Buying A New Computer

So my current computer is 5 years old, and is running way too slow for my needs, so I've decided to look for a new computer. I went on the HP site to check out one of their models, and to see what the hardware specs are. I'm trying to keep it under 700$ (for just the CPU), and with that price in mind I chose some of these specs on the HP Pavilion HPE 300z:

Processor: AMD Athlon X4 635 quad-core processor [2.9GHz, 2MB L2, up to 4000MHz bus]

6 GB ram (I can upgrade to 8 for 80$ more, which I'm not sure on yet.)

Video Card: 512MB ATI Radeon HD 5450

As far as these go, I am wondering how these will do for things such as:
Running GW (possibly running multiple accounts)
Running GW 2 (when It comes out)
Oblivion at at least medium graphics
Editing/rendering HD video with Sony Vegas.
As well as other things.

Will I be able to notice the difference between 6 and 8 gb of ram, and will it really be worth it to upgrade? Will the video card be enough to handle HD video and GW? (I don't really do too much other graphics-intensive stuff.)

On a side note, my friend said that Acer computers were good, should I try them, or stick with something like HP? I don't really want or know how to build my own computer either. Thanks.

Rule #1 - never buy from manufacturers' sites.

I usually comment about HP at this stage, but it all went nasty last time, so I won't.

Go to a PC parts stockist that can build PCs to your precise specifications. In the US, I believe people go to Newegg (certainly for parts - do they build too?). In the UK, Novatech, Aria or Overclockers are your first stop. PCSpecialist too.

Also: 6Gb on an AMD platform? Did I miss the memo on that one?

AMD is the only processor that HP is offering for this setup. I'm decent with computers, but as far as getting into the physical guts, I'm lost.

If I do build it off of one of these sites, it will come with the OS installed as well, right? I would also assume it would be a bit cheaper, since you're not paying for a brand name.

My friend bought his computer at Best Buy with similar specs, how does that rank up with buying online/ at newegg?

Buying at Newegg is the best online purchasing experience in the world, period. Yes I am biased, but it is their Prices, Shipping Speed, and Customer Service that has made me that way. Countless others on this forum will vouch for that. Newegg has won numerous Customer Satisfaction awards and are easily the #1 Computer & Electronics "e-tailer" in the USA.

With that said, they don't build computers themselves, but you can buy prebuilt ones there. LIke Snograt says, anything I can say about HP will be Nasty, so I'll be quiet and don't even get me started on Dell. lol

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229193

Just something to compare with the HP one.... this has a much much much better video card and is just a hair over $600. Basically a NVIDIA 9600 GT or an ATI 4670/5670 are the minimum you should look for to do what you want to do gaming wise. A quad core would be nice, but a better dual core for the same or less money is worth it. Look for Intel i3 or i5 and AMD Phenom II series of Processors. Anything over 4GB of RAM/Memory is wasting your money. Only the high end Core i7s use Triple Channel Memory, so go for 2 or 4 or 8 GB of RAM, with 4GB being the sweet spot right now.

Hope that helps....

If you were to go with this rig, I would opt for only 4Gigs of RAM and a better video card. 4gigs is more than enough for most people these days, unless you are running memory intensive apps. As an example, I have 4gigs and, when running Guild Wars plus Ventrilo plus Firefox, the Logitech Performance Monitor shows me using less than half of the RAM (Win7 64-bit). (I have to admit, I don't know how accurate that is. )
Btw, if you are going over 4Gigs (or 3+Gigs, technically), be sure to use a 64-bit OS, or the extra is truly wasted (the OS won't see it).

Although I'm not as vehement about HP as some others, I would have to admit that HP would not be my choice either. They tend to build systems for people who don't know what they want or need - it's like they just don't get it.

I like the system that Elder linked. Notice that it has a tick slower cpu, only 4gigs of RAM, and a better video card - a much better balance for gaming.

Yeah, the system linked by elder is quite nice. It will laugh in the face of GW, will run oblivion (i'd say high setting if you don't use high res texture mods, those can really take a toll on your GPU) and should run GW2 on decent settings (though at this point nothing is certain).

Anyways given your budget, i'd say AMD CPU since they tend to be cheaper and perform well, 4GB RAM. As for the GPU something like the 5670 or higher if it fits your budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229181
Just a tad above the one listed by Elder, same manufacturer but 30$ over your budget though.

Thanks a ton for all the responses!

I actually went to Best Buy today, and found this computer.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=9964106

As far as HP goes, I am a fan of their monitors/printers, but it seems that their computers are not liked very much here. My friend bought one from them last fall and has had no trouble with it, so I originally based my choice off of that.

The computer in my link has everything that I like/need for a good price. I have followed the suggestions and I will go with the 4gb of ram. The computer that Elder posted looks excellent, thank you. It seems that it has a similar setup, but with a better video card. I will definitely keep it in mind.

