OK, I want the cheapest possible gaming PC. HL2 WoW Farcry etc. are calling my name. My current thought is to hit up CyberPowerSystem.com for a $550 AMD 64 machine.
Specs would be 512/80/ AMD 64 2800/ dvdrom/ geforce 128 with tv out/ nvidia mobo
So, does anyone know of a place that could built this sort of system for $500 or under? I’d rather not build it myself, if possible…
I’m just looking for a link, here.
Edit:cyberpowersystem.com. Sorry, the s at the end of systems fucked up the original post.
Yeah, don’t buy any graphics cards labled “MX”. No matter how tight your budget is, if you’re building a gaming PC, you’ll be really disappointed to skimp on the graphics card. You don’t have to go top of the line, but pretty much any graphics card under $100 is trash, especially if you plan to play the games you listed.
I am building a computer for my grandmother, who doesn’t game, but I visit often, so I’d like it to be capable of entertaining me. I’ve found this thread to be very helpful; thanks for the link to cyberpower!
By the way, looks like they’re having a special on certain systems through May 30th.
What strikes me as odd is that the Athlon-64 processor systems turn out to be cheaper than the comparable P4 systems.
Is there some kind of voodoo scariness involved with a 64-bit system that I, the future admin of the machine, will have to worry about? Should I go for it and hope she appreciates having a 64-bit bus? Would it require a 64-bit operating system to function well?
Install a 32-bit OS for compatibility (you don’t want to worry about getting
the one soundcard that works etc.), and you’ll have a faster system than
same clock frequency <insert any pre-64-bit AMD CPU>. Risk a 64-bit
OS for access to “64-bit magic” and larger registers for a tad more oomph.
Coupled with a cheap GeForce (Ti+ or FX5900+), it’ll be a pretty nice
all-round system. Get a socket 939 based if you can get it cheap.
(Socket 939 has twice the memory bandwidth - Intel’s best did only
manage a measly 4 gigabytes per second in an Anandtech test, while
AMD64 S939 could push 6 gigs, which is close to the theoretical 6.4GB/s.
Not that grandma will ever appreciate the difference, but if you’re going to
use it…big numbers feel good :) )
I’ve bought two systems from cyberpower with almost no issues. You just have to know what your ordering there because the amount of options they give can be overwhelming.
I agree that one should avoid anything labelled “MX”, but am more careful about that price limit. I’ve got an AMD64-3200 with 1Gb and can run everything at great frame rates at 1024x768 resolutions: HL2, Doom3, FarCry, etc. However, my video card is a three year old Radeon 9500 Pro with 128 megs. It certainly isn’t top of the line, but he’s building a budget box and this card runs $100 on pricewatch even now. He could cut it down another $20 if he’s willing to have only 64 megs in it (although that would drastically affect performance in modern games).
I had a good experience with Monarch Computer, although their delivery estimation time was a little “optimistic.” (I think my computer was a week or two late.) Nonetheless, I had a memory problem three months later, and they handled that well. And like gnmarsh said about cybercomputers, you need to know what you want, cuz there’s a bajillion options.
I haven’t had the chance to play with any pc’s since they hit the gigahertz level. Are there still issues with motherboard components fighting with pci and agp stuff? On-board video on one of those nVidia cheapo motherboards gonna conflict with the agp slot? What about sound.
And Am I gonna be safe with buying a machine with no floppy? Can PC’s actually boot off of CD/DVD drives now?
