but I don’t want to spend much money. Basically, the machine needs to be able to run games like New Vegas smoothly and with high detail settings. It will also see a lot of WoW action. It’s for my daughter who is currently using a laptop that is minimally acceptable for WoW and won’t run New Vegas in any playable form.
You need a budget, and list any parts you might be reusing (if you have any) - generally SATA hard drives, DDR3 RAM, etc). Do you need an OS, monitor, keyboard, etc ? Also check http://www.tomshardware.com
I don’t want to build one. I want to buy something off the shelf. Is there anything out there in the $500 to $700 range that will be suitable?
Broadly speaking, the system builders tend to cut costs/screw you in the area that you want the most muscle - graphics cards. For really good performance at 1920x1080, you probably want something around a Radeon HD 7850 1gb or better - a 175 graphics card. Here's a decent system with that kind of muscle, plus the best bang for processor in the i5-3570k
Something like this:
Would certainly be playable, but would probably require reduced resolutions when gaming - ie 720p (1280x720).
I am willing and able to install a graphics card, as I’ve done that before. So what would be a good combo in my budget for an off the shelf computer and a graphics card?
You certainly could do that - you only really need around an i3 sandy bridge or ivy bridge level of CPU performance (ie i3-31xx or i3-32xx) - easily available in systems under $500 such as: ASUS Desktop PC Essentio CM6730-US-2AD Intel Core i3 2120 (3.30GHz) 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - Newegg.com
(or there are similar I3 based Dell systems, etc)
The problem with upgrading graphics in those type of systems is that you probably need a new power supply as well for anything beefier than a Radeon HD 7750 (the fastest card that needs no power supply connectors). And sometimes there can be issues with fit and such since they don’t necessarily make allowances for a bigger power supply or a two slot graphics card in the case.
Actually something like this: (a sort of “build your own” and we’ll assemble and install it)
Might do you better - upgrade to 8gb of RAM (2x4gb), pick a graphics card of at least a 7850 and an appropriate power supply (~500W), drop the liquid cooling and get the cheaper motherboard (and be sure to check all the “free” upgrades), and I show $728.
Edit to add, basically any of the graphics cards on this page, or later pages (toms best graphics cards for the money): Best Graphics Cards 2023 - Top Gaming GPUs for the Money | Tom's Hardware
If you need the whole thing, monitor, OS, etc and all to come in under $700 you can do it with A10 based builds here (http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/AMD_FM2_A-Series_APU) - although you probably need to buy a monitor somewhere else as theirs are pricey. Although again, that will probably require you to run at less than 1080p resolutions.
Since you’re look for advice, I’ll move this to our advice forum, IMHO (from MPSIMS).
This is an old post I wrote, but it has some useful advice…
Consider buying your laptop from the OEM or a laptop store…
Here’s a VERY good site:
The forums are hugely useful for research and reading what owners have to say. The thing to be aware of is that there are actually only a few laptop makers:
Quanta, Compal, Asus, MSI, Uniwill and Clevo, and that’s basically it (there are others, but these brands have market dominance).
Almost all of the others you hear of, like Dell, Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo etc are actually made by one of the above names.
Clevo:
Sager NP9750,
Voodoo Envy u:709,
Alienware Aurora m7700,
Hypersonic Aviator FX7
They are basically all the same computer, which means if you buy a high end Sager you get the same innards as a Alienware at about 40% the price!
Sager NP9890,
Falcon Northwest FragBook DR6800,
Alienware MJ-12 m7700i,
Voodoo Envy u:703,
Hypersonic Aviator EX7
Sager NP5950
Alienware Aurora mALX 19" SLI
Voodoo Envy u:909
Sager NP5760
Voodoo Envy u:734
Hypersonic Aviator CX7
Compal=
Dell
HP
Compaq
Compal HEL80 =
Voodoo Envy I:534
Hypersonic Aviator MV6.
Quanta =
Dell’s Latitudes
Sony’s Vaio
IBM’s (Levnovo) laptops.
ASUS does make their own laptops, so their support is simply top notch. You are dealing direct with the OEM for support. No one is going to know the product better. Of course they’re known for all their other parts as well. Mainboards, video, etc
MSI, similar to Asus, makes their own laptops.
