Build me a new one.

My trusty old workhorse needs replacement. Been running full time for about 6 years I think.
Nothing wrong with it except the games I can play on it are now few and far between. Looking for something that will play Cod4 on High, download some movies occasionally, upgrade to the latest 9 series video cards once they drop in price a bit. Doesn't have to be too fancy. I don't care about Lucite boxes, neon lights and the like. I've been looking at this
but I don't really know my ass from my elbow as far as value for money goes. I'm guessing something around $1000-$1500CAN will work but from what I can see retailers get rid of all the old crap by pretending it's the latest thing and I don't want to be driving it off the lot and losing a third of its value if you catch my drift. I donated ten quid to Filesoup for this so if you don't help me I'll have you all banned
Oh yes, I have been toying with the idea of a laptop and dispensing with a desktop PC altogether. So that's another option if feasible.

This one looks okay, would be better with another 2gb of RAM for the real high end use, I reckon.

I found this one if you'd prefer an AMD.

I think they'd both kick the shit out the tasks you want them to do and then some. My old P4 Prescott can handle COD4 on top whack, that's got 2gb of RAM and a 7600GT NVidia in it so either of these should handle the task easily.

If you're not planning to use the old comp anymore and have some hardware experience you can go much cheaper. I upgraded my mobo, proc, memory and gfx card to an amd 4800+ 64 x2, 2gig ddr2800 ram and a second hand ati 1900xtx for just under ¤400 (+- 650CAD).

Prices are probably lower in Canada. I also forgot to mention that I played COD4 on high detail high resolution and even crisis went rather smooth with most settings on high.

This post has been edited by biebel: Mar 29 2008, 05:03 AM

Well I did think about building my own and there are quite a few bits I can rape from my current box although I would like to give it to an impecunious friend still working. When I look at building it myself it doesn't seem all that much cheaper though.

I don't think you should expect to save a buck building yourself. You'd get to pich the pieces, but you might end up payying a bit more or about the same you would pay for a pre-build.
A big difference I see is with the mobo, where many pre-builds come with a crappy board.
It's been a year since I studied the difference, but that's what i deducted at the time.

6-year old hardware I'd get new stuff and I usually try run mine as long as possible. A few things like the harddisk might serve some purpose. I'd scap it all.
That just my cents.

Buy a little at a time. Just the nessacities and then improve on the system gradually. That's what i'd do.

Make sure the mobo is capable.

Good luck.

if you have the money to spend on getting a whole new system i would reccomend going that route. with your current computer being 6 years old it is unlikely that you would be able to upgrade to the potential of a brand new system. if you are looking to build a system yourself your best bet for getting the cheapest price on parts would be either newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, they are usually pretty fair with their prices and have excellent customer service as far as possibly having to return merchandise should it be damaged in transit or die while under warranty. the one component you might want to spend a little extra on to get a better quality is the motherboard. i have had experience with many different makers of motherboards and would reccomend getting a gigabyte motherboard. They are very reliable (Mine has been running strong for about 4 years now) and come with a great number of utilities that make life easier. Asus is a decent motherboard also. i would reccomend staying away from Sytnax and MSI motherboards. I have owned boards made by bothe of these companies and in each case they ahve died within a year. Also i have had a good number of customers that have had to have these boards replaced in store boughten computers.

If you do decide to buy from an online distributor or a store just make sure that you are getting SATA hard drives and not IDE, as well as PCI express graphics.