Lifehacker has a pretty good roundup here: http://lifehacker.com/5322592/five-best-instant-messengers I used Trillian for years before I switched to Mac and always liked it. That was before they split it into the basic (free) version and the Astra ($30) version, so I'm not sure if that changes anything. I always found it to be very full-featured, if not a little bloated. I've never tried them, but lots of people seem to have good things to say about Digsby and Pidgin as well.
I'm a big fan of Trillian Astra, but if you aren't willing to shell out the dolla' bills then go with digsby.
Is there a way to set my default program installation drive to something other than my c:\ drive? I only want my OS on that drive and when programs don't let me pick where I want to install they go onto my c:\ drive. My OS is Windows 7 Ultimate.
Interesting you've found Trillian to be a little bloated. I tried Digsby for a couple months and found that it was a much bigger drain on my computer than Trillian. As far as being too cheap to shell out for the Astra version, I've had no trouble finding cracks for each new build on various torrent sites.
Ive been looking into replacing my old desktop that doesn't work anymore. At first i looked at pre-built systems but the prices seemed to high. So I have turned my attention to newegg. I'm just not sure where to start with my build. Right now slickdeals has a AMD chipset and mobo combo that im looking at. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.295024 The setup I am looking for is mainly for gaming, so performance is kind of an issue. This performance is on a budget though. Thanks for any help.
If you are planning on sticking to a budget, keep away from the new technology. But in terms of gaming, you are probably looking at, in my opinion: Min 3.0 Ghz Dual core (Lots of horsepower, dirt cheap. There is no real need to by a quad core, super CPU right now as games are not getting more processor intensive, but more graphics intensive) min 4 Gigs of ram (what ever matches your mobo) What ever HDD combo you want (you can get some cheap 500 gig drives that run fast for cheap, 1TB drive for storage) Windows 7 64bit I personally prefer nvidia cards, but look to spend more money here, as in the long run, it will be what is holding your computer back.
I think the real question is how much are you willing to spend. That combo is $245. You will want to buy a case with a good power supply, which will run about $100. I would recommend this. You can find cheaper, but these are pretty solid cases that are easy to put together and have good cable management and are good for noise reduction. The power supply is decent and will save you money in energy costs.. You also need to buy a hard drive. $100 will get you around 1.5Tb. If you want to spend $20 less, you can 1 Tb and about $40 more is 2 Tb. That motherboard needs DDR3. I don't think you get much of an advantage by using DDR3 over DDR2 and it costs a lot more. 4 Gigs (which is what you want) is > $100 for DDR 3 and < $50 for DDR2. If you go DDR2, then you can get a cheaper mobo/cpu combo like this, which would knock about another $20 off your cost. Add a DVD drive for around $30 and the total is around $510 (assuming you get the 1Tb HD). I don't know anything about gaming graphics, but you will definitely want to purchase a video card if you are using this for gaming. I have pretty much this same setup and have no problem with the graphics, but I don't game. If you are willing to spend another $120-150, you can probably get something comparable to what was close to top of the line a year ago. If you want to save money, you don't need such a good CPU, but you are not going to save too much there (bearing in mind that moving down to a motherboard for DDR2 is going to be the biggest savings).
My price range that im willing to spend is around 500-600 dollars. I just didnt want to spend any more than that. Im just looking for something that will be competitive for a couple years. Is using DDR2 gonna hurt me in the long run performance wise, or am I not gonna notice the difference? Im guessing that I probably wont even notice the difference. The last couple things I have to worry about is, am I gonna be able to get this system put together and running? I have never built a system before, but have done basic computer work.
If that's your price range, you may want to step down a bit on the mobo and cpu and drop down to a 1 TB HD so you can spend at least $100 on a graphics card. I just don't think those integrated graphics will cut it for gaming. But, for basically less than $650 you can get the system I specced out with a little over $100 to spend on a card and have a pretty fast, future-proof system. The only thing you would need to update is the graphics card in 2 years to keep up with the games then. I don't think you will get much of a performance difference going DDR3 over DDR2 and as I pointed out, that is like over $100 difference in the price of your system. Someone else may show me why I am making a stupid assumption, but I don't think I am. Putting together a computer is fairly easy. If you have swapped out components on a computer, you are halfway there. You just need to mount the motherboard in the case and then attach the cables where the manual says to do so. Most places, you can figure it yourself and it should just take you an afternoon. The case I recommended is pretty nice in that you put the hard drives and DVD drives in caddys that you then slide in the case. Makes it pretty straightforward to set up and maintain. I literally put this same system together in about an hour (I have built computers before, but this was much faster b/c of the case). The time consuming part is bundling all your cables together and tying them up so they don't get in the way of your airflow. Also, I screwed up when attaching my heatsink and the CPU would get very hot and the machine would shut down. Just make sure it is a tight fit on the CPU. One thing I forgot to mention is the OS. If you have a spare copy, you are good. You can find copies of Windows around or of course pay for one. If you are a student, I think you can get a legit copy of Windows 7 for around $30 directly from MS. I would highly recommend going with Windows 7. It will take advantage of that hardware much better than XP, you avoid the crap that is Vista, and it is a pretty slick and fast OS (at least for MS). You could also go linux, but I am guessing you don't want to go that route.
Well after looking things over, I think I got what I want out of a system. The total came to $600 which is a little more than I wanted to spend but that's alright. Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827118030 Antec NSK 4480 II Black & Silver 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case EarthWatts 380W Power Supply - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811129059 Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136320 EVGA 01G-P3-1155-TR GeForce GTS 250 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130469 G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL6S-2GBMQ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231111 BIOSTAR TA790GXE 128M AM2+/AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail AMD Phenom II X4 940 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor Model HDZ940XCGIBOX - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.294411
That looks good, but I would strongly suggest you bump it up to 4 gigs of memory. If you want to cut costs elsewhere, you can downgrade the CPU and get this. It is tri-core, but I doubt you will notice much of a difference unless you do video editing. Plus, I think there are ways to overclock it and get 4 core (but not sure on that, and really, doubt you will need it). I also suggest getting a TB HD for a few dollars more. If you dl or rip movies, you will want that extra space.
I will just go ahead and bump it up, was gonna do it later but might as well do it now. Just one more question, I am eligible for the windows 7 student discount (thank you very much), but it only gives you the upgrade. Now thats awesome for my laptop, but will it work with a new computer that has no operating system? btw thanks for all the help, its made my life a lot easier.
That I am not sure about. I saw someone here (I think) figured out a way to install the upgrade on a fresh system, so look through the thread for his/her instructions. There are of course ways to get Win7 for free, but not sure if that is appropriate to discuss here. You should be very happy with that system. Let me know how that video card works because I am still using the onboard graphics, but if that card improves things, I would consider getting one myself.
You can install it fresh on a new system. I bought it and since I had XP on my desktop, I had to do a fresh install. Check this out to see how to get a bootable dvd from your download. Takes a little while to download, unzip and burn, but it installed ridiculously fast compared to XP and I'm loving it. http://lifehacker.com/5388507/make-an-i ... nt-upgrade
Just two notes: A seperate graphics card will almost ALWAYS out perform the on board card. Be careful upgrading with a new graphics card. Many mobos shit bricks when there is a vid card and on board graphics. DrinksOnTheHouse Window 7 is the way to go. Get the 64bit version and enjoy the extra ram capacity you get. As it has been said, there are ways to install it without vista installed already. Worst case, grab a cracked vista ISO, install without a key, then upgrade right a way