NightHawk
Right now I'm hoping to spend 200$ or less to spend on a type of gamin computer. Maybe 300. I know it's not a lot but I'm kinda broke and I'm wanting to play fsx with my friend. I'd like to have the best quality speeds at that price and wondering what monitors might be good too(someone else is paying for those). Any help would be good. Thanks
Answer
I just got a new gaming computer last weekend, but it was a heck of a lot more than that. I can suggest a few things that will help. I bought the necessary parts and had a (very) knowledgeable friend build the computer from them. To buy the "whole" computer not only costs too much, you end up with software bundles and other junk pre-loaded on that you don't want/need.
The hard case for the CPU is going to be expensive, but you don't need to have high quality or even something that looks good, so you can cut some costs by getting a second hand cheap or even free case from a friend or at a flea market/garage sale. Or maybe see if you can use your old case. Same with keyboard and mouse, cut cost corners on those. You want to spend the bulk of the money on graphics card, RAM, motherboard, drivers. You will need an operating system as well, of course.
By buying the parts piece meal, we saved a bundle by shopping between New Egg and Amazon for the best prices (he also scoured other sites, but those two sites gave us the best bang for the buck and saved on shipping).
You don't have to go fancy on a monitor or speakers. You can always buy something better when you come across more money later on.
I just got a new gaming computer last weekend, but it was a heck of a lot more than that. I can suggest a few things that will help. I bought the necessary parts and had a (very) knowledgeable friend build the computer from them. To buy the "whole" computer not only costs too much, you end up with software bundles and other junk pre-loaded on that you don't want/need.
The hard case for the CPU is going to be expensive, but you don't need to have high quality or even something that looks good, so you can cut some costs by getting a second hand cheap or even free case from a friend or at a flea market/garage sale. Or maybe see if you can use your old case. Same with keyboard and mouse, cut cost corners on those. You want to spend the bulk of the money on graphics card, RAM, motherboard, drivers. You will need an operating system as well, of course.
By buying the parts piece meal, we saved a bundle by shopping between New Egg and Amazon for the best prices (he also scoured other sites, but those two sites gave us the best bang for the buck and saved on shipping).
You don't have to go fancy on a monitor or speakers. You can always buy something better when you come across more money later on.
Is this a good computer gaming desktop setup?
jrocks_420
Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E4600 (2.40GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800FSB)
System : Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic, Service Pack 1
Monitor Dell E228WFP 22" Wide screen
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz - 2DIMMs
Hard Drive : 160GB 3 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
DVD+/-RW 16x
Video Card : Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
im getting a Geforce 8800gts pci-e card in a few months for it
so i should get the Radeon HD4850 instead of any of the geforce 8800
Answer
It always depends what kind of games you're going to play on it, but here's my take:
Speed-wise, the processor (at 2.40 ghz) is definitely sufficient. The only limiting factor on that component would be the 2mb L2 cache, they have higher-end models with 8 or 16mb which would help a lot on specific games, but in general it's good enough. 800 FSB (front-side bus) speed is also a bit low, but if you really need more speed (which you honestly probably won't), overclocking it would save you some money (look around the net and you'll find some help easy). Also right now, your greatest limitation is the intel graphics accelerator at least until you get the new video card.
Personally I find Vista fine. It's a lot of flash for more memory requirements, but it runs faster than windows 98 did on an old system back in the day. Doesn't matter if you get Home premium, basic, Business, or Ultimate. Standard gamers don't tweak out their systems that much or at all. (Although you may want to look at the different versions to see which features you'd want).
Your monitor is big. Big enough for any game. Although at such a high resolution, you're going to want to check to see if the output on your computer is digital (DVI connection). The Dell E228WFP itself inputs DVI, and it's response time (5ms) is better than a lot of other monitors. However, it'll be tough to play games on it with the integrated Intel graphics, but it'll be more than fine on the 8800.
Memory may be a problem. Vista's still needs streamlining, and it's memory usage still has problems. 2GB is definitely adequate, but for gaming, you may want to look for a greater size. Especially if you're going to play memory intensive games like Battlefield and the like. Also just helps with multitasking, but 4GB may be asking too much. Maybe look online for some deals for cheap, good memory.
Hard drive's enough. Seriously, if you need the space, just add another hard drive. It's safer that way anyways. 160GB is more than enough unless you're storing thousands and thousands of super-hi-res photos or videos. Games in total should take up less than 60GB. That's 100 for the OS, and I don't think it needs that much. 7200 RPM is standard. Don't listen to the people raving about the WD Raptor running at 10000 RPM, if you need a high performance hard drive, a SCSI drive will do better.
