basically, the Ghz shows how fast the processor can actually do commands... however the type of processor eg pentium, celeron, amd, etc defines how much load that the processor can handle

it pretty much runs like cars do

Celeron = Ford Laser (cheap and ecenomic)
AMD = rx-7 non-turbo (affordable and still has ok grunt)
Pentium 4 = Porsche (more expensive, but worth the money)

i wont get into all the other factors inside computers, but basically thats what you really need to know about differentiating processors

Well i suggest you go AMD, its cheaper than a Pentium 4, but if you want to do Digital Video Edition you might wanna do Pentium way...

Btw =M=, AMD's run on higher cycles, therefore are faster even though they have less Ghz.

I say get AMD, Asus nForce2 motherboard, a nice cooling system for the CPU and nice case, all in all AMD system will be cheaper for you

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Cause back before '99, U didn' give a damn about PvD, but now that he's pressin' platinum LP's, all of a sudden ur' into
his killer beat's! Ain't nothin' U can do to make it stop cause trance makes the world go round, so cut the act...

[My Website]

Well it all depends to what you want to do with it... Graphical Designing, Gaming, Education, Video editing, Entertainment system or whatever.
As I build computers just as a hobby of mine, I recommend just building it yourself as you know what you want, as sometimes a package might sound good in some areas but there some little things that makes the whole system run good in only particular areas but bad in others.
AMD = High Temps. (i just recommend a good heatsink fan like the Thermaltake bit more expensive but its well worth it [As i blown 1 amd with a crap heatsink fan, but now i got a Thermaltake it runs with current temps. as a Pentium..
if not go for the pentium bit more expensive but you wont have to worry about the thing blowing up hehe. Unless you overclock but thats another story.

Going with the prepackaged Dell etc. sounds good but next time you want to upgrade you can't just upgrade specific parts in the system, well you kind of can, but you're restricted. Making you just buy a whole new system.

Get something that next time you upgrade in a couple of years time you wont have to just buy a whole new system you can just buy the bits and pieces and still be up to date. Unless you want a new system and have two computers if that tickles you fancy in the future

Need more help just msg. me.

My main piece of advice - INTEGRATED = BAD!!! It might be cheaper to get integrated sound, video, etc... but its a very bad idea!! About the only thing you want integrated on to the motherboard is maybe a network card and modem!!!

Also be aware that when you buy packages from the likes of HP (and prolly Dell - havent looked into there stuff) most of what you get is integrated! Makes it very hard to upgrade in the future....

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Never hold your farts in!!!
They travel up your spine into your brain
and that where you get shit ideas from!!!

i agree with the integrated comments... although you can upgrade. Im running an asus motherboard with integrated sound and i just disabled it and am now running a SoundBlaster Audigy

If you post some needs/wants we should be able to get you sorted. Also, do you posess the skills to build your own pc?

If not, we should be able to point you in the direction of a good shop who can sort you out.

psygnosis, i know your gonna be doing some producing so grab a P4... its been discussed heaps that p4 has advantages over AMD for music production.. check do a search on the production forum.

sound card.... M-Audio Audiophile... cant go wrong.. expensive but the best

Video card ... not my field i dunno

hard drives.... if your hardcore producing your gonna want a scsi hard drive, as non-scsi hard drives no matter what the rpm always bottle neck when working with large wav files.....

downside is sdsi hard drives are expensive... the scsi card is cheap bout $200 ish but for a 80gb scsi hard drive your looking at a little over $1000 but well worth the money.. i say get one of those and a normal one for your installation.

monitors .....dual 17" LCD is the way to go as you need it with cubase etc...


thast all i can think of atm.


so list us what your thinking atm?

Psy.. tell me what you need from the machine and what your budget is and I'll see what I can do.

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This is trance...
Jose Amnesia - The Eternal (Pulser Remix) / Chicane - Saltwater / Photon Project - Illumination / Gouryella - Tenshi / Altitude - Altitude (SHOKK Remix) / Rank 1 - Airwave / The Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia (En Motion Mix)

For video card i cant recommend strongly enough going Nvidia!!

They are the technics of the video card world!!!

___________________
Never hold your farts in!!!
They travel up your spine into your brain
and that where you get shit ideas from!!!

stick with an AMD.. good all round processor, may need a decent heat sink, but after that u're pretty much set.

There's a motherboard management system called N-Force2, it's probably the one u want, no matter how basic you PC gets. Other things u'll have to consider on you motherboard are things like: How many RAM slots it has and the max amount each can take, how many PCI slots it has, Dual Bios, Any onboard sound or Vidoe (generally onboard network card and or modem and or sound is fine)

RAM is determined (like the rest of the bits of the system) by what applications u need the comp for. General rule get at least 256MB+.

Other costly thing will be your graphics card. Modern games and vidoe/image editing need a lot of power. This is pretty much endless, u can spend over a grand on a card. Look at review/recommendations to make your decision. anything around the $200 mark will be decent.

sound card again depends on your use for the computer.

Monitor, 17" is fine. look at the 15" LCD monitors, and the 17" LCDs if you have the extra cash.

Get at least 40GB of Hard Disk. HDD are really cheap now, so more and faster drive is not that much more.

CD/DVD/CD burner/ DVD burner.. again, what u want.

And any PIC devices.

Don't get too carried away with all this, u can spend a lot of money very quickly. Probably the only thing u'd really want to spend a bit of money on is a good case and a really good motherboard, this will ensure u can accommodate a substantial upgrade if needed in the future.

Hope this helps...

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I'm using a dell atm. i used to be a build your own computer person but i was impressed with the dell laptops ive had so ended up getting a desktop from them, i am very impressed, i ended up getting a fairly expensive system, Nothing integrated, and its definatly worth the price, the pc is built supurbly even the unused hdd power plugs have little caps over them. So far have not had a problem with it, but a couple of problems with the laptop and dell came over the next day, replaced the faulty component and left. Its also nice to be assured that the hardware is well tested together and works, nothing worse than compatability issues. If u can afford to spend a little bit extra i'd recomend dell

i've used p4 and amd on single and dual processor units, and i think amd is better, pentiums tend to hang a lot. but then again, it really depends on what you use it for. i do a lot of 3d graphics/raytracing which is VERY cpu intensive.

whether to go build from scratch or dell, it really depends on who the build from scratch people are. got mine from:

http://www.xentechcomputers.com/

(built from scratch) and have no problems whatsoever and support is really good too. they really know their stuff. and my comp runs like a lubed cat.

i also own a gateway (they're not selling in aus anymore) and have no complaints about that. their support and after sale stuff was great and they were big competition for dell a while back.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

really dont buy more than you need, dont buy any less. it really depends on what you use it for.

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