Help: The best there is right now=?

@ Rastor

That is better only because the prices in US are generally cheaper than in Europe (drastically, in some cases). The prices I displayed are from www.mbnet.fi and Finland having similar taxes with Sweden, I bet that is the machine he would get with that amount of money.

I still say Mandrake is better, if only because it's based on that (full-fledged) comparison and not some single user-experience. As to the Windows, I agree that Win2k is the best of them, but having 64-processor also requires 64-bit OS to take full advantage of it. Sadly, this means WinXP 64-bit edition.

TFT vs. LCD, and again all reviews point towards TFTs. Besides, who would want to have a ugly, bulky monitor when he could have a sleek, modern one that also saves your eyes?

 

Considering that you are not computer savy, I'd choose the easiest way to purchase your next system. Go to several local retail stores and find out what is available. Then buy one.

You will have to get some education about the current technology to determine what you need from the PC, depending on what you're planning to do with it. It sounds like it's a family PC that you use for gaming some too.

Talk to the salespeople, odds are that you may find one who not only knows what (s)he's talking about, but is willing to be honest and helpful. Ask questions of all of them about what they recommend. You'll get a lot of the same answers that you see here, but the more input you get, the better informed you'll be.

 

This is a pretty good list of parts, but there are a few things I would change:

Right now AMD, with the 64, holds the cards, and best technology. I would not change that. Intel has to play catch up.

I would scrap the 9600XT since it is already aging technology, soon to be replaced by ATI. Look for something newer. The nVidia 6600GT blows the doors off the 9600. Besides, why put a second rate 3D card on an Athlon 64 anyway?

Also, as Rastor says Western Digital makes pretty good drives, but for a few bucks more, go with at least 120GB. You can never have too much HD space. Remember you kept your last computer for 8 years. With your new computer you may want to install a lot of MP3s and do some video editing. Also, scrap Win 2000. I have to work on that worthless piece of OS everyday at work and hate it, hate it, hate it. Go for XP Pro instead - it's the future...not your father's Windows...

 

XFX GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB
GeIL 1GB
AMD Athlon FX53

Them 3 ownage parts alone will cost you around 18000 SEK. Probably more in Sweden because of your 25% vat. It would be a very good PC!

 

There's 7.38 Korona per USD, so I'll convert at the end of this and add a bit for market seperation.

Full tower case $55
3 80mm case fans $12
60gig Hitachi harddisk $60
Liteon 16x DVD reader $35
Liteon 8x DVD writer $65
512MB of Samsung PC3200 $75
Athlon XP 2600 $68
Biostar M7NCD Nforce2 mainboard $46
IDE cables $8
Heatsink $15
Onboard sound $0
Onboard ethernet $0
Plastic spacers and screws $5
400w ATX powersupply $35
Viewsonic 17" 70khz monitor $108
Radeon 9600pro $110
-------------------------------------
$697 USD
$5143 SEK

Those numbers don't include shipping and handling (or tax!), but are slightly liberal; I didn't pick the lowest prices I found.

Add 10% for the market, and you pull $5660. Try to put together a mid-level system like this for around $5700, in your part of the World. Technically, you can do without the DVD writer; but you'd absolutely want something to "write on". A cd burner or a USB NVRAM "keychain" would do. You can resort to a floppy disk, but the drives cost $20 USD over here and a cd burner can be found for $25 USD (including shipping and handling). A system comparable to this will play Unreal Tournament 2004 and Doom 3, as well as Temple of Elemental Evil and Dragon Age (when it comes out). The Hitachi drives made these days are just fine, but if you're still scarred by the 75gxp/deathstar thing, get whatever you want; you won't find a drive comparable in both price and performance, but if it helps you play the game, play the game. Same thing with the Radeon, but you'll have to move up to a Geforce 5700 (which costs more) to match that 9600pro. And with the monitor, get whatever you want; 70khz will let you do 1024x768@75hz, which should keep you headache free.

[edit: Oh. Thermal paste. Usually there's a tube of silicon that comes with the heatsink, but if not just add $30 SEK and buy some generic "Arctic Silver".]

 

Gah, I looked closer at the special offers Dell has. One of them costed about 7000-8000 SEK, and it had a picture of a compter with a flatscreen next to it. I pressed "configurate" and found that the flat screen wasnt in the offer. Furthermore, I found that a number of other vital components werent either in the offer. The price actualy more than doubled after I marked the components I needed. Bastards...

 

That's a fair decent computer I built, above. I didn't include a mouse or keyboard, but I figured you can cannibalize those from your old computer. You can get new ones, if that's what you want. Surely you can piece together something close to it, even in Sweden.

Order a "barebones" system, if you can.

 

This is one offer (customized by me) from Dell:

Service
=======
3 years on the spot-service,

Processor
=========
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 520 med HT teknologi (2.80GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB cache)

Memory
============================
Special offer(otherwise half) : 1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 400MHz [2x512]

Harddrive
========
160GB Hårddisk SATA (7200RPM) m. 8MB DataBurst™

Graphiccard
==========
New: 256MB PCI Express™ nVidia Geforce 6800 GTO med DVI (+ SEK 3 000 kr)


2. Monitor (this offer might actualy include 2 monitors)
============
Dell M993 19" (18.0 VIS) UltraScan™ CRT-monitor (+ SEK 2 613 kr)

Optical unit
============
48x/32x/48x/16x CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo-enhet

Speekers
=========
Dell Stereo högtalare (+ SEK 425 kr)

Soundcard
========
Integreted soundcard

Dell Picture Studio
===================
Dell Picture Studio Standard Edition


Keyboard
===========
Dell QuietKey tangentbord, standard PS/2

Mouse
===
Dell USB mus med scroll wheel, optisk (+ SEK 163 kr)

Software
========
Microsoft® Works 7.0

Språk på operativsystem och mjukvara
====================================
Svenska

Installationstjänster
=====================
Privat installation av din nya Dell dator + Internetuppkoppling (+ SEK 1 999 kr)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

System
======
Pris exkl.moms : 14 066 kr
momssats : 25%
Pris inkl.moms : 17 583 kr

Frakt
=====
Pris exkl.moms : 675 kr
momssats : 25%
Pris inkl.moms : 844 kr


===============================================================

Summa exkl.moms : 14 741 kr
Summa inkl.moms : 18 426 kr


Expensive: YES! Good: I have no idea