If you were on a budget...

I'm on a tight budget for a new PC.
I've listed some links of decently priced PC's.
Can I build one for around the same price?
Keep in mind I have a monitor and keyboard etc already. Just looking for a PC that can get me playing GW with limited fuss.
The ibuypower.com PC sounds like it would be the best for upgrading later...

http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_s... kjdgoodfkf.0

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...computer_store

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...computer_store

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...r.aspx?mid=106

I would upgrade to 1 gig of memory on any I chose, and at least a 128meg video card, if not 256.

Thoughts?

Mind
_________________
-Dying ain't much of a living boy-

I wouldn't buy a Compaq even if it would've been the last system on earth.

be sure to check anybody out on reseller ratings as well
http://www.resellerratings.com/

EDIT

AVOID the Sempron processor as it has only half the on die memory and is the sucessor to the budget duron chip

Well here is my suggestion, I have bought a few things from them before with no trouble .. but yes feel free to check how they are doing at:

resellerratings.com

Configure this system to your satisfaction, I'd at least upgrade to the AMD 64 3000 for only 22.bucks more

Directron

It will definately get ya going.

Build your own. If you can finagle it right, it's drastically cheaper than anywhere else, especially if you don't need a monitor.

Splurge on your processor and RAM (Cosair XMS or bust), go for the 256MB graphics card (ATI is pretty cheap). Without PCI Express, videocards aren't all that bad, but you're looking at about 100 dollars on it if you want to get anything out of it. You don't have to buy a crazy good motherboard, but don't go for something insanely cheap, either (on my super-cheap mobo on the broken HP, the capacitors blew because of overheating). Salvage the hard-drive off your old computer, but you're going to have to buy a new OS for it (best option is to buy the OS from the place your are buying the hard-ware from so as to get the OEM version, which is 100 dollars as opposed to 200 retail).

Or, you could always just upgrade the computer you have. Depending on how old it is, you could pop in a new processor, upgrade your RAM, put it in a pretty, new case...

And, as I review your post, I realize that you just need the basic components to play GW. In that case, I would recommend upgrading what you already have to ever so slightly above the Recommended system specs.

Oh, right, also. While "Value" processors (Celeron and whatnot) and RAM may seem like a nice way to save money, it's going to cost you more in the long-run when they die quicker. So, my point still stands, splurge in those areas and conserve in the others.

one small note

the budget ram from corsair kingston or micron (any big name) will serve youwell

i have never had a problem and also not used anything BUT name brand budget ram unless you are overclocking or extreme conditions the lifetime guarantee budget ram is fine

I was thinking more along the lines of like, Budget Generic and all the other uber horrible things they have out there. Budget Corsair would, I would assume, be fine, but something inside me dims a little at the "Value Corsair" name.

their value line is simply the overstok on other lines

check out the actual memory chip numbers some time

as for cringing at the word value i am currently using a matched pair of corsair value ram(512x2) and it works perfectly

get kingston value or micron value

the one to worry about is saving a bit on true generic from a place with no business reputation to keep up

these companies have a good reputation and they are not going to trash it for a small bit of additional profit cutting corners

1) Build your own.

2) You didn't give us any sort of a budget.

3) Here's the parts you should buy.

AMD Barton 2500+
Asus A7N8X-E
1GB (2x512MB) Corsair "Value" RAM
Antec True Power Powersupply (anything above 400 watt)
Radeon 9800 PRO
Western Digital 80g 7,200 RPM w/ 8mb cache
Nec 16x Dual-Layer DVD burner (reads/burns CDs, DVDs, and dual-layer DVDs)
Any case to your liking, but go with something decent, $50+. You do not need a power supply as you already bought one.

