Hi.
I need a Tower PC to replace a desk PC that broke. I need it to be a decent general purpose PC but one that can handle the advanced graphics of PC games like on Steam daily. It needs to have sufficient cooling for the heat it will generate and if it has to come from a Big Box store, that’s fine.
Today is Black Friday and if its on sale, Wonderful.
Sell me a PC please…
Do you have some skilz to build your own? By far the best way to do it.
There are too many side-project distractions which would delay this or lower the probability of a successful outcome.
My son is vetoing the Best Buy option, as their graphics cards all seem to be integrated. In NJ, almost every other large PC store has folded, but I don’t want to order on-line & send money elsewhere.
if the computer has slots then you can add a suitable graphics card and disable the onboard graphics functionality.
I have no help, but this seems to fit this thread.
If you aren’t going to build one, I’d get one from a major name that has at least one full-sized card slot - that can take a double-width PCIe video card. Ignore the inbuilt video specs and get the best Nvidia card (at least upper 400 series) your budget will stand. Concentrate on getting the most everywhere BUT video on your basic chassis.
Besides making sure the PC itself has adequate CPU power and RAM (or space for RAM expansion - 8GB is a minimum these days, 16GB is neither expensive nor excessive even for gaming), look closely at the power supply specs. One of the main reasons to build your own is that you can buy a whomp-ass power supply that will power a decent mobo combination AND a heavyweight video card. As-builts tend to not only skimp on the power supply, but use shitty ones to start and use nonstandard form-factors that are expensive to replace.
A few hours building your own Win7 box really, really would pay off. Really.
You just need to pay attention. My last new PC came from MicroCenter but Best Buy carried the same model: HP Pavilion HPE h8-1230. I did replace the 300W power supply with 550W which I already had lying around.
Micro Center.
New (for here), close, cost-effective, and not locked into a make model or brand. Thank you!!!
How do you make sure a computer case is large enough to take a standard graphics card?
Let’s backtrack a bit. What do you have that can be re-used? In particular, are your licenses for Windows and Office transferable? What do you want to do with the new PC? What is your budget?
By buying a standard case yourself, or opening a sample and seeing if a full-sized card will fit. Everything else is taking the manufacturer’s word for it, which is chancy.
Bottom line, unless you’re going to treat your computer like an old-gen Mac and assume it’s forever welded shut, un-upgradeable and essentially non-repairable, a brand-name commodity PC is a bad choice. You want a commodity, buy one. You want a computer you can adapt to a specific non-mainstream need… buy one that is built from standard components. Everything else is a gamble.
I continue to recommend this Microtel. More power than you’ll likely need, plus 1TB on board, 12GB DDR3, etc. It will likely play any game you can throw at it and comes already loaded with overclocking programs and other gamer software. I’ve played all manner of games on it at full res without a hitch.