Need a new AH PC....on a budget

[230G]

  I've been away from AH for some time now mainly because my 7 year old PC won't hack it. I upgraded everything, but no joy. Well, no it's giving me problems in general so I'm in the market for a new PC. It will be used primarily as a pay-the-bills, surf-the-net, general family PC, but I'd like it to be reasonably capable of running AH so I can start playing again.  Any suggestions for a relatively inexpensive, ready-to-go PC that will run this game?
   I'd rather not build one unless it's going to save me tons of money. I've done business with Tiger Direct and Newegg and like both of them, but I'd use any reputable company. I see Newegg has some gaming PC's well under $700. Will any of them work for AH?
   I'm not up on processors, video cards, etc. anymore, so any suggestions are appreciated. If a PC that will run this game is going to set me back $1000, then I'm out, but I might be willing to pay $700-800, but like the subject line says, I'm on a budget, so the cheaper the better.
  thanks for any help.
   230G

[gyrene81]

AMD

Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138168

CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103873

Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153116

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124

Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102834

Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136113

CD/DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151192

Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009212


Total (not including a case or OS) = $656.09

Not a barn burner but it will play AH very well as well as everything else you want to do.

[ebfd11]

I know I will hear flaming for this but...... I did this when I first started out. I bought an E-Machine fron Wal-Mart, added some memory and a inexpensive video card.. Here is the website for them http://www.emachines.com/ you might get a better price dealing with them directly.

[gyrene81]

Well, if you're set against building your own, see if you can beat the specs/price using ebfd11's suggestion...or another computer vendor.

I've heard some good things about this company:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

or one of these:

http://www.stealthmachines.com/desktops.html

http://www.digitalstormonline.com/

http://www.ibuypower.com/

[Dragon]

I did a quick run through IBuy Power and this looks nice for 818.00


Intel P55 Core i5/i7 Configurator
Case ( NZXT Lexa-S Gaming Case - Black w/ Blue Light )
iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction ( None )
iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion ( None )
Case Lighting ( None )
Processor ( Intel® Core™ i5 750 Processor (4x 2.66GHz/8MB L3 Cache) )
iBUYPOWER PowerDrive ( None )
Processor Cooling ( [Free Upgrade] Liquid CPU Cooling System w/ 120mm Radiator [SOCKET-1156] )
Memory ( 2 GB [1 GB X2] DDR3-1333 Memory Module - Corsair or Major Brand )
Video Card ( ATI Radeon HD 5750 - 1GB - Single Card )
Video Card Brand ( Major Brand Powered by ATI or NVIDIA )
Motherboard ( MSI P55M-SD40 )
Motherboard Add-on ( None )
Power Supply ( 500 Watt -- Power Supply )
Primary Hard Drive ( 500 GB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
Data Hard Drive ( None )
Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
2nd Optical Drive ( None )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( None )
Meter Display ( None )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Network Card ( Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100) )
Operating System ( Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit )
Keyboard ( iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard - Black )
Mouse ( iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse - Black )
Monitor ( None )
2nd Monitor ( None )
Speaker System ( iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System )
Power Protection ( None )
Headset ( None )
MP3/MP4 Player ( None )
Video Camera ( None )
Warranty ( Standard Warranty Service - Standard 3-Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

[vafiii]

Dell XPS 7100
AMD Athlon II X 4 630
ATI Radeon 5770
3 GB DDR3
500 GB Hard Drive
THX TryStudio PC Sound Card
Windows 7

Total $680

Add a 20" HD Monitor = $840

[Tigger29]

You can literally take the cheapest non-atom dual core computer with a PCI-e slot for sale at Newegg, add a halfway decent video card and power supply, and it will be more than enough for what you need.

You can use THIS SYSTEM which seems capable enough, except it only has a 280w power supply.  It comes with 32bit win7, but you really don't need 64bit for what you are using it for ($370 with free shipping)

You can install THIS VIDEO CARD ($103 - $25 rebate and free shipping = $78)

But you'll have to upgrade the power supply... I recommend THIS POWER SUPPLY.  Skuzzy likes the Seasonic brand... most of these Corsairs are Re-badged Seasonics.  Regardless, expect to pay $70-100 for a decent 500Watt or higher power supply. (this one is $90 - $10 rebate + $2 shipping = $82).

Buying these three things brings the total up to $565 minus $35 in rebates = $530.  Not too bad of a deal I guess.  You can certainly build one yourself cheaper, or you can pay a bit more and get one you don't have to tinker with at all, but it's worth the extra hour or two worth of work to KNOW what I have...

