Computer Purchasing Question.

Okay, due to a new job with much higher pay than my last one I can now afford a computer within a few weeks. I would really like to get one of my own instead of the person who I live with for my own games, music etc. etc. So I was walking around wal-mart and for ----s and giggles decided to check out the computers. I decided I didn't want a dell right off the bat because all of them have intel integrated graphics chips and etc. So then I came upon this acer, and here are the specs which I have to say is pretty impressive for something from wal-mart

AMD Athlon II X2 255 Dual-Core Processor (2M Cache, 3.1 GHz, 4000 MHz System Bus)

4GB DDR3 Memory

1 TB SATA Hard Drive

DVD+/- RW Super Multi Format Dual Layer

Ports/ Connectors (9 USB, HDMI, and VGA)

Gigabit Ethernet LAN

High Definition Audio

Nvidia Geforce 9200 Graphics Card

and a Multi-in-1 card reader.

Now to me this sounds like one good computer for the games I'd like to run (SH4, 5, BF2, Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, etc etc.) But I'm not sure which is why I have come to ask your opinion. If Acers happen to be just bad computers or whatever else I should be looking out for.

The Model Number is AX3400G-U4802 I believe.

Thanks Guys!!

Casey

[the_tyrant]

the graphic card is quite bad
can you tell me how much your willing to spend? I might be able to find you a better deal

Originally Posted by the_tyrant

the graphic card is quite bad
can you tell me how much your willing to spend? I might be able to find you a better deal

well It said its 390 so lets jsut say 400 for now, I also saw that I could upgrade the graphics card and or ram instead osomething else which i may go as a toute instead??

[Sailor Steve]

My suggestion would be to get as much advice as possible from here, then go to Walmart.com, specifically this page http://www.walmart.com/ip/Build-Your...ng-PC/15374646

You can have them build exactly the one you want, then they'll ship it to your home, or, if you want to save shipping and live near a Wal*Mart, they'll ship it to the nearest store for free.

[Arclight]

Try to find something where you can select every component yourself. Pre-assembled systems (almost) always have hidden flaws, most commonly a power supply that couldn't be trusted to power a flashlight.

(seriously, #1 money-saver for them. The last thing you want to skimp on, the first one they do skimp on)

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

My suggestion would be to get as much advice as possible from here, then go to Walmart.com, specifically this page http://www.walmart.com/ip/Build-Your...ng-PC/15374646

You can have them build exactly the one you want, then they'll ship it to your home, or, if you want to save shipping and live near a Wal*Mart, they'll ship it to the nearest store for free.

wow no way?? I had no clue that this was available, Im going to see how much it will cost me!!

And Thank you arclight, that is good to know. So what happens if say you get a cheap power supply in a computer?? It ends up crapping out quicker than most or what?

But as far as price range, 400-600 would be fine for me thats without a monitor too just the hardware

EDIT: Well it looks like the Walmart build your own is out for me. I like the option and all, but it just costs too much. 800 Dollars with adding 8 gb of ram, and everything else normal, I hadn't gotten into the graphics card yet, and I cant choose EVERY component so my idea is to A get the computer I listed and just upgrade the ram and graphics card (i read someone did that to that computer when they bought it off of reviews) which would be way cheaper, I could probably deal with the crappy power supply for now. Or wait until I get some real money saved up and get a computer where I can choose every single piece that goes inside of the tower.

On that note, what are good processor mother boards? Graphics cards, Disc Drive speeds, and etc to get for gaming computers?? I mean what would be the baseline you reccomend, and what makes the most difference. I know RAM is a big one so I'm planning on getting at least 8 gigs if I can. And what kind of power supply should I be looking for to use for a gaming computer as well?

EDIT # 2: I found on that page a list of gaming computers they build and found one for 399 without monitor that comes with the following

Okay, I noticed they had bundled packages already made for ALOT cheaper than what it would have cost to build on the site, seriously half the price.

