Need Help Building a New Computer...Just for Poker

[Talk2BigSteve]

I am about to build a new computer just for playing poker on.

The only requirements that I have are:
2-19" 1600 x 1200 RES monitors (I don't care if they are CRTs)
At a minimum 1G of RAM
At a minumum 80G Hard Drive
Color Printer

Can anyone help me with what I need to get, and give me links to a store where I can purchase what I need. I would like it to be nice, but I don't want to spend a major chunk (hoping to do it in the $1,500 to $2,000 range).

I have a desktop and a laptop that I want to convert back to just school work, games, and internet surfing. I am serious when I say that this new computer will be just for Poker Applications such at PT, PO, GT+, and the Poker sites.

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[kenberman]

<a href="www.newegg.com" target="_blank">new egg is always a great choice</a>
<a href="www.fatwallet.com" target="_blank">fat wallet if you have some time</a>

also, just for poker, your needs aren't that high.

the best values are AMD chips/mobo's, but P4's work great as well. figure $250 for cpu/mobo, or less if you shop around/go cheap.

from there just select some fast, compatible ram (about $100 for 1gb)

a good size hard drive ($70)

a dvd burner, b/c that's cool /images/graemlins/smile.gif

and a case/power supply.

[Deathbear]

If you know how to build your own computer you can buy a computer that suits your needs including the printer for roughly $1k give or take $100 or so.

[Blarg]

The cheapest way, and it will still get you a good computer, too, is usually to get yourself a computer with solid basic parts and decent expansion possibilities, for a good price. Sales make a big difference! The only upgrades you'll need to make are a better video card and more RAM.

For instance, for $500 to $600 on a decent sale at Frys Electronics, Outpost.com, Newegg.com(or even Best Buy or that type of place), you can get a good basic computer and then add to it with extremely easy to install upgrades. And when I mean easy, I'm mean even TOTAL computer newbies can do it.

Here's what I got:

For $500 on sale, a Compaq desktop with 512 megs RAM, a 160 gig 7200 rpm(HD SPEED IS VERY IMPORTANT) hard disk, CD ROM plus a separate DVD +/-R rewritable DVD ROM, with Windows XP Home and built-in sound and video.

Built in sound used to be junk, but these days it's usually very good. Mine is.

Built-in video is garbage and generally does not support two monitors. That's okay, because for $55 or so you can get a perfectly good video card that will. I added in a ATI 9800 Pro for about $150 that I got on a good sale at Newegg.com.

Then add in either a gig of RAM or whatever brings your system up to a gig of ram for anywhere from $50 to $150 depending on what you got and what you need. For instance, some machines come with 512 megs of PC 2700 RAM, but PC 3200 RAM is faster, so many people will want to be taking out their supplied RAM and popping in $100 to $150 worth of some PC 3200 RAM.

Anyway, let's say our cost is $600-ish at the very low end to $800 at the very high end; I'd put realistic cost at $700 for a very good computer that will be more than enough to let you 8-table.

Add in two $100 19-inch 1600x1200 capable(all of them pretty much are) CRT monitors to bring your total up to $900, and you've got an 8-tabling system that will last for years. Frys Electronics/Outpost.com has sales on these all the time; I'd just advise putting your personal eyeball on all monitors, especially cheap ones, since they vary enormously in quality. Also, when you go to the store, do some adjustments on the monitors. Salespeople often set them up badly and then people come around and twist the controls, so a glance isn't enough to let you tell how good a monitor is.

That's what I spent, and I've built my own computers before. The thing is, on a really good sale, especially when you consider the cost of software, you can sometimes get just as good a deal by getting a solid core unit and then expanding it yourself.

[Talk2BigSteve]

Thank you so much Blarg, I can put one together that is not a problem. I know that you have to have a special video card for 2 monitors, if I recall right it has to say AGP or something like that. Is that right?

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Talk2BigSteve]

Blarg, and others, I have this pending in my cart, I have not ordered it yet, check this out and see if this is worth ordering, and will it do everything I need it to do, Since I was below on my estimate, I went a little bigger on my monitors.
1-Diamond Stealth S80 128MB AGP Video Card with RADEON 9200 SE 3D Chip $79.99

1-HP Pavilion a510n AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 3000+ with 512MB, 120GB, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, Media Card Drive, XP $479.99

2-Dell 2125B 21" Trinitron CRT Computer Monitor with .24mm Aperture Grill Pitch & 1600x1200 (Black) (Refurbished) $229.99 each

1- HP Deskjet 3843 Printer $63.99

2-GEIL 512MB PC3200 DDR $54.99 each

Subtotal $1,193.93


Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you so much Blarg, I can put one together that is not a problem. I know that you have to have a special video card for 2 monitors, if I recall right it has to say AGP or something like that. Is that right?

Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Dual monitor capability is very common and cheap these days. Usually you'll find one output is VGA(for your standard CRT monitors) and the other will be DVI(for things like the Dell LCD's much beloved on these forums). I've got two CRT's, so on the DVI output, I used the adapter that came with my video card to wind up with two VGA outputs, one for each CRT. So you see you can mix and match with adapters. People who want to run two LCD's and want two DVI adapters have to look a little harder and generally get a more expensive card; alternatively, they can run one of their LCD's off the DVI output and then use a VGA/DVI adapter to run their other LCD. Reports vary about the quality of an LCD monitor run off a VGA to DVI adapter, but from what I gather image quality is slightly degraded but not at all something that will bum you out; some say they can't really tell the difference.

Anyway, as to the AGP thing, you're talking about what kind of slot in your computer your video card can fit into. Today's computers are generally made with an AGP 8x slot for the video graphics card or according to the newest standard, PCI-Express. One card will not work in the other kind of slot. Alternatively, there actually video cards out there that will fit into the standard PCI slots that come with computers built with AGP slots for AGP video cards.

Don't get confused; those old PCI slots are not the same as the new PCI Express slots. You definitely have to be careful to order the right card for your computer! Check the manual, make phone calls to the sales department of online manufacturers, whatever it takes.

Anyway, PCI, AGP, and PCI Express cards can all run two monitors. Just watch for two things -- what kind of video outputs they have(VGA or DVI or both?) and what kind of slot they fit into. Watch to see if your video card package comes with adapters, too; if not you'll have to buy them separately.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Blarg, and others, I have this pending in my cart, I have not ordered it yet, check this out and see if this is worth ordering, and will it do everything I need it to do, Since I was below on my estimate, I went a little bigger on my monitors.
1-Diamond Stealth S80 128MB AGP Video Card with RADEON 9200 SE 3D Chip $79.99

1-HP Pavilion a510n AMD Athlon™ XP Processor 3000+ with 512MB, 120GB, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, Media Card Drive, XP $479.99

2-Dell 2125B 21" Trinitron CRT Computer Monitor with .24mm Aperture Grill Pitch & 1600x1200 (Black) (Refurbished) $229.99 each

1- HP Deskjet 3843 Printer $63.99

2-GEIL 512MB PC3200 DDR $54.99 each

Subtotal $1,193.93


Big Steve /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds like it would work fine. I'm assuming the hard drive is 7200 rpm. If it's 5400, forget it.

If it were me, I would get a video card upgrade to at least a 9600 instead of a 9200 video card, so when you're not playing poker you would do a little better on the current generation of video games, if you wanted to play them. Even the 9600 is very far from the top of the line, so a 9800 Pro or XT, whatever you could get on sale, would be quite tempting too.

Hope you get a very good price on those refurbished monitors. Monitors are usually great for a long time or go down hard in the first couple of months. If you have problems with your monitors and have to return them, nobody wants to be lugging 50 pound monitors around and paying shipping costs.

Also, check carefully on the expansion slots on the HP Pavilion. They are coming out with some computers now that don't have video card expansion slot, which would leave people with no possibility to upgrade. I don't think the model you're talking about is one of those, I'm just saying -- be super careful on knowing what kind of expansion slots and video card slot you are getting when buying a premade computer.

I'd stay away from mini-cases, too. Get a medium sized case at least, because some of the specialty designs only use custom made cards, etc. With a medium sized case, though, you should be fine.

You're looking at an Athlon 3000 there. I have an Athlon 3200, basically close enough to be the same thing, and am quite happy with it. It will be more than fast enough for poker.

There's one last thing I think is really helpful -- putting Pokertracker on a separate hard drive from your operating system and other programs. Your hard disk can do a lot of grinding if you're importing from 8 tables, and sometimes your system will slow down. It's not the fault of the system, it's just that you're asking your hard disk to be working almost constantly. Which is probably not all that good for it, either.

I got a Western Digital hard disk, 160 gig, 7200 rpm, that connects via either USB 2.0 or firewire, and comes with all the cables you'll need. It's very nice, and took a lot of stress off my hard disk, and made me time out less on my tables. Frys Electronics had a sale on a 120 gig version for 80 bucks after rebate, last week. Newegg has external hard disks on sale all the time, so you sould be able to land one there for a good price in short order.