Keep the IN BOARD? Is it decent?

Hey guys, I am buying this computer. Don't talk me out of it...

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/...Detail.do#tabs

It says this :
Powerful graphics: The PCI-Express® ATI Radeon® Xpress 200 graphics card supports DirectX® 9 and Open GL technologies so you can enjoy the latest interactive 3D games. The 128MB DDR shared video memory will keep the imaging smooth and sharp.

But I read this:
Your computer comes with a suckass onboard card that won't play Guild Wars...

Is it worth it to upgrade to a AGP Geforce 5500 256 mb carD?

That onboard does suck compared to modern graphics boards, but it should play GW. If you want to upgrade, a 5500 would do the job but to really notice an improvement, I suggest grabbing a GeForce 6600GT or any ATi card above 9600.

Be warned that you are buying a BUSINESS machine.

The CLAIMS of this machine is very misleading.

For Example: "The 128MB DDR shared video memory will keep the imaging smooth and sharp"

This is a CLAIM...not a TRUTH. It is an old sales ploy. Remember you are SHARING onboard (Your ram chips) memory.

Even a PCI Vid Card would be better. I personally would want a AGP or PCIe SLOT and a video card to match one of those slots.

If you check out Dell they have from time to time a decent little Dimension 4700 for a great price. Dim 4700's have a Video card slot. I have a 4600 and I got it for under $1000.00 two years ago. That was with some "Extra's" that I added. Things are different now, however, Dell does have a good deal if you wait and check thier web site often. The deal I got only lasted one week. They said it was ONLINE only. Bahhh...I called them up and talked to a Rep (American Speaking) and they gave me that deal on the phone. This way I could ask questions.

Buyer Beware....

Check out this Thread first and read on what this guy is getting for the money he is paying.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=16567

It may sound a lot, but the components can always be changed around for something more in your price bracket if you are willing to build your own System.

Do you already have a system, and if so, what do you currently have that could be salvaged into a new system? Screen, Floppy, CD Drives, Tower??

What is your main reason for buying a new system?

Have you thought long and hard before you buy it?

Added:-
Just noticed that the printer and Screen are not included. Were you aware of this?

Just from experiences i have had, a lot of people go for the cheapest they can afford and not thinking about the consequences afterwards. I wish i had got that upgrade or gone for that screen etc?

OMG not an eMachines!! RUNN!!!!!!!

I'm gonna be the savior here, don't buy from Circuit City, Best Buy, Dell, HP, WalMart, etc etc etc. Shop local. If there are no locally owned buisiness that sell or can build a machine, shop online. Youre going to pay 3x as much for garbage than you would going a local or -newegg/pricewatch- route and build to your specific specs.

I had a p2400Mhz I got for free from the paper. Over a month I upgraded it into a 19in Flat Screen monitor, 2.2Ghz AMD Athlon 64, new mobo, 3 fans, ATI Radeon 9600Pro, 1 gig DDR 3200 ram, 80 GIG HDD 7600RPM, and even added on a cd/dvdR/RW+ Dual layer and all for ~200 bucks just shopping local. (guy threw in the monitor when i bought the ATI, and threw in the fans when I bought the mobo/chipset.)

I would have said the same thing, but not knowing what the market is like in the US compared to the UK, i didn't.

However, knowing what i know, i build my own machines and never buy from Big High Street Dealers or the Big Name brand makers. The only time i would buy from a Big supplier is if it was Apple. Or one of the Cool looking Sony machines. They looked superb in the living room. lol

Thing is local places don't get much buisiness because -most- people "think" walmart cc bb, etc, all have good deals! In fact when it comes to tech-anything they are the WORST deals around. Shop local, they go cheap and even throw in free stuff when they get to know you to keep your buisiness...and quite honestly most of them know quite a bit about comps and can make for some friendly conversations.

Yep. Sounds exactly like the UK market.

There is only 1 or 2 PC makers in the UK i would send people too if they don't want me to make a machine for them, and to give them peace of mind and that is because there machines are great quality, get rave reviews and there support is 2nd to none.

You guys must have some good local places. Local here is worse MUCH worse then dell and them. They will charge you a lot more because they don't get the business all the time.

I am very desperate and want it quick if I go to a local shop.

But doesn't matter he said he is buying it and doesn't want to be talked out of it. So yes, upgrade the video card all you can because what they will give you is crap and you are getting what you are paying for.

Trust me, even as a Sony purchaser, I'd keep far, far away from pre-built machines knowing what I know now. Oh well...hindsight is always 20/20.
Like the above -- shop local, or have a tech-friendly buddy help you out and build your own. Makes for a great rainy day project, and the satisfaction that you built your own machine tops anything you can buy from a mass-market producer.

Actually, when i read what he wrote and the way he wrote it,

"Hey guys, I am buying this computer. Don't talk me out of it..."

those 3 dots at the end, almost say to me, please talk me out of buying this load of crap PC. I really can't make up my mind or I'm pulling your leg and having some fun.

When my 18-month old nephew is clearly heading to do something wrong (like play in the fireplace), several people in my family will go, "Eh, eh, eh!" in rising tones (picture the waggling finger). Well, now my nephew will decide to get into trouble and, on the way there, he'll mutter, "Eh, eh, eh." ROFL. The first time I saw him do that, I turned to my parents and said, "You know, ya never grow outta that!"

Eh, Eh, EH!!!

Hey, the guy Dirkiness was talking about, was me.

Look what im getting for $754. The difference is that im making it myself, and it doesnt come with a monitor, keyboard, mouse, or printer. But i have all of that from my old ancient relic Dell Dimension 8100

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4 ghz Hyper Transport support
1 gb ram
80 gb hd
NVidia GeForce 128mb 6600GT AGP
DVD/CD Burner

Think about it, my system is soooo much better than yours (no offence) and you really need to rethink that buying of the system. If you dont listen, dont say i did not warn you.

