odd years ago but these days they're cheap.
if i recall correctly, he also saved money on his build by not having to buy a case or monitor.

After reading all this i would have to say i am goin with a desktop instead of a laptop also is ther really ahuge dif. between x9 and x10?

been lookin at cases most cases r $100 & up. IS that reasonable or not ?????:screwy:

Lookin at 250 gb hard drive what shuld i go with??

been lookin at cases most cases r $100 & up. IS that reasonable or not ?????:screwy:

I spent $80 or $90 something on a CoolerMaster Centurion 532 that came with a 430 watt PSU from CoolerMaster. Not a bad deal so $100 is about the ballpark for a decent, and if you desire, stylish case. Unless I'm wrong....?

Lookin at 250 gb hard drive what shuld i go with??

Western Digital Caviars are great. Extremely reliable and very responsive. Make sure you get an SATA 3.0GB/s interfaced hard drive for best performance.

I would go for a Western Digital Raptor 10K drive for the first drive, even if it sacrifices some capacity - they are FAST. Exactly what you want for gaming.

I would go for a Western Digital Raptor 10K drive for the first drive, even if it sacrifices some capacity - they are FAST. Exactly what you want for gaming.

Agreed. Only downside is that they're quite expensive, but you do get a lot of hard drive...

Also heard by some people who have Raptors that they fragment alot quicker than slower HDs and need to be defragmented more often. Maybe Oz can verify this.

Hardcore gaming is, by far, the most exhaustive activity that any computer can be subjected to. A true gaming PC is the ultimate PC, since the nature of hardware required to be a good gaming platform means the biggest and best of everything, from your clock speed, to your cooling system. Thus by default ,a good gaming PC will automatically be a good web surfing PC (especially since websurfing is really light stuff compared to gaming, and core requirements for a decent web surfing machine arent exactly what you might call "taxing").

I would seriously advise against a gaming laptop though, since I owned one. 6 years ago, I purchased a 2.4Ghz laptop, with a 17.1" UXGA screen, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD, and a whopping 128MB dedicated graphic card. This thing was a powerhouse, and weighed about 11lbs. However, after a few months of intensive gaming, the laptop would regularly become so hot, that I thought the plastic might melt. The fans never turned off, etc etc, and it got worse. And I don't even want to mention the pricetag on this thing...Heat is the one major problem that gaming PCs face, and in a gaming laptop, where components are already crammed together and there is more compromise on every front, the destructive effects of heat are definitely amplified.

Desktops are certainly the way to go for gaming, and I really agree with a few on here, that you should try to mix and match, and build your own rig instead of feeding these corporations that make over-priced branded "gaming" PCs, like those Alienware and Dell are now churning out. No doubt they get the job done, but you'll be paying a ridiculous cost. Fry's has every single component you'll need for a powerful rig; but you have to do the research on what processor to get, what HDD is the best, graphic card, etc. There are tons of reviews online that should help you out.

Agreed. Only downside is that they're quite expensive, but you do get a lot of hard drive...

Also heard by some people who have Raptors that they fragment alot quicker than slower HDs and need to be defragmented more often. Maybe Oz can verify this.

File Fragmentation is caused by data being deleted and written to the drive.

So by the very nature of having a higher speed (10,000rpm VS 7,200rpm) of course Raptor drives are going to fragment faster - they're going to do everything faster. LOL

That said, I think your friend is slightly misguided in what he has told you.

There are several Third Party defragmentation applications available that can defrag your drive automatically when needed.

The one downside to a Raptor drive besides cost is the noise it makes. I have a friend who bought one and it is the loudest HD he has ever used, but he does like the performance aspect of it. If you can sacrifice the cash and put up with the noise, then they are great drives.