Need help with secret plan
By
Bright Shadow,
Posted on: 2009-06-22 09:36 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
You'll need to more stringently define "easily and seamlessly upgraded"
At $300, it's almost possible to get the barest guts of a decent rig, but the amount of upgrading that you would need to do in order to get it up to par would not be neccesarily be considered "easy" or "painless" IMO.
Just how much work are you prepared to do in order to turn your $300 webstation into a halfway decent gaming rig?
Furthermore, it would be helpful for you to give a general idea just how much upgrading you have in mind in the first place.
What level of performance will you accept?
By seemless and easy, I'd like to have it stay plug and play upgrades. Video card, ram and HD are the only things that I am aware are plug-n-play. Not sure about processors.
I'd like to avoid motherboard changeout since it would require a new installation of the OS.
I'd suppose I could go $700 after the first $300 is spent.
Buy a good case, Motherboard and power supply, run the old rig next to it while you buy other parts.
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Wow. That's all I say.
I have a 400dollar laptop, HP Presario >.>
It runs CoX just fine.
But I play for real on my Desk Top >.>
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To make a PC that is upgradeable for a long time, you need two things (assuming you have enough power from your Power Supply to feed the extensions):
1. A good, top of the line Motherboard.
2. A good Case.
A good motherboard can easily be over $300.
If you raise your budget to $400, you'll have a lot better chances. And we're not even talking about the CPU yet, which is the most expensive part before Graphics Card.
But if you really wanna stick to your budget, here's a Motherboard I'd recommend:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296
It's an Asus P5Q-E. I'm currently using the motherboard, and it's absolutely fantastic. It has great room for extensions, a fantastic support for a wide array of products, room for maximum of 16 GB of RAM, and it's a trusted brand.
Edit:
I just re-read the forum, stumbled upon this:
[ QUOTE ]
I'd like to avoid motherboard changeout since it would require a new installation of the OS.
[/ QUOTE ]
It's heavily recommended to install a new OS when you do any major upgrades (like changing the motherboard/CPU).
[ QUOTE ]
What I want to do is spend $300 on a new desktop and then over time secretly upgrade it.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's gong to be tricky at best. You may want to start by looking at the FatherXmas $600 system. You can drop the RAM down to one stick of 1 GB, and go with a really cheap video card, as both are easy to upgrade later.
Newegg currently has a discounted open-box NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS for $23, which should actually be marginally playable.
However, that only gets you down to about $400, not counting shipping. That system would actually play CoH (although not smoothly, but there are people playing on worse). Spending any less than that initially will cause you to spend *more* later, as you're basically buying an entire second (better) computer on the installment plan.
While I'm not sure I approve of the subterfuge angle... if you do, make sure you get a case you're happy with and can handle whatever you eventually want to do with it, because that's the one piece you'll probably not be able to upgrade on the sly 
Social engineering may be your best bet here. Try selling on the fact that $400 - $450 gets you a basic, solid piece of equipment that can be inexpensively upgraded and should last for several years. $300 gets you basically junk that you're stuck with. (In fact, in that price range I'd seriously consider getting a nice netbook rather than a terrible desktop.)
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Check out HP and Dell for refurbished desktops.
Also, what do you have that can be pirated into your $300 system?
If you have most of the basics covered, and can build your own rig, try newegg.com for the parts.
<QR>
My recommendation, if possible, is to save the $300 until you have another $300 or so to add to it.
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"Hey about this new computer. I've been doing some reseach because I really don't want to make a mistake with this.
Anyway, I spoke to some of the tech guys at work and it was really interesting hearing the problems they have to fix. Most of it comes down to poor products failing after a few months. They get a lot of calls when something going wrong as someone tries to fix or upgrade the cheap part that went wrong.
Basically with what we're looking to spend, we're going to be struggling to avoid low end parts that aren't going to last. So we're going to wind up paying AGAIN in three to six months time.
And THEN we risk something else breaking when we change the bit we need to fix. It's not easy to change some of these bits; change the motherboard and you're looking at a whole new reinstall. Backing up all your photos and documents etc. Ugh.
Anyway, had one guy recommended <this> system. It's a bit more than we wanted to spend but he says he's had a similar one for 18 months so far with no problems.
Bit of a strech I know but it's reliable and I don't want to have to pay another $200 in two months time. Plus I really don't want to lose all our personal stuff.
What do you think, go for the cheapy and risk having to replace it or go a little bit better and get the good quality stuff?"
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Alternatively break out your own cash and just ADD to the $300.
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So heres my situation. My wife has approved me to spend $300 on a new desktop. As you know, a $300 system is not likely to run CoX very well.
What I want to do is spend $300 on a new desktop and then over time secretly upgrade it.
Any ideas on a budget desktop that for $300 can surf the web well and do some MS Word/Excel right out of the box But then over a period ot 6-12 months, be easily and seamlessly upgraded to be a great gaming system?