OK, one of my friend's moms has asked me about recommending a computer to her/go buy one. My friend will want to be able to run most modern games at a capable level (he already has monitor etc. to)

After doing some research, I have realized that I basically have only 2 options since the ones at local chains suck for gaming and I don't want to build a friend's before my own (I can imagine myself screwing up with their money before I have even tried with my own... meh...)
so my options are:
1. order a custom built one online
2. order a prebuilt one online

I went through trying a few things and after reading the hardocp review of the 3800 ati cards, I chose that as a card. Here is
Here is the one that I built:


She basically told me to get the best performance to price ratio =D (I am guessing 3850 would be a better choice for that though...)

Any suggestions or alternatives? It does not need to be by Christmas, just close to it (I would say end the month/beginning of next year... Although having it for a new years lan party would be awesome =) )

Video card: 3870 512mb or 8800GT 512mb (8800GT is preferred, but has price premium right now due to low stock)
CPU: Anything Core 2 Duo ~2.2ghz+
RAM: 2gb DDR2 800 minimum

So the system you linked to looks great - go with it if it is from a decent brand. Otherwise to cut back on the price a little just go with the c2 duo instead of the c2 quad - in games and general usage there won't be any difference.

Thanks! I might see if I can go over now and recommend it...

That pic was from CyberPower or something (only one I could remember that was really expensive). If I need to cut back I will cut down the processor =)

Bwahahaha I totally read the title in the wrong way. I thought you meant like buying a computer to be your friend, I was like "Wow harq... your cool...cough"

Despite what you may think, I am not THAT screwed up o.O

Haha, nice, I read the topic title in the exact same way.

Yeah, me too. I figured you had gotten bored by now IMing yourself.

Wow... How would you have liked me to put it?

You could have said "as a gift for a friend", or left the friend part out of the subject entirely and simply stated you wanted to buy a new computer, and explained about the friend in the body of the post...

Pshhhhhh... Have you ever heard of a retorical question?

Yes

So I heard you like Mudkips...

MOAR MUDKIPS

Oh dear, Kerm, I apologize. It appears that I have begun to devolve this thread into a different land

Taking a look at SAX, I realize that this is the result when you bring forth the feral level of a Geek's soul

Memes? In my Cemetech? :O

Oh noes! By the way, you just lost the game.

I can has topic split?

An unsplit topic is fine too.

F0 Sh0!

too many splits around here...

I'm in charge in Malaysia!

But seriously, what does everyone think of those specs? I think they're decent as long as he already checked for compatibility.

The only thing I was worried about was the motherboard, but it says crossfire compatible so =)


If possible, I am going to try and get them to order today. It is free shipping and no tax, and it will be shipped out on the ~27th. The prices comes out to a nice round 1260 =)


EDIT: Sweet, found a coupon for 5% off, and it works! Brings the prices down to 1200.

What does everyone think of Cyberpower? I have been reading mixed reviews =\
It is the best performance/cost I am going to get, but I have read that their custormer support is shit and their stuff will sometimes fail. On the otherhand, I also find some with great experiences and no problems, I am hoping that since there is nothing fancy in this one, that it will work well =)

yet another edit...
It looks like a lot of the complaints are just the shipping and timing... I think the smaller less complicated jobs should avoid most of the technical problems... I am going to go ahead and try, I think that this is really the best option without spending a couple hundred more, and if it screws up, than I can call tech support for them =)