DVD drive...it's fine. Yeah, okay next thing.
Video card, here's your bane right here. It can run games like CS:Source with decent frames per second, but at lower details and quality. However, newer-gen games may take a hit from playing with this video card (or is it integrated?) In any case, get the 8800 GTS ASAP. You'll be able to play nearly any game on high/med settings. It also still performs better than the 9600 GTS, although I recommend getting the 8800 GT instead. More cost effective and less heat production than the GTS.
I've found that NVidia has a greater support for previous generation video cards (meaning they have a lot of their QA's test old stuff to make sure it still works) than ATI.
However, look up some reviews, there's always an on-going debate between NVidia and ATI video cards...
In the past, a lot of ATI cards outperform NVidia in OpenGL platforms but NVidia beat em on just about everything else (but that may also be because they had more people testing with M-Soft and tailoring for specific programs...)
The whole setup is better than what I had to work with when I started playing games. Although they've come a long way since then, an 8800 GTS would fill your gaming requirements for a while to come.
It doesn't seem like you're putting THAT much of an investment into the computer, but if you were, I'd recommend building your own. It's more cost-effective and you can get ridiculous amount of performance for the money. Not worth it, but fun when you can throw the money around and get the best of the best.
The system's perfectly find for gaming, once you get that new video card of course.
It always depends what kind of games you're going to play on it, but here's my take:
Speed-wise, the processor (at 2.40 ghz) is definitely sufficient. The only limiting factor on that component would be the 2mb L2 cache, they have higher-end models with 8 or 16mb which would help a lot on specific games, but in general it's good enough. 800 FSB (front-side bus) speed is also a bit low, but if you really need more speed (which you honestly probably won't), overclocking it would save you some money (look around the net and you'll find some help easy). Also right now, your greatest limitation is the intel graphics accelerator at least until you get the new video card.
Personally I find Vista fine. It's a lot of flash for more memory requirements, but it runs faster than windows 98 did on an old system back in the day. Doesn't matter if you get Home premium, basic, Business, or Ultimate. Standard gamers don't tweak out their systems that much or at all. (Although you may want to look at the different versions to see which features you'd want).
Your monitor is big. Big enough for any game. Although at such a high resolution, you're going to want to check to see if the output on your computer is digital (DVI connection). The Dell E228WFP itself inputs DVI, and it's response time (5ms) is better than a lot of other monitors. However, it'll be tough to play games on it with the integrated Intel graphics, but it'll be more than fine on the 8800.
Memory may be a problem. Vista's still needs streamlining, and it's memory usage still has problems. 2GB is definitely adequate, but for gaming, you may want to look for a greater size. Especially if you're going to play memory intensive games like Battlefield and the like. Also just helps with multitasking, but 4GB may be asking too much. Maybe look online for some deals for cheap, good memory.
Hard drive's enough. Seriously, if you need the space, just add another hard drive. It's safer that way anyways. 160GB is more than enough unless you're storing thousands and thousands of super-hi-res photos or videos. Games in total should take up less than 60GB. That's 100 for the OS, and I don't think it needs that much. 7200 RPM is standard. Don't listen to the people raving about the WD Raptor running at 10000 RPM, if you need a high performance hard drive, a SCSI drive will do better.
DVD drive...it's fine. Yeah, okay next thing.
Video card, here's your bane right here. It can run games like CS:Source with decent frames per second, but at lower details and quality. However, newer-gen games may take a hit from playing with this video card (or is it integrated?) In any case, get the 8800 GTS ASAP. You'll be able to play nearly any game on high/med settings. It also still performs better than the 9600 GTS, although I recommend getting the 8800 GT instead. More cost effective and less heat production than the GTS.
I've found that NVidia has a greater support for previous generation video cards (meaning they have a lot of their QA's test old stuff to make sure it still works) than ATI.
However, look up some reviews, there's always an on-going debate between NVidia and ATI video cards...
In the past, a lot of ATI cards outperform NVidia in OpenGL platforms but NVidia beat em on just about everything else (but that may also be because they had more people testing with M-Soft and tailoring for specific programs...)
The whole setup is better than what I had to work with when I started playing games. Although they've come a long way since then, an 8800 GTS would fill your gaming requirements for a while to come.
It doesn't seem like you're putting THAT much of an investment into the computer, but if you were, I'd recommend building your own. It's more cost-effective and you can get ridiculous amount of performance for the money. Not worth it, but fun when you can throw the money around and get the best of the best.
The system's perfectly find for gaming, once you get that new video card of course.
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