There are a few others, such as FIC, Mitac, ECS, AOpen and Gigabyte, but some of them don’t sell direct to you and others are lower end stuff.
The point here, is that if you want a very nice laptop, don’t go the way of the Boutique makers or ginormous companies that just slap their label on and then outsource support to India.
Instead, go to the OEMs or one of the smaller online shops and you can get a MUCH better deal on the same equipment and better support.
If you are wanting to game, and want to use the laptop for school or travel with it, your best bet right now is probably an Asus. They can be had for about 600.00. It has good resolution, can be used with a larger monitor, and weighs less than 7lbs with power supply. 15.4" widescreen style display and an solid video card from Nvidia or ATI. I’m almost certainly buying one later this month.
If you are NOT as mobile, able to leave your laptop someplace for days or weeks, then consider one of the 17" Sagers. It is simply the best bang for your buck.
A couple of US sites (useful for pricing and spec-ing)
http://www.milestonepc.com
http://www.proportable.com
http://www.killernotebooks.com
http://www.flawlesscomputers.com
http://www.eurocom.com
Regards,
-Bouncer-
I bought this Microtel, after many hours of searching for a computer that was fast, had tons of memory, and good reviews. It’s handled everything I can throw at it. I also bought a 22" NEC monitor that has killer color accuracy.
I should also mention that this computer comes with all kinds of optimizing software to enhance game performance, including over-clocking software, if desired. Also Iobit security software. It’s a true gaming machine. Games I’ve played so far have been Crysis and Crysis 2; and the latest Medal of Honor, all at highest graphics settings. Zero glitches.
I wouldn’t trust that to run on a 300W PSU. [Edit: I see you sort of acknowledged this already]
I came up with sort of the same thing here.
Both of ours share the same problem though: No OS and a copy of Win 7 will add another hundred bucks onto the bill.
Perhaps I should mention that this computer is definitely going to be a desktop, not a laptop.
I went to the Microtel website and looked at theirpage of gaming computers. Which one would you technically savvy sorts consider to be be both suitable to my purpose and a reasonable deal?
See my earlier post and link. Mine has 16GB and 1TB, compared to the page you linked.
Great question. Answer: they are all crap - every one of those graphics cards is under powered. (they try to trick you because they all come with a lot of RAM). An A10-5800k system with integrated graphics like the ones they sell at IBuyPower and linked above would stomp all over each one of them. Edit to add, I’m also not sure why all their systems feature processors and graphics cards that are at least two generations back. But not a good value, for any of those.
The Microtel link the other guy gave you is a much more reasonable gaming PC. All the components are last generation so they use more power, but it certainly isn’t going to give you worse performance than an A10 (which is about the minimum worth getting as a “gaming” PC, IMHO).
okay, that looks promising. I don’t want to be a pest, but I don’t know much about computer innards. Which of the things on that page do I need, which would be nice, and which would be a waste of resources?
There are likely to be some very good sales after thanksgiving. Also check out slickdeals regularly for some really good sales, i think there is still a 25% of refurbished computers from Dell (which includes Alienware) under the computer section.
For $700, Chefguy’s linked system is pretty good. I think it has more memory than needed and would rather see that put elsewhere but, given the cost of memory, it’s not as though you’d greatly upgrade anything else with the savings.
The 550 Ti isn’t an amazing card but it’s be more than solid for WoW and New Vegas. I’d have a hard time calling a system with it a “gaming computer” but it’s certainly a computer you can play games on. For a bit of comparison, the 550 Ti is well, well above minimum spec for Fallout 3 & New Vegas (high graphics), exceeds recommended specs for Skyrim (medium+ graphics), will give medium+ graphics in Sleeping Dogs, medium+ graphics in Saints Row the Third, is a bit above the min specs for Assassin’s Creed III, and just hits minimum for Dishonored. Until recently, I had a card just below it (9800 GTX+) so I’m speaking from experience on Fallout, NV, Sleeping Dogs, Skyrim & SRTT.
As DigitalC points out, you may want to wait for some holiday time sales and perhaps get a better deal but I don’t think you’d be unhappy with that system and you can always upgrade the card later as prices on more advanced cards come down.