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I'm getting $10 an hour with 40 hours a week for my summer job. I have some bills to pay, but I'm hoping to have a nice stack of cash by the end of the summer. With that poses a dilemma. I mentioned this in the sticky, but i think I trust the guild a little more. I can get a PS3, replace my USED 360 with a NEW Elite (for warranty or lack thereof purposes), or build a PC. I've been wanting the desktop for awhile, as my school laptop has already had multiple issues, and getting s**t off of it would do a lot of good. First off, here is what I'd be looking at getting on said desktop:

Intel Core 2 Due Processor @ 3.00 GHz
2GB RAM
nVidia 8800 GT graphics card

This setup would let me run Crysis ALMOST at recommended settings. But what I'm really looking for are reasons for each. Thanks for the help, guys biggrin

PS3
God of War III
Ratchet & Clank

Elite
Fresh Warranty
I like to download stuff
Price drop soon?

Desktop
The Orange Box
Spore
Starcraft 2
Less strain on my laptop

EDIT: I was also looking for any suggestions to any of my lists of reasons. I may only have two games up for PS3, but any games that seem system-buy-worthy should be added.

THE IMPORTANT EDIT: So Xera posted a rumor that the 360's price was going to drop by $50*. This means that--assuming that the Elite Drops $50* as well--I could get an Elite for $290 if I traded in my 360 NOW and saved the credit (Gamestop, of course). This could be my best chance of getting an Elite for a relatively cheap price for a few years.

This is my basis for my system. Dowgrading the RAM so that I don't have to spend $200+ on and OS just yet. Oh, and the $1000 is budgeting $200 for a monitor (that has to be DVI due to the video cards I'm looking at).

SOME DAY I will figure out exactly how to screenshot like that...until then...

For the case, the one I wanted was $95 with a 420W power supply (Apevia X-Cruiser). Going with an nVidia 8800GT by ZOTAC, and 2GB or DDR2 Kington memory, I got the price lower. I'm also more fond of the Core 2 Duos right now, as I'd rather have the speed for the games I'm looking at. I should also add that I'm graduating college in about 2 years, at which time by $15 school-OS will expire, and I will probably upgrade the whole system.

I also needed a DVD-ROM drive, and wanted a $30 floppy/card reader combo. Final price (before rebates, software, and monitor: $765.92.

While the Quad is nice, it's an added expense that wouldn't really benefit me just yet, which is why I opted for the faster dual core.

Also, the dual core is 45nm vs. 65nm -->cooler and requires less pwoer. The FSB is faster on the dual core...THIS ONE...and on the CPU cooler, I'm not planning on cooking the 45nm, so it saves a bit more there, too.

@SuperJaws:

Print Scr.

Paste in Paint or Photoscape.

The Paste step was what I was missing. Thanks, Dax.

rofl rofl rofl

I don't think so. Even if you had three years, that won't add up to much, and I'm sure you'd rather do some occasional spending on games and whatnot.

I suggest getting a summer job with anything from 30~40 hours a week at MORE than minimum wage (such jobs exist...trust me). Spend a summer making money and living at your parents' expense and you'll have a nice startup capital.

Another suggestion would be to cut back on some nonessential stuff, then upgrade later. Obviously it would be easiest to get the processor first, but you can always go for a motherboard that will support two graphics cards and 8GB RAM, but only put one video card and 4GB in it for awhile. That would make saving money a little easier.

EDIT: PS
I'm also looking at this with $600 paychecks from one job every two weeks, while still working 5~14 hours at Gamestop. I'm staying pretty busy.

While Vista would be nice, I'd rather stay with XP Pro for $15 wink . But still...educational licenses, FTW! mrgreen

EDIT: As for Starbucks, are you sure that wasn't because the national minimum wage is rising? I think it's going to $6.25 either this summer or next.