I'm sure you all hate these, but I have ~$600 to spend and have no desire to build my own computer. I do not need a monitor, need a machine capable of playing games like HLII and DoomIII in 1200x1024, and plan on using it as an HTPC (so being able to record HD material would be a plus but not a deal breaker, I would buy the capture card later). What do you all think of this: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51139&item=2789024187 + an upgrade to a Geforce FX5600? I plan on buying tonight if possible so any suggestions to a better machine would certainly be welcome. Thanks.
Newbie, need advice on buying new computer...
- Thread starter BabaBooey
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It's a cheaper card, will performance be better, or at least similar? What do you think of everything else on the computer? Also, looking on newegg, there are quite a few different types of the same card at different prices. Should I check with the guy on what type of the 9600 it is?
BxSlipSk8718
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Dude its and intel for all of that you might as well buy a dell lol build your own pc and use a amd type system go with a asus nforce 2 mobo pretty cheap on newegg and the nvidia 5700 or 5600 ultra then the amd 2500+ stay away from the intel bug also the amd cpu is waayyyyy better for gamming than intel :-D
Apokalipse
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that's just like your other thread! there is nothing wrong with Pentium 4's, and have you seen their price drop lately? they have performed better than AMD Athlon XP's, the Athlon64's outperform the P4's now, but are more expensive so BxSlipSk8718, stop bashing Intel's price if AMD have MORE expensive CPU's.
you will see more performance on a Pentium 4 2.6GHZ than on an AMD Athlon XP 2500, and you will probbably have it longer before you upgrade. the AMD 2500 is good for most games, but you should go with the Pentium 4
the reviews are all in favour of the Radeon 9600's, it's probbably not worth getting one with 256MB but 128 is still plenty to play HL2 and Doom 3.
you will see more performance on a Pentium 4 2.6GHZ than on an AMD Athlon XP 2500, and you will probbably have it longer before you upgrade. the AMD 2500 is good for most games, but you should go with the Pentium 4
the reviews are all in favour of the Radeon 9600's, it's probbably not worth getting one with 256MB but 128 is still plenty to play HL2 and Doom 3.
yep the 9600 XT with 128 of ram would be your best bet. Stay away from NVidia cards if you want to play HL2, thay don't even reach 30 FPS cept the 5900 Ultra. Also, you're out of luck with the HD encoding, it is not something current video cards are capable of. ATI just anounced that the next gen of cards with PCI Express interface with be able to, but those won't be out for a little bit, and will require a new Mobo that has PCI-E. The intel CPU is good, but the RAM they're pushing is junk, you will want to upgrade to 2 sticks of 512 running at 400 MHz.
air_man_woody
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defintely go for the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra, it romps ATI 9600 Pro/XT in all areas, or go to tigerdirect.com and check out the PNY GeForce FX 5900 for $200
air_man_woody
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besides, ATI only gets better performance cuz they don't use 32 bit color, they use 24 bit.....cheaters..lol
Not to start a flame war, but NVidia doesn't have the most stellar history of accurate graphics rendering. The 24 bit color doesn't effect graphics and greatly improves performance. As far as the 5700, it does perform well, on par with the 9600, however, as you expressed interest in HL2 be warned it doesn't perform nearly as well as the 9600 in the benchmarks Valve released.
The Merlin
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BabaBooey said:
I'd say thats a pretty decent PC right there
With a few upgrades that a good PC. I'd get a ATI 9600XT or possibly a 9800 Pro, both around $200 Forget what these guys say, it's hard to build a PC like you want for $600
The CPU is good, the HD is good, the mobo is iffy, the RAM is adequate, so all you need really is a monitor(17"'s are pretty decent priced) and a GFX card and your pretty good
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