gigahound Posted February 13, 2005 Posted February 13, 2005 Am currently running an emachine w/ 500mhz celeron and 4gigs. Recently added nvidia g-force 4 card hoping to run some recent games...no luck (although some of my older games run better then ever) Last year this machine officially became obsolete as far as games are concerned. Would like to keep the price below a grand. When shopping today and found some new emachines, but they didn't have any open slots for graphics. The store clerks said the current machines aren't for gaming. Was looking at Dells on Ebay and did some research on the integrated graphics chipsets but it seems there's some question as to how well they can actually handle games. Any help here would be appreciated. Would like to someday play Morrowind and CivIII...They're currently collecting dust on my shelf.
Oerwinde Posted February 14, 2005 Posted February 14, 2005 I'm sure you could get something pretty decent for under a grand at Best Buy. I know up here in Canada at Future Shop you can get an HP thats pretty decent for under a grand. My parents just got a 1.4 with 512 megs of ram and a 40 gig HD for about 800 bucks CAD about 6 months ago. The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.
deganawida Posted February 14, 2005 Posted February 14, 2005 About a year and a half ago I got a Compaq Presario at Wal-Mart for $523 (that's with the tax, BTW). Came with an Athlon XP 2400 (2+ GHz processor), 40 GB HDD, CD-RW, NIC (of course), on-board 32-bit video card (though I just use my GeForce 2), and that nice factory partition that makes reloading a breeze. Only 128 megs of RAM, but I've since expanded that to 384. Seeing as I only make a little over 15k a year and support my wife and daughter on it (thank you IT companies for sending all your jobs overseas), it was a good investment. Once I get a job that pays comparable to my skill level and education (in the process of interviewing for 3 right now), I'll get me one of those new Compaq X gaming machines. Gamespot gave it good marks on everything except wire-tying and customer support (as Compaq makes no distinction between gaming and home use lines as yet). Heck, the one Gamespot reviewed comes with an Athlon 64, 1 gig RAM (expandable to 3 gigs), Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, DVD
Dranoel Posted February 15, 2005 Posted February 15, 2005 Depends where u live. If you were in the UK I would suggest that you look at what companies like PC world, Dell etc are offering then go to somewhere like http://www.savastore.co.uk/ are offering for the individual components. Dell have been offering better dealsrecently but if you decide to keep some of the staple components of your last PC (monitor, mouse, keyboard - hell maybe even the old stack unit you might be able to build yourself a pretty decent machine for a reasonable price!)
gigahound Posted February 26, 2005 Author Posted February 26, 2005 Well, I went for broke and grabbed something off of Ebay. It's a USA Dragon V. It's got all the speed and memory I need plus hyperthreading, dual hard drive, and some other goodies. Only dropped about $500 on it. If there are any problems with it, it'll be well worth fixing. It's also got windows xp home and a windows suite package. Should be here soon, I'll keep you updated on my progress. Also broke down a got a Dell flat screen LCD monitor for less than $200, brand new, not the latest model, I'm sure, but sufficent for my needs. Morrowind and Civ III...here I come!!
gigahound Posted March 15, 2005 Author Posted March 15, 2005 Got my new system up and running!! I think It's a USA computer. It's blue with some lighting effects on the front, and a clear side panel with a dragon cut-out. At first, Civ III and Morrowind wouldn't work, but when I got my new monitor, Civ III started playing like a dream!! Morrowind still won't work though...I hate the Elder Scrolls games. I wasn't ever able to finish Daggerfall because performance problems either!! Now all I need are some new RPGs that are worth playing. I seem to have lost the first disc for Balder's Gate II...hmmmm. I'm really dissapointed in the current selection of good fantasy RPGs lately, everyone seems to be concentrating on those stupid online games. The CRPGs were holding there own just fine against the platform games, but the online crap seems to be the death knell...
nightcleaver Posted March 15, 2005 Posted March 15, 2005 I wouldn't say so. There's some incredibly exciting stuff coming up, although by then you may have to upgrade your computer again :/ But really, there's Dragon Age and NWN 2, and you could always give KotOR 2 a try. I really enjoyed it, myself.
