Rate this desktop please, Compare it to my old one.

[NL__Fool]

Can someone tell me how good of a system this is? I called my local computer store and this is the specs they gave me and the price they gave me. I am a computer newb and I have no idea if this is a good, bad or so-so system.

I told them I wanted a decent gaming machine. I realize I could spend $3-4K and get a TOP of the line system but there really isn't any point in spending that kind of cash to get a 10% performance boost. IS there?

Anyways here is the system

A Dual Core E21-60 with a 945 chipset
2 -1 gig sticks of 667 DDR ram
250 gig 7,200 RPM sata seagate hard drive
Light Scribe DVD writer
Nvida 8600 GTS video card.

I forgot to ask what the soundcard was.

The price quoted was $619 + tax.

This seemed kind of cheap to me and made me wonder if the system was any good?

My old system is a P4 3.00GHz with hyper threading technology, with 2 gigs ram and a Nvidea 6800 GTS video card


I haven't looked at or bought a new computer in about 3 years and every computer I have ever bought cost me about $2,500

Have prices dropped or is this a bottom of the barrell system?

[CrazyEyez]

I would google that processor and see what kind of performance it offers. That overall price does seem cheap considering the other components, so maybe it's a subpar cpu?

Also, are you having issues running games with your current machine? Your cpu and ram should be more than adequate for most gaming. Perhaps just upgrading your video card to a more recent model would be the cheaper solution.

[Beavis68]

That is a Pentium Dual Core processor which is a Core2 Duo with a 800MHz FSB and 1MB of on board cache. It will be better than your old system but looks overpriced.

That system is pretty far from a gaming system.

The processor is a huge part of gaming performance. I went from limping along in BF2 with a Pentium D processor to running at full video options at max res with the same video card by upgrading to an E6700.

I would recommend looking for a system with at least an E6700 or an E6550. You are going to need to spend close to $1k for a decent gaming system. At the least get a Core 2 Duo with 4MB of cache. At the very least get an E6xxx series.

[mattnxtc]

How much are you lookign to spend? You should be able to get a solid computer for right at $1k

[NL__Fool]

[ QUOTE ]
How much are you lookign to spend? You should be able to get a solid computer for right at $1k



[/ QUOTE ]

About $1500 max I dont need a monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers

So What should I get?

I know about the videocards, it's the processors, ram and Hard drive that I know squat about

[NL__Fool]

Alos should I go vista or Xp? what advantages does Vista have over xp for gaming? If I want DirectX10 I have to go vista right?

[Beavis68]

I think Vista is better for Direct X 10, I read something about it but I am not an expert, if you are looking to play new games from what I read Vista is the way to go.

Go to Dell, HP or Gateway or where ever and get something similar to this

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...WDC3&s=dhs

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6550 (4MB L2 Cache,2.33GHz,1333 FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48X CDRW/DVD COMBO Drive + 16X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3 edit
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

I am not recommending this particular system but this is kind of a baseline.

Some sites are really overcharging for RAM upgrades, so watch out. $100 for an extra GB is about double too much.

[NL__Fool]

[ QUOTE ]
I think Vista is better for Direct X 10, I read something about it but I am not an expert, if you are looking to play new games from what I read Vista is the way to go.

Go to Dell, HP or Gateway or where ever and get something similar to this

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...WDC3&s=dhs

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6550 (4MB L2 Cache,2.33GHz,1333 FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48X CDRW/DVD COMBO Drive + 16X DVD+/-RW Drive edit
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3 edit
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

I am not recommending this particular system but this is kind of a baseline.

Some sites are really overcharging for RAM upgrades, so watch out. $100 for an extra GB is about double too much.


[/ QUOTE ]

I just posted some machine specs in a new thread. The one I just posted was a little higher end then this. How much of a difference would I notice between this one and the other computer I just listed?

[SirFelixCat]

Dx10 is EXCLUSIVE to Vista. I'd highly recommend Vista x64...it allows you 4GB of memory which you'll love w/ the newer games coming out.