need help buying a good inexpensive (cheap) gaming computer

I read all the replies given to frostbyt3 on the other page. But it sounded like to me that he was a bit more knowledgeable about computers then me. I am planning on buying a good gaming computer within the next two month or so. My budget is under $2000. Even that is too much but Ill see. I have never bought a computer before and my main worry is the warranty on the computer that I will buy. I don't want to buy a $2000 computer and have it die on me a month later while I am still paying off my credit card bill. So far I have visited cyberpowerpc and ibuypower. I could be wrong but I thought that cyberpowerpc was a little cheaper.

Can you guys tell me some other trusted websites? Keep in mind that I don't know enough about computers to actually build my own from scratch. Thanks.

I wouldn't be inclined to buy a computer off anyone that thinks a free t-shirt is a good incentive to buy from them (which both ibuypower and cyberpowerpc do). Give us some details of the kind of specs your after (or links to PCs you like the look of) and I'm sure people will be more than happy to give their 2c.

Secondly, $2000 sounds like a lot to spend on a PC, I think you'd be able to get a decent gaming rig for less than that. You can spend as much as you like, but the more you spend the less you gain.

I don't see warranties as a great worry as PCs tend to be quite reliable, most of my problems over the years have been software related. I don't know about the US but in the UK electrical goods all come with a one year warranty, any manufactures extended warranties tend to be an absolute waste of money; they cost the Earth and don't cover you in 'your case' anyway.

Lastly you don't need to know a great deal to build your own PC, although I do understand some people don't want to go there (you don't really save any money building it yourself anyway, you just end up with what you want rather than what people want to sell you).

If you don't know how, or want, to put it together yourself, you should seriously consider going to Best Buy, a local computer shop, or somewhere else where you can "try it before you buy it".

Check out the article in this MaximumPC issue on building a rig for $1500. Starts on page 13 of the PDF.

http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC0207.pdf

I just built a high-end machine for under $1100. But if building it yourself isn't your kind of thing, then I'm going to have to agree with joebert and say check out some of the major retailers in your area.

there is a basic gaming rig from alienware for $1199

http://www.alienware.com/product_pages/ ... fault.aspx



* AMD Athlon™ 64 X2
* NVIDIA® SLI™ + DirectX10
* 800Mhz DDR2 Memory
* Up to 4TB of Storage
* Blu-ray Optical Drive
* Killer™ K1 Gaming NIC

I have been looking around and the notebook that I really like so far is on this link: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbk ... urator_top.

I am going to kick the hard drive memory up to 160 instead of the 120 and also change the os to xp professional instead of the vista home premium which will bring the price up to $1226.00.

I had a friend look at it and he said that it was a good deal. But I want more opinion from more knowledgeable people. I am willing to spend quite a bit of money because I know that I won't be buying a notebook for a long time. So I want to make sure it doesn't get outdated that fast.

Thanks for all your guys' help.

The only thing I would change is the hard drive. You have a 5400 RPM drive selected, I would recommend switching to a 7200 RPM drive.

For a notebook it's really good! But for the higher end games these days, you need a lot of video power to render everything in decent framerates. So if you're looking to game, don't expect the best gaming on a laptop, because desktop PC's will always support more memory and higher end video cards.

For games these days, especially with DX10 out and the next genre on the way, I would recommend a video card with 512MB of memory or more. That's just my 2 cents.

The laptop you have picked out is a really good buy for a laptop though.

I have an 8800 GTS with 320MB, and I'm only two frames/sec away from actually killing things in my room when I play Half Life 2. Memory on a graphics card is important, but it doesn't do a whole lot if you're GPU isn't equally as good. My friend has an ATI something-or-other (I don't know ATI models very well) with 512MB of RAM, and my card runs laps around his. Hardware support for DX10 helps as well, but since I'm using XP-64 and not Vista, I guess it really doesn't matter for the moment..

Yea that's true. My main point was when looking to game it's easier to accommodate a desktop machine rather than a laptop.

And yea, the 8800's are some of the best out there right now.

Best for the price range, in my opinion.

Yeah, I agree. If you want to do any serious gaming, desktops are much better suited for the job.

I'd say its a pretty good deal for a laptop, but i agree with everyone saying that a desktop would be better for gaming.

Try to find out if there is a local wholesaler for computer systems and parts, they are really cheap and if you dont know how to put it together, they should do it for you for a small price. You will save heaps.

I built myself a new computer a few months ago, i got all my parts (for the tower only) for $700!
I went to an electronics store to see how much the same tower would cost, and it was $1700!

I just built a top of the line pc for this year, even with the dual FHI water coolers, custom painted case, and then all the tower parts were like 750 bucks top and It's all updated top of the line stuff that is out as of right now, the whole pc with everything cost me 1300 bucks, and you can't get a better one as of right now. 2000 bucks is alot... but if you want 1 that is hardcore and under 2000, your going to have to build it urself or get a friend to do it.

ive made a computer for as low as 750 and while most people wouldnt quite call it a top of the line computer, its capable of doing any task any other computer can do

id say it cost me a little under 1100 to make what can be considered a top of the line computer