Can anyone build a computer?

[Mark Crnolatas]

I need a new computer, and probably should get an Alienware for what I need. Not for gaming but I'm into this thing called Second Life, for business.
I have a great graphic card that can be used in it, but I need 2 or 3 gig of ram, and fast processing. basically a gaming computer.

Questions, can anyone put together one by monday, tuesday at the latest or 2) Would it be smarter to get something at Best Buys and someone put in my graphics card?
3) I need my files transferred from my present computer to the new one.

I know a shop in Lkwd could possibly do it, but I'm wondering if theres any super-geeks here on the Deck than can do it , as the TV show used to say ...."
Better, faster, cheaper" ...or something like that.

Mark Allan Crnolatas

[DougHuntingdon]

I would stay away from Best Buy or similar stores. Alienware is great but very expensive. I recommend you purchase the parts from somewhere like newegg.com and then pay someone for assembly ONLY. If you buy the parts from a computer shop, then they are going to mark up the parts and then also charge you for labor. However, you appear to be under a tight timeframe, which may end up costing you a lot $ if you need to stick to it.

They also have some good barebone kits on tigerdirect.com. The barebone kits vary but typically include the case, power supply, cpu, and motherboard and maybe the ram. Then you have to buy your hard drive and optical drive separately along with a copy of windows. Someone good can typically assemble a computer in an hour, especially if you take all the parts out of the packages for them. That does not include installing Windows, which is much less technical and something you may want to try yourself. Once installing a fresh copy of Windows, you will then need to do all the windows updates and at the minimum add an antivirus. AVG is a good free one (free.grisoft.com).

I do not know everything about this stuff but I have helped build (i.e. not build solely by myself) several pc's from scratch in the last couple years.

Doug

PS There are a lot of good videos online showing you how to assemble computers. I think two places that have them are tigerdirect.com and cnet.com. You could also search youtube, too, of course.

[Joe Ott]

Not for gaming. Good one. That's what I told my wife... I'm a little bit addicted to Call of Duty United Offensive. Great game. Of course my computer is fast enough...

Mark I can't really help - I'm a software guy. But...

I can tell you to make sure whatever you buy has a power supply that can handle a high end graphics card. And sufficient cooling. And a FAST hard drive (these games do a lot of caching and people sometimes don't realize their lag is coming from HD io). Look for higher end components inside. That's how some company's can sell a system so cheap like eMachines.

Also check out some forums dedicated to Second Life. Some games (actually the games engine) perform best with certain chips and video cards.

Just random thoughts.

Oh and you might try contacting Dan Ott. I believe he has put together some nice systems.

Good Luck.
Joe