City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

getting a new computer

Cade Lawson

By Cade Lawson,
Posted on: 2010-02-15 02:33 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

i am going to be purchasing this computer:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=9701146
on the 26th. how well do you guys think it will run with ultra mode? what else could i do to upgrade this comp? or if i should get a even better comp. the comp cant cost more than 1 grand. but i can spend more on upgrades, let me know. thanks

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by deadlydemoncoh View Post
i am going to be purchasing this computer:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pav...&skuId=9701146
on the 26th. how well do you guys think it will run with ultra mode? what else could i do to upgrade this comp? or if i should get a even better comp. the comp cant cost more than 1 grand. but i can spend more on upgrades, let me know. thanks
Unless I'm quite mistaken, the card in that rig doesn't meet the minimum requirements for Ultra Mode. (See: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2544-7.html).

I took a quick glance at what it's offering, and I'm having a hard time saying "It's worth that price". Personally, I think you can do better, especially if you're willing to assemble it yourself. I would suggest you start with FX's $600.00 rig and use your remaining $400.00(ish) budget space to bring up the performance - wouldn't be a terrible way to go.

If you're more comfortable buying a pre-fabbed machine, I think there are probably better retailers for it than Best Buy, and certainly better manufacturer's than HP (particularly for gaming). Take a few minutes and have a look at the (numerous) recent, VERY recent, threads on this same sort of topic - I recall them being quite full of vendor options for just this thing.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
Sorry a GT 220 isn't even close to a 9800 GT in performance.
cant i just replace the video card thats in it with a better one?

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by deadlydemoncoh View Post
cant i just replace the video card thats in it with a better one?
Depends. Does Bestbuy offer anything else with that machine? If not, then you'd be paying -even- more; buying the machine you linked to, then buying -another- graphics card. That would be a sad sad thing. >.>

 

Posted

What a horribly overpriced machine. Looking at the other specifications (not even the video card) is enough to push me away from this machine. Best Buy is notorious for selling highly overpriced machines. In this case, you most certainly do not get what you pay for.

I took the liberty of doing a quick search on Newegg for similar specifications. As you can see, the quality is a lot higher on some of the products (Especially the video card) and the price is cheaper. Note: I didn't bother to check if it was all compatible for the most part, just did some quick poking around for general prices.

Assuming you don't have a case: MicroATX case with 585W PSU - $66.99
Assuming you don't have a burner and or don't plan to use your old one: Cheap LiteOn DVD Burner - $26.99
Motherboard: MSI AMD3 Motherboard with DDR3(Compatible with AMD Phenom II) - $79.99
CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Quad Core - $149.99
RAM: 4x2GB sticks for a total of 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM - $212.99
Hard Drive: Hitachi 1TB Sata 3.0Gb/s 7200rpm - $89.99
Video Card (Which we know will run Going Rogue at the very least with middle settings): XFX Geforce GTX 260 896MB DDR3 RAM - $214.99

Grand total (Without shipping): $841.93 Edit: I took the liberty of adding the zip code for your location and the grand total with shipping is $873.44

So in the end you're saving a little under $100 and you're getting a WAY better video card AND you're left with room to play (upgrade components before you buy or add an OS if you need to).

Speaking of OS. Adding Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM to the price, with shipping your total comes to: $978.43. So in essence, you're paying $30 for a graphics card that runs circles around the one in that HP. That Best Buy price isn't even including taxes....

You can of course reuse some of your old stuff as well to bring the price down. There's nothing wrong with reusing a HD that's working fine, or an optical drive that's working fine. Hope this helped you with a bit of perspective



We'll see....

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
To bad about his $1000 limit, the $1050 Dell at Best Buy from the other thread quite the powerhouse in comparison.

Nice That's not a bad machine for someone who wants a pre-built. Personally, I won't buy pre-built machines. The GPU in that is quite nice as well.



We'll see....

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Father Xmas View Post
To bad about his $1000 limit, the $1050 Dell at Best Buy from the other thread is quite the powerhouse in comparison.
if i do build my own comp i wouldnt know whats good or bad. im not good at putting them together. i COULD go over the $1000 limit but then i would have to wait a little while longer to be able to purchase a new computer.