A good deal at $1380?

http//www.tigerdirect.com/...

So, I'm on a budget, and I'd like a computer that could play Half-Life 2 and related mods at high/best settings as well as support the Maya rendering program. Would this fit the bill?

Additionally, are there computers of superior performance for a lesser price available?
(Speakers and monitor don't matter to me that much, as I use headphones.)

It's a ripoff unless I need new glasses and am unable to read the specifications of that turd correctly.

Dual-core Pentium Processor at ~3+ghz $200
Typical ASUS Pentium 4 board with SLI support $150
Typical 2x512mb DDR2 memory kit $120
250-300gb drive for SATA2 $100
DVD burner 100 dollars?
Geforce 7 series card 170(7600GT)-270(7900GT) dollars realistically.
At that point, with the 7900GT it'd total at what, 940 dollars?
Spend what's left of your 1300 dollars on a case and a power supply, maybe a monitor if you opt for the cheaper geforce.

That 1400 dollar computer would get lapped, twice, by what I just mentioned. I mean it has like a Geforce 6600... AND IT'S NOT EVEN A FUCKING GT! That's not gonna run your Half-Life 2 at near the max settings probably. Well it might at some pathetic frame rate, but realistically.. I don't know, I personally find my 6600GT which already runs circles around a 6600 slow as fuck. Even if you'd spend a bit more on what I mentioned it'd be worth it as opposed to getting ripped off so boldly. Hell if you want to be a cheap ass, you can get a 6600, the same card that system has, for 75 bucks.. Or maybe a 6600GT 256mb which that system apparently does not have for 120 bucks. Or you can try an AMD processor based system, which you might even manage to get cheaper for the same ammount of power by buying, maybe, Opetron 165 and overclocking it.

Damn, why do I even bother. Go over to newegg and start crunching numbers fool, I'm sure you'll find your bargain.

I don't know how to put a computer together, though.

Neither would I know where to start...

I would suggest you learn, but if you had to go w/ a BTO I would recommend IBuyPower over some shit like TigerDirect.

Do you recommend Athlon AMD or Intel?

I find it silly to say the least, but let me try to help to the best I can anyway.

First thing you do, is find out what you need. Typical computers consist of : Processor, Motherboard, Graphics card, Hard Drive or several of them (just look at some prebuild computer, see what it has to get what you might need, sometimes you also need a sepperate soundcard or LAN card too, not all motherboards have this integrated. but now a days a majority do), a CD/DVD reader or writer, RAM - incase of DDR or DDR2 you need a multiple of 2 sticks (EG 2 sticks, or 4 sticks, but not 3 sticks.) and they need to be both same size and make. You also need a case to put your shit into unless you mind it being out on the table or in a cardboard box, whatever floats your boat. And finally, you need a power supply, preferably with perhaps dual 12v rails again very easy to find on newegg - Sometimes the case you might buy also comes with a power supply which might be good enough for your needs.
I already posted a generic list of components, why don't you go at that and see what you make of it.

Second thing you need to do is read reviews on Newegg or other sites to find out how certain parts perform in game tests or whatever to get a grasp of what you are getting for your money, and what problems you might encounter assembling it. For example if a motherboard has a lot of bad reviews of half witted morons who can hardly type coherant sentences saying it "did not work" you might want to stay away from using it on your first build.

Step 3 : Repeat step 2 to make sure you weren't seeing donkeys the first time you did it, possibly other sources of information. Google, for example.

Step 4, buy the shit you researched about from Newegg if you are in America, or from a local retailer if you're somewhere else. But I still suggest Newegg at least to get the general grasp of the price and opinions about items as it contains thousands of user reviews.

Step 5 Assemble that shit, just keep your wrist on the computer cases metal parts while you put stuff inside it and it shouldn't cause static damage ( this is what I do ), alternatively you can just touch the same metal parts from time to time to make sure you aren't full of static, if you fuck up, go complain it arrived broken and it'll PROBABLY get replaced.
How to assemble is in the stupid manuals that come with most gear, it's usually in a retard pictogram form so it should pose no problem even for the slowest of computer builders. And even if it isn't, you can find thousands of guides how to assemble computers on google, I'd hazard a guess.

Step 6
?

Step 7
Profit.

This shit I'm drinking is kicking to my head so I apologize if I made a load of mistakes, but I recon it's not too hard to understand regardless

>>7

Doesn't matter, the performance difference is not massive enough to bother anyone but enthusiasts. Athlons are cooler, take less power, and typically better for gaming applications than Pentium Ds.. and not neccesarily more expensive. Opetron 144/146 and 165/170 are the best of AMDs single and dual core offerings you can buy on a budget.
For Pentium I'm not that aware anymore, but anything over 3ghz and dual core is decent by all means, doesn't matter too much when gaming as long as it's performance rated at 3000+ (3ghz or more, that's a 1800mhz Athlon64 or Opetron), dual core mostly helps when multitasking applications and responsiveness of the computer.

there hasn't been an awesome Intel chip for a little while that I've heard about; nothing over the 3ghz mark anyway

right now is AMD time even though I've traditionally been with intel

Well, I would wait until the Conroe chips are out. Anyone have a price on the E6600? There were some leaked roadmaps but all I ever heard from them were that the XE X6800 would be $999.

E6300 (1.80GHz, 2MB) - $183
E6400 (2.14GHz, 2MB) - $224
E6600 (2.40GHz, 4MB) - $316
E6700 (2.67GHz, 4MB) - $530
X6800 (2.93GHz, 4MB) - $999

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/intel_core_conroe_benchmarks/

I am really impressed with Intel as of late, E6600 looks hot.

AMD > Intel

>>12
The conroes are hitting 10 and 11 seconds super PI times overclocked, that's by all means an amazing feat. Prescott clocked at 7,3ghz only managed 18 seconds on it.