Looking for a "new" computer

Juke

OG
So, my diddling rubbish of a laptop sang it's swan song over the last weekend.

My dv1000 had it's backlight, or some such, turn off and HP offered to fix it at the cost of 3 brand-new store-bought moniters (I bought a 20$ one, strapped it in and am now merrily singing a lovely rendition of f*ck you to HP)



My question to you beautiful informed people: Where the hell do I go from here?



I did some searching and I found these, and I have to say I'm quite in love with the price range.. Broke man is broke.

http://www.emachines.com/products/catalog.html?type=desktops

EL1210-09 was the model that caught me eye.

For 10$ you get the 8200 over the 6150SE GeForce

Considering the recommended requirements for running Wrath to be 7series.. I think I can spend the 10$



My problems/questions are ...

Will I see a recognizable difference in my play of WoW? I mean, I'm running "" Intel® Extreme Graphics 2"" now with 512mb with 1-5fps in Dalaran, I can expect 10-20fps running around battlegrounds.. on a good day.. Seriously, it's horrible on this thing



Are there cheaper ways to go?



Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
 
While im not a computer wiz, I know a decent amount.



Do you know how to get the scores of your computer?



I run ...

5.0 processor

5.9 Ram

5.4 Primary Hard Disk

3.5 graphics

3.7 gaming graphics



I got my computer on the budger of a middle class american with not alot of extra money.



I run wow on max settings every where...exepect 25 man raids, where I have to turn my graphics all the way down (i just bought a new graphics card for 150, it should bump that score up to a 5.1)



If you run Vista you can check these scores by going..



Start -> Control Panel -> Performance Information and Tools
 
Do you know how to get the scores of your computer?
Click to expand...

/blink



no such luck on Vista.. running XP

This laptop is almost 4yrs old so I'm going to assume that it's "scores" are fairly low by comparison.



I run wow on max settings everywhere
Click to expand...
And I do not.

that's a good way for my client to lock up and disconnect.

Almost everything is on it's lowest setting and done that way, it's tolerable.

I can put spell effect (or w/e it is) up to about mid way so that I can see things like Frost Nova, Blizzard/all AoE circles etcetc. but that's about it.



I remember there was one quest in Howling Fjord in the Alliance start where you have to use the harpoon to shoot across the way and light the boathouse/barracks etc on fire.. damn near impossible because of the settings not allowing my client to "see" that far.. it was all foggy, couldn't see anything.. it was ridiculous

:(
 
4 years eh? my computer is 3..but then again i upgraded it 3 times.



I would say get an overall score of 3-4 and you can run everything on low-medium instead of constally extreme low.



Dell generally has some good prices, a overall base score of 3-4 will allow you to run wow on low to medium settings and will only cost ya 400-600 depending.



Im going for a base score of 5.5 which will allow me to play wow on max settings no matter what, will cost me around 800-1,100.



I just quickly designed a computer at Dell..for 710 (discount atm so really 600) you can get a desktop with 500GB, Vista home-premium, dual-core, and 3 gigs of ram, DvD drive, 19 inch flat screen monitor.
 
I would say get an overall score
Click to expand...

How do you get the score of stuff you look up?

It would be badass if there was a universal way of comparing all this crap without having to navigate 27 different webpages and learning 4 different computer languages just to see whether or not 'A' is better than 'B'

>_<
 
Heh. okay il stop using scores.



If you want a decent computer get...



2 gigs of ram

Any decent gaming graphics card (125-175 bucks)

A Duo Core processor (2 cores) around 1.5 GHz



If you want a above average/good computer get..



3 gigs of ram

a gaming graphcis card (170-250 bucks)

A Duo Core Processor (2 cores) with around 2.0 GHz to 2.5 GHz



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ram is a cheap way to make your computer run faster, but having a good kind of all 3 will make ur life heaven in games.



PS: If you got the cash and don't want to have to upgrade for awhile...



Get 4 gigs of ram, a 300-350 dollar graphics card, and a Duo or Quad Processor with 3 to 4 GHz



(Although I don't advise buying a Quad core as.......nothing in the world requires it, and most things barly run better on it than a Duo core)
 
well now see, that's nice :D

LE-1620 @ 2.4 GHz -1mbL2, 2gigs and a decent card for 309usd

seems that by using the site's "compare" function (which is cleverly hidden through 5 different pages) this ^^ computer is actually faster than the more expensive AMD Athlon™ X2 dual-core processor 4050e which runs at around 2.0-2.1



/boggle
 
2.4 GHz is nice, mine only runs at 2 GHz.

I would suggest getting a 3rd gig of ram, and from your decscription it sounds like a new graphcis card would clear things right up.



PS: the clock speed on my computer seems slow..but it was built for over-clocking without over heating unlike alot of computers.
 
well the comp I'm looking at is 2g (2x1g) and expandable to 4g (2x2) and a 2g stick looks to run 20-25 with 2x looking around 40-55.. doesn't look so bad



Well I feel better about it already ^_^

Thanks Natural
 
imo u might as well buy a good computer now rather than buy cheap ones every few years. my computer cost around 2000$ and i built it all myself i run wow with all the graphics up everywere i get around 15-20 fps in dalaran.



Monitor: 22" Acer LCD Monitor



Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX



Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83Ghz



Motherboard: Nvidia NForce 680i SLI



Ram: 4Gb DDR2



Video Card: 1 Gb Nvidia GForce 9800GT



Hard Drive: 500Gb SATA 1



Tower: Red Raidmax Tornado



Keyboard: Razer Lycosa Gaming



Mouse: Razer Copperhead



Cooling System: Aquagate Max
 
hehe i don't mean to interrupt the OP's thread but i figure this would be a good place to post this...



my computer is now supposedly pretty fucked up with viruses and it seems that the windows administrator automatically shuts down or restarts the computer if it looks like there's a high risk of what i'm doing (just about anything).



so i'm looking for a computer that can run WoW at all. cost is key, i want the cheapest computer that still has 2k+ megabites (2 gigs) of RAM.
 
might as well buy a good computer now rather than buy cheap ones every few years
Click to expand...

But I'd rather spend 2-3 hundred every 3-4years than 2k+ now and have it obsolete.. in the same time frame. Computers are the same with phones, there's new replacements every 6months.

Especially considering the budget I have to work with doesn't allow for anything like thousand dollar expenditures.. Maybe when I get settled into my new job and after waiting a couple months I could justify that..



Whatever you do, do NOT get an Emachine. Period.
Click to expand...

/shiftyeyes

why not?
 
You can get a VERY good PC for around 2k.



But probably not one you need/want.



The laptop I am playing on now is a gaming laptop (gateway FX, cost me 1350 new), and you can get twice the computer in a desktop package for about 1k.



In my opinion, you will save yourself money over time if you get a nice computer now that will play games for awhile. By this I don't mean you have to get an Intel i7, but I would look into a Quad or Phenom X4.



You can get a machine with a Quad and an nVIDIA 9800 for around 800 bucks (with all the other assorted things like a power supply, case, and a decent sound card).



This is kind of just an outline, if you need any advice on other parts let me know.
 
ok, this is my problem..

How do I rate/compare the various AMD/Intel processors?

How do I rate/compare the various ATI/nVidia chipsets?



It's all very confusing. Not helped at all by nVidia's constant rebranding >_<

8800 =? 9800

GT130 = 9600 GSO = 8800 GS



/rage
 
there are a bunch of complicated ways to measure cards and processors, but really I can tell you what, at least in right now, is best.



Between the Intel Quad and the AMD Phenom, its really just personal preference. However, Intel's new processor, the i7, is currently the best available. I'd get that first and foremost in a new PC.



As far as nVIDIA cards go, the 800 series is the best of them. An 8800 is probably better than just about anything under a 9800. Other than that, these are the current cards I'm aware of:



nVIDIA 285, as far as I know it is the best right now. 280 is also extremely good.

under that is the ATI Radeon 4870.

under that, the Radeon 4850 and nVIDIA 9800 are probably on par.



Hope this helps.
 
Thank you very much for your replies Phantom



Currently I'm looking for a narrow spot where "decent" runs into "cheap"

but however I look at it, seems like it's going to be 3-500 for the computer and another 1-200 for a video card :(
 
I'll do some research, and let you know my findings.



How much are you willing to spend?
 
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