04-11-2012, 08:53 PM
Xyphos Wrote:I'm rather apprehensive to recommend a not-so-tech-savy person to get anything non-big name brand.
I'd recommend looking at Dells outlet. you can usually get a scratch/dent machine for several hundred dollars off that can handle itself pretty well. Its very unlikely you'll get an SSD with most premade machines, so I wouldn't worry about that...
Minimum I5 Processor, Minimum 550 GTX Nvidia GPU, Minimum 8GB of ram (IMO, some people say 6, but eveything in my house has at least 8, including my HTPC which is MAJORLY overkill for what it does, but I have standards damn it)... and that's about it!
They have an Alienware, brand new, for 950$ with an I5, 555 GTX, and 8GB of ram. You're paying ~100$ more just for the name "Alienware", but you're also paying for the Dell Warranty, where you can basically open up a chat session and say "Shits broken" and they say "hey look at that, you're still under warranty. dispatching a tech at your earliest convenience".
My 2 cents.
DELL is crap. They are the epitome of corner cutting crap. You've just lost all creditability in the hardware forums by recommending anyone buy dell.
[should not have shot the dolphin]