This list is all guess work and all off the top of my head but it shouldn't cost you more than $800-900 from www.newegg.com (best place to get parts online or otherwise)

-Virt

Newegg is great! The last system I bought I bought about half from newegg and half from mwave (whichever was cheaper)

MWave has that cpu/mb/memory bundle for $235 (little extra if you want them to test it)

http://www.mwave.com/

Yeah, newegg.com is a great place to buy parts. I like to call it COMPUTER HEAVEN though, I used to just get things from Comp USA and Tiger Direct but newegg.com has became a god-send.

Hooray for the sys I am working on!!

-Athlon 64 3200+
-Asus A8N-SLI
-200 GB HDD
-SB Audigy2 ZS GAMER Limited Edition
- (2) GeForce 6800 Ultra
-Creative Inspire GD580 5.1
-OCZ performane Series Dual-Channel (1GBx2)
-19" LCD Monitor (DVI)

Should end up being about $2,300
Been saving up the cash for a while and almost ready!!!

Hey nice combo!!--

I built a same type of system for my brother for Christmas-

Athlon 64 3500
Asus A8N SLI Deluxe
WD Raptor 10,000 RPM 80gig which is sitting inside a CoolerMaster Cooldrive 4 HD cooler/fan controller.
I cant remember what brand of memory I stuck in it but it was 1gig of ddr400 (2x512)
Audigy 2 ZS platnum pro
CREATIVE INSPIRE T7700 7.1 SPEAKERS
DVD
CDR/RW
LEADTEK GF PX6600GT TDH RT PCIx
22" CRT Viewsonic Monitor
Had a NEOPower 480 24pin that died after a week
Had an ULTRA 600 20pin In there for 2 weeks while we waited for his replacement which is now a 24 pin PcPower and Cooling 600watt
All inside a Lian Li Pc 75 Silver Aluminum Server Tower Case with a custom picture etched into the clear sidepanel.

All I can say is if your going to put similar things in there.. get a way good power supply or you will have strange problems or simply complete system failure. PcPower and Cooling or an OCZ.

Good Luck on your new system!!

The I power looks good but why a network card and a modem.??
And you should only get a CD/DVD/burner. If that will be your only drive.

Building computers can be fun...unless you break something

Nice Virt, nearly identical to my system and mine was <$600, but I am not convinced on the 9800 PRO

AMD Barton 3200+
Asus A7N8X-E
1GB (2x512MB) Patriot PDP 2225 RAM (Dual)
Codegen 450Watt
Radeon 9800 PRO
Seagate 200GB 7,200 RPM w/ 8mb cache
BenQ 8x Dual-Layer DVD burner (reads/burns CDs, DVDs, and dual-layer DVDs)

Lansing Kai Don

P.S. They don't make 80GB 10,000 RPM WD drives do they? I thought it was 74GB for the Raptor series?

Something I learned the hard way over a year ago. I stopped building my own, even though I buy from legitimate wholesalers (http://www.axiontech.com/). Why, because when you add the prices up, including new XP license and your TIME, you can't build as good as cheaply. And just try to get a bad piece exchanged for a home built. If you don't build consistantly, it's tedious to do. And you always forget something. Since you need something quick, order a Dell (I know, some of you who AREN'T doing this for a living will say otherwise, but I am confident in my advice).

I have bought new Dell's for myself and HUNDREDS for my clients in the past year and have been completely satisfied. Don't believe you need XP Pro for a home enviornment, especially if it's your ONLY computer. If you aren't going to tweak the OS, Home XP is just fine (networking mutiple computers is a completely different story with Home XP however).

If you are happy with your monitor, order a Dell without a monitor or get the new glass 17" for free with it. They have a deal now on a 4700 with a flat panel 17", 128MB ATI PCI express card, 512MB ram, 40 GB 7200 HD, and cd-rw, and modem for $778. That's with a full year warranty.

I have also had a lot of success with believe it or not, E-Machine computers. Gateway bought them last year, and ALL of their cpu's come with an AGP slot, so you can upgrade the video card easy. I send a lot of folks who bring in their old clunkers to Best Buy to get them on sale (when they sell them WITHOUT all the funky rebates) or to Wal-Mart. For $500 they work great.

