FRIEND WANTS A GAMING COMPUTER!

[Noobtastic]

My friend, wants a retail PC (No DIY)


He doesnt care if its P4, AMD...which ever runs the best


This will mainly be for Gaming.....WORLD OF WARCRAFT especially.


His Budget (Or soon to be budget) is 500-600 BUCKS!



So, what would be the best buy??


I know this may sound stupid...but my friend is desperate (I know, not desperate enough to build it himself though)


Thanks for any replys.

 

[Insomniak]

Friend wants gaming PC + Friend is poor = Friend is pretty much screwed.


You can get some decent performance for $600, but don't expect it to be mind blowing. I would recommend an Athlon 64 S939 based system with a Venice core CPU to let you OC some free performance out of there.

 

[Noobtastic]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
Friend wants gaming PC + Friend is poor = Friend is pretty much screwed.


You can get some decent performance for $600, but don't expect it to be mind blowing. I would recommend an Athlon 64 S939 based system with a Venice core CPU to let you OC some free performance out of there.

I need details....links..

 

[Stretchman]

Actually if you check many of the Sunday newpaper advertisements - Best Buy, Circuit City, Office Max, Office Depot, CompUSA, etc - there are some pretty good deals being offered on many retail brands. I've seen offerings from HP, Compaq, E-Machines, and others that look pretty decent.

Without an LCD monitor you might be able to get one of these PC's. After rebates (and some before) many of these are in the 300-600 dollar range. Just make sure the processor is AMD or Intel Pentium 4 (not celeron), the ram b/w 512-1gb, and the video is good. Graphics *might* be an issue if the default video card is rather weak, but WoW is a pretty forgiving game graphics wise, so if that's what your friend is looking for primarily then one of the brands I mentioned above should work great. Best of luck. :thumbsup:

 

[MiExStacY]

I payed 415$ for my setup and runs the game I play alot very well. everything bought from the fs/ft forum here.

evga 6600gt agp=115
amd 64 754 3000+=100
dfi motherboard=75
250gb hd=80
430 psu=45

everything else I had so add 50$

thats if you dont mind the waiting but for me was well worth it

 

[Insomniak]

Does he already have perhipherals, or does he need to purchase those too?


This is a pretty good cheap setup for just the computer itself. You can get some of these parts cheaper at places that aren't newegg, but I'm not pricehunting for you:

Mobo - Epox Nforce 4 Ultra -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123243
RAM - GeiL Value 2x512 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144310
CPU - Athlon 64 3000+ Venice - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537
Graphics - eVGA 6600GT - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130214
Case + PS - Antec Solution and 350w SmartPower - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129148
HDD - 80GB SeaGate IDE - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148029
ODD - NEC 3540 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047


All this as priced and shipped at the egg would come in at just over $700 shipped. I'm sure you can whittle that closer to $600 by watching deal sites and shopping around at other e-merchants.

Anyway, this rig would serve him very well for now and gives him a ton of room to expand pretty much any component. He's on PCI-Express and S939 so he can go all the way to top end graphics and dual core eventually if he wanted to. Good luck.

 

[mdchesne]

hmmm.. 600 max huh. i'd say a
3000+ A64, and OC it by 100-200mhz
generica mobo (msi or asus non-SLI) w/ pci-e
x800xl or 6800gt (whichever he prefers because alot of people are split between the two)
2x512mb corsair VS
80gb samsung spinpoint sata HDD
NEC dvd-r/cd-rw (~$30)
generic case (<$40)
generic keyboard (belkin = $9.99)
logitech mx510 mouse (~$20)

prices are approx. been a long time since i searched for components.

anyways, that'll last him a year or so. then he can upgrade the vid card every other year to keep up with the games.

 

[Insomniak]

Dude are you high? X800XLs are ~$250, 6800GTs are close to $300. He doesn't have budget for that kind of GPU. 6800NU or X800 maybe, midrange parts definitely.

