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Hello I have an HP Pavilion DV9700 Notebook PC

Processor AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Tech TL 60 2.00 GHZ
4.00 GB Ram

My Sound has completely broken on this twice and apparently this is an issue many owners of this HP laptop brand have, so I need a new computer.

Alright so basically I want a Computer that is around 400-700 Dollars that is as good or better than my laptop I prefer a Desktop so not a new laptop.

The Things I do on computers if it helps to know

-Go Online opening many tabs I like the ability to have many tabs loaded and not slowing down or freezing the Comp, my laptop slows down after like 6-8 tabs
-Netflix and other Streamed TV and Movies I dont watch cable at all so anything than can load that kind of stuff quickly. I would say my laptop already does that at an adequate speed
-Gaming such as Age Of Empires 3 and WoW those are the only new games I own, WoW plays like crap on my laptop so something that runs it better would be good.
- Excel Spreadsheet, I use it alot so whatever can run that fast, I also use a lot of Paintnet its like Photoshop kind of.


Thanks for your Help
Timofeo is online now Report Post Edit/Delete Message

cheap alienware, I think they go as low as 700

Yeah alienware has a really fast prossesor. Some times up to a 3.0Ghz prossesor with dual core. Now that is computing power.

Depends a lot with Alienware as well, cause most of the time you're actually just paying more for something with a fancy case and random LEDs thrown about it. Though they do have some nice stuff at times.

The cheapest way to buy a PC is to actually buy it in parts and assemble it yourself or get a friend to put it together for you. Other than that the alternatives are really stuff like Dell or looking around the local stores. Should be able to match the stats of the laptop fairly easily for that price.

Just build your own. Alienware is for people with more money than brains who don't seem to have a problem paying grossly inflated prices for an ugly gaudy case. Building your own computer shouldn't take more than 2 hours for the first time around (I just rebuilt my computer 2 days ago, didn't take longer than an hour, including cleaning and disassembly), saves you a lot of money, ensures you won't have any annoying third-party software installed by the manufacturer, and allows you to pick and choose exactly what you want.

iBUYPOWER Gamer Power 564D3 Gaming PC - AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0GHz, 4GB DDR3, 1TB HDD, DVDRW, ATI Radeon HD 5570, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

+ 20" inch wide screen Asus gaming monitor.

Is the above good? I could get it for 400 Dollars

For $400 maybe, but it's not too great. Not a gaming machine, but should run WoW okay.

Alienware m11x. It is a bit smaller than an average laptop, but it can run pretty much anything, though sometimes it can stutter a bit with super graphics intensive games like ARMA II. Starcraft 2 and Mass Effect 2 run fine though, as does Left 4 Dead 2.

They are $599 (or they were last time I checked, they might be 1000 if you want a bunch of upgrades.


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It is a laptop, but it doesn't really have any issues and runs very smooth. Just as powerful as most standard desktops, if not more.


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And your laptop should have been fine to play wow on... The specs are not too bad.

So either go Alienware Laptop or just build one my self. Is building a computer really that simple? how do you know which companies parts work with what?

For example I have the following in a Newegg cart would it all work together??

NZXT M59 - 001BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

MSI 870-G45 AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard

ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Crucial Ballistix sport 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT25664BA1339

AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor HDX840WFGMBOX

SONY Black 18X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1681S-0B - OEM

I think thats all that is required all for under 500$

What I do not understand is CPU's Is the GHZ all that matters or is the 2 core 4 core what matters for instance I currently have a Amd X2 so 2 Cores the Phenom X4 in my cart has 4 cores so is that twice as good basically?

Building a comp is not simple, if you know nothing have someone else do it for you.

timofeo wrote:So either go Alienware Laptop

Absolutely do not buy Alienware. You're paying for an okay computer with an ugly case. It's almost as bad as buying a Mac.

or just build one my self. Is building a computer really that simple?

Yes, it is that simple.

how do you know which companies parts work with what?

You read up on stuff.

For example, say you're buying an Nvidia card that uses a PCI-E slot. You'll want to get a motherboard with at least one PCI-E slot. If you're getting DDR3 RAM that runs at 1600MHz, then you'll want to get a motherboard that has DDR3 slots and supports that speed. Generally, look at the statistics of your parts, and then compare them to your motherboard. If the motherboard says it supports it, you're golden.

For example I have the following in a Newegg cart would it all work together??

Honestly, I'm not too sure, I don't know much about AMD/ATI computers, I'm an Nvidia/Intel guy. I'd be weary about using that GPU with that setup though, since I'm not too sure about the compatibility of Nvidia parts with AMD mobos.

Also, maybe it's because I've had bad experiences with blowing up my PSU, but you may want to get a beefier power supply. It may be a little overkill to do so with that build (I honestly have no clue about the power needs of the build you listed), but it'll allow more potential for upgrading in the future (and if you ask me, future proofing is a huge advantage that desktops have over laptops, and is well worth taking advantage of whenever possible).

For your case, if you're looking to save more money, you could try to look around for old ones in either your house, from neighbors, schools, or offices. So long as it's not a Dell case (Dell uses specialized PSUs which make it a pain in the ass to upgrade them), you should be able to save some money recycling the old case.

I think thats all that is required all for under 500$

Not including the cost of moniter, speakers, keyboard, mouse, and OS (you can get an OEM Windows OS for about $100, generally the best way to do it).

What I do not understand is CPU's Is the GHZ all that matters or is the 2 core 4 core what matters for instance I currently have a Amd X2 so 2 Cores the Phenom X4 in my cart has 4 cores so is that twice as good basically?

For gaming, your CPU really isn't that important. If you want to save money, you can save a lot by cutting corners on your processor, as most video games are more GPU intensive. That's not to say you should neglect it entirely, but you should be thinking more about your GPU than your CPU.

40k Ninja wrote:Building a comp is not simple, if you know nothing have someone else do it for you.

It really is simple if you're willing to read an article or two or watch a tutorial on youtube. With some internet know-how and an instruction book (that'll come with your motherboard), building a PC is easy, and shouldn't take more than 2 hours the first time around once you've got everything in front of you.