Help with computer please!

[AngelBoy]

OK, my computer is a POS and dad is going to buy a new one. I know he wont get a very good one so I need you guys to tell me something so I can get dell to build us one. What do I need mostly to run games like everquest, gta 3, etc... Like how much ram, how good a processer, and all that good stuff for around 1500$?

[ThePatriot]

oh man, $1500...dell would most likely be a rip off. I got my 1.6 ghz athlon w/ Geforce4 ti4400 and 256 DDR RAM, all for under 1000. You should check out http://www.abspc.com, some of their home/home office systems are very nice. They are a good company, took them about 1 week to put my computer and ship it. I dont know if your dad trusts other companys tho, however CNET gave them good ratings, and well CNET is well known.

*edit*Oh man, i didnt answer your main question, sorry...

Well, you probably need a 1.3 ghz AMD + or a 1.5 ghz pentium +

At least 256 RAM, DDR or RD preferably

Hmm, Video card wise, A geforce 4 Ti 4200,4400,4600 would be more than enough, a Geforce 3 Ti200 would be ok...a Geforce 3 Ti500 would be better, but not as good as the Ti4200. A geforce 4 MX is worse than a Geforce 3 ti500.

Thats about it, make sure it has proper cooling because you dont want your comp overheating. Here is my setup, cost me $920

1.6 Ghz Athlon
Geforce 4 ti4400
256 DDR Ram
Upgraded Case

And the usual...Ethernet card, SB Live Audio card....

[paintbattler]

i would look in magazines for some good deals on computers. u can get a 2.0 ghz for under $1000

[Miscue]

Don't get Dell or any other name brand computer.

Get an ASUS or MSI motherboard with built-in RAID.
Athlon XP chip (whichever speed is in your budget)
512 DDR
A GeForce4 variant, whichever
SB Live variant
Enermax Powersupply
Vantec or other high end CPU Fan
A good case... like an Enermax, CoolerMaster, etc.
Get two same size Maxtor 7200RPM hard drives (30GB or higher) and stripe them on your RAID controller (and max out your block size in the RAID BIOS).
And all the other stuff that's easy to pick out...

Have a shop build it and warranty it.

You don't need to spend $1500... should be under a grand. Heck, send me $1500 and I'll build and ship you a BIG NASTY computer... that Dell and those other schmucks can't do for you even if you asked. J/K... sorta.

[Havoc_online]

Geforce 3 Ti500 would be better, but not as good as the Ti4200

IMO geforce 4 doesnt to too much better than the geforce 3 ti500, the geforce 3 is still a MONSTER and will be MORE than enough to play ANY game you throw at it, plus it will be a lot cheaper than the geforce 4

[AngelBoy]

Hes set on gettin a dell. I was thinkin bout this:

Pentium4 2.2
512MB DDR SDRAM
64MB DDR GeForce4
40GB Hard drive
Then flat screen, cd writer, dvdrom, speakers, and all that good stuff.

[Miscue]

Whatever floats your boat. Spending hundreds and getting less of a computer so they can keep making "Dude!" commercials...

If stuck on Dell, not much more to say than to get what is in budget...

[ThePatriot]

Seriously, show him this, or anything, you could get one hell of a machine for $1500 but Dell is just gonna waste your money. Also, those flatpanel monitors IMO arent worth the extra hundreds of dollars, put it into the performance of the machine, rather then saving a few inches off a desk.

[AngelBoy]

My dads one of those people that gets mad when u try to offer him something new, I know hes gonna get mad just for me asking if I can do it. But the flat panel was only 50$ more, so I just put it down.

[ThePatriot]

$50? WOW, last time i checked a 17" Hitachi monitor was like 170 and a 15" flatpanel was 350....the 21" flatpanels are somewhere like $1200, i guess prices came down.

[AngelBoy]

This one was just an add-on thing, and it was on sale so thats y it was just 50.

[slateman]

Are you sore that the Video card is a 64MB GeForce4?? I didn't think they were out yet. Oh well. Make sure it is an AGP card (nVidia makes a PCI one as well, I think). Since your father seems to want to spend money see if you can talk him into upgrading to GeForce4 Ti 4400 or 4600 or even the 128MB version of the 4200. It just gives you a little peace of mind for the future.

One other thing, see if you can get a bigger (or possibly another) Hard Drive. 40 gigs sounds like alot now but you'll use it up fast, especially when you start getting mp3 and newwer games (SOF2 took up 1.3GB on my HD )

How big is your moniter?

Oh yea: Everquest is more about you internet connection speed than your machine (but having a good one helps )

Just a few thoughts.

[AngelBoy]

Thanks for the info guys.

[ThePatriot]

Yeah, but Grand Theft Auto 3 is a beast on the graphics....

Also, those brand name comps arent THAT bad anymore, they finally got with the program and realized, onboard video isnt cutting it :\. They also realized wow, if we have a 2 ghz processor 128 Mb of SDRAM isnt good enough...hmm lets use RD and DDR, i give them props, for realizing something we have known for years.

[Miscue]

Originally posted by ThePatriot
$50? WOW, last time i checked a 17" Hitachi monitor was like 170 and a 15" flatpanel was 350....the 21" flatpanels are somewhere like $1200, i guess prices came down.

No, what it means is they sell their base computer with a ton of profit margin... you already paid for 3/4 of a flat panel whether you wanted to or not!