I think my PC is finally hitting it's limit. It's at least 7 years old and been showing more signs of fuckin up lately. Some of the hardware inside it is loose because of a part inside that's supposed to be secure them broke off. A 2nd piece broke off years ago that's supposed to keep the video card in place so now it's really unstable - about a week ago when I was movin my computer, it fell out of place and took over an hour to get the pc to recognize it again. Usually all I gotta do is just carefully snap it back on and it's workin again, but this time around it was much harder. It wasn't going in properly for some reason. Besides that along with other minor errors I've had over the years, a strange blue screen came up after taking my computer out of standby mode earlier today.

Anyways, I've finally decided on a new computer but I'm not too sure what to get. Even the cheapest computers today should run much more faster than what I have. The thing that's most important to me is the sound card - I use a music program to put beats together but whenever I hit a note, it's slightly off because of a setting I have to adjust. If I change it so there's no delay in the notes, then there's this really loud crackling that starts to occur then the program goes crazy.

The thing I don't get is why most computers don't list the sound card in their specs. Does that mean it's built in? If so, what are the chances of it being worse than my shitty 7 year-old sound card?

Another question I have is about transferring data. When I get the new PC, I'm gonna have to put my saved stuff onto it. Would it be possible to put my current harddrive into the new computer and put the data on the new harddrive? If I can't do that then I'll have to burn most of my stuff onto a bunch of CD-R's along with my Flashdrive, which is really slow thanks to my PC not having a 2.0 USB slot.

Some of my current specs:

Intel Pentium 4 1.80GHz

512MB ram

GeForce 3 Ti200

I'm not looking to spend any more than $400. I stopped PC gaming ages ago and I barely do anything that requires alot of power. To give you an idea of how bad my pc is, I missed out on L4D's free day (couldn't run it) and I used to run CoD1 at the lowest settings. I think the least I'd wanna spend is about $250-300. I use my computer alot so I want somethin that at least isn't too shitty. So far, this one's caught my attention:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9250954&type=product&id=1218068507711

How does this look? I normally buy off Newegg, but I'm tempted to make an exception for this one. Besides Fruity Loops (the music program that I use), just about everything else I do has been workin somewhat well on this 7-years+ PC. I'm definitely not picky.

Thats a really good system for the price!


The system itself doesn't look like its very upgradeable, don't expect to be able to do much fiddling, however you could add a sound card in there if you wished to. This is the biggest issue, you could run a graphics card OR a sound card, not both unless you took out the networking function.

What parts don't look that upgradeable? The only thing I ever upgraded on my current PC was the graphics card - I bought two, each one fried after about 9 months. I don't really plan on doing anything to the new PC.

I thought about maybe upgrading the sound card on that Acer depending on how well things run in that music program, but are you saying that it can't have both a video/sound card in at the same time? I've read about USB sound cards and checking those out right now. Actually made a thread in another forum to get more specifics on USB sound cards.

It only has one free slot for an internal sound card, which is the slot you would use to install a graphics card. Also you can't add a new HDD, you would have to either go external or upgrade the current HDD into something bigger.

Yeah, USB sound cards are an option but I thought you should know about the sound-card/GPU situation before you purchased.

Well that sucks. At least I don't have anything too large or important that needs transferring.....the CD-R's should do fine.

I'm probably gonna give Newegg one more quick check for another PC that might catch my interest, but I think I might end up goin with the one I posted. The cheaper the better - I want some money saved up just incase I decide to get a USB sound card.

EDIT: I almost forgot to ask.....is it possible/worth it to replace Vista with XP on that PC? I've heard nothin but crap about Vista.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883109029

This is your best bet as a replacement, its $349

Its more upgradeable (You could add extra drives or a front panel for a sound card like the Audigy range etc) also can take extra HDDs and you have room to add a sound card + Graphics card + wireless networking if you wanted.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113088

Otherwise if you feel you need a computer which can encode more quickly, the more cores the better. Heres an option as well.

Oh yeah, otherwise you could build yourself a new PC which caters to your needs better than these store bought ones can, for cheaper and its not as hard as it sounds.

I could spec you out a really nice PC for $400.

Squilliam said: Oh yeah, otherwise you could build yourself a new PC which caters to your needs better than these store bought ones can, for cheaper and its not as hard as it sounds. I could spec you out a really nice PC for $400.

I thought about building one from scratch er somethin, but I think I'll save that for the future since I'm not doin anythin too serious yet.....it's just the sound I'm worried about at the moment. I just called up Best Buy about their refund policy...I'd have 14 days to try it out then gotta repay a 15% restocking fee if for some reason I end up not liking the PC.

How well do USB sound cards work compared to the regular ones? If they're at least somewhat similar, I just might go with the Acer since I don't plan on upgrading anything else. The 320gb HDD is much more than I need - I've never even been that close to reaching the 75gb limit on this PC. I was just wonderin about that so I'd know if I should start burning the data I'm gonna need to some blank CD's.

Just to double check.....does the Acer have a DVD burner in it already? I see the stuff there in the specs but wanna make sure.

Parasitic said: Squilliam said: Oh yeah, otherwise you could build yourself a new PC which caters to your needs better than these store bought ones can, for cheaper and its not as hard as it sounds. I could spec you out a really nice PC for $400.   I thought about building one from scratch er somethin, but I think I'll save that for the future since I'm not doin anythin too serious yet.....it's just the sound I'm worried about at the moment. I just called up Best Buy about their refund policy...I'd have 14 days to try it out then gotta repay a 15% restocking fee if for some reason I end up not liking the PC. How well do USB sound cards work compared to the regular ones? If they're at least somewhat similar, I just might go with the Acer since I don't plan on upgrading anything else. The 320gb HDD is much more than I need - I've never even been that close to reaching the 75gb limit on this PC. I was just wonderin about that so I'd know if I should start burning the data I'm gonna need to some blank CD's.   Just to double check.....does the Acer have a DVD burner in it already? I see the stuff there in the specs but wanna make sure.

No point in downgrading from Vista to XP, they both work really well and the hate for Vista is kinda overblown. Vista works really well on current level hardware and XP is kind of obsolete, its almost 8 years old now!

As for the sound card im not sure, I don't know anything about them sorry. I would say they would work pretty good at least. If they're not as good then they will be close to as good as the internal ones im guessing if only more expensive.

Yeah they all have DVD burners.