it'll always be cheaper to build your own, for some reason retail stores drive the price up for things like memory which I don't understand because they are always shitty modules but cost per component one of the highest in the whole tower. You're also getting a shitty power supply with a pre-made machine and most likely a micro atx shitty piece of shit mobo.
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Question is, well couple questions really.
1) I was looking for a minimum of 2.0Ghz or better
but the MBs i see on newegg are dual core and around 1.6-1.8 (price range: 100-200)
Is that the speed of each CPU? or total? or do i need to price higher?
2) Any recommendations for a good MB manufacturer? I dont recognize most these names
(i been out of the build loop for years / keep patching up old PCs)
Or should i just save up and buy a premade? they seem like they are getting better...
edit: fyi lookin for the MB/CPU combo not just a MB
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question 1 makes no sense, you're confusing motherboards with computer processors I think, not sure how though? =p
There is much better than dual core out right now, they have up to 6 cores that are affordable, last time I looked the phenom II x6 was $180 or something. It depends on your budget of course but generally AMD chips are going to be quite a bit cheaper than intel right now, the performance isn't a huge difference, intel is better but not by a whole lot until you start getting into the core i5's i7's and beyond.
As far as motherboards intel chipsets vs amd chipsets there isn't a big difference in price, again it's what your plans and budget are. If you're going with AMD I'd reccomend any board with the 990FX north bridge, if intel I'd say you'd probably want any LGA 1155 socket and work off the P67 or Z68 chipsets. Those are all the practical boards for someone that wants the ability to have a top end gaming machine without going to broke.
Question 2 about the manufacturers, there really isn't too many out there, for regular sized ATX boards I'd steer clear of Biostar, aside from that most of the board manufacturers do a pretty good job, when you find a model you are interested in do some research and try to find some tech reviews on it that will help with your decision. Bottom line in terms of personals preferance, ASRock is at the top of my charts right now for motherboard manufacturing, they make great boards with all the features and are usually $30-50 cheaper than companies like ASUS with boards in the same level bracket. Gigabyte is also a good manufacturer but the gaps that company has between its mid tier to high end boards is a bit big for my taste in terms of price anyway. MSI is the other big name and they're pretty good too. Intel sells their own boards as well but they are overpriced to high heaven because of the name, but the quality is probably way high because of it as well, dont know for sure I've never had an intel board.
The combo packages aren't saving you that much money either maybe 20-30 bucks when its all said and done and you're limited on the choices as you can probably see.
I always suggest building your own computer to people, it's a ton of fun and you know exactly what you're getting and what the quality is.