yes it's the NEWB askin for help

$2400? You can get a killer machine for that. Ask one of the builders around here to make one for you. You'll want to look for either Athlon (socket A), or the newer P4s (socket 478).
I can't really recommend any companies to build one for you, as I haven't found one I really like yet.

<font color=green>In memory of all the Americans that died 9/11/01
Rest in peace</font color=green>

are there professionals here that can make it a quick
process...if so a referral would be great.

-Alwysgmng

I don't know who here would build a computer for you. Lots could do it, but not many do it for a living. I'd only go for the ones that do.

<font color=green>In memory of all the Americans that died 9/11/01
Rest in peace</font color=green>

I had never built a machine before my first Athlon 1.4GHz. It is very easy to put one of these together and throw a OS on it. I would suggest doing it yourself. I spent slightly under $500.00 and here is my setup.

Athlon 1.4GHz
256 MB DDR
20.5GB Maxtor HD
16X10X40 CD-RW
Geforce 2 MX200
300 Watt PSU

Now I could have gone with a better video card or hard drive, but for the games I play and what I use this machine for it performs extrememly well and was in my opinion very inexpensive.

Now with what your showing for your budget, you could get the best of everything. Highly overclockable board, PC2400 DDR, Geforce3 video card, water cooled peltier system, etc..
So it's up to what you need the machine for and expected performance but again I'd say you can probably do it yourself.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Killian on 09/18/01 06:53 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

I will build you your computer quickly for a small fee, including shipping.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

As a THG reader you probably know that the Athlon+DDR will get you the most for your money. I did some research a few weeks ago and found 3 brands that sell it, HP, Micron and Compaq. For 2400$ you can get a great PC. I found HP to give you the most for your money and Micron and Compaq almost the same. Anyways , check the online stores of them, and build your own dream machine there. My recomendations will be:
256MB DDR
Make sure the Monitor can handle 85HZ refresh rate with your working resolution (1024*768 on 19' ~1280*1024 on 21')
Good speakers (with subwoofer)
At least 2 years warrenty!!!

I hope this helps, if you need some more help, let me know

You can also use pricewatch. Just click on pc windows and select your processor speed. Then scan through the first 2 or 3 pages until you find the motherboard and features you like. Some generic systems are faster than the name brands. Be sure to get a Ddram or rambus system. Remember that if you go p4, socket 423 is on the way out, and the 845 motherboards only work with slower sdram.

Click <A HREF="http://www.mpipc.com" target="_new">here</A> and then click on configurator. It lets you kind of assemble your pc. You can't screw it up and they offer a 3 year warranty and one year on site.

Nice <b><font color=green>Lizards</b></font color=green> <b>crunch</b> Trolls cookies....... :smile: Yummy!! :smile:

Send my $2400 and I'll send you back one of the fastest PC's on the planet!

Back to you Tom...

<font color=blue> Ok. First off you should ALWAYS build a computer yourself. </font color=blue> All you need is one (1) phillips screwdriver and thats it.

Now if you don't want to do that and you have money to burn, (which it seems you do) get one from Vapochill or KryoSys

  <font color=blue>I for one run Quake 3 on a P133(No MMX)</font color=blue>I have no affiliatioin w/ Intel

Go to the bookstore. Buy a beginers book on comp building.
It will cost you no more then $20, and save you at least
$1000.

The only problem, you will likely have, is that parts you
buy may be defective. Sending them back is time consuming.





Breaking news: Intel hit by a SledgeHammer! AMD to blame! More in just a moment...

When you say "means", are you saying you don't have the skills or the time?

If its the former, just get a PC basics book. Building a PC is so simple that if you leave a chimp in a room with all the right parts, eventually you'll have a complete PC. But the problem is, he might somehow end up installing MacOS. :wink:

All the slots and sockets on the motherboard are different enough to ensure that you don't put the wrong thing in the wrong slot. The only thing is to make sure that the Heatsink goes on properly with some thermal compound in between. There are spacers available to ensure the core isn't crushed while installing the Heatsink. The rest is a doddle.

recommendations:

When you get all the parts, don't just put the motherboard in the case. It should come in an antistatic sleeve. Put that sleeve on a flat surface i.e. the Motherboard box. Put the board on top of that.

Connect the power supply and put the memory in. Put the CPU in, Put the HSF on. Put the Graphics card in, connect it to the monitor. Switch on. If it comes on and passes the BIOS tests, then all is cool. Switch off.

Take everything apart, except the ram. In some cases the ram slots are hard to reach, their kinda below the PSU and such. Also with some cases you can leave everything on, even the PCI cards when assembling the case!

Put the rest of the perhipherals on, and the HDD etc. Next, Install the software. (I would usually put, tweak the bios, before install the software, but thats a different tutorial.)

<font color=red><i>Poor is the pupil, who does not surpass his mentor</i> - Leonardo daVinci</font color=red>