need a new computer

[Beer]

ok just a couple of quick questions.

1 is 1.5k going to buy me a good box only? if not i can get 2k in a few weeks time
2 what stuff can i put into the box thing thats going to run great (and play aa3 ok) i dont need a blue disk thingy
3 i hope you can understand the technical stuff i just said.
4 and i will look at the screen like an idiot when you post something that im not going to understand, but the guy that i give the paper work to will look at me and go $$

[ADF-Squidz]

ok, so given the level of technical knowledge ...

get a descent m/b ... find the cheapest one ,double the price, that's usually a good ball-park figure to look at ...

processor ... 3 or 4 models from the top is usually descent speed & far far cheaper ...

RAM ... 4gb ... dont bother with any more than that ...

power supply ... 350w minimum (500 preferable) ...

out of 1500$, you'd want to spend at least 500$ on your video card, more if there's room to spare ... descent video makes a huge difference ...

case / hdd / monitor is whatever tickes your fancy, the only thing to be careful of the the monitor's response time in miliseconds ... i'm not sure what the current specs are, but there use to be an issue with games running on 7ms LCD's, there'd be a bit of jitter ... so go 5ms if you can ...

[ADF-BUNGY]

ok just a couple of quick questions.

1 is 1.5k going to buy me a good box only? if not i can get 2k in a few weeks time
2 what stuff can i put into the box thing thats going to run great (and play aa3 ok) i dont need a blue disk thingy
3 i hope you can understand the technical stuff i just said.
4 and i will look at the screen like an idiot when you post something that im not going to understand, but the guy that i give the paper work to will look at me and go $$

You just say you want a box only.
So I will assume you have a Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse.

For the box, I went through this exercise last DEC.
This is what I got and for how much back then.
prices will probably be cheaper now for these same items, so you could get the next level up for the same $$ ... check around.

Case - ANTEC 900 - $175
PSU - ANTEC ATX TruePower 650W Trio - $137
MB - Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4P - $199
CPU - Intel E8500 Core2Duo 3.16Ghz - $289
RAM - Corsair DDR2 1066 2GB - $76.00 (4GB 160.00 approx)
GC - ASUS EAH4850 512mb DDR3 PCIe2.0 - $239 (or Nvidia equivalent card - depending on your prefs)
HDD - Samsung 750GB SATAII - $176
Total - $1291.00 ($1370 with 4GB ram)

Parts I used from old comp
FDD & DVD/CD Drive, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse.

You can get whatever brands take your fancy, but this collection of bits, runs really nice and with 4GB of RAM would be sweet.
I am just about to add an extra 2GB RAM to mine.

As you can see, it is well within your $1500 budget.
as Squidz has suggested, drop down about 2 - 3 levels from top of the line (unless you have a big pit of money at your disposal).

the bits for mine were not all top of the range (down about 2 or 3 levels) but for me - runs great.

Purchased all the bits from UMart (as I am in Qld) ---> http://www.umart.com.au
But see what your local blokes can do for you.

I run WINXP SP3 as my OS.

This system gets me 80+ fps in AA with all settings on high.
I get similar rates with COD4 & COD5 when playing online.
So it should be fine for AA3.

Others will tell you different brands etc, but in the end - you pick what you are comfortable with and have fun, when it is all up and running.

[Beer]

thnks guys at least i know what to look for now

[ADF-Squidz]

wow, that was bauto that asked ... i hadn't even noticed

[ADF-Shady]

VERY nice low cost system.

[dodgey]

M8 where do you live? It would help with putting you in touch with the best deals and the like, and if you are gonna get a radeon 4800 series vid card you will need at least a 500 watt power supply.

[ADF-Squidz]

speaking with my cuz who's always up to date ...

AMD are no longer worth bothering with, stick to intel

ATI are great for the performance, but a little on the dodgey side, NVidia have gone expencive ...

[ADF-Snake]

Motherboard: Foxconn P45A LG77 ATX Intel P45 MB
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM: 3328MB RAM
HDD: 1 TB
Video: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
Audio: Realtek HD Audio output

This is my current PC, it only cost me around $1k.. And i love it!

Plays anything i can think of! (Still want to try crysis.. lol)

[ADF-BUNGY]

speaking with my cuz who's always up to date ...

AMD are no longer worth bothering with, stick to intel

I would agree, at the moment.

ATI are great for the performance, but a little on the dodgey side, NVidia have gone expencive ...

Haven't had any dramas with ATI based cards. Using various one's since 1998.

[ADF-Shady]

Currently browsing upgrades for video card/sound card/headphones myself.

Nice Nvidia card.... MSI N250GTS-2D1G 250 GTS 1GB
Internet Price: $220
Retail Price: $229.00

Sound card .... Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer - 7.1Ch
Internet Price: $75.00
Retail Price: $85.00

5.1 Headset....Zalman Headphones+ Microphone
Internet Price: $63.00
Retail Price: $73.00

[Beer]

ive been looking into it a bit i finally recived my ruddymoney i notice with Ati or NVidia they areonly die hard fans and i cant really get a good answer to the video card im thinking of doing something like what bungy has but i now want a duel screen so i dont have to wait till the next round i can do other things on the other screen. it seems the prices vary from state to state and im asking a friend of mine (henderson) about some prices too to compare.

[ADF-Squidz]

if you want dual screen, just make sure it save DV-DI not just DV-I or DV-D