What do I really need?

[Patrickz]

As far as memory and a procceser is concerned. I have lots of pics and do lots of surfing and would like to get a good flight sim at some point and maybe madden football. I was just curious as to what you tech guys thought. Also I have M-office and use it lots and also I would like to use my computer for music downloads and playing same.

[Don-Dad]

go with at least 1 gig memory and pretty much any new processor would be fine, well stay away from a celeron machine. More improtantly as far as gaming, get a good video card. If your getting a new machine, why not have Craigbass76 build one for ya since he does have one listed in ebay ;)

[SGTDad]

If you weren't concerned about gaming, then any new computer today would work fine for you. New games tend to push the hardware envelop and require a lot more performance. I would say look at the games you want to play and make sure you have at least the recommended specs.

[Alpha-Dad]

1gb memory will let you edit big pictures faster - especially if you have a high megapixel (5+) digital camera.

And if you're a gamer (beyond the kind on this site ;) ) a good video card.

[craigbass76]

Pretty much any chip (not Celeron though) will play games I think. The bottleneck will be the graphics card, so you need a nice one, but I don't imagine you'll need to spend much over a hundred bucks to play all but the newest games.

I got Tron recently (5 bucks at Marden's Surplus and Salvage) and need a card myself because I can't play it. Anyone else played this game? Is it worth getting a video card for? I don't really play games anymore since starting the computer business, except Mini-Pool :)

[sao95]

I'd go with an AMD processor as opposed to intel, anything over 2500 should be fine, but with prices being what they are I'd just go for a 3200 with a barton core, it's modest compared to what is out there, but you'll get what you need and a bit more and the price is right. 1 gig of ram is more than enough, and then a decent video card and your set. just my opinion though ;)

[DaddyO]

You guys. I always buy the cheapest loss leader at the local emporium. I've had nothing but Celeron chips for the past 10 years. And, no video card. Now, I'm not a huge gamer (besides, I like the consoles better) but it does handle just about everything we need. I think my first computer (a Mac) was the only one I've every paid more than $400 for new. 248MB of RAM has been holding steady for like 3 years now unless we let the hard disk fill up too much.

[Patrickz]

Great guys. I tend to go overboard on what I need and this helped a bunch. I have a 15gig hard drive and should up grade to an 80. They seem to be pretty cheep these days.

[Don-Dad]

You really do not need to upgrade, just add the drive as a slave. It's pretty easy and most hardrive cables have those black thingys for 2 drives and 2 power slot thingys too :). Install, format the drive and then throw all your files on the new drive.

[Patrickz]

Thanks Don! I din't know that you could do that. That makes it easier.:D

[Patrickz]

I added my slave drive and learned lots about reformating my c drive and other goodies. Also had a boxed copy of XP from a friend who didn't need it so now I am good to go. The drive I got was from an old computer in the trash with 8gigs of space. Works great and just cost me time and no money!!!:D Computer works like lighting with out all the crap on it.;)

[Don-Dad]

Nice bargain, free hard drive, 8 gigs fills up fast, next you will be out buying a nice external, storage is getting cheap and if your aving family pics you might consider a back up srive or cd/dvd rom burner.

[housedude]

Hey look at this site for hardware deals http://www.slickdeals.net its a forum (they do not sell anything) and I am always buying computer related crap form the posts found there. This weekend I bought xp upgrade for 10 bucks after rebate from office depot also they had a 100 gig drive for 10 bucks last week from office depot as well. I am looking to buy a amd processor as well, just waiting for a bargain.