[iByrn]

Hi,
I'm looking for a new computer and wondered if any of you techies could give me advice.

I'll be using it for mostly Photoshop and internet, possibly PC gaming. I'd like at least a 2.0 GHz processor, 40 GB hard drive, and 512 MB RAM.

My questions are:
What brand do you think is best?
How good of a graphics card will I need? What's the difference between Athlon and Intel processors?
What do I need to make Photoshop run at its best?

And anyother suggestions you might have. Thanks!

[Coaster]

Steer clear from the Dells and HPs, they may have good specs, but their cheap for a reason.

You can order them with custom built parts from most computer stores like future shop. Cicero's and IPC's are good.

[sacrelicious]

What's wrong will Dell? I got a great machine for a great price (at the time, anyway). When I next upgrade I'll probably build my own, but I have no complaints about this rig.

[Effigy]

RAM's the word of the day when it comes to Photoshop, 512 should be ok for most things, but more is better obviously.

I couldn't say much about brand names etc cos frankly I don't know, but I'm sure they'll be a few replies that will cover that.

[iByrn]

Thanks all.

[DeepFish]

the BEST way to get a good computer, is to assemble it yourself... if you go to www.mysimon.com (or any other source) and search for all the needed parts there for lowest price, you should be able to get a good deal on a good machine... if you not confident enough to assemble it yourself, take those parts to a computer shop, and for about 40$ they should do all the work for ya... i dunno, i built my last two computers from scratch, and i think its the best way to do it....

[gigatron]

Definetely listen to fish, assembling your own computer is the way to go, my father works at IBM and err i dont like IBM computers lmao... just sucks buying OEMs anywho...

Pentium 4 (B) [email protected]
Asus P4-TE (or something i forget lmao..) asus board
512MB RDRAM Kingston
7200rpm 40GB drive (stay away from loud drives.. hmm more then 99% of time... loud=bad LOL)

I run Photoshop just fine If I were buying something now I'd get a XP2100 AMD baby and 512MB DDR333 and a good mobo that supports the two, definetely a 7200rpm drive or 10000rpm drive, so ya
It runs like a charm descent

[Nilwort]

Building your own computer from scratch is cheaper, higher quality, and more fun than buying a computer from the store. When you build your own computer you know everything about it...all the hardware names and the companies that make them so you actually know where to go to get updated drivers...

My last computer was a Compaq, being the control freak that I am, I had to reformat to get rid of all the stupid software that compaq forces you to install...I had to borrow a normal windows 98 cd from a friend because compaq diddn't even include one. There were just these restore disks that installed the operating system and all the other junk that was on it when you bought it...

As far as AMD vs Intel goes...My first computer was a pentium 166, since then I've had all AMD cpus and what I've learned about them is that the main advantage of AMD processors are the price. The next system that I'm going to build (once I get some money!) is going to be an Intel system...you hear from people and web sites that AMD makes processors just as fast as Intel processors, from my experience with games, that is a lie. AMD CPUs supposively have more stuff they can do per clock cycle, but no programs really take advantage of it. This becomes really obvious when playing a game with really CPU intensive effects turned on like shadows or a game with high vertex counts like Morrowind, the AMDs just start to chug when there is a lot of calculations going on independently of the normal graphics rendering stuff. Makes me wonder if the floating point calculation problem they had with the k6 cpu was actually solved?

My AMDs have served me well in the past, and if you want a good computer for the price, but not neccesarily the fastest, go with AMD...if you are going to be doing a lot of gaming or real-time stuff, buy an Intel computer. If you don't know how to build your own computer, get a friend to help you, if that isn't an option and you absolutely must buy one from the store, I'd say go with Dell...

[iByrn]

Wanted to let everyone know I've read the replies and considered the advice. Thanks again.