Need Computer

[godofcereal]

i'd never have to clean out my hard drive again

lies. you would eventually.

Tera byte hard drive dude...

[orwell84]

Here's an idea: if you haven't started the group effort to program the MMO, how about you get a computer with a large enough HDD (based on your idea of not having to clean it out, 500GB to 1TB would be good) and then when you start to program the MMO, you could get a huge external HDD. By the time you figure out how you're going to go about programming it, you will probably be able to get a 4 or 8 TB HDD for about $200-$300 on newegg. Just look for one that has an eSATA port so you don't have to use USB all the time (although by then, USB 3.0 will be out, but eSATA is still better. This way it will be far easier to transport your code, and everyone involved can pitch in to buy it.

note: I can't really tell how long it will take to get started, though--I don't know how much programming experience you guys have, and stuff like that. However, I do know that it's going to take some time, and also that you can get a 2 TB on newegg for $189 right now. It helps that HDD technology is growing exponentially, too.

[P1rate_N1nja]

Hmmm... You're twelve and gonna make an MMO... Ugh... Kids... You'll be 25 by the time you know how one, works let alone make one! My advice learn to program little games then go to college and try to get a nice job in the games industry. That's were you will make the MMO. But as for the pc... You can't be too broke if you're looking at an alienware! I would suggest building your own pc, it's very rewarding, and not as difficult as you would think, plus you would know all about it, if anything went wrong you would be much more likely to get it fixed. It would also be cheaper if you took time to pick the best parts and compare prices...

[Tentra]

i do need a crapload of processing power, i'm trying to design a huge mmo.
i'd love 2TB because i'd never have to clean out my hard drive again. its a constance annoyance with my laptop's 80GB, and i'd love to big farewell to defrags.

RAM does not equal processing power. If you want processing power, get a better processor, duh. And I doubt you need "a crapload of processing power". I have a 2 year old Sony Vaio laptop that I do all my programming on and it's fine. It has 2GB RAM, 200GB HD, Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 processor and a nVidia GeForce 8400M graphics card.

[Nines]

currently, all i can use to hack is a Dell Inspiron E1505 with Windows XP. it has held up well, but it is becoming to age and soon it will become obsolete. i am eyeing an Alienware 750i, which has 2TB of memory, an 8GB RAM, and countless other drooling features. but the problem is, i'm a twelve year old kid who's friggin broke. my friend and his computer savy dad built their own computer, and that racked up about 7 grand. i don't want to waste my money on something that is normal, and all i have is a total of about three hundred bucks. add to that, and my mom locked all withdrawals from my account, so i've been hacking at that for awhile. so, any suggestions? what should i do? and i need something with a crapload of processing power and a big hard drive (please don't suggest portable, i already have that in the back of my mind) because i am trying to program a huge MMO.

-cHarLiEaCe

Firstly.. Don't buy Alienware.. it's overpriced and pointless, just like the Mac 'apple tax' just to say you own an apple. I've JUST built a new high-spec system (you can see it on the Your Personal System thread) and I've just been through Alienware's customization form. My system cost £1,800 total after delivery, etc. For the closest system I could get with Alienware, it was £2,542.04 .... So for that extra £742.04, you get:

• Slower Ram
• Slower Graphics Cards
• A poor motherboard
• A less effective cooling system
• A novelty case which won't perform as well as some pretty cheap alternatives

So bare that in mind.

Secondly.. You don't need a lot of RAM at all. I have 6GB, which is about optimum for today's computing needs. I find it very hard to utilize all of this RAM and I've only really done so with stress testing. I can't see any reason why programming would require anywhere near 8GB of RAM. Most programmers are probably using around 2GB.

Buying a 1TB HDD is actually a pretty painless procedure these days. Mine cost £60. If you're buying it to avoid running out of space.. You probably will and I can only imagine how cumbersome it'd be to unclutter a Terabyte worth of data. The only reason I got a drive so big was because I'd be dealing with raw renders which run quite easily into the Gigabytes.

My advice to you would be to make the most of the summer by getting yourself a job washing cars or delivering papers or something and maybe say to your parents (if you're lucky) that you're hoping to save for a computer and if you work hard would they match your savings at all? If not, then you're going to have to budget down and shop smart with your components. You can build a very good system for peanuts these days providing you do your research and not just opt for the most expensive options available to you.

If you need any help with specs, etc.. Just give us a budget and ask

[godofcereal]

If you need any help with specs, etc.. Just give us a budget and ask

Trust Nines when it comes to this, he picked out a great computer for me on an €800 budget.
Alienware is insanly over-priced.