I found this one for 399 without monitor
iBUYPOWER Gamer Power Desktop PC, WA500D3:

Key Features and Benefits:

AMD Athlon II X2 250 processor
3.00GHz, 2MB L2 Cache

4GB DDR3 system memory
Gives you the power to handle the most power-hungry applications and tons of multimedia work

500GB SATA II hard drive
Store 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs or 268 hours of HD video and more

24x multi-format dual-layer DVD burner
Watch DVD movies on your computer; read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats

10/100/1000 Ethernet
Connect to a broadband modem or a wired broadband router with wired Ethernet

ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics
With 512MB dedicated graphics memory
iBUYPOWER Gamer Power Desktop PC, WA500D3 Additional Features:
6 x USB 2.0 ports, 2 x PS/2 ports, 5 x audio jacks, 1 x D-Sub, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x COM port, 1 x LPT port
1 x PCI Express x16 slot, 1 x PCI Express x1 slot, 2 x PCI slots; 4 x external 5.25" drive bays, 6 x internal 3.5" drive bays
8-channel high-quality audio
Gamma Gaming Tower chassis
Software:
Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition (To learn more about the features of Windows 7, click here)
Support and Warranty:
1-year parts and labor warranty with lifetime technical support
Restore discs are no longer included with PCs. We recommend you use the installed software to create your own restore and backup DVD the first week you use the computer.

Out of the reviews I read, they said that to play todays games on high settings, an upgrade of the Graphics Card is needed, one guy said he picked up 4670 for 70 bucks (He said his windows 7 graphics score went from 3.5 to 6.7

And that same guy also said the PSU was 480 Watts, I dont know if this is good or not for a computer.

The ram is also expandable to 8gb memory too which I think I would like to get, I have 4 in this system now and it runs pretty well but Im sure 8 would turn it into a beast.
---------------

I also found this one for 468 without a monitor

iBUYPOWER Gamer LAN Warrior WA524D3 Desktop PC:
AMD Athlon II x3 440 (3.0GHz)

4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory (expandable to 8GB)

Gives you the power to handle most power-hungry applications and tons of multimedia work
1TB SATA hard drive

Store 666,000 photos, 285,000 songs or 526 hours of HD video and more
24x DL DVD /-RW Drive

Watch movies, and read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats
10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN

Connect to a broadband modem with wired broadband router with wired Ethernet
ATI Radeon HD 5450 Graphics

With 1GB of memory

Additional Features:
6 x USB 2.0 ports, 1 x D-Sub port, 1 x COM port, 5 x audio jacks, 1 x PS/2 keyboard, 1 x PS/2 mouse, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x eSATA port, 1 x LPT port
1 x PCI Express (x16) slot, 1 x PCI Express (x1) slot, 2 x PCI slots, 2 x external 5.25" bays, 2 x external 3.5" bays, 2 x internal 3.5" bays
Software:
Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Edition (To learn more about the features of Windows 7, click here)
Backup and Restore options built into Windows allows you to create safety copies of your most important personal files, so you're always prepared for the worst
Support and Warranty:
1-year parts and labor warranty with lifetime technical support
Restore discs are no longer included with PCs. We recommend you use the installed software to create your own restore and backup DVD the first week you use the computer.

Not sure on what the PSU wattage is but the one review I read said that out of the box he plays and runs Black Ops on max settings without any FPS drops without problems (He turns shadows off though)

Another guy bought it and plays a game called iRacing.com and says he plays it on all medium settings with 60fps constant and 140fps on all low settings no problem.
Can I get some more opinions guys?? Im actually really excited about this lol

[kurt250]

please, i'm new at this. i want to be able to play silent hunters 5 on a desk top computer. the computer will be for gaming only and not connected to the internet. what would be a good computer to buy. please keep it simple and to the point. i don't need a bunch of letters that mean nothing to me. just a good solid computer that i can play on without having to take a corse in computer science. thank for any info. kurt250

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by kurt250

please, i'm new at this. i want to be able to play silent hunters 5 on a desk top computer. the computer will be for gaming only and not connected to the internet. what would be a good computer to buy. please keep it simple and to the point. i don't need a bunch of letters that mean nothing to me. just a good solid computer that i can play on without having to take a corse in computer science. thank for any info. kurt250

Welcome at subsim boards!