And take my word of advice.. if a computer system or component says "GAMER" or "GAMING" on it, then it's going to be overpriced.  A "gaming" system is nothing more than a "regular" system, except with an underperforming video card (better than onboard, but still not that good), a GENERIC power supply (I don't care if it's 1000 watt or 300 watt... a no-name power supply is asking for trouble), and an extra $5 fan... for twice the price.

[230G]

You can literally take the cheapest non-atom dual core computer with a PCI-e slot for sale at Newegg, add a halfway decent video card and power supply, and it will be more than enough for what you need.

You can use THIS SYSTEM which seems capable enough, except it only has a 280w power supply.  It comes with 32bit win7, but you really don't need 64bit for what you are using it for ($370 with free shipping)

You can install THIS VIDEO CARD ($103 - $25 rebate and free shipping = $78)

But you'll have to upgrade the power supply... I recommend THIS POWER SUPPLY.  Skuzzy likes the Seasonic brand... most of these Corsairs are Re-badged Seasonics.  Regardless, expect to pay $70-100 for a decent 500Watt or higher power supply. (this one is $90 - $10 rebate + $2 shipping = $82).

Buying these three things brings the total up to $565 minus $35 in rebates = $530.  Not too bad of a deal I guess.  You can certainly build one yourself cheaper, or you can pay a bit more and get one you don't have to tinker with at all, but it's worth the extra hour or two worth of work to KNOW what I have...

And take my word of advice.. if a computer system or component says "GAMER" or "GAMING" on it, then it's going to be overpriced.  A "gaming" system is nothing more than a "regular" system, except with an underperforming video card (better than onboard, but still not that good), a GENERIC power supply (I don't care if it's 1000 watt or 300 watt... a no-name power supply is asking for trouble), and an extra $5 fan... for twice the price.

  The $370 system looks like what I need. Regarding the power supply, I actually have this POWER SUPPLY that I put in my current system. It's a 580W so should be large enough, correct? Will it fit the case of the $370 system?

  Also, the video card you linked is plenty for AHII?

  Thanks for the input.
   230G

[Tigger29]

Yes that power supply should fit... I don't have a lot of faith in the cheapy ones like that, but if it holds up to its specifications then it should be fine.

The GTS250 video that I linked to is the same thing as the 9800GTX+ I had until recently (new numbering scheme) and I was able to run 1024 textures with the hi-res download, All sliders maxed out, one notch of AA, and all Advanced options enable EXCEPT for self shadows and other plane shadows.  I never saw it dip below 50fps (at 1920X1200 resolution).  No it's not state of the art but it holds its own.. especially for under $80

[gyrene81]

You're not gonna like that video card very much. I have the overclocked brother to that one and it's been flaky with each patch update in AH, most of the time I have to uninstall then reinstall AH to make it somewhat stable, and I just did a fresh install of WinEnterprise 64bit on a dual core E6600 with 4GB RAM. It runs lean but the Nvidia drivers are like a crap shoot.

[curry1]

build your PC there with lots of selection
www.magicmicro.com

[230G]

  Backing up, I guess I'm a little unsure about what processor, video card, and how much RAM would "do".

  There are so many processors out now... would most any dual core processor work? I know some are better than others, but given my budget, which processor would give the most bang for the buck?

  Video card... Are there more than one middle-of-the-road type processors, say under $100, that would get the job done?

  RAM... Will 2 MB of the DDR3 suffice?
  230G

[Spikes]

230G,
Processor wise, most dual cores will work. Intel wise, it'd best to look at the Core 2 Duo line, AMD you can look at Phenom dual cores, and some Athlon dual cores. There is a cheap 70 dollar AMD Athlon dual core but I'm not sure how it performs in game...maybe Skuzzy can enlighten.

Video cards...there are a few under $100, but I'd suggest upping your video card budget to 150 at least. You can get a HD5770 for that price (great video card and runs the game well) but even cheaper you would be looking at a 9800GT or GTX.

RAM wise yes 2GB will do as it is a budget build. Most builds these days have 4GB or 6GB (i7's/triple channel), but 2GB would run the game great.

[uptown]

Lucky for you TilDeath is back. Search him out on the boards. He has a website with some pretty awesome rigs. 

[BulletVI]

I have seen on eBay.com there are people who let you bid for a computer then once bidding is done build it to your specs or again on eBay.com tell them what you want and you can buy it or give the nearest offer acceptable.