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Is it possible to buy a rig on this budget?
Kryogenic
Member Posts: 663
I was just wondering if anyone knows if there's a way I can spend $550 on a PC and be able play Vanguard, CoH, WoW, BF2142, and still be able to run AoC, Gods and Heroes, and Huxley when they come out.
If not, how much do you think a rig that would do this would cost?
Any penny pinchers out there that know?
Comments
The only thing I'd be able to reuse off my old PC is the Sound Card. It's a Sound Blaster Audigy 2. The graphics card is AGP so I really don't think that will work. I've got 1.5 gigs of RAM, but I don't remember if if it's plain old vanilla RAM or DDR so I'm going to assume that it's vanilla.
I've a got a flat screen monitor and a good keyboard and mouse set so I just need a good tower.
I'll take a look around at some parts sites. I know for sure you can make a decent rig that can play CoH and WoW, they don't require jack. The 2142, Huxley, and G&H is what worries me. My system is barely meeting the spec, and i'm in the process of upgrading right now because of it.
I would wager no, but i'm still looking up parts and such for you to check.
Not a chance.
I just finished building cheap tower that can do almost that though, no monitor. Here is what I did. I got a good yet cheap motherboard with upgrading options(socket AM2 or LA775 with 2000 mhz FSB). Then I bought the cheapest 2.0 ghz processor available for the board. Then I got an ATI X1650. I also got 1 gig of chepiod < $100 DDR ram. Also a copy of Windows XP, Thermal Grease, DVD-RW Lightscribe, $2 keyboard w/ free mouse, WD 250 GB HD, bargain bin 650 watt power supply 20+4 pin, All in one Media driver with 3" floppy. Then I cased it all into the biggest baddass case I can find on the market. A Thermaltake Full Tower Case.
So that was...
Total around $570 + $250 for the Case.
From hear I only need to dip another $200 for the Monitor, then just start upgrading parts. $500 for a good processor in a few months, $500 for a new vid cards when mid-range Vista Ready cards appear. $300 for 3 more gigs of actual good ram when I can afford it.
If I missed anything please list it cause I probably actually put it in.
I'm running BF2142 on this Compaq Presario SR2030NX at the moment. I've played Vanguard on it too, but the performance is horrible.
Anyway, I'm thinking about returning this Presario to Officemax where I bought it and using the money to get a different PC. The catch is that my wife was sold on the fact that the Compaq only cost us $593.38 so in essence I set my budget that low because I was too impatient and jumped at the first opportunity to get a new PC I saw.
Right now I just want something that will run Vanguard on decent settings and still be able to enjoy some nice long seesions of BF2142 and Tribes: Vengeance.
For future games I can upgrade later.
With AoC I heard that they were going to release it for Xbox 360 so I may just buy the 360 version instead of the PC version unless the 360 version just looks like crap.
I also have a DVD drive that I can use, and a modem. Maybe a few other parts. I can't use the hard drive off my old Dell cause it's screwed up pretty bad. I may be able to salvage the power supply off it, but I think the power supply was going back before the hard drive got shot.
At any rate my old busted PC is is an old Dell Demnsion 4400 that I added parts to. Think I could take the $593.38 and sink it into my old Dell and get it to run the games I've mentioned?
I've thought about taking the Presario money and going to Tech Advanced with my old Dell and seeing if they can recusitate and beef him up.
Future proofing machines is difficult, especially now that we're jumping between Direct X9 and Direct X10 (the only real Direct X10 card being the insanely overpriced Nvidia 8800). That being said if you know what your looking for you could get a decent desktop (not a laptop) that would be good for gaming with a budget of around $600. You have to know what you are looking for though. Obviously it would be nice to have top of the line everything but its not an option for everybody so I reccomend doing research into Graphics Cards, as thats priority with gaming followed by 2048 MB RAM.
I wouldnt go with anything less than a Nvidia 6600 GT (being the last AGP card Id reccomend to anybody) with the ATi 1600 XT being the somewhat ATi equivilant. Building a PC from scratch is often the cheapest means of getting a decent rig. That being said it can be frustrating and you have to get everything. Updating a DELL machine isnt impossible, but run of the mill motherboards often mean its not the best choice. To be very honest, you wont be able to get a rig to trully stand the test of time with anything less than $1000.
Games like Huxley and Age of Conan are going to require pretty solid machines and I would be surprised if a 6600 gives you anything better than mid-range performance. So while beefing up your Dell is an option Id avoid going for the quick fix if you really are looking to stay competetive in terms of games performance for the next 18 to 24 months. Perhaps purchase the PC components one at a time (I built my PC over a period of three months, using what I could from my paycheck to get the components I needed).
