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View Full Version : Good Kids Computer Recomendation anyone?:



Trailer Park Casanova
11-06-2007, 08:39 AM
Our youngest need a computer, and it's been years since we shopped.
Apple is out. Costco too expensive.
Wall mart,, Best Buy?
Needs enough snot for gaming.
Is 500 GIG HD enough?
Is Vista de-bugged?
Thanks.

Mrs.Moose on the loose
11-06-2007, 08:41 AM
We bought our oldest a Dell and the price was great, plus the warranty. We did buy her a lp top, but I know the desk tops are cheaper. Try Office Depot if you have one where you live.
Good luck.

boatsnblondes
11-06-2007, 08:50 AM
Your not gonna find anything powerful enough to run games decently from a store...go to a magazine rack, Borders, etc. grab a copy of Maximum PC, or computer Gamer....can also be found in some better supermarket magazine racks...and scroll through them....they have a lot of people offering rigs that are built to handle games..most off the shelf computers lack the intense video cards necessary to to handle the extreme FPS (frames per second) that are needed by todays games...also, try to stay awaw from name brand boxes...they are too proprietary....i.e. you can not use onyone elses parts to upgrade or repair, only thiers...this can be extrememly limiting.....a good computer gaming rig expands and grows with time to reflect currant trends in the technology.....read that as you don't need to go out and buy a new one every few years if you do little upgrades to stuff every now and then to keep it fast....
Also, because it is built for speed, you will see everything else run faster also....windows, the net, and other apps all benefit from this...hope this helps....
After going to ebay, and doing a serach for "gaming rig" these came up....
http://search.ebay.com/gaming-rig_W0QQ_trksidZm37QQfromZR40QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ34QQsb rsrtZd
Use these to give you an idea of what they are, but I would suggest you take a look into having a builder do one for you, they would have a warantee policy.....good luck....

HocusPocus
11-06-2007, 08:52 AM
for the kids i just buy what is on sale at best buy.. got them a couple of e-machines last year and they still work fine. i think they were $300 each.

Cheap Thrills
11-06-2007, 09:43 AM
What price range ?
Desktop ?
Laptop?
T.

Boozer
11-06-2007, 10:24 AM
Before you go and buy a box stock computer you need to decide what the purpose of this computer is going to be.
Dell is great if you want to spend a bunch of money for the same components you could buy elsewhere for much less money. Dell is great at luring people in with their $400 laptops and $300 desktops but those machines will only work for basic internet surfing, checking email, and word processing.
The kid wants to play games right? If the kid is going to be gaming you need to get him a top notch system. 512mb Video card, 500 GB hard drive, Nice sound card, high end dual core processor setup, and BIG CPU fan with a very well ventilated case.
Expect to drop $1,000 minimum on the setup and I'm talking $1,000 for the box alone this doesn't include monitor, keyboard, etc. A good video card can run in the $500 range by itself.
Needless to say I never buy computers. I decide what the purpose of the machine I need is going to be and buy the individual components I need to accomodate my needs.
If you are capable of servicing multi million dollar refigeration units you should be able to toss a desktop PC together no problem. The kid might even appreciate it a little more if he knew you built it for him.

Cigalert
11-06-2007, 11:38 AM
Before you go and buy a box stock computer you need to decide what the purpose of this computer is going to be.
Dell is great if you want to spend a bunch of money for the same components you could buy elsewhere for much less money. Dell is great at luring people in with their $400 laptops and $300 desktops but those machines will only work for basic internet surfing, checking email, and word processing.
The kid wants to play games right? If the kid is going to be gaming you need to get him a top notch system. 512mb Video card, 500 GB hard drive, Nice sound card, high end dual core processor setup, and BIG CPU fan with a very well ventilated case.
Expect to drop $1,000 minimum on the setup and I'm talking $1,000 for the box alone this doesn't include monitor, keyboard, etc. A good video card can run in the $500 range by itself.
Needless to say I never buy computers. I decide what the purpose of the machine I need is going to be and buy the individual components I need to accomodate my needs.
If you are capable of servicing multi million dollar refigeration units you should be able to toss a desktop PC together no problem. The kid might even appreciate it a little more if he knew you built it for him.
What he said. I've built a bunch of gaming machines for myself. The hardware is about 1/3 of the cost of the big guys. One of the simplest things you could ever do.
Ever actually used Dell's customer cervix? It's gone from bad to worthless in the past few years. I can't say it's all bad, from dell I have 2 laptops, 3 printers and 4 monitors and 2 desktops. Their quality is decent.
Now if you're talking about playing kids games like 5-10 year old stuff and not the shoot'em up hardware hogging games then any old pc best buy circuit jerky pc will work.

Trailer Park Casanova
11-06-2007, 12:37 PM
Thanks, I got him the top O'the line HP.
I appreciate the Imput.
Now,,, someone on here mentiooned it takes Vista about 20 minutes to fire up the first time the computer is on,,,, right?
Thatnks for your help.