If anyone tells you you can build a 2.8 GHz P4 with a GOOD MB and 1 Gig of ram AND a great video card and 40-80GB hard drive with case, powersupply, cd burner and Windows XP, including all of your shipping charges for $500, they can build them for me, because if your time is worthless, spend it building a computer between now and April 28. If your current computer played GW fine, buy what you are comfortable with within your budget, but buy it because you won't want to upgrade it when the next great game comes along.

You're right, they don't. He must have just been rounding it off. You have a Codegen PSU? Wow, I hate those things with a passion.

-Virt

I quite agree. I came across the same thing last year. It was cheaper and faster to buy it from Dell for my Co. then it was for me to build. The only thing I dislike now is that they do not offer AMD cpu's as they are cooler and faster than Intel. But don't lease BUY.

I specialize in auto dealers, and with the programs they run (Reynolds & Reynolds ERA , financial and warranty software) P4's with Intel integrated graphics are the only way to go. When it comes to personal preference, I prefer the intel's simply because you can get away with a 180W PS in a compact chassis (dell 4600-4800 series) where you need processing power in a limited space work enviornment and drop a 15" LCD on top. Dell also makes a beautiful Optiplex GX280 which is about the size of a Harry Potter novel. Pricy when properly equipped, but gorgeous in concept.

This may work for a business environment. But lets face it. Theres no frikin AGP slot on the motherboard on these nice cheap computers. Theres also no PCIx (PCI Express) slots. How do you expect to upgrade to any modern video card without one of those two. You cant. When you build it yourself you can come VERY close to 500.00 .. for pretty good components and at least an onboard video that can share 64 meg instead of the crappy 8 meg the dell gives you. So, for gaming you guys are blowing loads of smoke up peoples asses with this .. 'get the dell crap'

Yeah I got this crappy dell I'm using to type to yall on.

Ps. It was I that stated it was a 80 gig wd raptor 10k rpm.. you are right .. its only 74, and yah I said 80 just cuz- well- 74 is a strange number..

So you think a Dell 2.8GHz/800 bus 1gig 3200 sdram with a 256 5200 ultra is "blowing smoke up people's asses"?

Get real kid, we could sit here all night and play who's is bigger, but the fact remains that the min/recommended specs on the game box is what most people who have a life (other than playing computer games) need to worry about, not the need to have the latest and most expensive toy thrown at us by the PC marketing departments.

On edit,

One more thing, there are a bunch of nice 128MB pci video cards out there by Gainward and a few others for those 'crappy' computers you seem to be such an expert at.

Give me the link to this 500 dollar dell with 256 Ultra in it.

It didn't cost $500, but you seem to take most comments out of context, so we'll leave it at that.

Then why did you make your comment to begin with. I am not usually one to go on some type of forum rampage here. And I try and only post what I know to be the truth. I read the posts about some 500 dollar dell having what every gamer should want. I posted that I know of no 500 dollar dell that can come close to what you could build on your own and be much more powerful. So .. what are you saying? And thanks for the kid compliment.... I feel much younger now.

here is a link for you

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/prod...=19&l=en&s=dhs

$804 with no monitor.

Ok I guess i'll let the link speak for itself.. simply you cannot get a 500 dollar dell with a good video card on it.

I'm done posting in this thread... I've obviously pushed some peoples buttons.

Your right you can't. But I also don't think you could build one either.

That was why I recomended a Dell. I don't think you could build the exact same Dell for any cheaper than they are selling it for.

P.S. I have not look up the indiv. cost on all those components. So don't hold me to it. I'm to tired right now.

I posted in another thread I picked one off of AMD's recommended list. IF you ever look at a PSU circuit board you will notice it is not complex and not worth that much money (the large capacitors are the only expensive item on it). So I refuse to pay the gobbles amount of money others are. I had a PowMax that came with the case trust me there's worse out there. It is a bit loud for my taste though.

