First of all, lets agree that this has to be something you could go and buy right now.
(My BP6 board with dual OC'd Celery 366 and a V3 2k still runs AH acceptibly.)
Second, this is going to depend entirely on what resolution, color depth, and framerate you define as acceptible. I think 1024x768 32 bit color and running over 30 fps most of the time seems like a reasonable target. Also, I'll assume we need to include an OS here. I won't include speakers or a monitor, assuming you may already have those.
Well, I'm Canadian, so I'll use a local place. Parts should be similar though.
MysteryByte Computers
Shopping List Quote
Monday Feb 25, 2002
Quantity Part # Product Description Unit Price Ext. Price
1 S74 Custom Built AMD Custom System $941 $941.00
7050 AMD Duron 1GHz, 192K "Morgan", OEM $99.00
6990 ECS K7S5A (SIS735+2xDDR+2xSDR+5PCI+Audio+LAN) $113.00
7114 "Tt" Volcano 6cu+ "Copper Base" , 7000RPM, 1.5 GHz $20.00
7188 Windows XP Home Edition w/ Manual & CD $169.00
7246 Acer KF45A-P4 MidTower 300w P.S. P4 & AMD Ready $78.00
434 Panasonic 1.44MB Floppy Drive $17.00
2079 256 MB PC-133 SDRAM CL3, DS $98.00
7169 MSI 8826 GeForce-2 MX400 64MB AGP w/ TV-Out $124.00
1775 MAXTOR 20.4GB 5400RPM ATA-100, 9.5MS $127.00
7089 ASUS 52X IDE CD-ROM Drive $52.00
2118 Qtronics Windows 107 Keyboard (PS2) $15.00
1443 Microsoft Intelli Mouse (USB), OEM $29.00
1867 1 Yr. Parts Warranty (BareBones Unit w/ no Software Support) $0.00
All Prices are listed in Canadian Dollars.
Applicable shipping charges are not included.
Taxes have been calculated for: Nova Scotia SubTotal 941.00
HST 141.15
Total $1082.15
They didn't have much for video card selection. You could find cheaper with no video out I think.
http://www.mysterybyte.com is local to me, so that's why I used 'em. You US folks have a much broader selection. Try pricing some US stuff with an NForce board that has onboard video, sound, and LAN. That will save you a few bucks more, and should still run AH acceptibly given a decent CPU.