I guess the only thing I have left to ask is how well the video card in my link would be able to run something like Oblivion, compared to the one Elder posted. Basically, how much the 100$ price difference would effect my performance in the end. Thanks

Edit: from the pictures on the Best Buy site, it seems the integrated video card only has one output, VGA. If this is the case, I wouldn't be able to use 2 monitors, which is a deal breaker for me. Edit again: The picture and actual specs don't match up exactly, it should have a DVI input as well, and can support dual monitors. I will have to make sure at the store though.

Well the 4200 is a very weak card. Even if you had 2 VGA outputs, it would struggle with recent games. I don't know for sure about oblivion, but i wouldn't expect medium settings with the 4200 and i'd forget about running GW2 at med to high settings as well (again, can't be completely sure about GW2 since no system reqs are out yet).

Ok thanks, I think I'll probably go for the on on newegg. Just one more question, how do they deal with customer support and doing things such as repairs and stuff? The customer reviews list a few problems with bluescreen and stuff, which is probably rare, but it would be nice to be able to have someone there to help fix problems if they do come up. This is a concern for me, because I have had to get this computer sent in twice because the mobo crapped out on me.

HD 4200 is integrated graphics and while fine for most home or office purposes it can not handle modern or even a few years old video games. It can handle GW1 at low to medium settings with probably 35 FPS at lower resolutions, but forget GW2 and Oblivion will just laugh at you if you try to play it with that computer.

Newegg is just a retailer, so they don't do repairs themselves. In this case they are the middleman for CyberPowerPC, who happens to have their own website where you can have custom gaming computers made for you (for a price of course!). Newegg would offer a 30 day replacement policy and after that it would have a manufacturer warranty, which I think is 1 year from date of purchase in this case.

*I will say that Newegg has great customer service and will help you out in whatever way they can. I've bought hundreds of items/parts/components there and never an unhappy purchase, I had to send something back once and they took it and refunded my purchase price, even paid for my shipping..... one other time I had an item get dropped by UPS and newegg gave me a gift card to cover the cost of purchasing a replacement part..... I call that pretty good service.

Is the ATI Radeon HD 5870 the best video card out there? I want to get the best of the best for my next build. I would love to have a video card that makes my jaw drop and can handle any game thrown at it.

Source: http://internetgames.about.com/od/ha...videocards.htm

Right now, i'm pretty certain that it's either the GTX480 or the HD5970. However, for about the same price as those GPUs, you could get 2 GTX460 in a sli setup which will handle anything you throw at it just fine.

EDIT: Quaker may be right about the PSU statement, since i'm not planing on building any of these setups, i don't know for sure but if the GTX480 is anything like it's laptop counterpart it's hungry on power.

EDIT2: to ninja, if you have further questions, it would be better to make your own thread than hijack someone else's.

Basically, that system has no video "card" - as has been said, the ATI4200 is "integrated graphics", which means that it's just graphics functions built into the motherboard chipset. As Elder said, it's not suitable for modern games.
The good news is that the computer does have a proper PCIex16 graphics card slot, so you could spend that $100 you save on a real video card.

When comparing prices on video setups, don't forget to include the cost of the power supply. Two GTX460s in SLI may require a larger power supply (and more cooling) than a single GTX480 or HD5970. (Just sayin' though, the PS may or may not cost much more.)

One thing about computers like this... They often have power supplies that are just barely sufficient. 300 watts or whatever. So even though they have a PCI-E x16 port for a GPU, you're looking at upgrading the power supply as well if you want a discreet card (which of course you do).

Good point. Near as I can tell (from HP's website) that computer has a 250watt(!!) power supply. That's barely enough to cover extra RAM.

Ya, as I said, my friend has a similar setup, with the same integrated card. It can run GW on full specs fine, which is probably the most I'm going to need to do with it now. My friend, however, wants to upgrade his video card, which he told the people at Best Buy, who also said he would need to upgrade his power supply.

In the end, I talked it over with some friends who know about computers, and I've decided on the HP, and to save the 100$ for possible upgrades later if and when I need them. Thanks a bunch.

If you really have to have a particular configuration on a laptop you may have to go through the manufacturer's site...

I have a laptop that has switchable integrated Radeon 3200 and discreet 4330 graphics, on a 1366x768 display. Using the 3200 (weaker than a 4200) I get 45 fps on Guild Wars with max settings, while running around in ABs. It dips down to ~15-20 fps with heavy action but it's perfectly playable on max settings. Kind of surprising.

Laptops, yeah. They're a bugger to self-build, them.

you can get partially assembled barebones kits and then configure them a little yourself, but it's prohibitively expensive, not much variety of compatible parts, and like you said a pain in the arse to build too... :/

You're playing at a relatively low resolution so it's not that surprising you get that kind of performance, GW is 5 years old after all. As a comparison, the 9650M GT in my old laptop drops under 60fps at 1440x900 in certain areas of nf and eotn when it gets busy.

If the OP want to play at these resolutions, he will need a bit more horsepower for max settings. Oblivion was also mentioned and if you have the extra horsepower to use high texture mods, it's definitely worth it.