Oh, and Phineas, at my workplace (a subsidiary of LSI Logic Storage Systems) we buy Dell's too... more specifically I buy Dell's at my workplace.. mostly servers. So why does that mean I have to for home when I can customize my system? Especially since Dell uses less than product name parts or dumbed down product name parts. I understand the need for a business to have them, but Dell's ARE overpriced if you compared your system to mine... it would be plainly obvious to me. I don't have any problem with Dell, I bought a Dell Laptop and love it. I just think that people have their own choices to make and Dell isn't necessarily the best one for a computer, at least not an above-average one. But they do come with good stuff like the parts from the same place and a warranty. Both have Pro's and Con's and it is up to the user to decide what he wants to do.

Lansing Kai Don

P.S. I just wanted to add that if you look at some performance specs Phineas you will notice that your parts DO matter in gameplay.

P.P.S IN Phineas defense, MindBullets originally wanted "just" a PC and the one's he was looking at were prebuilt from HP and Sam's Club. He does ask if he could build one for cheaper... so Mind as always it's your individual choice, both have Pro's and Con's to worry about... and it's the tradeoffs that make your PC yours.

I'm not holding you to it, this is just for information purposes only. I have a little time to kill before bed so don't take this as attacking you. By the way there is no GeForce 5200 256MB Ultra... only 128 I think. So I will go with the next highest price to keep people from saying that's not the same thing.

Each of these places I will rate at the end. And this is done quickly so if the specs are horrible someone else correct it, I am going to bed after this. Also ratings are out of four stars.

Video Card $70 FX5500 256MB (product box may have typos lol)
http://www.imagestore.us/product.asp...dept_id=06-005
4 stars got product quickly from them before a lil more communication needed

Motherboard $79 A7N8X-E (used in my system, but from ebay for cheaper)
Also comes with surround sound features (external is better but this is pretty dang good also, and I'm an audiophile)
http://www.compu-terra.com/store/product4.html
4 stars same as above, but does send confirmation emails

Processor $99 AthlonXP (2800+ 333Mhz Bus) w/ stock Heatsink/Fan
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...ctCode=80177-R
4 stars, bought HS/Fan from them (Zalman series) too long to ship 3 days when avg was 24 hours

Hard Drive $66 WD 120GB 7200RPM IDE (not SATA I know)
http://www.upgrade-solution.com/deta...ID=233&add=yes
3 stars, can't rate higher never purchased from before

Case w/ Codegen 400W PSU $45 (no I don't have a thing for codegen, just the cheapest I could find on short notice)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...182-057&depa=1
4 stars, even though newegg doesn't show negative reviews

Memory $110 Corsair Value Ram 2x512 (although I'd rather go with PDP this is a little cheaper and we're going with price)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-439&depa=1

Main System Total (I included shipping costs and rounded UP): $469

Floppy $8 (if you don't have it already) Mitsumi ... I know it's black.. look for beige if you want to I got tired of looking
http://www.acortech.com/.sc/ms/dd/10...%20DRIVE%20NEW
3 stars,haven't ordered from them

CD-ROM $14 (if you don't have it already)
http://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product...oducts_id=3467
3 stars, haven't ordered from them but high feedback ratings approx. 95% on differing sites as with other 3 star seller has approx 92 percent

Completed System (rounding up and shipping included)=$491

If you want a burner instead of CD-ROM (not necessary but here is a cheap one, there are cheaper and usually slower which is fine cuz mine is an old Sony 24x, but like I said I did this in less than 15 minutes)
Burner $26 Mitsumi 52x
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...T=CD+Recorders

Completed System (yada yada, w/o CD-ROM w/ Burner)=$503


Lansing Kai Don

P.S. Please do not flame because these items are brands you don't like. I admit some of them I have not tried but if needed might purchase (usually I take a lot longer deciding on MY PC, because mine has to have character ). And I know the 2800 has only 333Mhz bus along with the Corsair RAM, to upgrade to the full extent of my system minus the video card you would add 24 dollars for the processor and 30 for the low latency RAM). That would make the main system that is VERY similar to mine equal to $523.