 

[mdchesne]

Originally posted by: Insomniak
Dude are you high? X800XLs are ~$250, 6800GTs are close to $300. He doesn't have budget for that kind of GPU. 6800NU or X800 maybe, midrange parts definitely.

oh crap, yea, spaced there for a sec. , yea go 6800nu. it'll be bad, but not too bad. I would recommend he pay the extra to get the x800xl or 6800gt. he will definately notice bang for his buck

 

[mechBgon]

Given that a pre-built system is a stated prerequisite, I would look at local advertisements for a good buy on an Emachines or HP/Compaq with the onboard ATI video as a starter. Your friend can upgrade for better video later with his graduation money or whatever. If you need a tiebreaker between several systems, look at the length of the warranty.

 

[Insomniak]

Wait he's not building? Screw it then, why do I care?

 

[shabby]

Originally posted by: Noobtastic
My friend, wants a retail PC (No DIY)

Retail pc's come with integrated video cards that barely have enough power to play solitaire, he has no choice but a diy computer.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Retail blows... The quality of the parts suck, there's almost no overclocking headroom, the integrated video sucks, etc, etc... Tell him to build his own...

 

[Stretchman]

I can't believe I forgot to mention them, lol, but don't forget about Dell. They have been running some amazing deals lately on some very gameworthy machines. I think it was only two weekends ago that they were offering a Pentium 4 based (somewhere b/w 2.6 and 3.0ghz I think) Dimension desktop for a pittance.

You or your friend could go online, configure a nice base system, and then go online or retail and purchase a nice pci express midrange graphics card. That's what some of the guys @ maximum pc used to do - get dells and trick em out

 

[Pr0d1gy]

The problem with retail machines is the most expensive upgrade is the RAM, other than high end processors. He could probably find a serviceable eMachines at BestBuy with a gig of RAM and an Athlon 3200+, but he'll still need a good video card.

 

[Brentx]

Originally posted by: shabby

Originally posted by: Noobtastic
My friend, wants a retail PC (No DIY)

Retail pc's come with integrated video cards that barely have enough power to play solitaire, he has no choice but a diy computer.

Yup, you are pretty much screwed if you are going to buy a Pc from a retailer. the only option to get good performance would be to build it yourself. The Super duper Intel graphics that come with the retail PC's at that price range will hardley play 2 year old games, much less WoW. Talk him into building a PC, he will get much more for his money.

 

[Eureka]

http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T6410

$500, Athlon 64 3200+, 512 RAM, x200 card.
512mb RAM, roughly 50
x700Pro, $130

680 right there.

Norm

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Also, another bad thing about retail machines is that they use microATX motherboards, which restricts upgradeability. They just want you to keep buying new machines from them. Tell him to build his own, it'll last a long time.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Noobtastic
My friend, wants a retail PC (No DIY)


He doesnt care if its P4, AMD...which ever runs the best


This will mainly be for Gaming.....WORLD OF WARCRAFT especially.


His Budget (Or soon to be budget) is 500-600 BUCKS!



So, what would be the best buy??


I know this may sound stupid...but my friend is desperate (I know, not desperate enough to build it himself though)


Thanks for any replys.

No problem.

Dell 4700 (P4/3.0, IIRC) WITH 19" LCD monitor - $480-ish (watch www.gotapex.com every few days; the sale comes back every week or so), PCI-E, Intel chipset, etc. with full warranty, fully assembled, with legal XP Home, and no problems for you to screw with.

You then have $120 to spend on a graphics card. An ATI X700 is $80 (find the post on here or FW...one of the two)...so he'll have $40 left over for more RAM or a CPU bump.

 

[Unkno]

don't get generic keyboard, get a logitech media keyboard for 10 bucks. VERY good keyboard. Future Shop and best buy were/are selling them for 10 bucks after rebate

 

[thecrecarc]

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/highendsystem/ultra5000.asp?v=d



change the graphics to 6600gt, 633$