Do not buy factory installed ready-to-use systems (often you pay more than you need, and while some installations may be killer systems, others may offer lower prices by including one or two foul eggs), but find a good shop where the dealer is trustworthy and willing to spend some time talking with you. He will help you find components matching the following details, and will put them together for you:

Generally: do not buy the newest and latest supercool stuff. It is overpriced. For your purpose, a solid "ordinary" machine sounds good enough, you do not need the cool supertoy for 2500 bucks.

CPU: look for a good deal on an Intel i5. This core has the best bang-for-the-buck ratio, imo. And some of its incarnations deliver as good a performance than much more expensive i7 cores.

RAM: 6-8 GB with Windows 7. Maybe really 8 GB to be totally safe, due to the low costs for memory.

Yes, go with Windows 7.

GFX: I would pick an nVidia GFX5600 with 1 GB, something in that range. Very good perfoamnce again for a reasonable price. It is hilarious what some people are willing to pay for just 5% more in performance. Sometimes people pay as much for a gfx card like they pay for the rest of the system.

Choose a solid power unit, this is often underestimated. With a config like above, a 750W will have you on the safe side. Power units degrade slightly over time, so you want a little reserve there, that's why 750W. It should keep you safe also when your system maybe runs at maximum performance, with all four cores and the gfx at 100%. Could happen in graphic-intensive games which are optimised for multiple cores. Noise level can be a concern. The more silent, the more expensive. Ask your dealer for a good opportunity.

HD: Choose a good brand, Samsung or Western Digital, they are silent and reliable. Size: they are beyond good and evil already, so choose the size for the selected model that gives you the lowest price. That must not be the smallest capacity! Prices are linked to production numbers, and people do not want the small ones anymore. So: smaller production numbers, translating into higher costs. I have a 1TB-drive. But only around 250 GB are used.

DVD drive: it pays off to not choose the cheapest there. The cheap ones more often run into problems with CDs/DVDs, and tend to be noisy and producing irritating sounds letting you think they are broken.

Take care the mainboard has sufficient number of USB ports. Cannot hurt if two of these are already 3.0 standard. But you do not want them all to be 3.0, if you use some older hardware (joysticks, digital camera!), it may not like 3.0 The compatibility is given in theory, but reality looks different with USB 3.0. If you must/want to buy a USB hub, always buy one with a separate power supply.

If you want or need USB sticks as storage media, Transcend imo offers some very good sticks that are both fast and solid for a reasonable price, I mean the Transcend Jetflash 600 series, and these are USB 2.0. I have several of these in use, with 8, 16 and 32 GB. They also have 3.0 sticks now, but I have not tried them.. With USB sticks, the differences in quality are immense, mostly effecting longevity, and write-/read speed. - More comfortable than DVD for sure to do the occasional data backup.

Consider to plan for a separate HD plus system image software. Your best insurance in case of an infection. You set up your system, tweak all details, then make an image. If you have security breaches or infections, NEVER repair them, but either reinstall - or format and copy back an image from a separate drive. Just takes you 1-2 hours when the machine works all alone, afterwards you just need to defrag again could take time), and then you have a clean machine without needing to do any manual installation and tweaking again, just copy back data backups that saw updates since the image has been recorded.

If linking to the web, always use a payware full security suite (firewall+antivir) plus a second suite designed to run along an antivir and specialising in detecting malware that antivir usually does not pick up. Be paranoid when going online, keep options of browsers as tight and sealed as possible for your needs.

A system solution like I suggest can be done for less than 900 Euro over here (Germany, my last experience from Spring last year when I put together a new rig).

WOW, did my thread get hijacked! Lol!!

Well good news, my laptop came in today.

Ordered the Asus G55VW-ES71 comes with a 2.3 GHz i7, 8 Gb of RAM and a nVidia GTX660M. Just booted her up and Im very impressed so far, solid built rig on the outside. Oh forgot to mention I ordered 2 1600mHz 4Gb Corsair RAM sticks and plugged them in (They were cheap).

So far Im impressed, other than this massive bloatware I dont like, but I will find a way to get rid of it. As of right now I have it connected to my TV via HDMI and its sweet to look at, love it. Time to work on mods and SH5 finally to see how she handles her. Ill let you all know

Cheers,

Casey