Budget Computer...

[[JiF]Batman]

I am pretty sure I asked this before the forum change, but here it is again...

What is the best budget computer for being able to play new games?

I have an old Dell with a 1.8 P4. I think it is time to upgrade Hopefully I can get something within the next couple months.

Is Tigerdirect the best place to pick up a new PC? Are their cheaper ones any good?

Does Intel vs AMD vs ATI vs nVidea matter anymore?

[[JiF]KellysHero]

Depends on your budget? How much are you looking to spend? Build it yourself or buy again?

[[JiF]Batman]

Depending on how things go, around $1000. Cheapers better though. There was a Visionman desktop for $1079 I think. It sounded good, but I don't know much.

As far as putting something together...I can put a video card in. That is about the extent of my experience. Something already, or mostly assembled would be good.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

If you build yourself you can probably build a pretty good system for under $1000.
If you want to buy one all done it will probably cost over $1000. Of course that all depends on what you would be happy with. Might be able to find one that will work under $1000, but chances are its gonna be lacking something. I had seen one on Tiger Direct that was pretty cheap and with some upgrades would do the job, but I don't see that particular one there now. Maybe ABS computer?

[[JiF]Lonewolf]

Well if you build it your self you can use the xtra cash to upgrade on a few things. If you did a little shopping around you could build a decent gaming rig for under $1,000. Building you own PC isn't that hard and I'm sure there is enuf of us around to answer questions and such and might be someone close enuf to help you if needed.

[[JiF]Batman]

This is what I found...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1886

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1886

Maybe when I get closer to buying one, I can get one of you to put together a 'shopping list' to build a PC? I am pretty clueless as to what I would need and what whould be good

Thanks for the help.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

I was just looking at that second one at Tiger. Seemed like a pretty nice system, but I dunno how the 7300 cards are rated.
I think somewhere on Tigers site they had one with dual 7300's for around the same price.

[[JiF][AARP]Grimp]

Here it is. Have not read all the specs yet:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 72&CatId=0

Does not include the operating system.

[[JiF]Sandretzky]

I used to build my own computers but now its easier for me to point and click at Dell. Payments Payments. They make it too easy with there Dell account. Even my printer keeps itself in ink..."ink is low, want to order some"? On my step a day later. Pay the bill when it comes. TOOOO! EZ! I asked my grandpa about computers once.....He said "Computers? In my day we had shovels and we wrote on um with charcoal" God Bless his soul.

[[JiF]rIot]

With $800 you can get urself an FX-55 and a 7800 GTX and still have money to buy the rest, I already built a budget PC for a friend, he can play BF2 on everything high.

[[JiF]Batman]

Hello again!

I am back and downloading TF2 onto my same old Dell PC.

Same question, any other thoughts on a PC under $1000?


It looks like that will mean XP. Would I even want Vista yet if I could get it?

Looking forward to seeing you all in the Fortress...if it runs ok on my machine...

Cheers!

[[JiF]Uncle Stinky]

I've bought two e-Machines in the past two years and been happy with them. I got both at CompUSA when they had a special rebate going, and paid a net $300-400 (without monitor) for a pretty top end machine. I've then added a good monitor (~$200, Viewsonic 19" at Circuit City) and video card (~$200, 7900 GS on-line) to end up well under $1000.

[[JiF]Mike]

I put together a few pc's for work recently, with a few minor upgrades I think they would be pretty good gaming pc's. I'm thinking a bigger HDD and maybe a little better video card, though I bet the one I got wouldn't be terrible.

Motherboard: $139.99
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
HDD: $42.99
Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
CPU: $74.99
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz Socket AM2 65W Processor Model ADO4200CUBOX - Retail
OS: $138.99
Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM
Case: $49.99
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Video Card: $49.99
SAPPHIRE 100172L Radeon X1550 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Power Supply: $32.99
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RS-430-PMSR/P ATX12V Max: 400W (Continuous), Peak: 430W Power Supply - Retail
RAM: $100.00
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail

Grand Total: $629.93

That leaves plenty of money in your $1000 budget to get a better video card and HDD, plus a few things. The case this includes is really nice, check out the pics in the link. I am seriously considering ordering one for my home pc and throwing my current case out. You could also get the home edition of XP and save a few bucks there. If you wanna go with Vista you can, eventually we're all gonna anyway.

[[JiF]KellysHero]

Well if you don't mind used, Dandy has a bunch of parts for sale and it looks like a pretty good system. May only need an operating system and a case/psu.

http://jiff.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1090

[[JiF]rIot]

Tomorrow Im prob ordering my new parts, so my mobo and processor will be up for sale, I posted about it before but bailed cuz money was getting tight at the time,