P.P.S Feel free to add to the system (maybe quote it and tell what you'd change). We're here to help MindBullets build the best possible system for his budget... by the way what is your budget?

EDIT: I forgot speakers, and their my favorite part, someone else to it or else I'd pick something ghastly like this which puts us way out of the $500 limit... but I do recommend Creative . I have their next better series and it sounds great... could use with a better volume adjuster.
Speakers $71 ? Creative Lab Multimedia Setup ?
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ATT=Multimedia

I would change the video card to an ATI 9800 Pro though. Otherwise, pretty sweet stuff.

Goddamn hardware there in the States is cheap. Stuff here is expensive.

LOL, now it WOULD be my setup. I'm not convinced by the 9800 PRO but I got mine for $150 dollars so that would raise us $80 (and a wee bit over our current $500 budget). But great recommendation, I'm hoping it turns out to be as good as everyone makes it next BWE... especially you Virt. I play mostly older titles that wouldn't make use of it's features.

Lansing Kai Don

I'm saving up for an X850 XT myself, ATI for life... I loved my geforce 2 but... well... it's old, and the FX series sucked. So yes, get a 9800 or 9600 xt instead of ANY FX, even if it's a 5950, get anything else.

You did forget the OS. And the nifty Dell logo.

Speakers... hmm....

Even though Creative's from my country, I wouldn't recommend Creative speakers. The workmanship is kinda shoddy and it screws up quite easily.

Altec Lansing offers a cheaper alternative and the audio kicks ass.

Radeon 9800Pro would be my budget computer recommendation because of the high performance:cost ratio. Very value-for-money.

http://www.geeks.com

They have a systems link and also have an auction area. I suggest you know what you want and see if they have it otherwise you might buy something based on price that isn't gonna meet your needs.

Cheers

Download free Linux and use a Sharpie marker to sribble something

I have something against Altec Lansing, after all they stole my name . And your absolutely right Drizzt I forgot an OS. Seeing that I've never purchased one, it was an honest mistake of mine. I'd prefer to use Linux but for a Windows user, you have the following options (and a friend told me you could get Windows 3.1 or 95... preferably 3.1.. in some places it's free, then just buy the upgrade versions of the following flavors):

Windows 98 SE $54 + Shipping (Full Version)
http://www.trustprice.com/as/product...No=MS-WIN98-2A

Windows XP Home/Pro
Windows 2000


Someone else please look at this and find prices for the others... I can't rate any of the places on experience that I haven't had and don't want to give false hopes. When I get home from work I will try and do a more comprehensive search. If anyone else is able to contribute please do, then I will add all of the list (and suggestions) and make three PC's (a low end approx $500, middle approx $550, and high end approx $600) from our components. Try to stick near the budget (i.e. replace parts with a different part ) if you would.

Lansing Kai Don

P.S. I'm with Death at the Door... Red Hat 9, or FC3, there are many flavors in Debian etc...

Red Hat + sharpie = > Dell x 2.

cheapest sytem/best sytem ive ever bought was a dell dimension 4600 for like 600$ on a 25$ a month payment plan, its 2.8ghz, 128 meg vid card( i think its a gefore or something 17 in. flat panel monitor, surround sound system dvd burner and cd rom plus an extrra 3 year warranty for an extra 200$ but they do also have cheaper system avail at or around 300-500

*edit* making your own comp is cool and all if you want to specify everything to your standards, but if you are on a budget, dell is the way to go, plus if you build your own you only get a 1 year manu. warranty on the parts and practically no tech support if you get stuck on a problem you cant fix yourself. oh and never buy a compaq, im an ex employee so i cant get into details as part of the NDA i signed but, i will say that they suck horribly, worse than all this waiting for the next BWE