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frank

Help me pick a computer

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I'm going to buy 2 computers. Probably 1 desktop and 1 laptop. I want to be able to play Diablo 3 and, ideally, Starcraft 2. Other than that, I don't plan to play a lot of games. I'm copying the system requirements and the specs of several computers. Someone who knows let me know which of these will play the games. I don't have video card info, maybe you can tell anyway. Do I need to look that up?

 

Diablo 3 recommended specs

Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 5600+ 2.8 GHz

2 GB RAM

NVIDIA® GeForce® 260 or ATI Radeon™ HD 4870 or better

 

Starcraft 2 recommended specs

Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor

2 GB RAM

512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX or ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better

 

 

computers (all at wal-mart)

#1 $598 desktop

Dell inspiron

AMD Athlon II x2 250

6GB

1TB

integrated ATI Radeon HD graphics (is this a problem?)

23" monitor

 

#2 $398 desktop

Acer Aspire AM3410G-UW10P

AMD A6-3620

4GB

500GB

no monitor

 

#3 $498 laptop Dell LTI15N3001BK

Intel corei3-2350M

6GB

500GB

 

#4 $398 laptop LXRJW02125

Acer Pentium dual core P6200

4GB

500GB

 

#5 $378 laptop HP2000-369W

AMD dual core E450

4GB

500GB

 

#6 $498 laptop A&A29UA#ABA

AMD quad core A6

4GB

500GB

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if you're not some hardcore gamer looking for a super rig, go to bestbuy and check out their refurbished ######.

 

i recently bought an HP AMD quad core, 3.1ghz with 6gb ram expandable to 12 and a TB hdd with an ATI Radeon card that was middle of the road for gaming. It cost me 350ish (no monitor)

 

the Intel HD graphics cards suck. i wanted to stick with a desktop but i guess its personal preference, although most people i spoke with were desktop fans.

 

i think you can find something with more power and for less if you go the refurb route.

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I am a bonofide computer nerd. I can help you you with research later this evening.

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build your own, not only is it simple. there are videos on youtube showing you step by step process.

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Pay twice as much for a Mac, so you can hang out at the coffee shop, with the other self absorbed GenMe kids.

 

Sound advice. :thumbsup:

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Sound advice. :thumbsup:

 

I've had my iMac for five years now, not one single problem, freeze, virus, nothing. No hard drive in a separate component, incredible graphics, ability to partition the drive to run Windows programs, plug and play for most devices like scanners and printers, integration with all Apple portable devices...I could go on forever.

 

But keep buying an inferior product because it saves money initially and you won't be a hipster!

 

Sound advice! :thumbsup:

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I've had my iMac for five years now, not one single problem, freeze, virus, nothing. No hard drive in a separate component, incredible graphics, ability to partition the drive to run Windows programs, plug and play for most devices like scanners and printers, integration with all Apple portable devices...I could go on forever.

 

But keep buying an inferior product because it saves money initially and you won't be a hipster!

 

Sound advice! :thumbsup:

 

1) Mac and PC both use Intel chipsets. It's the same hardware.

2) If Mac had a 95% market share, they would get just as many viruses as PC. Hackers want to disrupt corporations and government, not kids drinking 3$ coffees.

3) Win7 is just as easy to plug and play printers, scanners, etc.

4) I can install OSx on my PC too. It's called Linux and it's free. OSx is just Linux dumbed down with a pretty GUI so tards and hipsters can figure it out. It's basically the same kernel as FreeBSD, Redhat, Ubuntu, etc. etc.

5) My wife wants a Mac because "they look pretty". That pretty much sums it up.

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Build your own. Two weeks ago I'd never done it and had no clue how to do it. Turns out, it's unbelievably easy. Here's what I've learned about the 10 components of a pooter:

 

1. Motherboard - I bought this motherboard/cpu combo two weeks ago for $140 which includes a quad core 3.6 cpu. Don't know why the price is now $169.

 

2. CPU - if bought with motherboard, it's a lot cheaper than purchased individually and that way you know they're compatible with each other.

 

3. RAM - Check the Mhz before buying as RAM isn't only about size. I bought a 4 gig 1600 Mghz for $25.

 

4. Hard drive - Total size is what gets advertised, but what you really want to know is the speed and amount of cache. I bought a 7200 RPM with 16 MB cache for $75 (it has 500 GB, but I didn't care about that - speed and cache was the important thing). Word is the price of hard drives has literally tripled from 2011 (due to flooding in Thailand so they say), but the prices have started to come down are now only double what they were. Sucks, I know.

 

5. Power Supply - Luckily I already had a 460 Watt which is plenty for my crap video card and game (Battlefield Vietnam), but for a 600 Watt needed with higher end video cards you're looking at $60-$70. This is one of those things that you can upgrade later if you have a crappy one for short term use.

 

6. DVD writer - I yanked out my old DVD from my previous pooter, but they're cheap as hell nowadays. $30 or so.

 

7. Video card - Again, something that can wait if you have a crappy one for interim use. I used my old crappy POS card because I still play old games like you. From what I've read, the bottom of the barrel card to play today's high end games is about $80. (ie. Radeon HD 6670)

 

8. Computer case - I used my old case, but new cases are cheap. $30-$50

 

9. Software - Arrrrrrrrr says the pirate. Otherwise, say goodby to $125 for Windows 7. Arrrrrrrrr.

 

10. Monitor/keyboard/mouse - Surely you already own these like I did. Regardless, they cheap.

 

 

Hooking up the cables to the motherboard was what scared me the most, but there's really nothing to it. Youtube videos helped inflate my confidence. I now have a fast damn pooter which could be upgraded to play today's games if I wanted. I have to say it felt empowering to build my own. I could pick and chose the items I actually wanted instead of just getting whatever was offered in a package pooter from the store.

