Cheap gaming PC for CoH: Worth it?
By
Father Xmas,
Posted on: 2010-08-02 24:41 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs
What kind of budget?
Track down FatherXmas's posts, look at his ... $600 or $700 machine. Are you looking at "snappy" or "snappy in ultra mode?" We can track down a $600 machine - or a machine with a video card that costs $600 on its own, after all. 
This the laptop you're talking about?
That's the big question, what do you consider to be "cheap"? What do you consider to be a "smooth" frame rate?
Of course saying it will be driving a 1920x1200 monitor will make any inexpensive system seem poor if your plan is to run all games at that resolution.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
Quote:
Yup, that one. On the highish end for my planned budget, but the no-payments-for-two-years thing works well (I did some work that I'm going to get paid for between now and then).|
Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
This the laptop you're talking about?
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"Smooth" to me mostly means a pretty steady 30+fps. That does indeed do it, whether or not I set FSAA to 4x or 8x, at least on the built-in screen. Haven't hooked it up to the Big Monitor yet because I haven't got the right cable handy.
It amuses me that it took me several hours longer just to get this machine up and running and basically secured than it did to get my Linux install working and basically debugged. Otherwise very nice machine, but the ASUS "restore DVDs" are useless -- they can restore only onto a drive of the same size as the drive it came with, so you can't use them to reload on an SSD. Eventually found a clever workaround, removed a bazillion pre-loaded things, loaded AV software from an SD card, and THEN turned on the network, and it appears not to have turned into a botnet zombie yet.
Was toying with the idea of acquiring a "cheap" gaming PC. Currently I'm using a Linux box a bit over a year old, or a Mac laptop, to play CoH. They're both livable, but neither is especially zippy at CoH, and both are perhaps a little crash-prone.
I have very little Windows experience, and thus, not much clue of how to keep a Windows machine adequately secure. I also have no clue what's "good enough". I have no other Widows-related applications or work, so if I did get a machine, I'd care about it running Mids and CoH. The monitor it'd be used with is 1920x1200, and ideally I'd want nice smooth framerates on that.
I have no clue what I'd be looking for. While I do have the technical ability to build machines, I also realize that doing so is not usually a good investment of my time. If I could just get a box, and it would run CoH decently without much hassle, that'd be fine by me and save me some sysadmin time. (I don't actually *enjoy* sysadmin work.) And if GR or something is about to bump requirements, I should take that into account.
Basically, if I wander into a store, pick up some cheapish quad-core machine, and throw in a new video card, will I have something that runs CoH well? Should I be thinking a lot harder about my goals or requirements? Should I be looking at laptops?
ETA: Specifically, looking at an Asus G73JH, the BestBuy-only one without the blu-ray drive (I have no interest in blu-ray, so that's free money to me). Anyone got one? Like/dislike? Advice on that?