Is this a decent new computer?

[diggerdog]

My wife bought me FEAR for Christmas. I can't play it because my video card is not supported. Time for a computer upgrade. I'm not a huge gamer, but would like to be able to play newer titles with decent graphics and speed. Will this do the trick? This is what I put together at HP.

COMPAQ Presario.
XP Home
Pentium 4 (3.06GHz, 533MHz FSB)
1 GB SDRAM
160 GB HD
48X max CD-RW/DVD-ROM
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 SE w/ turbo cache 256 MB support
Sound Blaster Audigy 4.
$659.99

[Sack of Chisels]

Yea, that seems pretty adequate for todays minimum gaming standards.

[Cage]

Get more Ram

[Arc Lite]

Sounds good, but I avoid Compaq. I had one once and had problems, but I don't know if they have changed much over the years.

My biggest problem was warranty was voided if you opened the case to perform your own upgrade for example.

[Voss's Tumor]

Compaqs suck a fatty.

You'd be better off if you hired a 4 year old to finger paint you a picture of a computer.

If you have to use a computer retailer, I'd go with Dell if I were you. Compaqs are notoriously shitty.

[tar_baby]

minimum?...one gig of ram?...thats more than enough

[Cage]

2 gigs of ram is a bit better just to be safe.

[Mindriot]

minimum?...one gig of ram?...thats more than enough

Not when it's SDRAM. If it was DDR RAM, it would be sufficient. But even then 2 Gig is the safest route to go.

[Cage]

You could never have enough ram.

[zagman76]

Sounds good, but I avoid Compaq. I had one once and had problems, but I don't know if they have changed much over the years.

My biggest problem was warranty was voided if you opened the case to perform your own upgrade for example.

Compaq has gotten much better since they merged with HP.

You could never have enough ram.

very true

[HumpX]

The video card isn't adequate for a game like FEAR. Further, stay away from Dell/H-P/Compaq/Gateway. They all cut corners by using garbage generic components that tend to be incompatible with parts you may want to upgrade in the future. Order it online from a site that has a customization menu like Ibuypower (http://www.ibuypower.com/mall/lobby.htm) where you can see which brand/type of parts you're getting.

video-card wise you need a minimum of either a Nvidia 6600 or ATi X700.

[TurboDan]

Because it's just THAT important, I'll reiterate what previous posters have said: you can NEVER have enough RAM!

I generally shy away from HP/Compaq/Dell, but I have to say I've had an eMachines desktop for three years and it NEVER once gave me a problem. I just bought it as an extra computer because it was such a great deal, but it turned out to be very reliable and easy to upgrade when needed. For notebooks, I've always had Toshiba.

People say Alienware is overrated, but I'd check them out. They really do make some great systems and I've heard good things about them. I'm pretty sure that will be my next computer, which I'll buy when Vista is released.

[HowardsYamBag]

New games definately benefit from having more than 1GB of RAM. ANd it will just get worse.

As for that system, nothing wrong with it, except the video card. Most modern games need FAST video cards to play properly. You want to play a game at a decent resolution, but you also want to turn on the advanced lighting effects, and anti-alisasing which is what smooths edges and gets rig of the "jaggies"...

In order to play a game like FEAR, a 7800 is a minimum IMHO. If you set the game to maximum quality, and run at only 1024x768 with 4x aliasing and 16 anisotropic filtering, you will average about 50fps, but at times it will drop into the high 20's and might get choppy.

A 6200 will average about 10 frames per second, if that. It will look like a slide show, and so you end up turning off details and loweing the image quality to keep the frames up, and then the game doesn't look anything like what it is capable of.

If you game online, the video cards becomes even more important.

Rule of thumb is that you could not buy a CPU that is too slow for gaming these days. What you want to spend your money on is the video card and extra RAM.

[Nothing Sound]

minimum?...one gig of ram?...thats more than enough


I have 1.25GB's of RAM and always want more.

I would say 1GB is the minimum standard nowadays.

[Nothing Sound]

COMPAQ Presario.
XP Home
Pentium 4 (3.06GHz, 533MHz FSB)
1 GB SDRAM
160 GB HD
48X max CD-RW/DVD-ROM
NVIDIA GeForce 6200 SE w/ turbo cache 256 MB support
Sound Blaster Audigy 4.
$659.99


eh

for a few bucks more you could have built a kick ass Dell.

[Hummercash]

my new computer only has 8gb of ram... the 16gb upgrade was an additional $9000 ;/

[Death Metal Moe]

my new computer only has 8gb of ram... the 16gb upgrade was an additional $9000 ;/

Wow, and I thought I was a Fancy Man over here with my 2 gigs of RAM.

[Screwtape]

there is no real advantage between 1gb of ram and 4gb when it comes to gaming. if you plan on source coding or graphics desinging, yes, just gaming and you are otherwise wasting your money. The mobo isnt fast enough to compute all the additional information stored on the ram being sent to your cpu, and will thus actually slow the performance of your game as your cpu has to allocate resources to process the additional information. ram is all about latency and time ratios, not size. if you plan on spending money for ram, make sure its on the video card.

[diggerdog]

Thanks for all of your input.

[HowardsYamBag]

there is no real advantage between 1gb of ram and 4gb when it comes to gaming. if you plan on source coding or graphics desinging, yes, just gaming and you are otherwise wasting your money. The mobo isnt fast enough to compute all the additional information stored on the ram being sent to your cpu, and will thus actually slow the performance of your game as your cpu has to allocate resources to process the additional information. ram is all about latency and time ratios, not size. if you plan on spending money for ram, make sure its on the video card.

Not true.

