I'm looking into buying a new PC sometime this year but I don't know too much about hardware so I would greatly appreciate any help offered. I want to get something mainly for gaming but nothing too expensive, the most I'm comfortable paying is $1500. Below are links for two machines I've configured on ibuypower and one from newegg. http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=224#header http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=182#header http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227068 I know very little about tech specs so if I did anything silly on the two configs above please excuse my newbishness.
You're asking at Co8, so my first comment is that any of the machines should play ToEE well. Thus the no-os $400ish or $600ish systems with 32-bit XP Home ($89 at newegg) is your best value. The $1100ish one (with Vista) is probably the *worst* machine for ToEE. At this point, I wouldn't recommend 64-bit operating systems for games (driver issues). And I don't ever recommend Vista. I haven't put together a new PC or bought many new games since about 2004, so I can't comment on your choices for other games, other than to say I'd be surprised if the $1100ish system ends up being the best value. --thearioch
My current PC runs TOEE fine. I think the more input that I get the more of an informed decision I can make so I'm asking quite a few people. I'm mainly interested in getting another computer so my GF and I can have one each and I'd like to play some other games with the graphics sliders at something other than minimum.
Then as long as you make sure you have a 512mb gfx as a minimum then you should have no problems in the next couple of years with any game. Really, all those PCs seem ok to me - I wouldn't get Vista out of principle but different strokes for different folks. And with HDs that size, it's not a problem to have two or more Operating Systems on different partitions. Personally, I'd go for one of the first two. Purely on price, and then spend the money saved on beer and cigs. The third PC is just a little too 'shiny and new' and so you're paying over the odds for component parts which will come down in price within the next 6 months.
After much consideration I've decided to go the shiny and new route. http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9108026 Still need to figure out the case, monitor, keyboard and mouse.
What OS do you plan on installing? Unless its 64-bit, it won't be able to address 4gb of ram. All in all, looks like pretty good choices.
I knew I'd forget something. Are there really any appreciable differences between the basic and premium versions of Vista?
The fundamental difference is that the cheaper versions of Vista limit what you can turn off with regards to administrator passwords activating every time you want to move a file or install something. Believe me when I say that kind of thing gets annoying fast. I'd recommend Ubuntu as a secondary OS to anyone, even if they are still running XP. It's beautiful.
Hmm, looks like good choices so far. I don't honestly think you'll see much real world benefit going Quad core instead of Dual but otherwise looks good. If you do want to go with a 64 bit OS there is of course XP64 allowing you to avoid the scourge that is Vista(can occasionly be harder to find drivers, but I've never found it a major issue). For cases I quite like Antec, best build quality in the price range. Cuchulainn.
I'm getting the quad CPU pretty much because I can. As for the case I was thinking about: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133046
