Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
1000 dollars to spend
I have put away a thousand dollars to spend on a new computers/upgrades and wondering what is the best bang for my buck.
Most importantly I need a laptop for university, it doesnt have to be good just web browsing and word processing but i also need a computer to play lord of hte rings online, and in the future hopefully final fantasy 14 and swtor. I already have a desktop tho it needs some repairs
its a INtel Core 2 duo processor E6850
windows vista (32 bit)
3gb ddr2 ram
nvidia 8800gt - plus i was using it without a anti virus/spyware and it has become over run with virus's and spyware
so my question is whats my best option to discard the old desktop spend all the money on a new laptop or get a 400 laptop or even a 250 dollar mini, and spend the rest on upgrading my desktop, keeping in mind that ill have have to get the virus's wiped probally as i dont no alot about computers, also installing a new hardware may be a problem everyone says its easy but i dont belive them
Thanks in advance
Comments
you could buy me stuff
First things first:
You will only be able to use another 512 MB RAM in that system unless you upgrade your OS to 64bit. 32bit is capped at 4GB sum total system ram, including video ram and any printer memory if present.
The rest:
8800 GT isnt bad, still a viable card. Keep it.
Core2 isnt bad. I am able to play Crysis on a similar system with a similar card at high resolution. It doesnt scream, but it gets the job done. Keep it for now.
Where I would go with this system first is:
Download Malwarebytes anti malware. Update it. Run a full system scan.
Download Microsoft Security Essentials. Its a free antivirus, rated higher than AVG, McAfee, and Norton in terms of system protection. Its also lower on RAM usage than any of the above. Use it. Conserve as much system RAM as possible for gaming.
Clean up your system. Startup items should be paid close attention to. Go to run and type MSConfig. Click "hide all microsoft services" and then see what else is left over that you can remove from normal startup (and thus free up RAM).
You might be able to get away with spending *gasp* $0. Your computer seems like a fine gaming rig. If the money is burning a hole in your pocket go to Ebay and see what kind of system you can get there.... and use your 8800 GT as a video card for it until you can afford a ATI 5770 or somesuch.
Laudanum - Romance. Revenge. Revolution.
Crappy, petty people breed and raise crappy, petty kids.
Also recommend spywareblaster and adaware both also free
this setup gonna be able to play any multiplayer game you throw at it, mmorpgs normally dont have high system requirments they are stuck in the 2004 era, if you were playing any good single player games I would tell you upgrade with at least 800$ budget for your desktop so you would get your money's worth
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
hate to say but 1000$ for a new desktop aint shit. my pc is worth 3grand and it still lags etc in some games, tho can run most np. so for 1k ur gettin a medium pc and if wat ur msg seems to say u wanna get a laptop and a desktop for 1000$? kinda a silly hope
Thanks for the posts and only problem is that my video card (8800gt) is about 2 years old and im pretty sure ive blown the bearing on the fan and its dangerously hot whenever i play a game.
- so everyones in agreement to spend as little as possible on my new laptop and what about getting a new video card then since my gt is crap?
From the sounds of things youd really just like a laptop that will play FFXIV for under 1k. Though its possible, your not going to see that great of grapghics as more than likely the best video card you'll find for that range is a 5650. Best thing i would say would just be to but a cheaper laptop for your school and spend th other 500 or so on windows 7 X64, a new GPU and you should be good for a little while.
I am against any upgrade to this sysyem, I suggest you build one from the start with 800$-1000$ budget and for the person saying you are building a mid range PC with 1k you are an idiot, check tomshardware for advice on budget builds, I can help you also here with a build if you want.
the problem I have with upgrading this system is that your only upgrade path is just the GPU(graphics card), since your mobo is LGA775 socket so no upgrade for processor except for some overpriced quadcore while the i5 or i7 or even an amd phenom II x4 is much better,
also with this mobo you are stuck with DDR2 you cant buy DDR3 and buying DDR2 now is really just throwing money and since you only have 3 GB DDR2 you really dont need an 64 bit windows.
also one last thing if you buy a high end GPU, the processor you have will cripple it for sure, you wont get what you want out of the money you spent on the GPU and you will lose out alot on performance.
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
Alright thanks and im not that into high performance just wanna be able to play the game ill worry about a whole new system in a couple of years when there are even newer games to play, any sugestions on a new gpx card that would go good with the rest of my build? for around 100 - 150 dollars hopefully
If you were really keen on getting a laptop with that money, you actually could afford something like an MSI GX-640 ($1099), which has a DDR-5 Mobility Radeon HD 5850 in it.
