Help! Have $500 for new PC but NEED advice for Gaming Rig!

Hiya Everybody!!

I've posted here in the past when I needed advice and it was always GREAT so I thought I'd try again. I would totally appreciate it if you could give some advice again.


I was just informed that for my Birthday I will be getting a new computer! WhoooHooo! The one that I have now ...I built almost 5 years ago and I HATE it! Plus it took a beating from Hurricane Charley and it's just not workable anymore for my games. So this is where I'm stuck.


I will be given $500 to pick out a built computer. I absolutely HATE Dell and would never buy from them again so that's not an option. I've been having a problem finding a rig for that amount of money including a monitor. So basically I need to find a decent system that is very upgradeable as I get more money here and there. All I really want for now is something that is Fast (I have a AMD 1300 and it CRAWLS & Lags!) and something with Decent graphics. I have a Geforce 4 right now and it's VERY old! The rest I can upgrade at a later time.


Soooo...I'm just gonna give this computer to my kids and work on getting a good foundation computer to build on with time. So $500 is my limit. I've found places online that lets you customize what you need and this is where I need your help. What are the absolutely MUST HAVEs to start with??? And does anybody know of a good place that sells them like that? I've been checking Gateway, Ibuypower and Alienware. I don't know of any others. And that's when I decided to ask you what parts I should absolutely put on it and what I don't need right this minute.


I would soooooooooooooo VERY MUCH appreciate any help you could offer. I want to do this right and I only have a few days to do it. It's not possible to get the money directly and buy parts and build it. Even though I'd rather do that ...I can't. So this is the only option.


Thank you so much for listening! You guys Rock!!!

 

Hi there!

Have you considered building your own computer? It is not very hard, and in some cases it comes out cheeper then buying a prebuilt system.



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Hiya~


Yes, that's what I want to do eventually but it's not possible this time. The person buying this for me as a gift wants to put it on the credit card as one sum. She lives 1300 miles away from me and wants me to find a built pc and then she'll buy it on her cc. I would rather build one but that's not an option right now and since I'm not paying for this ...I'm in no place to be demanding. Know what I mean? She just wants it already built (so there's no chance of problems) and all in one place so she only has the one shipping charge.

Like I said ...Beggers can't be choosers so I'm just happy that she's doing that. I just need to know which parts I should look for that must be included to be decent. I'm clueless.

Thanks for your suggestion and listening though.

 

Ok sounds like you have a great deal here.

Hum i would focus yor money on the processor, motherboard, and memory. This way you can have a solid system, that you can add to in the future. The newest video cards out there start at $300, so you want to wait on one.

I had a few sites that you could customize your own pc at. Ive heard there pretty reliable. Hopefully MA will post. I know he knows of some good places. Good luck with this.



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Hiya~

Thanks! Yes, could you please post those sites?? That would be AWESOME!! That's exactly what I'm looking for.

Yes, it IS a good deal. Actually, it's my mom who's doing it for my 32nd bday this month and because of all the hurricanes we've been through (we live in SW Florida) and all the devestation we've been forced to live with ...well she said that she was FORCING me to spend time on me and to give me something happy for a change. It's the nicest gift anybody has given me in a long long time. I'm very excited about it! But she doesn't have a lot of money to begin with so that is another reason why I'm not complaining about HOW she wants me to do it. I'm just happy to have it. Know what I mean??

So what are the specifics I should be looking for to pick under the building pages for the motherboard and processor? I have AMD 1300 now and I absolutely HATE it! It's slow and heats up all the time. It just sucks. But it could just be mine for all I know. So which is better to choose? AMD or Intel?? I have no clue which to pick. I just want something that doesn't lag or freeze up constantly or sticks or just loads FOREVER to get something done. I can add things to it with time but I need something that works well to begin with. I'm so tired of the hell this computer puts me through and I've tried everything over the last few years to make it run better and NOTHING works so I give up. I just want to start over. But I want to be sure I start over the right way. Know what I mean??

Anyway, thanks soooooooooo much for responding and for all of the advice. If you could post some of the reliable sites for building the computer I would be VERY appreciative. Thanks a bunch!!!

 

have you looked at this site?
you can buy parts, and i think you can buy full systems

http://www.newegg.com/

 

Im about to go to bed, so i will get some sites maybe tomorrow.

IMO AMD processors are better. They are way cheeper then pentium processors and can give you the same if not better performance.

When looking try and find a barton chip (AMD). Those start at the XP2500+ and up.

Match it with a good motherboard. Try and find one with agp8x, supports DDR Memory, and a FSB of 400Mhz. That will make it easer to upgrade in the future. Also find one with a nForce2 chipset. AMD processors run best on it. On board sound for nVidia nForce2 is really good, so dont worry about a sound card. Some good brands are, Asus, and Chantec.

Next pick good memory. OCZ, Corsair, Kingston. Get the fastest you can get. PC3200 would be great. I suggest you get 2 matching sticks of 256. This way you have a total 512MB running in dual channel.

You can go anywhere you want with a case, but make sure you have a good solid PSU. a nice 400W Antec would do nicely.

Get as much storage as you think you will need. You could go into SATA drives, but they cost more, and add money to the motherboard cost as well.

Go easy on your graphics card. If you want to play todays top games at high detail. you are going to have to spend a pretty penny. If you are just doing wordprocessing, or internet surfing, Intragraded graphics would be sufficent.

Having 2 CD, DVD, DVD-RW, drives is a good idea. You can copy discs, and back up your data. Choose what ever you will need.

