My computer finally died yesterday. The hard drive failed.  I was expecting it so everything was backed up onto my external drives, so I am not worried about lost files.

But I'm thrilled to be getting a new computer.  Next weekend I'll be starting my search for an existing system or shopping for parts.   I have been wanting a new computer for a year or more, but I was loathe to spend money on one when I had one that was still working.

does happy dance

Are you going to get one of those 64Gig of RAM things?

Oh I remeber when it died last time and all the problems you had getting a new one....

Hopefully it will go smooth this time.

Good luck, may the computer gods be with you.  :)

Remember...RAM is cheap! So get lots ;)

Laurie

Quote - Oh I remeber when it died last time and all the problems you had getting a new one....

Hopefully it will go smooth this time.

Good luck, may the computer gods be with you.  :)

Thanks! I am buying locally, or building my own. If I build my own, I'll buy the parts and if I can't assemble it myself, I'll take it to a local computer shop and have them do it.

And yes, I want lots of RAM.

I'm getting a good graphic card, not top of the line though. I tend to get one that is new,but a couple of years old to save money.

If the hard drive failed why not just replace the drive ?  60 bucks or so and a reload of the system and tou are good for another while .

The video card is also gone. I've been using the on board graphic card.  I also want to upgrade to a quad core with more RAM than my current computer can support.

Your motherboard will be key to how much RAM you can slot in. And you'll need Windows 7 Professional or above running x64.

I've never had a hard drive fail in 20 years (knock on wood), not even a portable one.

I got 24GB RAM a few months back and being able to press that render button knowing I'll never see the dreaded "out of memory" message was worth it alone - peace of mind at last.

And I love your attitude to the demise of your old PC, very Buddhist. All the best Acadia.

this site has some good info on parts, but shop around for better prices

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/cpu/

Newegg usually has good prices.  Dunno if they ship to north of the border though.

I spent a decade or more getting ripped off every few years by a major PC retail chain here in the UK until a few years ago I actually summoned up the courage to look inside the box of the latest PC to fail.  Once I had worked out that there are only seven or so individual components, I took the plunge and built my first PC; I have never looked back since. 

The word really needs spreading about how easy, satisfying and above all cheap it is to do it yourself - if the general public knew I doubt anyone would buy off the shelf PCs again....

Ashley is right - the key is the motherboard, everything else really stems from that, and the OS you want to run.  You can never do too much research before buying, either!

Good luck and happy rendering!

tigerdirect.ca is a good place to check too ;).

Laurie

I have ordered my last three systems from www.magicmicro.com. You can pick out exactly what you want and they build it. They are very good and honest. Their shop is in Cleveland Ohio - about 5 hours from me - so I could always drive down there if I did not want to ship it. They give you a three-year warranty and are good to fix things. I just got a new PC. It was not cheap, but a lot cheaper than buying it from Dell or someone else online. I got the Six-core Intel 7, 64 gigs of RAM, a 2 terrabyte hard drive, two burners, a card reader, and Hauppage TV tuner (really cool - you can watch TV in a little window while you work on Poser -) and an Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 4 meg graphics card, and a fancy white gamer case for just under $3,000. I really splurged oh this, but I won't need another PC for a long time - hopefully.