LoneWolf16 Posted March 16, 2005 Posted March 16, 2005 Since you've got that new system and all......this is just for future reference, try http://newegg.com for specific parts at...well, pretty damn good prices. Not to plug a company, or anything... ::leaves with mysteriously aquired monetary gains:: I had thought that some of nature's journeymen had made men and not made them well, for they imitated humanity so abominably. - Book of Counted Sorrows 'Cause I won't know the man that kills me and I don't know these men I kill but we all wind up on the same side 'cause ain't none of us doin' god's will. - Everlast
Deraldin Posted March 18, 2005 Posted March 18, 2005 Since you've got that new system and all......this is just for future reference, try http://newegg.com for specific parts at...well, pretty damn good prices. Not to plug a company, or anything... ::leaves with mysteriously aquired monetary gains:: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I despise Newegg. Why don't you ship internationally damn you!? <_<
Oerwinde Posted March 19, 2005 Posted March 19, 2005 Since you've got that new system and all......this is just for future reference, try http://newegg.com for specific parts at...well, pretty damn good prices. Not to plug a company, or anything... ::leaves with mysteriously aquired monetary gains:: <{POST_SNAPBACK}> http://www.NCIX.com is good if you're canadian too. Especially if they have a retail outlet nearby so you don't have to get it shipped. Friend of mine got a hard drive there for around 40 bucks less than future shop, for a better HD than Future Shop was selling. The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.
gigahound Posted March 21, 2005 Author Posted March 21, 2005 Well, I hope I won't have to upgrade for another 4-5 years!!
Rhomal Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 A few things. a. A agp or pci express video card will always be better then onboard video (unless were are talking laptops). Also only the high end onboard video does not used shared memory. b. I bet your $200. flat panel has around a 25ms repsonse time. What that means is in any high action gaming your going to see noticable ghosting on screen. For a gaming flat screen you need a 12ms at worst for no visable ghosting. c. AMD XP and AMD64 have superior gaming performance over the pentium line. d. hyperthreading/dual cpus only matter if the software takes advantage of it. 99% of games do not. hope this clarifies Admin of World of Darkness Online News News/Community site for the WoD MMORPG http://www.wodonlinenews.net --- Jericho sassed me so I broke into his house and stabbed him to death in his sleep. Problem solved. - J.E. Sawyer --- "I cannot profess to be a theologian; but it seems to me that Christians who believe in a super human Satan have got themselves into a logical impasse with regard to their own religion. For either God can not prevent the mischief of Satan, in which case he is not omnipotent; or else He could do so if he wished, but will not, in which case He is not benevolent. Fortunately, being a pagan witch, I am not called upon to solve this problem." - Doreen Valiente --- Expecting "innovation" from Bioware is like expecting "normality" from Valve -Moatilliatta
LadyCrimson Posted March 25, 2005 Posted March 25, 2005 Congrats on the new PC. I built/upgraded to a P4-3ghz/1gb ram etc. last month and I bet it'll be outdated in about a year and a half. Sigh. Feels good to be able to play games on this rig and feel up to date for once. I'm usually years behind in PC tech. I left my old one as a Win98 machine for old games. heh “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
Darth Barth Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 A few things. a. A agp or pci express video card will always be better then onboard video (unless were are talking laptops). Also only the high end onboard video does not used shared memory. b. I bet your $200. flat panel has around a 25ms repsonse time. What that means is in any high action gaming your going to see noticable ghosting on screen. For a gaming flat screen you need a 12ms at worst for no visable ghosting. c. AMD XP and AMD64 have superior gaming performance over the pentium line. d. hyperthreading/dual cpus only matter if the software takes advantage of it. 99% of games do not. hope this clarifies <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Listen to this man, he speaks the truth! WHAT A HORRIBLE NIGHT TO HAVE A CURSE.
