Need help with buying a computer

Spartan193 · Post by **Spartan193** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:57 pm

Ok, so I'm buying a computer really soon and I need to know If I should buy a 64-bit or a 32-bit proccessor. I heard that 64-bit is faster, but could have some compatibility issues. I am going to use this computer for gaming.

Kirk · Post by **Kirk** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:08 pm

Unless I'm mistaken, modern games don't utilize the 64 bit processor, making the 32bit more cost effective.

I really haven't kept up with hardware as I don't use a computer for gaming really at all anymore, so I could be wrong.

metkillerjoe · Post by **metkillerjoe** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:09 pm

Even if it isn't quite cost effective. When general business laptops start carrying something standard its a good idea to follow in sway for any desktop. Every person I know has s x64 machine.

Patrickssj6 · Post by **Patrickssj6** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:33 am

Even the 2 year old X2 have 64-bit support. Just get one...I ran my 64-bit proc on XP32-bit for about 1 1/2 years but now switched to Vista 64-bit and I love it even more.

It's correct that most games don't use the 64-bit architecture (except Freecell, Solitaire and even 64-bit Notepad

) but overall it's still faster (since the memory management has also been finally improved).

Also you are wrong about one thing. There are NO compatibility issues with the processor itself but there may be some with the Operating System. I can tell you that all my drivers run 100% and I haven't received a BSOD over a year.

Some things I know that changed were pointer sizes, floating point numbers are different as well (if you compare the same calculation on 32-bit and 64-bit CPU) but CPU registers and most of the architecture stayed the same.

Spartan193 · Post by **Spartan193** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 9:47 am

Ok, If you guys say so, I'll get an x64 computer. One last thing though, are alien ware desktops really worth the money, and let's say I buy one and 5 years down the road the graphics card gets outdated, can I open it up and install a new one (are they upgradable)?

GametagAeonFlux · Post by **GametagAeonFlux** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 10:12 am

Spartan193 wrote:are alien ware desktops really worth the money

99% of the time I see/hear that name mentioned, there's at least one person who brings up their price...I'd say no. You're buying the name...you could most likely buy a more powerful computer at a lower price. I'm not exactly familiar with that sort of thing, but I'm sure some of the other guys here could help you.

Lavix · Post by **Lavix** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:12 pm

Alienware are overpriced. They're great systems that are mainly for gamers who don't know how to build a top of the line system themselves.

If you're gonna spend that kind of money on a computer I would recommend you just learn how to build you're own. You could make a much more powerful PC and save yourself a lot of money.

shadowkhas · Post by **shadowkhas** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:29 pm

Frankly, any new processor you should buy will be 64 bit. You won't notice it at all, but it's there. Same thing goes for multiple core computers. Once you go past two cores, you probably won't feel a difference unless you're heavily multitasking, or running a program optimized for multiple cores (most games aren't).

Spartan193 · Post by **Spartan193** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:43 pm

Alienware does make it really tempting with the 1 gig graphics card and 4 gig ram, but I guess I just won't need that much then. Thanks for the help, I think I know what I'm going to buy now.

Cryticfarm · Post by **Cryticfarm** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:08 pm

Buy the 1 gig gfx and 4 gig RAM yourself. Well, I got a 4 gig RAM compututer from dell which owns alienware and they only put in a 32 bit OS. Also, 1 gb GFX card? Where? 99% Chance you can buy them somewhere else for cheaper.

Kirk · Post by **Kirk** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:18 pm

whoa, didn't realize 64 bit was so popular. Guess i'm even more out of date than I thought (with my knowledge)

Spartan193 · Post by **Spartan193** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 1:34 pm

Cryticfarm wrote:Buy the 1 gig gfx and 4 gig RAM yourself. Well, I got a 4 gig RAM compututer from dell which owns alienware and they only put in a 32 bit OS. Also, 1 gb GFX card? Where? 99% Chance you can buy them somewhere else for cheaper.

Your lucky you got a good Dell. When I got mine they ripped out the god damn agp port and I was stuck with only a pci

HPDarkness · Post by **HPDarkness** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:28 pm

http://www.ibuypower.com/

^Best site for building and most cost efficient. Very noob friendly, and they are great for a first system. Mine still works fine, and I got it 4 years ago.

0m3g4Muff1n987 · Post by **0m3g4Muff1n987** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 6:13 pm

People at H2Vista.net say iBuypower is really bad, like random BSOD's, bad already-limited customer support and other stuff like that.