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Lasereth · 12-28-2004, 11:21 AM

Don't build it yourself unless you want your relationship to end in a catastrophic end-game post screaming terrorfest nightmare event while trying to get it working.

Get it from Dell. Get at least an Athlon XP 2500+ or a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz. Higher is better, but if she's not gonna be a Grrrl Gamer then she won't notice a difference anyway. Get 512 MB of RAM at least. With these two in place upgrading further is basically useless unless she's gonna play hardcore videogames on it.

When you say flatscreen I assume you mean LCD. Flatscreen is a regular monitor with a literally flat screen. The monitor is still big and bulky. An LCD is the type of monitors that are slim and compact and like 3-4 inches deep. If you do buy her an LCD, make sure the refresh rate is 20ms or lower or the picture quality is gonna look like a rerun of Sesame Street from the 80's on a 1989 RCA TV. Remember that a 19" CRT flatscreen (big, bulky but with a flat screen) is the same as a 17" LCD (slim, compact).

The hard drive should be at least 40 GB. Most PCs come with 80 GB hard drives which is more than enough.

Videocard? Doesn't matter. Unless she wants to kick your ass in FarCry or Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 then there's no reason to upgrade the videocard or anything else for that matter. If a store-bought PC that has been purchased in the last 3 years is slow then it simply needs formatting. It's hard to tell the difference when browsing through Windows from a 500 MHz PC with 256 MB of RAM and a 3.0 GHz PC with 256 MB of RAM.

Make sure it has a CD-RW or DVD-RW (CD Burner, DVD Burner).

There's really no reason to spend a lot of money on this computer unless she wants to game. It really bugs me when people spend $1000-$2500 on a desktop computer from Dell that is only gonna be used for Internet, Word Processing, E-Mail, AIM, etc. What a freakin waste! I wouldn't spend more than $1000 (with printer, monitor, speakers, the whole She-Bang) if I didn't plan on becoming #1 in the world at Battlefield Vietnam.

-Lasereth

12-28-2004, 11:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	Don't build it yourself unless you want your relationship to end in a catastrophic end-game post screaming terrorfest nightmare event while trying to get it working. Get it from Dell. Get at least an Athlon XP 2500+ or a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz. Higher is better, but if she's not gonna be a Grrrl Gamer then she won't notice a difference anyway. Get 512 MB of RAM at least. With these two in place upgrading further is basically useless unless she's gonna play hardcore videogames on it. When you say flatscreen I assume you mean LCD. Flatscreen is a regular monitor with a literally flat screen. The monitor is still big and bulky. An LCD is the type of monitors that are slim and compact and like 3-4 inches deep. If you do buy her an LCD, make sure the refresh rate is 20ms or lower or the picture quality is gonna look like a rerun of Sesame Street from the 80's on a 1989 RCA TV. Remember that a 19" CRT flatscreen (big, bulky but with a flat screen) is the same as a 17" LCD (slim, compact). The hard drive should be at least 40 GB. Most PCs come with 80 GB hard drives which is more than enough. Videocard? Doesn't matter. Unless she wants to kick your ass in FarCry or Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 then there's no reason to upgrade the videocard or anything else for that matter. If a store-bought PC that has been purchased in the last 3 years is slow then it simply needs formatting. It's hard to tell the difference when browsing through Windows from a 500 MHz PC with 256 MB of RAM and a 3.0 GHz PC with 256 MB of RAM. Make sure it has a CD-RW or DVD-RW (CD Burner, DVD Burner). There's really no reason to spend a lot of money on this computer unless she wants to game. It really bugs me when people spend $1000-$2500 on a desktop computer from Dell that is only gonna be used for Internet, Word Processing, E-Mail, AIM, etc. What a freakin waste! I wouldn't spend more than $1000 (with printer, monitor, speakers, the whole She-Bang) if I didn't plan on becoming #1 in the world at Battlefield Vietnam. -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert