PC out of date. help

[WiseKran]

Does anyone have any suggestions for an affordable PC that will pretty much keep up with the games of today (EQ2, CoD2, DnL, and all the newer games)

Right now i have 512 ram, 1.8 mhz processor, and a 32mb vid card.

My motherboard is out of date so i cant just get new components.

I was told that it would be best to buy or build a whole new machine

Anyone have any suggestions for an affordable gaming PC?

Id like to build my own, i know you can get the parts cheaper, and I have some friends with the knowledge.. but I just dont see it as a reality.

I do have a budget, perhaps $900 or so.. hopefully less

[Rerogo]

This is my (homebuilt) system:

mobo: ASUS
GFX:ATI Raedon 9600 but you should get an NVidia
case: get an Antec
processor: p4 3.2ghz with HT

and I got all of this at Fry\'s Electronics

edit: oh yeah, if you have RAM I think you can get all this for $850
and I forgot any OS costs

[steuben]

let\'s see. did mine for about 450$cdn post tax. i\'ll post up the specs when i get home. did comprimise a bit in terms of performance, according to some schools. basically i went with an onboard graphics card. but the mobo was on sale. so i went for it.

the specs are a p4 celeron 2.4 ghz on an asus p4s800 mx and 512 mb.

[zabeal]

How about getting a better gfx card? That seems to be the lowest on your list, and they are easy to replace.

[mikewsnc]

Yeah your video card needs to be changed first.

Other than that here is links to some good cheap parts.

System:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1567863&sku=M452-2432%20B&CMP=ILC-FPM08

Video card:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1118492&sku=C460-7022

Memory:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1283674

Use your same hard drive a case if its good. If you running one 512 ram chip then use it otherwise just sit it aside if its two 256 chips.
Afterwards you will have a nice machine,true its still celeron but still not bad.

Aranis

[WiseKran]

I cant get a new gfx card.. my motherboard wont support anything higher than what i have

[Karyuu]

You might want to browse through this thread on the PCmech forums. It might help... :)

I plan to build a new system myself in about a month or two, but with the parts I\'m itching to get my hands on, the total will come to about $1100, excluding things I already have such as the monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers, etc. Utterly worth it, though ^^

[Induane]

If your machine supports a 1.8 ghz processor I doubt that it doesn\'t support higher than a 32 meg 3d card.  Even if it has only pci slots, you can still put in an nvidia geforceFX5 or 6 thousand seies.  My friend has a PCI Nvidia GeForceFX 5600 Ultra 128 meg card.  The only drawback on agp cards is the agp X rate, if its only a 2X slot the voltage could be different, but most really good cards require one of the molexes from inside your box anyways so its not an issue.

P.S. You might consider an AMD sytem instead of an Intel processor - they are usually cheaper for equivilant processors, the nforce boards are awsome, and they crunch numbers a bit better (that is to say that they process slightly more data per clock cycle).  This allows them to lag in overall clock speed, and still perform to a higher clocked P4.  Example - 1.7 ghz AMD Athlon = approximately same performance level as a 2.1 ghz P4.. They usually hint at their equivilant clocks in the P4 range with model numbers - AMD Athlon 2100 + is 1.7 ghz.

[WiseKran]

My priocessor is AMD athlon XP 2400 ~2.0GHz

I thought it was 1.8.

..

and now that im in DXDIAG, my card is a 64meg =P

anyways I am able to get a 128mb video card.. but i was thinking more along the lines of 256.. and my motherboard cant handle that.


also I have 512mb ram. and im out of slots :-(

[Induane]

If you are going to build a PC go ahead and take the time to make it a PC that will last a little longer. I\'d reccommend getting a motherboard with the following features:

Capible of supporting the Dual Core AMD 64 - most NForce3 boards should do this so select a motherboard with an NForce3 chipset.

Dual Channel DDR Ram capible - you don\'t have to use it now - just eventually it could be a good upgrade.

PCI Express card slots - this one is the must.  PCI E is what the newest and best videocards will use and NVIDIA has something either recently realeased or soon to be called SLI - the short description is this - You buy one NVIDIA GeforceFX 7800 and then decide to purchase another - the cards can be linked with SLI and do many cool things - combine power, spread full hardware accelerated 3d over many screens - and endless other options.

Onboard SATA controller for hard drives.  Serial ATA is the wave of the future - as it is basically an ATA interface capible of many of the advanced features found once only in SCSI drives, but without being prohibitively expensive.

So in concusion buy a base system with those things and you should be able to upgrade it for several years, keeping close enough to the technology edge that you don\'t aways feel outdated.


If you for some reason like intel, go ahead and go with them but remember each time they come out with a new processor, they completly change the chipset and socket style thus making you upgrade both mobo and processor.  I.E. The pentium D, Intels dual core processor required a new motherboard, but AMD\'s dual core required only a bios update.  Keep that in mind.

[WiseKran]

What do you guys think of this list?

This was suggested by a friend of mine.

Im not a wizard about stuff like this.  How upgradable is this build?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16813131530
$109.50

SAPPHIRE 100107-BL Radeon X800 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - OEM
http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/
$199.00

XCLIO XClio 450BL ATX 450W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16817189003
$52.50

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16819103535
$190.00

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16820145440
$89.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16822148040
$64.75

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produ...N82E16827106988
$42.99

Total = $750

[Karyuu]

Mmm... links don\'t quite point to the products. However, I\'d say it looks good. Are you going to reuse your case? Does it have an adequate amount of fans?

[WiseKran]

grr.  broekn links :-(


anyways.. im still looking for a case.

ill try to fix the links wen i get a spare time

[Karyuu]

If I may throw out a suggestion, then:

COOLER MASTER Praetorian - It\'s $109, but well worth it in my opinion. Removable mobo tray, 4 (included) 80mm fans, aluminum... :D Awesome reviews, too. You really want to make sure that the case you choose will do a good job of holding and cooling its innards ;)

[JellyWerker]

a good semi-affordable gaming rig ($1000-$1800)

amd 3500+
1gb ddr 400
dual 80gb hdd\'s
geforce fx 6800
midrange mobo with nvidia nforce 4+onboard 5.1 and lan
tool less case
lots of cooling supplies.