My 2005 Alienware Aurora 5500 is just too outdated for me (inb4alienwareh8).

I'm willing to spend...well, I can probably convince myself of anything up to about $1500, but something under $1000 would be nice. I've already got a sound card, speakers (& amp), mouse, keyboard, monitor, a 700w power supply, 820 gigs of external drive space & a 150gb Raptor that might still be of use. The case for this thing is nice, & it's got a liquid cooling system in it, though I have no clue as to whether that's something I can utilize or not.

If a decent blu ray drive can be got for under $100 or so, that'd be nice, but otherwise, I'd rather just put that into a normal player. The more expandability, the better, especially when it comes to hard drives.

Also of note: if it's not much more, I'd rather not have to build it...too lazy & not quite good enough at this stuff to get the setup done smoothly. So what should I get?

damn you, PKC.

edit: oh, 2+ monitor output would be awesome, and hdmi a must.

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous My 2005 Alienware Aurora 5500 is just too outdated for me (inb4alienwareh8). I'm willing to spend...well, I can probably convince myself of anything up to about $1500, but something under $1000 would be nice. I've already got a sound card, speakers (& amp), mouse, keyboard, monitor, a 700w power supply, 820 gigs of external drive space & a 150gb Raptor that might still be of use. The case for this thing is nice, & it's got a liquid cooling system in it, though I have no clue as to whether that's something I can utilize or not. If a decent blu ray drive can be got for under $100 or so, that'd be nice, but otherwise, I'd rather just put that into a normal player. The more expandability, the better, especially when it comes to hard drives. Also of note: if it's not much more, I'd rather not have to build it...too lazy & not quite good enough at this stuff to get the setup done smoothly. So what should I get? damn you, PKC. edit: oh, 2+ monitor output would be awesome, and hdmi a must.

LOL. for that kind of money, given you already have heaps of components, you can buy an absolute ninja! FYI all modern video cards come with 2 outputs and HDMI

all i can really say is stick with intel and nvidia imo. sites like anandtech.com is where i get all my info when shopping.

if you dont want to put it together yourself you'll need to go to a local dealer and pay them to do it for you.

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well, do any have 3 or 4 outputs (even if it's just interoperable hdmi & other stuff)

also, I have no problem physically putting the hardware together. it's the installation/setup nonsense I suck at. do people do that freelance?

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous well, do any have 3 or 4 outputs (even if it's just interoperable hdmi & other stuff)

sorry man, i can really only advise you if you're looking at 2 year hardware and what the fuck does 'interoperable' mean re vid cards? ha.

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous also, I have no problem physically putting the hardware together. it's the installation/setup nonsense I suck at. do people do that freelance?

ha, im totally the other way round yeah, there'd definitely be someone local if you live anywhere near other people.

...

the last time i checked, the q6600 was the bang/buck quad core. i would go for something that is easily overclocked. my 2.4 dual has been at 3.2 since feb 07, and have had zero issues with it. its as fast as the top of the line dual cores released at the time, but half the price

im not sure that quads are worth the money, check anandtech.com and see what they think. my board is two years old and supports quad CPUs, so i can upgrade cheaply at some time in the future when quads are supported fully.

but like i said, im out of the loop

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interoperable means it can output digital & analog at the same time (comes up with A/V equipment all the time...I know that stuff much better...say, with some cable boxes here, you can output HDMI & component simultaneously from one box, but from others, it's either/or).

Well, at least within an hour of a lot of people. I can put anything together, but I f*cking hate drivers.

thank you for your out-of-date-as-mine expertise. Maybe you could recommend [me] some AGP cards as well, while you're at it.

Why can't you just swap out some components? All you need is a new mobo/cpu/ram.

Pull out your stuff and replace it with this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819115041

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813128358

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820227289

Great mobo + ram + newest quad core processor.

Overclock it to 4ghz and throw in a pair of $100 9800GT's.

Total upgrade cost = $700 after rebates
Performance = Godlike

I want more ram, though. I hear you can even get 16 gigs now or is that not true?

also, the cooling system looks like it is running tubes of liquid straight to the processor. I'm afraid to mess with it and am fairly intimidated by its mere presence.

quote:

Originally posted by inconspicuous I want more ram, though. I hear you can even get 16 gigs now or is that not true?

yeah the mobo I posted supports 16 gigs, but honestly WTF...Why would you need more than 4GB? lol

You tell me...and PKC, apparently.

Here's 8GB. Take it and be happy

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820231151

aren't there different qualities of ram, though? I remember some number rating from when I looked at this pc...like 2:3:3 or something...latency, iirc. how much of a difference does that make?