Buying New PC, Need some help

[coloradog1]

Hello all. I don't post much on this site but I frequent the site often and have been registered for about 6 months now. I will be buying a new computer soon and I am looking for some opinions on what I should get.

When it comes to computer gaming I would call my self a casual gamer. I like to play strategy and RPG's but I don't all the time. Other than that I use my pc for browsing the internet, gaming, and typical word processing stuff.

The dilemma I am having is Mac or PC and if PC, which way to go. My current computer is an HP PC but after about 16 months of ownership, It has had some problems and needs to be replaced. I have never owned a Mac so that would be a change for me. Anyways, below are the two computers I am looking at so far.


PC - HP d5000t - ~$2100
HP w2207h 22" Wide Flat Panel Monitor
Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q9450 (2.66GHz)
6GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x2048, 2x1024)
1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT, 2 DVI, HDMI adapter
500GB RAID 1 (2 x 500GB SATA HDDs) - data security
Primary CD/DVD drive LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
Secondary CD/DVD Drive 16x max. DVD-ROM
15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, 1394, TV video
ATSC-NTSC TV tuner with PVR, FM tuner, remote
Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports


Mac Pro - ~$3600 + Memory Upgrade and Software = ~$4300
Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)
Two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (2x1GB) (Will upgrade to 8MB for ~$500, cheaper to buy through Crucial than apple)
320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
16x SuperDrive


The price difference is huge and I have never owned a Mac. I am hoping for something that will last more than the ~16 months which my current PC seemed to last. I have heard good things about a Mac and the new Mac Pro looks like it is extremely easy to upgrade. I am not a computer guru but I know my way around a bit. Hence I have installed memory in my computer but I don't feel like I could build my own.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks a bunch
Tony

[fox099]

Neither of those options really make sense for your needs. No rpgs or strategy games are optimized for a 64-bit OS so having it is rather pointless, as well as 6 gigs of ram. If you are just playing easy games, word processing and the internet, you should in no way spend more than 1000 dollars on a machine. I have always built computers myself, but I realize that many people would like to avoid that. There is no need to switch to a Mac Pro, especially when the price of the components is really about 800 dollars, and the rest of the 2800 is for the styling. My suggestion for a machine that will work well into the future would be the following:

AMD Athlon X2 5000+ or up, rated at 65W
MSI or Asus Motherboard (really doesnt matter) w/ onboard ethernet and sound
2GB DDR2-800 PC6400 Ram
ATI Radeon 4850 by Asus
500GB Wester Digital Hard Drive
500+ Watt Power Supply
DVD-RW
Floppy Disc Drive (legacy, but I enjoy having one for backup)
Vista Business 32 or 64 bit, doesnt really matter, 32 bit is safest though

This whole setup might cost you somewhere around 600 bucks. Get a cheap case and a 22" widescreen monitor from newegg or tigerdirect and you have a complete computer that will last you AT LEAST 2 years. For what you are doing, you could probably even downgrade to a Radeon HD3850. I dont know why you would be looking at such expensive options, but maybe you have money to burn, and it doesnt matter to me, but if you are trying to save money, get what I proposed above, you wont regret it.

[coloradog1]

fox099, thanks for the reply. A little background, my current computer has the following stats.

Windows XP
Intel Core 2 6400 @ 2.13Ghz
3.5GB RAM
225GB Hard Drive of which only 55.2GB are free.
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT


The problem I have had with my current computer is how long it takes to start up and shut down. It takes ~ 1.0-1.5 minutes to see the desktop and then I really can't run any programs or open internet explorer for atleast 5 minutes and maybe closer to 10 minutes. There is an activity indicator light on my computer and it stays lit for atleast 5 minutes if not longer. I have found that I really can't do anything until that light is no longer lit. It also takes 1.5-2.0 minutes to shut down the computer. I am not sure if memory or a better processor is the solution to a problem like this or maybe it is just the shear amount of games/programs I have on my computer which causes this problem. Here are most of the programs/games I have currently installed on my computer. Any additional suggestions, help is appreciated.

The Witcher
Elder Scrolls 3 and Expansions
Sins of a Solar Empire
The Sims 2 + most expansions
Myst Masterpiece Edition
SimCity 4
Star Wars Empire at War + Expansion
Civilization 4 + expansions
Age of Empires III + Expansions
Neverwinter NIghts 2 + Expansion
Diablo I
Microsoft Office
+ Tons of Videos and Music
Matlab
A few titles of Engineering Software
Real Player
Itunes
Windows Media Player
Quicktime
Rhapsody
Google Video Player
Total Video Player

[fastbilly1]

Your computer specs seem quite adequete for your taste, atleast until the end of the year. Have you run a virus scan and/or adware scan recently? Better yet, have you run one in safemode?

[coloradog1]

I have Norton Antivurs installed on my computer which scans the computer periodically. I do not know hot to get the computer into safe mode.

[HoboJoe]

The reason why starting up might take forever is because of the amount of crap loading in the beginning. If you goto Run then type msconfig and hit enter itll bring up this screen. Goto the startup tab and uncheck everything unnecessary...if your unsure about a certain item just google it and figure out if you need it starting up or not. Plus idk about the rest of the people here, but I personally hate any McAfee and Nortan software. I use AVG free because I've simply had the best experiences with AVG in the past.

[coloradog1]

okay. I went to start and typed msconfig. There are the items that were checked on the start-up tab.

ehtray
RTHDCPL
Iaanotif
NvCpl
nwiz
DMAScheduler
RECGUARD
ccApp
osCheck
HPBootOp
HPwuSchd2
jusched
qttask
ItunesHelper
CTSyncU
AdobeUpdateManger
Adobe Reader Speed Launch
Extender Resource Monitor
HP Digital Imaging Monitor
Microsoft Office



Can anyone provide suggestions as to what items I could uncheck? There were also two items checked which did not say what they were under the heading "startup Item" I will still be getting a new computer soon so any additional suggestions are appreciated regarding that subject to.

Thanks again for all the help.

[HoboJoe]

Well for a fact I know get rid of Microsoft Office, all the HP stuff, the adobe stuff and i'd say the iTuneshelper but i don't use itunes so i don't know how necessary it is. The rest I'm not sure about, but like I said just google em and you should be able to get more info on em.

[otaku]

I recently upgraded my machine and after having owned many dells and having lusted after an alienware for years finally bought one (I went with a laptop because of college) highly recommended I spent about 2000 dollars and this sucker will run most recent games on medium-high-very high settings depending on games. Crysis runs on low very smoothly and medium is alright. Give alienware a call I say.

[fox099]

The easiest way to instantly improve computer performace would be to simply reformat your harddrive and reinstall windows. Provided you have copies of all your software, this is the best thing to do. You could also simply buy a registry cleaner (maybe 10 bucks) which will reorder your registry and improve performance. A quick, free fix is to degfragment your drive. It is in the Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disc Defragmenter. Honestly, there is no need to upgrade your system, you could upgrade your video, but it should be adequate for most things.