So im buying a PC and I've got some Questions

Ok, well I really want to get into PC gaming again because of Starcraft 2, The Old Republic, Diablo 3, etc. Right now my Geforce 5500 and 766mb ram wont cut it. Let me start off saying I know building it myself would be the most bang for my buck, but I tend to screw these things up very often and I simply dont trust my limited computer knowledge enough.

With that being said I have found this website where you select the products and specs you want and they build it for you.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=72#header

Does anyone know if this is a reliable website, or know any similair sites like this one?

I am also wondering what the difference is between DDR-2 and DDR-3 ram. And how much more would DDR3 cost?

I am thinking of upgrading the GeForce 9500 to a 9800 for 50 more bucks. Is this a significant upgrade or worth the price? Another thing about video cards is, some are 512mb while others are 1gb, this seems like a considerable difference, but only very little price increase. Whats the deal?

When you go to the second page of the system configurator it asks about the OS. One of the selections is, None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only , what the hell does this mean? Is there a default like Windows XP on the Harddrive?

I think that is most of my questions for now, Thanks for the Help!

And please dont try to convince me to build it myself and buy all the parts from newegg because I will not do it.

SirPsychoSexy:

When you go to the second page of the system configurator it asks about the OS. One of the selections is, None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only , what the hell does this mean? Is there a default like Windows XP on the Harddrive?

It simply means that no operating sytsem is installed so they don't charge you extra for the OS. If you are going to install Linux, or if you have your own copy of Windows to install then you would choose the NONE option. Otherwise you will need to select the OS you want them to install for you and pay extra for it. Welcome to HotHardware Psycho!

SirPsychoSexy:

With that being said I have found this website where you select the products and specs you want and they build it for you.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=72#header

Does anyone know if this is a reliable website, or know any similair sites like this one?

I have never used them because I build my own, but they have fairly good prices and they have been around for years. They also have a pretty good rating on resellerrating.com  http://www.resellerratings.com/store/iBUYPOWER I alway check reseller rating before I order from a new online store.

SirPsychoSexy:

I am also wondering what the difference is between DDR-2 and DDR-3 ram. And how much more would DDR3 cost?

There is not a huge difference in performance between DDR2 and DDR3. DDR3 will be more future proof though and the premium is getting pretty low over DDR2.

SirPsychoSexy:

I am thinking of upgrading the GeForce 9500 to a 9800 for 50 more bucks. Is this a significant upgrade or worth the price?

Yeah that is a fairly big jump in performance. More than worth the $50

SirPsychoSexy:

Another thing about video cards is, some are 512mb while others are 1gb, this seems like a considerable difference, but only very little price increase. Whats the deal?

Unless it is a high end card like ATI 4870 or Nvidia 260 or up they graphics card is most likely not going to make much use of the extra ram. It's a selling point on low end cards. People that don't know see two of the same one with double memory and think its twice as good. Kinda a cheap trick. Higher end cards do make use of the extra ram, but the 9500 won't and I'm not sure the 9800 would be a huge difference, but I may be wrong there.

SirPsychoSexy:

When you go to the second page of the system configurator it asks about the OS. One of the selections is, None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only , what the hell does this mean? Is there a default like Windows XP on the Harddrive?

Dave hit this one on the head.

Welcome to HH forums! Let us know if you have any more questions!

Thanks alot for the help guys!

If you are planning to build a gaming laptop just look out for the below mentioned specifications:

Video card-

•  NVIDIA^®  GeForce^®  GTX 260M
• NVIDIA^®  GeForce^®  GTX 260M
• NVIDIA^®  GeForce^®  GTX 280M

Processor -

C2D P8600, P8700, T9600

OS-

Vista home premium / ultimate 64 bit

Memory -

At least 4GB with DDR3

These are few specifications you shoul look while choosing your gaming laptop / desktop. Of course DDR3 is bit expensive than DDR2. For details you on Gaming Laptop and Computers visit here

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