Need advice on new computer

I'm going to need to buy a new computer soon.

I was told that the ball barrings in my hard drive are failing and once that happens it becomes a giant paper weight. (the computer is about 6 years old, it's an HP Pavilion XT963 if you want a frame of reference of what's I've been using, I've maxed out the RAM at 512MB)

I know a little about what to look for when buying a new one.

I know I can add another hard drive and more RAM later.

I've heard HP and Sony are good brands, and that Compaq & E-Machines are terrible.

I won't be buying a Mac.

Have they worked enough of the bugs out of Vista, or should I be buying a copy of XP to go back to? I've also heard that you need at least 2 GB of ram to run Vista well.

I'd like to get something of solid quality but won't have a large budget for it. How much money do you think I'll have to spend to get a solid system? One guy told me somewhere in the neighborhood of $600

I know some people say the best way is to have someone who knows how "frankenstein" you one together, which I'd consider if my budget was a little higher, but I don't think it will be.

I don't do anything too fancy with my computer for the most part, internet, Microsoft office stuff, but when I get the new one I may branch a little more into storing music and digital pictures.

It's not hard to build a computer and parts are dirt cheap especially if you are patient and wait for things to go on sale.

I would definitely build it if you're patient and invested in it. You can find great deal from different sites if you take your time. Once you know how to build your computer it will be easier for you to customize. Also if you really want to push your computer you can overclock you processor.


Again, only if you really invested.

Otherwise you can definitely find a gaming PC for a good price......what is your price range?

You'll want at least 2 gigs of Ram, probably 4 (though Windows can't use it all, yet).

If you're gaming, you'll want a big hard drive - at least 500 gigs. Depending on your needs, you might want to add a second hard drive, as well.

The processor is where your money will vary the most. You can go with the duo core, the quad core, or the Core 2 Extreme. Stay away from AMD right now. The Intel processors are superior and have been since the duo core technology came out. The price difference between the processors is going to be huge. The Core 2 Extremes run around a thousand dollars, while the duo core and the quad core both can be had for a couple hundred.

Next, your motherboard. Before you get it, you have to decide the brand of graphics card you want. If you want nVidia get an SLI compliant board. That's where you can use two graphics cards together. If you want ATI, you'll want Crossfire.

Onto the Graphics cards. nVidia is, IMO, the way to go, though I know people who swear ATI. If you're going with nVidia, get the 8800's. A pair of those suckers, and you're running DirectX10 and making short work of just about any game out there, including Crysis.

If you're building it yourself, make sure you cool that thing properly. Add fans, freon, whatever. Have fun, cause that will be a kickass system...