Need opinions on computer purchase.

In My Humble Opinion
1

All I need is a rock bottom basic system except I do have some minimal gaming needs.

I want to be able to run games like Oblivion, San Andreas and Mass Effect at moderate levels of graphics quality.

Any general advice?

Bonus for comments on my specific thoughts:

Part of my problem seems to be that basic rigs get stuck with PSUs in the 250-300 watt range. I don’t have any tech knowledge, but I’m getting an impression that I won’t be able to get a graphics card that can handle Mass Effect without a heftier PSU.

So one idea is to buy something cheap and crappy like an HP for $390 (US dollars), put in a 400/450 watt PSU and some lower/mid end graphics card. This set up has 2.8 Ghz Athlon II dual core/3 GB RAM/500GB hard drive.

On the other hand, I can get for $480 another piece of HP cheapness with 2.8 Ghz Athlon quad core, 4GB RAM/ 750 GB hard drive. It has integrated Radeon 4200 HD, which I’ve heard might be ok for running older games.

I hope I’m not insane to look at HP – they don’t have a good rep, but I do not need anything fancy. Of course, if they sell such crap that money is thrown away on things that break, I’d love tips on where else to look.

Thanks for your time, and apologies in advance for any ignorance on my part – I know nothing about this stuff.

2

If you really want to go cheap, you can get a 30-50% discount by assembling the parts yourself. Also, many discount places have online customizers that will allow you to get what you need.

What I usually do is go to www.pricewatch.com, pick a seller that has a good price on something I want, and go to their site to customize it. Nobody has the best prices on every item, so it’s still slightly more expensive than getting the parts separate.

3

You need to make sure you have a quality PSU. You need not only enough voltage but it must be steady.

The games you listed won’t run on integrated graphics, check the requirements so you can get enough computer. You will need a separate graphics card.

These sites not only have build it yourself guides for different price points but also plenty of articles on choosing quality components.

The Tech Report.
Tom’s Hardware
Hardware Revolution

I did my first build a week ago and it was easier than I thought it would be.