Child of Flame Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 A few things. a. A agp or pci express video card will always be better then onboard video (unless were are talking laptops). Also only the high end onboard video does not used shared memory. b. I bet your $200. flat panel has around a 25ms repsonse time. What that means is in any high action gaming your going to see noticable ghosting on screen. For a gaming flat screen you need a 12ms at worst for no visable ghosting. c. AMD XP and AMD64 have superior gaming performance over the pentium line. d. hyperthreading/dual cpus only matter if the software takes advantage of it. 99% of games do not. hope this clarifies <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Listen to this man, he speaks the truth! <{POST_SNAPBACK}> AMD FO' LIFE HOMIE!
Ludozee Posted March 26, 2005 Posted March 26, 2005 I seem to have lost the first disc for Balder's Gate II...hmmmm. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Lol, exactly the same thing here as for the PC thing: i bought a second hand AMD athlon XP 2800+ with 512mb ram, 2x 120gig SATA drives, a radeon 9600XT and a 17inch screen for 850 euros 6 months ago and Im really happy with it. If you look around a bit you can find some really decent second hand machines for very cheap.
Feargus Urquhart Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 We buy most of our stuff from Dell, even our home machines. If you check out www.gotapex.com you'll find absolutely crazy deals from time to time. I bought a computer for my dad over the weekend that will come out to be about $580. A P4 3.0, XP Home, 512MB RAM, 160GB SATA drvie, CDRW and a 19" LCD. Not the newest or greatest stuff, but for a little more I could have gotten him a 19" LCD with the 12ms re-fresh. It didn't have a video card though, since he really didn't need one. Again, that site is www.gotapex.com. Also, on Dells, we have had no problem upgrading them or getting Dell to fix them. A part of the technical support might be because we are a company, but I don't think we are big enough to really get that special of treatment. Feargus Urquhart CEO Obsidian Entertainment, Inc.
Judge Hades Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 When I get my next computer it will be a custom built jobby of my own design.
Feargus Urquhart Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 I always swore I would build all of my machines as well. But when I was able to save $500 at Dell compared to all the lowest prices for each piece off Pricewatch, I couldn't justify it to myself anymore. A good example, we just bought a Dimension 8400 that included a P4 660 (3.6GHz), 2GB 533 RAM, XP Pro, Office Basic, DVD, 160GB SATA Drive, NVideo 6800GT 256MB, 2 Year warrenty plus 2 of the new 24" Widescreen LCD Monitors (1920x1440 native) all (computer and monitors) for $3100 before tax. Feargus Urquhart CEO Obsidian Entertainment, Inc.
Judge Hades Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 24" Widescreen LCD? Don't you think that is a little overboard? I mean a 17" flat CRT is good enough to get the job done, though I would love to get my hands on that machine. Um... Do you think you could ship it to Iowa?
Kaftan Barlast Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 I dont trust any company to build my computers, you always discover some little thing like how the graphics card is some dodgy Brand-X that may be licensed to be called a "nVidia 6800U" but actually uses a modified carburetor from an old volkswagen as a GPU. DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself. Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture. "I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "
Mad_Scientist Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 24" Widescreen LCD? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> TWO 24" Widecreen LCD's, actually.
LadyCrimson Posted March 28, 2005 Posted March 28, 2005 We paid about $750(us) for the parts to build ours....which didn't come with all the software, of course. motherboard/cpu/hd/dvd/ram/case etc. I don't like Dell personally - half the serious problems related to games that my friends have had were all on Dell's. Probably just bad luck in their cases.... but regardless, I'm with Kaftan, I just prefer knowing what I'm getting by buying all the parts myself. I rarely have any of the major 'game bugs' that people complain about even on very bugged games. Maybe that has nothing to do with it - but I'm all superstitious about it now. lol *knock on wood “Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
Archangel Posted March 30, 2005 Posted March 30, 2005 make your own PC here are well prices New Egg 1. Intel mother board 478 Chipset 875, 150 2. Intel Proc 3.0 Ghz 180 3. DDR Memory Corsair 512, $ 150 4. HD 120 5. DVD-RW, DVD-R, CD-RW 65 6. Sound Card Creative 130 7. ASUS 5900 FX 170 8. and a good case starts 70 +
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