Mom & Pop, or Big Name Store?

[MyungHee]

I custom designed mine with help from this and another forum via NCIX. I bought a new motherboard, RAM and processor from NCIX two weeks ago and instaleld them myself, quite easy really, the motherboard's manual is extremely well written and tells you exactly how to install everything.

The pre-built ones from stores are not nesecaraly bad, just they aren't exactly high quality and they usualy have a crap and/or outdated graphics card.

I'm hoping since I specified which one I want (MSI nVidia GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express (2xDVI)) that it won't be outdated or crap.

 

[MyungHee]

Go with the rig that has the largest L2 cache as that is the best enhancement for civ.

Is an L2 cache just a second level cache, basically 2x the amount of cache of previous processor families?

 

[lutzj]

I'm hoping since I specified which one I want (MSI nVidia GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express (2xDVI)) that it won't be outdated or crap.

Unless you're spending <$200 or need a s**tload of power, the 8800GT is the best card you can buy right now.

 

[croxis]

I build my own rigs, so usually I go to a local chain I am quite fond of. They know their stuff (try to talk to a Best Buy sales person about graphic card pipes and bandwidth and you'll see what I mean) and are usually quite attractive. Parts cost a lot less as well (3 foot cat5 is $2 there, it is $15 at Best buy). I tend to get peripherals from larger stores. I also heard accounts that a lot of Dell's equipment like monitors and keyboards are of good quality as well.

 

[GoodGame]

Anybody that gives you good service, and has written warranties that don't have ridiculous service fees. Otherwise, build your own, starting cheap.

"When you know, you Newegg" or whatever.