Not to mention all the crap backround processes you have running in the bg on prebuilts, and the limits. For instance, prebuilts... "most" forget about upgrading, unless you upgrade only through them...because the hardware wont read any ram but compaq, dell, etc ram. I learned a lesson a long time ago when I tried to install Linux on a Compaq, then when it worked...but hardly any of the hardware could be loaded in the kernal, I went and grabbed a windows disk and again...nothing worked! Called support, had to order a 20 dollar Compaq Rescue disk to get 'thier' specified windows on it.

Don't buy pre-built...ever! It will cost you money, and only end up costing you more again.

LOL

This board's already talked him out of ONE new computer that he thought he was going to buy. His head's probably spinning at this point!

(Thought I recognized his name...)

I personally can understand why there are those that never want a pre-build computer. I use to build my own back in the 1990's. It made more sense to me back then. We use to over clock the Celron 300Mhz chip into a 450Mhz chip for example.

In todays "Computer World" Systems have caught up to software. Computer Companies have seen the light on what gamers want. So to Speak. I have been buying pre-made computers since 2000. (My Dimension 4100 still in my opinion is the best made computer I own...it just isn't the fastest. I always liked that old style case.) I just said to heck with it and went with Dell. They are not perfect. There are things you can't do with them without voiding the warranty. However, when people in my circle of life ask me what computer to buy I always say get a Dell. It is simple on them and ME. Means I do not have to go over and FIX THE DARN THING. I "Tip my Hat" to those that build thier own and then tweak it to it's fullest. I personally do not see the need to overclock a computer today. I do not want to take the time to figure out what is wrong NOW. I want it simple...I want it to work.

You can look for a good deal from Dell. Find one that meets your needs and buy the most stripped down version of it. Add what you want to it via third party. You still get thier warranty and it did not cost you an arm and a leg to do it. There weakest link in my case is thier PSU. But then again Dell underated thier PSU's. They actually work like a more powerfull one. In my Dim 4600 by the numbers my ATI 9800pro should not work. Not enought power from the 250W PSU, but it does. I talked to the Guru's at Dell Community Forums before I installed it. Still works today. I just made sure there was plenty of air for cooling the vid card. I gave up on PCI slot. In fact it was the slot that had the modem in it. I really do not need it. I added a Firewire card so with that and my USB ports I am set. I did not add another internal hard drive, I added external ones. I only need one C drive for running programs so I keep it that way and use the externals for data storage. I have one DVD/CD burner and one CD Burner internal. I added a firewire Plextor DVD burner. It seems to work just fine.

I am just real gun shy of anything from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. I don't like the look or the design or the builds on most of those. But that is just personal taste I suppose. I am sure if you watch carefully you can get a decent system there as well. I have seen many posts over the years about people that buy a computer at a great price and then wonder why it is horrible in games. Case in point....Dell Dimension 2XXX series. So many people never knew that it did not have a video card slot and now they are angry at the company that sold it to them. I have seen posts with questions about soldering a video card slot into the mother board of one of these Dim 2XXX systems. (That one made me laugh out loud ) We always told them return it and get a Dim 4XXX system. Same thing pretty much except it has a slot for video cards.

My advice is to buy a decent system that meets your needs with the most money you can afford. You can add more ram, better vid card, HD's, monitor. etc later as you aquire more wealth in which to do it.

betek.com check em out. They are small local guys here in town and the prices are fair. As well as the fact that they have always been more than willing to help me out.

A lot of people like to look down their noses at Dell. Then again a lot of people are hobbyists with time to build machines from scratch. You'll probably find a lot of these people are the ones complaining about heat related reboots with GW in other threads

OK, there's nothing wrong with rolling your own PC. It can be rewarding and fun, but for people who have to ask things like "Is this onboard graphics card any good" I recommend going to Dell and looking through their online shop. You'll still need to ask questions here like "What graphics card should I get" and "What processor speed will I need" but you'll end up with a well built and reliable system. It won't look sexy, but it will sit under your desk and do what you ask of it. Plus - it will have a warrantee.

I manage a network for my job. I'm quite capable of building PCs but when I get home I want to play games not mess with custom hardware. I've bought 50 dell workstations, 7 Dell Servers and 5 Dell laptops in the last 3 years and they have worked perfectly apart from 2 laptops which were both bought from the Outlet. One died after I cba to investigate a squeaky fan and carried on playing EVE online for months, the other had its MoBo replaced under warrantee and is now perfect. Previously I bought 10 compaqs and had 8 HD failures within 2 years (Fujitsu) and had 2/3 HPs fry themselves after 3 years. (Older HPs were rock solid).

Don't get carried away by the "Gaming PCs are XTREMEL337 Hardwares!!!!11" Most business PCs are built to far higher standards than the highstreet crap you get from gateway or Time - and all my Dells can play Guildwars

Building yourself is an option only if you know what you are doing and enjoy fixing PCs. Otherwise stand by to take some taunts, buy a Dell and sRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO when your mates start saying things like "Yeah, I think I need a larger fan - I'm getting some instability with XYZ"

dont buy that machine man. Seriously, building your own will be much cheaper.

Here is the problem. Im broke as hell and have to buy an under 800 dollar machine from a place that does CREDIT... Apply for the credit card and all that shit!!!!

Any advice there? Hurry Im doing this in like, 45 minutes!

Broke...credit card.....see yah in the Bankruptcy line

Yep. LOL

Honestly the true story is someone is buying me and herself a computer, on a credit card, but she wants to apply at one of these places...