Help me with buying new computer before I screw up... (1 Viewer)

[Frank Grimes]

My old Gateway is dead so it's time to get a new computer. I definitely don't plan on buying from them again as it caused me nothing but trouble, so looking into Dell upon advice from knowledgeable friends. I'm looking to spend $400-500. There's one up right now for $399 on the deals page that looks good, but has an integrated video card. I plan on doing some gaming on the machine and using it as an HTPC, so should I wait until a better deal comes up for a machine with a better video card, or buy this one and purchase a card seperately? Thanks...

 

[SethH]

Check to see if it has an AGP slot for a video card. If it only has PCI you might want to wait. If it has AGP, I'd go ahead and get it and buy an AGP card for it. Oh, and price might be a constraint, but get a P4 over a Celeron if you can. Even if the clock speed is lower you'll get better performance.

 

[Max Leung]

Try to get a PC with at least 512 megabytes of RAM. It doesn't matter how fast the CPU is if it is starved for memory, and Windows XP is a pig! I find games run best with 512megs too...

 

[Frank Grimes]

So no on the Dell? Should I try eBay? I'm really just trying to get the most out of $500, don't need a monitor, don't need a huge hard drive. How about something like this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=51139

It has a 4x AGP, and I see 8x mentioned fairly often. Is 4x no good? Please contribute any suggestions, I need to get a new computer ASAP, preferably ordering tomorow...

 

[SethH]

That one looks pretty good, but realize that it doesn't have an OS on it, so unless you have a copy available that might add a significant cost to your computer. I don't think the Dell would be a terrible machine at all, but I think you might get bitten by the upgrade bug soon.

Oh, and 4xAGP is better than PCI, just make sure to get a 4x card and not an 8x one.

 

[SethH]

Check this one out. There are several more like it too. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. It still has the built-in graphics, but has an 8x slot and it comes with the OS.


Click Here