I've thught about that too, but right now I just want something that will run Vanguard and BF2142 decently because those are the 2 games I play most. If I can either fix my old PC to run those 2 games until I can buy all the pieces to put together a PC I'd be more than happy.
I was running an ATI 9550 256 MB AGP on my old Dell. I know I'd need a new Hard drive and Power supply, and I'd be willing to upgrade my Vid card and buy more RAM. I could fit 2 gigs in there if I can find the right kind of RAM.
Do you think it's feasible to take back the Compaq I'm using and use the money to fix and upgrade my Dell to run Vanguard and BF2142 on decent settings until I can get the compentents to build a new rig?
I tried to upgrade the graphics card on this Compaq and it just wouldn't have it. I bought a new power supply and it still had compatibility issues. I never had any problems upgrading my old Dell.
So do you think I'd be able to fix and upgrade my old Dell Dimension 4400 enough to run those 2 games with decent settings? Another question is do you think I can do it for cheaper than what this Compaq Presario SR2030NX cost me?
* 8600 Ultra: 64 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1400 MHz, 512 MB, 256-bit, $179
* 8600 GT: 48 SP, core 350 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $149
* 8300 GT: 32 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $99
* 8300 GS: 24 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1000 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $79
"(...)When launched these will be the cheapest DirectX 10 compliant cards on the market."
Direct link Guru3d.
Other than price its also what settings the OP is satisfied with, getting a cheap computer that is also "future-proof" is just about impossible.
Well to be honest too many unknowns to know how your system would cope with certain upgrades and I dare not reccomend anything I am not 100% sure will serve you well. Battlefield and Vanguard are both pretty demanding games, so Id reccomend what is now a mid range graphics card. The Nvidia 6600 GT is probably your best bet. You can get a AGP flavour and its not too expensive while offering some pretty solid performance. Id say you could play both Vanguard and BF2142 on a machine with that graphics card. That being said Im not sure what your current power supply is and what youd need for decent performance.
A lot of machines come with run of the mill power supplies, however anything over 400W should serve you well. That being said the problem with upgrading a single component of a weak PC is that everything is else might bottle neck it. The motherboard might not have the pipes to serve the new graphics card, the same could be said if you decided to get a new CPU, not to mention the temperatures that might result for which your system may not be prepared (i.e. a lot of more powerful graphics card generate more heat for which some cases are ill prepared, hell I got overheating with 7 cases fans, excluding the heatsink and others scattered throughout my system... which recently died on me).
Best quick fix would be more RAM and a better graphics card. Not knowing everything else about the system I really cant say how it would handle the new components though. The 6600 will set you back no more than $100 with the RAM (depending on how much and brand) another $100 - $200. Any good HDD around 50 - 100 (depending on size and brand). So I guess its up to you to see what you can get, though really anything below the Nvidia 6600 (or equivilant) will not give you solid performance in the games you mention.
Did a quick search and the Dell 4400 has a 200W powersupply? Am I correct? Is so your going to need way more juice to run the 6600. Again anything above 400W should serve, though again I cant say how this will affect the rest of you system so I suggest getting somebody who can actually look and prod around the thing (perhaps a friend).
* 8600 Ultra: 64 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1400 MHz, 512 MB, 256-bit, $179
* 8600 GT: 48 SP, core 350 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $149
* 8300 GT: 32 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1200 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $99
* 8300 GS: 24 SP, core 500 MHz, memory 1000 MHz, 256 MB, 128-bit, $79
"(...)When launched these will be the cheapest DirectX 10 compliant cards on the market."
Direct link Guru3d.
Other than price its also what settings the OP is satisfied with, getting a cheap computer that is also "future-proof" is just about impossible.
Agreed. However all those graphics card require hefty power supplies not to mention PCI-E compatible motherboards. Things like overheating and other bottle necks in an older system as the result of simply sticking in one of the above cards could not warrant buying one of them. Again it all depends on how much can be salvanged from his old machine (a Dell 4400) while looking at the performance. Not to mention none of the above cards have been released (?) so we've yet to see real world benchmarks concerning those cards and how they stack up to the previous generation.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!
I just wanted to say thanks to all the people that replied and tried to help me out.
As a heads up, Officemax won't take back the PC because it's not faulty equipment. The Ghz change to save power. After the guy told me this I went in and changed the settings to always stay on and it's now staying at 2.41 Ghz. I haven't played any games with this set up yet so we'll see what's up.
