Help picking out a new computer!

[Versilaryan]

So I'm getting sick and tired of this horrible, horrible HP laptop, so I'm thinking about building a desktop computer. Problem is, I don't know where to start! (Well, I do, but I don't trust myself to get the right things yet.)

So anypony out there have any advice for what I should be looking for, what to avoid, etc.? I'm not much of a computer gamer, but I would like to be able to run games on this thing (this one has difficulty running Minecraft), not to mention music and the fact I'm majoring in computer science.


The big questions I have, though are:

How much does the internal sound card matter? I've got an external sound card, so how much will the internal sound card affect what I'm doing?
Should I stick with the standard 7200 RPM hard drive, or should I look into 10000 RPM or invest in solid-state drives? I remember my trumpet instructor saying something about hard drive speed when recording music. (My friend's friend, apparently, runs his OS on a solid state drive and stores everything in a second hard drive. Is it worth it?)

[Makkon]

The first question you should ask yourself: how much are you willing to spend?

The second question that is also vexing: Are you willing to build this computer yourself? Many pre-built machines aren't worth the money.

My machine cost me a little over $1,600 (u.s.) and my brother and I built it ourselves. We did a lot of research, and a lot of work to get the build that I have. But it's the best investment I've ever made in my life. When purchasing a machine, do not forget that this is an investment that you are making! It's going to cost you a lot because it needs to last.

Once you have answers to these questions, then we can get started!

Also, don't shop anywhere else besides http://www.newegg.com

[IndustrialBreeze]

So anypony out there have any advice for what I should be looking for, what to avoid, etc.? I'm not much of a computer gamer, but I would like to be able to run games on this thing (this one has difficulty running Minecraft), not to mention music and the fact I'm majoring in computer science.

What Operating System do you plan to use?

Since you are looking at gaming, avoid Intel graphic cards. They are generally quite low-powered and weak in comparison to nVidia and Radeon cards.
Speaking of which, you will want to look for a dedicated graphics card, not an integrated motherboard card. This is applicable regardless of desktop/notebook form factor. (my thinkpad has a dedicated radeon x1400 and is quite capable for a 6 year old laptop.)

The big questions I have, though are:

How much does the internal sound card matter? I've got an external sound card, so how much will the internal sound card affect what I'm doing?

Internal cards are actually quite up to par for the job. The only downside is they tend to use more cpu power since they don't have their own memory for cpu to buffer for it. If you are looking for professional audio, you may want to invest in one.

For Linux-based OS: Get an MAudio card.
For Windows-based OS: Get a Creative X-FI card.

Should I stick with the standard 7200 RPM hard drive, or should I look into 10000 RPM or invest in solid-state drives? I remember my trumpet instructor saying something about hard drive speed when recording music. (My friend's friend, apparently, runs his OS on a solid state drive and stores everything in a second hard drive. Is it worth it?)

Your friend is fairly knowledgeable then.
While SSD's have great write and read speeds, they are flash memory.
That means that they tend to age faster, have more bad sectors due to wearing on writes, and they are still young as a storage medium. However, they are great for performance.
IMO, ssd's would be great for storing Operating System files for decreased boot time and application launching.

However, regular disk hard drives are more durable, last longer, can be written to more, and are cheaper. I guess the best reason for getting them is the price per gigabyte, as I think a 3 terabyte drive goes for about $160, whereas you'd get about a 64GB ssd for the same price.
Besides, you could always set up your drives in a RAID for faster speed or redundancy.
Regardless, here's my suggestions:

- 3+ core processor
- Minimum 4 GB ram
- 2x 7200 rpm drive, preferrably have your OS on one, storage for audio on the other. Externals are fine too.
- Radeon **70 card or greater (high end like the 5780), or nvidia cards such as the 230.
- DDR3 ram.

Radeons are usually cheaper than nvidia cards, but generally nvidia work better on Linux-based OS's. (less tweaking)

Don't get the most expensive devices, your needs are probably much less than you think they are.
You could make a powerful beast in ~1000 if you build it yourself.