If you wanted to pay less and just worry about upgrading the desktop a bit, I'd pick up something like a Radeon HD 5830 if I were you. That's probably about as far as you could go with that CPU. They run about $200.
what is your resolution, the ATI radeon 5770 is a great card either XFX or sapphire http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102873&cm_re=ati_radeon_5770-_-14-102-873-_-Product
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
I think the 5830 is kinda stretching that cpu, but theres always upgrading down the road if need be.
Heres a pretty good Laptop with a 5870 gpu again for 1099 after mir.
MSI E7405-080US
Personally I think you would do better to go on holiday with the money at least you will remember that forever and if you take a friend it will be even better and improve your social skills taboo rather than wasting your life away playing games like i have :P
Asbo
I bought a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT for about $100. It has about 1gig memorey and I can play pretty much anything I want with it. Anyway that's my two cents.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
I have 2x GTX 260's in SLI and have issues in most of the newer games running at higher resolutions and setting so unless your not playing graphically intense games i dont see that happening lol
Im playing very graphically intense games, with no problems, sorry. However when I bought my new pc it HAD a GTX in it (I think its the one your describing), it gave me tons of problems. I replaced it with the GT and everything runs perfectly.
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
you must be playing in 1024x768 resoultion or something at low to mid settings, try metro 2033 or crysis warhead or justcause 2 or GTA IV or risen or dirt 2 at max settings and then tell me your card is decent
They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.Malcolm X
Now, now; there's no need to nasty or belittling.
Still, it's true that there are plenty of games that a 9800GT can't play on higher settings at a decent resolution. My notebook's Mobility Radeon HD 5730 is roughly equivalent to that card, and in Crysis, I can only turn most settings on high (not highest), at the computer's modest panel resolution of 1366x768, and that's with no anti-aliasing. I generally get 30fps or a hair under with the game fully updated.
Crysis is hard on that machine; Metro 2033 would completely bring it to its knees (you'd probably get low-medium type settings).
That's not bad, but it's certainly not super either, and it's about what a 9800GT should give for performance.
Most of the advice I've seen so far is pretty sound, the exception being the guy claiming $1000 won't buy you anything. You could build a REALLY good desktop gaming PC for that, and could probably get a decent gaming laptop for around that.
I've had pretty good results in the past pairing up a lesser powered cpu with a higher powered GPU. In 2003, I was using an X1950, the best AGP card you could(and can) get, on a celeron 566 overclocked to 850. And I could still run most new games at the time with decent frame rates at 1600x1200. So a new GPU CAN make a pretty significant difference.
The trouble you may have, however, is that your stock machine may not have a power supply strong enough to handle many of the newer GPU's. If you decide to upgrade, you may want to pop the box open and see what wattage the PSU is, before doing your shopping.
What is this? A video card competition? The man asked for advice on a decent card I shared my experience. I'm not looking at having a card that competes with "Big Blue", just one that can play most games and isnt high in cost. And I play on the highest resolution there is. It fits my needs and as far as playing single player games, I thought this was MMORPG.com, not Singleplayergame.com. Why the heck are you talking about them?
Current Games: WOW, EVE Online
Most people don't associate mmos with "very graphically intense games." The "single player games" are the ones that use higher graphics details and are used as a baseline in todays gaming as to how well the card perfroms. If all we did was play mmorpgs i would have never gotten rid of my 8400?? from 5 years ago lol. So I'm sure you can see where the confusion started...
Go get yourself the best fu... i mean... go get bang for your buck..
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Essentio+Desktop+/+AMD+Phenom™+II+X6+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/9965745.p?id=1218202471921&skuId=9965745
not bad for its price espically coming prebuilt.
if you wanted a new system anyways,
only thing id suggest is a better graphics card but the one thats in it isnt to bad.
Laptops are crap for games with a good 3D engine.
Buy yourself a cheap netbook for the university stuff and save money for a real gaming computer.
Thats my two cents anyway.
All those memories will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.
Laptops are crap? Mine blows most desktops out of the water. But you won't come far with a 1000 dollars.
Oh, i own a http://www.insidehw.com/Reviews/Notebooks/Asus-G73J-The-ultimate-gaming-notebook/Page-2.html