Hopefully I'll be able to find a good graphics card that's compaible with this Presario. I'm hoping that if I get a new Graphics card and increase my RAM that it'll run stuff sufficiently until I can get some good compnents and build a new rig.
Anyway, thanks again and if you guys know of any vid cards that would be compatible PM me. I tried once to install a new vid card and power supply in this machine and I couldn't get it to work right. Maybe this simple change was what I needed to do. Anyway RAM first and then a new vid card for this PoS.
My friend could make you one (he doesn't charge any extra fees), but he lives in beligum, so shpping costs would be high
with the parts you have mentioned.
go to pricewatch / tiger / newegg and look for a barebones kit / mobo-cpu combo.
or if you have a fry's electronics go there.
::125 and up
remember that agp isn't as crippled as you think, and most mobo's in barebones will have AGP and PCI
so you can always upgrade down the line.
::125 and up
Ram will set you back the most though unless you are happy with your "Vanilla" and just want to get more.
Make sure you find out the speed of your ram. and match it to the correct board.
::125 and up
I would invest in a great Power Supply, it is often overlooked by noob builders.
::80 and up
Cooling is very important as well, and a proper setup of fans pulling and pushing will do wonders.
::40 and up
Cases shouldn't be much.
Heck I just built my Rig into my desk.
With a little ingenuity, you could turn anything into a PC Case. or just buy some epox and some Lexan sheets.
::30 and up
Network cards are pretty basic, but some are better than others.
::20
So yes technically you could build a rig to play all those games. But if you are going to do it right with top of the line everything it would easily cost you 1,200 plus.
I'm still trying around a bit, but heres some hints.
Do not skimp on the motherboard. The motherboard is the king of everything, and everyone seems to discount it the most. If you don't get one with certain settings, things will be hell for you later. Make sure to get one that supports Dual Channel, SATA, and PCI-E x16. If you are lacking in either, you may as well throw it out in a few months when you go to upgrade.
Also, as far as RAM goes, get a nice set of dual channel, and these days go for nothing less than 2gb.
1000 mhz crossfire AM2 board, $75
Ooops wrote down a 2 instead of a 1.
Hard Drive, and DVD drives is a must, to save money on.
If you have a 7200rpm HDD, with just 50gb+ of space, that should be enough for starters... and if you have a slower HDD, just use it for extra space, i.e. movies or whatever.
But generally, i wouldnt start out with such a low budget, as you will most likely lose alot of money on it, within a short period of time, as you want to upgrade it. And the "new parts" you just brought wont get you any money back, as they are worth dipshit after a month.
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Correcting people since birth.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=72
That's one of their weekly specials. $574 without shipping or tax included.
Intel® Pentium-D Processor 940 [3.2GHz, Dual-Core, 2x2MB Cache, 800MHz FSB, 64-Bit]
ECS 945P-A i945P Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, USB 2.0 PCI-E MB
512MB DDR2-667 PC5300 Memory
NVidia GeForce 7300LE 256MB w/DVI+TV Out Video
160 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Warranty Service: Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
No OS or monitor, but you can reuse those things from your old machine. Not a lot of RAM, and the GPU isn't great. Still, the system is serviceable. You'd be running those games on medium or medium-low settings, probably. Honestly, I'd save up a bit more. You want to get around 1k, in my opinion.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=191
That's 1K. You get:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6300 (2x 1.86GHz/2MB L2 Cache/1066FSB)
[Quad-Core Support] ECS 965T-A P965 Chipset w/7.1 Sound, Gb LAN, USB 2.0 PCI-E MB
1024MB [512MB X2] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module: Corsair-Value or Major Brand
GeForce 7600GS 512MB
250 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
Vista Home Premium installed
Again, no monitor, but you could add $170 to get a 17" 1280x1024 TFT LCD Monitor. Just do yourself a favor and never buy something like a Dell or an Alienware.
Edit: My god, he bought a Compaq
Just an FYI: If you use VISTA on a gaming rig you better use VISTA Ultimate. If you use anything else you will GREATLY regret it. Ulitmate gives decent performance. Anything else and you may as well stick with XP.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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Still in: A couple Betas
Just an FYI: If you use VISTA on a gaming rig you better use VISTA Ultimate. If you use anything else you will GREATLY regret it. Ulitmate gives decent performance. Anything else and you may as well stick with XP. Your implication that all flavors of Vista other than Ultimate are poor performers isn't quite up to par. The fact of the matter is that all the different flavors of Vista are essentially the same minus certain features that you must pay for. These in no way impact performance in any shape, form or fashion. The kernels are all the same...same build, ect....
As I said before, it's merely a matter of what extra admin/networking features you wish to add to your package.