I think i covered everything. If you have any other questions please ask.

Good night



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Hiya!!!


Thank YOU!!! That was PUUURFECT info!! Just what I needed!!! I've only found one site so far ...I think it's cyberpowersystem.com that lets me build. I've plugged in what you recommended and it's almost purfect!! I just need to trim off a few things. I have to stay at $500 including the monitor.

I have a question. I mainly use my pc for gaming and internet gaming. The graphics card I have now is a Nvida Geforce 4 and is very old! I want to upgrade a little bit with that ..not too much cuz I don't have that kind of money yet ...but I want better than in board graphics. I'm a nvidia person but I heard that one of the cards in the line that came out was a waste of money but I can't remember which one. What would you recommend for an upgrade under $50 for the card??

I don't need a lot of storage so I can go easy with that. The pc I have now copies cd's and has 120 gig drive. So I don't need that on the new one too. I keep plugging away and I still get around $581 so I need to continue to shave things off.

But my biggest concerns are speed and graphics. What would recommend in that price range? And if you know of any other sites that would be awesome too!!

Thank you sooooooo very much!! I really REALLY appreciate it!! You are AWESOME!!!

 

I wouldnt reccomend purchasing any graphics card under $50. None of them would be noticably better then what you have now. I would switch your Gforce4 card you have now into this computer, and save up a couple of months for a way better card. If you look hard enough you can find a 9800Pro for $160 after rebates. Anything lower will not give you decent performance on todays games, or especially the futures. Infact i upgraded my video card from a 9800Pro to a 6800 just two weeks ago.

What kind of gaming are you into. If it is mostly just a few older favorits, and some internet gaming, then the card you have now would be just fine. If you want to play games like, Halo, BattleField, Doom3, and Half Life 2, you are deffinitly going to need a way better card. Starting at the $160 range.

I had a few sites that you could customize computers in but i seem to have misplaced them. I believed one of them is the one you listed. Ill keep looking for them tonight. I have so much to go though.

Ohh yes...The card that is a wast of money would be the Nvidia 6600. It is toned down a lot from the 6800.



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Quoting for goodness of this post Also, what Geforce 4 do you got? It's gotta be an MX as any TI's would be fine now.

 

Hiya!

Thanks so very much for that advice! The graphics card I have now is a GeForce2 MX 400...so you think I should just keep that? The type of gaming I'm into is like The Sims 2 and Syberia and most adventure games. I'm not into the shooters. I'm a quester type gamer.

So which card should I save for that will cost around $160? It's by Nvidia, right?

Ok I'm gonna take all the specifics you named earlier and order them on the custom built computer at Cyberpowerinc.com and get that. I might be able to cover the extra few bucks myself.

So just to be sure ...the advice you gave earlier with the motherboard and processor will be faster than what I have now ...right? I should be happy with it, correct? I just hope it works better than what I have now. Ok ..thanks again sooooooo much!!! I'm off to plug in those specs and I'll check back to see what you say about the future Video card I should get. I can't thank you enough!! You ROCK!!!

By the way ...these are some of my specs of the crappy pc I have now:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition
System Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
System Model: MS-6330
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) processor, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.3GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Page File: 323MB used, 926MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Video: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400

 

Have you played Sims2 with your card yet? If you have, it would be the best to save up untill you can make a major jump. If you look around really hard you can find a Radeon 9800Pro, starting at 160 after mail in rebates. I have seen it at its cheepest out right of $170. Also as time goes on the prices will go down as well.

You should see a nice boost in performance. Especially when you get a new graphics card.

This system will be built to last a long time.

Thanks, it feels good to be complimented.



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Okies...



Here's what I configured at cyberpowerinc.com ...what do you think?? Will it be better than what I have now? Will I notice a difference in speed? I used all of your suggestions and did my best to keep the price down. Is this right??

I appreciate it so much ..all the help you're giving me! Thank you!!

Turbo X-Infinity 420W Case (BLUE)
AMD Athlon XP-2600+ Processor
ASUS A7N8X-X nVidia nForce-2 400 FSB 8X AGP w/ USB2.0, LAN, &; AUDIO
512MB (256MBx2) PC3200 DDR400 Dual Channel (Major_Brand) (GEIL VALUE RAM) MAXTOR 40GB 7200 RPM ATA 133 - Hard Drive
ATI RADEON 9200 SE 8X AGP 128MB DDR W/ TV-OUT & DVI
CD/DVD CD-RW 52X32X52 (BLACK)
ELEMENT 17inch .27 MM SVGA MONITOR
3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

 

Hiya!


Yes, I have played Sims 2 with the card I have now and it looks nice. It's just that everything lags and is sooooooooo SLOW! Or it skips or freezes. I have to play with the least settings and I can't have too many objects or it just drags so slowly that it takes a full minute to get the camera to turn all the way around. I hate it!! I've been having problems with this pc for the last 2 years and I've replaced almost all the parts and have done endless hours of tweaking. I just think it's old. I'm so ready for a newer pc. I configured one with your advice and I'm totally excited about it. Especially if it's even a little better than the crap I have now! LoL!

I will check back later to see if you have any more suggestions on that configuration.

You are da Chit man!! You have no clue how much I needed this advice and how easy you've made it for me. Thanks a bunch! (I can't say it enough)

 

No problem i love to help.

Everything you configured looks great. You will deffinitly see a speed bost. Hope it all works out for you.



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