Guide to buying PCs cheap

  • Thread starter Thread starter dongrammar
  • Start date Start date
This site, SmartRatings.com, has compilations of expert reviews for various components of a PC. If you are confused about something, then a visit to it might be helpful.
 
dongrammar said:
There are many sites that post bargain deals and coupon codes so you can literally cut hundreds off the price of whatever you need. Many of them you earn cashback also (usually 3-5%)

Here's some sites i've found, feel free to add any that i've missed. Remember if you check ebay you can sometimes buy money off vouchers (20-30%) for a few dollars. Dell will usually try to add an upgraded warrenty ontop of your deal so just remove it to get the advertised price! Uk sites will be at the bottom of this page!

Happy shopping!

US-

http://forums.slickdeals.net/search.php?searchid=660393
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/
http://www.gotapex.com/
http://forums.gottadeal.com/forumdisplay.php?f=23
http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/39.html
http://www.hot-deals.org/ (use a search for this one)


Some money off coupons-

http://www.gottadeal.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23402
http://www.gottadeal.com/dell.php


UK-

http://www.rpoints.com/bb/viewforum.php?f=150
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/
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Ebay.... :D
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BenL said:
When it comes to computers, however much money you put into buying a computer, thats how much you will get out of it. There are no deals, steals, or bargains. If you get a computer for 400 dollars, you bought a bad computer. If you get a computer for 800 dollars, bought an average computer. if you get one for 900 or over you have a nice computer.

How do i know this? What gives me the right to say there are no bargains?

A) I work at a computer store B) i repair and build hundereds of computers over the span of a year

Also Dell computers suck, pass on dells and buy an HP, APPLE OR A GATEWAY
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what cha got goin for a bout 5-700
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dee2good said:
This is what I have. I upgraded the soundcard, and ooohhhhhh, this computer is smooth. Damn, i paid like 1300 for mine!!!

One thing i wish is that i got a bigger hard drive. Some of my vsti's take up an insane amount of space. I wouldn't recommend anything under 500 gigs for a hard drive.
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you should just buy a separate external hard drive thats what alot of people do... mine is 250 gigs but you're not really gonna take up that much space, or are you...

the biggest vst's i have are those dang ewql plugins, Ra 14 or somethin like that and Collosus 30 somethin, in which i dont recommend anyone getting any high quality plugins of the sort because they dont leave room for editing they sound like they should be in an actual band or orchestra.. what you want are the cheap sounding soundfonts cause you can edit them to fit your fancy and make them sound however you want
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Vdub said:
you should just buy a separate external hard drive thats what alot of people do... mine is 250 gigs but you're not really gonna take up that much space, or are you...

the biggest vst's i have are those dang ewql plugins, Ra 14 or somethin like that and Collosus 30 somethin, in which i dont recommend anyone getting any high quality plugins of the sort because they dont leave room for editing they sound like they should be in an actual band or orchestra.. what you want are the cheap sounding soundfonts cause you can edit them to fit your fancy and make them sound however you want

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Total I have one 320 gig hardrive (that came with my computer), a 500 gig external, a 250 gig external, and an 80 gig external. Between vstis, complete cd's that i borrow from the library to sample, recorded vocals, and samples ive downloaded online, I've almost filled up all of these, and I think I'm going to be getting a 1000 gig hardrive soon. So i guess depending on what your needs are you may not need that much space, such as if you don't sample, or sample off records, use primarily synths, and don't plan on recording vocals, you could get by with alot less hard drive space.

As far as your statement about high quality vstis, the fact that they sound like they belong in a orchestra is actually what their appeal is to me, I have ew gold symphony and the only thing i don't like about it is that its not platinum symphony! Again, its all in your style of music your trying to make.
 
dee2good said:
Total I have one 320 gig hardrive (that came with my computer), a 500 gig external, a 250 gig external, and an 80 gig external. Between vstis, complete cd's that i borrow from the library to sample, recorded vocals, and samples ive downloaded online, I've almost filled up all of these, and I think I'm going to be getting a 1000 gig hardrive soon. So i guess depending on what your needs are you may not need that much space, such as if you don't sample, or sample off records, use primarily synths, and don't plan on recording vocals, you could get by with alot less hard drive space.

As far as your statement about high quality vstis, the fact that they sound like they belong in a orchestra is actually what their appeal is to me, I have ew gold symphony and the only thing i don't like about it is that its not platinum symphony! Again, its all in your style of music your trying to make.
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:( i want your setup
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dee2good said:
I think I'm going to be getting a 1000 gig hardrive soon.
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I would avoid them for the time being...that's a *lot* of data to lose if you were to experience a crash, and a grossly large storage area when you consider you've got the same access bandwidth...it's like trying to drain a pool with a garden hose. I'd go with more, smaller drives in a RAID0 or RAID5 configuration (RAID5 is safer, but you burn one drive for the parity information). Right now my fileserver is 2x250GB in a RAID0, and that works great. Even better; I have 1Gbps LAN on both my server and Mac, talk about fast backups :-D
 
owendolmer said:
Or you can save hundreds and build your own.
2 cents as usual
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Hey bro
I just checked out your myspace, you got some nice stuff on there .... anyways it looks like your from hamilton like myself, have you checked out a place called Wintronic Computers ? www.wintroniccomputers.com or ca

I can build a system there cheap which I want to but Id like to hear some testimonials if you know what I mean.
 
I've been considering getting a Dell XPS 720, I just wanted to know if this computer is good for making your music on, does anyone on here own this computer or has used one?
 
I have a thead here for cheap/low-end value PC building advice with some prices.
h__p://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=25274659
You can ignore the vid card recomendations unless you also want to game on your PC. But realise that most systems ship "onboard" GPUs, which drain your CPU. So a $50 graphics card is in order.
 
For those who build PCs and live in the Southern Cali area:

mwave.com

In the City of Industry. 5 minutes from Fry's Electronics, but about 1/2 the cost.
 
newegg.com and tigerdirect.com are two sites for parts and buildin urself would be the cheapest option
 
Just started to build my computer for music. Below is a list of what my computer has in it already. If i could get some advice on what else is needed that would help out alot. I would like to be able to run programs for recoding,mixing and sounds. This is my frist venture into computers so i really dont know where to start. I have an Ion, AWG16track recorder and motif6 classic.

computer list
p5k se motherboard
intel core dual E4500 2.2 ghz
2.2 gb of ram
17 inch screen

Also what recording programs would you suggest keep in mind i dont have protools hd money but 500-1000 here an there for music equipment i can do.

Thanks to all on this cite yA'll keep me hungry for this game
 
Does anyone have any other good reviews of the Sweetwater Creation Station? I'm looking at getting the 1.5k deal but I'd like some more reviews before I settle for it. It looks good though.
 
just finished building mine also... All from newegg.com.... site is the shietz!
Windows XP x64
Thermaltake Armor LCS Case w/ Liquid Cooling
EVGA 780i Mobo - overclocked from 1333mhz to 1600mhz
Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5ghz - overclocked to 3ghz
4GB Ram DDR2 800mhz OCZ Reapers - overclocked to 960mhz
2 150GB Western Digital Raptors and a Western Digital 500GB Hard Drives
EMU 1616M PCI Soundcard

This thing is screaming! Now I can try to improve without worrying about eating the system up.
Better than my old ass Pentium 4 3.2ghz, 512MB Ram, with an ok Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
 
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gotta love newegg. i built a system about 2 years ago. spent 800 for everything, computer would've probly cost around 2 g's in store. brand names are a biyatch.
 
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