Games like FEAR, BF2 and a few others do show performance improvements when you go to 2GB.

RAM is also about size, because no matter how slow your RAM timings or latencies are, it is still 100x faster than your system having to page needed data to a HD.

2GB of *good* RAM is $200, not that much money...

[HowardsYamBag]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/13/how_much_ram_do_you_really_need/

[HockeyHelmet]

more ram =s more gooder

[HumpX]

eh

for a few bucks more you could have built a kick ass Dell.

""Kick ass Dell" is an oxymoron....

[Cage]

The Alienware 7700 by far is the best PC laptop I have used. Join the Alien Corp and get a Alienware system today.

[HowardsYamBag]

""Kick ass Dell" is an oxymoron....

Used to be that way, not any more.

Their XPS series of desktops and laptops are rated very well. Dell is really doing a good job of catering to the gaming community.

Just don't call them to order a case fan, as I seem to remember someone saying that it was a somewhat less than efficient process.

[diggerdog]

Here's what I ordered. thanks for all of input.

HP Pavilion a1350y customizable Desktop PC

– Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition
– Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 630 w/HT Technology, 3.0GHz
– 2GB DDR2-533MHz SDRAM (4x512)
– 80GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive
– 48x max. CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive (48x32x16x48x)
– 9-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394
– 3.5 in. 1.44MB Floppy Drive
– None
– 256MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce 6600, TV-Out and DVI
– Integrated 7.1 Capable Intel(R) High Def. Audio

[HowardsYamBag]

Well, everything looks great except for the video card. It is ok, but it will be the bottleneck in that system, unless you only do casual gaming.

The 6600GT is an entry-level gaming card. FIre up FEAR or some other ntense game and it will force you to use lowered settings.

Other than that, the rig is pretty good.

[diggerdog]

Well, everything looks great except for the video card. It is ok, but it will be the bottleneck in that system, unless you only do casual gaming.

The 6600GT is an entry-level gaming card. FIre up FEAR or some other ntense game and it will force you to use lowered settings.

Other than that, the rig is pretty good.
I'm hoping that I can eventually upgrade the video card. That was the best I could do w/ a system that I could afford through HP/COMPAQ/DELL and the like. I checked out ibuypower.com and alienware.com, I was a little intimidated since I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing.

[JonBenetRamsey]

I'm hoping that I can eventually upgrade the video card. That was the best I could do w/ a system that I could afford through HP/COMPAQ/DELL and the like. I checked out ibuypower.com and alienware.com, I was a little intimidated since I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing.
next time, find a nerd, befriend them and make them build you a system.

[diggerdog]

next time, find a nerd, befriend them and make them build you a system.
Hey Buddy, I have an extra pass to this weekends Star Wars convention. Wanna go? Just a couple of friends hanging out, what do ya say?
:action-sm

[HumpX]

Used to be that way, not any more.

Their XPS series of desktops and laptops are rated very well. Dell is really doing a good job of catering to the gaming community.

Just don't call them to order a case fan, as I seem to remember someone saying that it was a somewhat less than efficient process.


The XPS may have decent components but of course your paying through the nose for it and you don't get the perks and extras that you get by spending the same amount of money with a company like Falcon Northwest. The biggest difference is companies like Falcon and Alienware have experts that know what they're talking about in support and not some dot-head half a world away reading off of an itemized diagnostic script.

For the purpose of this thread though we're talking about average system specs, not uber machines and in that area Dell and the other mainstream off-the-rack companies are abysmal. Ones money can be better spent elsewhere.

[JonBenetRamsey]

Hey Buddy, I have an extra pass to this weekends Star Wars convention. Wanna go? Just a couple of friends hanging out, what do ya say?
:action-sm
only if there's a porch and rain in the forcast. :icon_mrgr

[TrybalRage]

Used to be that way, not any more.

Their XPS series of desktops and laptops are rated very well. Dell is really doing a good job of catering to the gaming community.

Just don't call them to order a case fan, as I seem to remember someone saying that it was a somewhat less than efficient process.

I love my Dell, its not the top of the line or anything but it has taken everything I have ever thrown at it - until recently anyway and even now I just need to upgrade from the 256 megs of RAM it came with. What you need to do is this -
1. Open box
2. Set up computer
3. Format hard drive and install only what you want.

Dell problems now solved. And for a great price, too!

[Cage]

Here's what I ordered. thanks for all of input.

HP Pavilion a1350y customizable Desktop PC

– Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition
– Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 630 w/HT Technology, 3.0GHz
– 2GB DDR2-533MHz SDRAM (4x512)
– 80GB 7200 rpm SATA Hard Drive
– 48x max. CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive (48x32x16x48x)
– 9-in-1 memory card reader, 3 USB 2.0, 1 IEEE 1394
– 3.5 in. 1.44MB Floppy Drive
– None
– 256MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce 6600, TV-Out and DVI
– Integrated 7.1 Capable Intel(R) High Def. Audio

You will be happy with your choice! It's a good combo.

[HowardsYamBag]

The XPS may have decent components but of course your paying through the nose for it and you don't get the perks and extras that you get by spending the same amount of money with a company like Falcon Northwest. The biggest difference is companies like Falcon and Alienware have experts that know what they're talking about in support and not some dot-head half a world away reading off of an itemized diagnostic script.

For the purpose of this thread though we're talking about average system specs, not uber machines and in that area Dell and the other mainstream off-the-rack companies are abysmal. Ones money can be better spent elsewhere.

I would disagree with regards to Dell's XPS line of PC's. They are rated very well, and with the XPS, you get to use their top tier support line that is way better than what most people are routed to.

Yes, they are pricey, but they are great machines.