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1) Mac and PC both use Intel chipsets. It's the same hardware.

2) If Mac had a 95% market share, they would get just as many viruses as PC. Hackers want to disrupt corporations and government, not kids drinking 3$ coffees.

3) Win7 is just as easy to plug and play printers, scanners, etc.

4) I can install OSx on my PC too. It's called Linux and it's free. OSx is just Linux dumbed down with a pretty GUI so tards and hipsters can figure it out. It's basically the same kernel as FreeBSD, Redhat, Ubuntu, etc. etc.

5) My wife wants a Mac because "they look pretty". That pretty much sums it up.

I have a Mac and love it too... but this is pretty much right on the money. Except one of the benefits of being in the "OS X walled garden" is that everything is designed to work together, hence the fact that they don't freeze or crash.

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1) Mac and PC both use Intel chipsets. It's the same hardware.

2) If Mac had a 95% market share, they would get just as many viruses as PC. Hackers want to disrupt corporations and government, not kids drinking 3$ coffees.

3) Win7 is just as easy to plug and play printers, scanners, etc.

4) I can install OSx on my PC too. It's called Linux and it's free. OSx is just Linux dumbed down with a pretty GUI so tards and hipsters can figure it out. It's basically the same kernel as FreeBSD, Redhat, Ubuntu, etc. etc.

5) My wife wants a Mac because "they look pretty". That pretty much sums it up.

 

And you'll be buying another one in three years when the inevitable crashes do it in and no amount of patches will fix it.

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And you'll be buying another one in three years when the inevitable crashes do it in and no amount of patches will fix it.

 

You can reinstall the operating system, without having to buy a whole new computer. HTH

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frank, don't listen to mobb.

 

Buy a Mac. You'll thank me later.

 

Yah, don't listen to me. I'm just a software engineer. What do I know. I forget more about computers on a given day, than Frank M has learned in his entire life. Take Franks awesome advice and spend 2x the money on a MAC. You'll get the exact same Intel Processor and NVIDIA/ATI video card for only 2x the money. If that doesn't scream deal of the century, I don't know what does!

 

As a added bonus, you won't need to buy a new computer when your software dies in 3 years! I'm constantly having to buy new hardware, because my software gets screwed up.

 

ETA: I really can't give you advice on any of those boxes, because they're missing the most important piece of info... the video card. Anything with an integrated card isn't going to cut it. Also, laptops aren't really designed to run games, so I wouldn't generally recommend trying to find one for that specific use. As for the desktop, none of the low end boxes are going to do the trick for a game like Diablo 3. You're better off taking the advice of others and building your own rig. Alternatively, buy one of the lower end boxes and upgrade to a better video card. Even the lower end of the spectrum on those cards (8800 GTX or Radeon 3870) are going to cost you over 150 bucks. A good gaming video card is closer to 400$.

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Yah, don't listen to me. I'm just a software engineer. What do I know. I forget more about computers on a given day, than Frank M has learned in his entire life. Take Franks awesome advice and spend 2x the money on a MAC. You'll get the exact same Intel Processor and NVIDIA/ATI video card for only 2x the money. If that doesn't scream deal of the century, I don't know what does!

 

I'm just busting you balls, man.

 

I like my Mac better than any of the PCs I own or work with.

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I'm just busting you balls, man.

 

I like my Mac better than any of the PCs I own or work with.

 

I get it man. They're good looking/running machines. I don't have anything against Macs, besides cost. I own an iPhone and an iPad.

 

At one time MAC was much better for Graphic Design (it was actually the way MAC rendered Fonts and Colors to a plotter/printer that was superior). So I get why Graphic people still prefer MAC.

 

I just get irked when casual computer users make uninformed statements like "Macs don't get viruses" or "you'll have to buy a new PC in 3 years". Neither of those statements are true. I have a Windows Media Center PC sitting in a closet that I haven't even rebooted in over a year. It just sits there waiting for me to wake up, to watch the latest Blu-Ray or play the new Jack White album.

 

/rant :cheers:

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How about going to Best Buy or somewhere and showing them the game requirements? Any recommendations for a good place to do that? In store or online.

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How about going to Best Buy or somewhere and showing them the game requirements? Any recommendations for a good place to do that? In store or online.

 

New Egg Gaming Rigs

 

I'd say an i5 quad core and the ATI Radeon 6870 or NVIDIA GTX 560 would be about as low as you would want to go for Starcraft 2.

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How about going to Best Buy or somewhere and showing them the game requirements? Any recommendations for a good place to do that? In store or online.

I think you accidentally skipped over my insightful build-your-own post. :huh:

 

 

 

 

<_<

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I think you accidentally skipped over my insightful build-your-own post. :huh:

 

 

 

 

<_<

 

Money I have. Time and patience and ability, not so much.

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Money I have. Time and patience and ability, not so much.

 

I'm telling ya, two weeks ago I didn't think I could do it either. The only thing I'd ever installed before was a stick of RAM. But as it turns out, it really is ridiculously easy. Now that I've done it, I'll never buy another pooter from the store.

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If you dont want to build your own, I'd do something like this...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883157204

 

And upgrade to this card...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130625

 

Or something like this...

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285

 

You're looking about 525 minimum, for something with decent gaming performance.

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Now I kind of want to try building my own computer. I mean, if gobbledog can do it.... :dunno:

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Now I kind of want to try building my own computer. I mean, if gobbledog can do it.... :dunno:

:thumbsup:

 

I'm not exaggerating how easy it was. When it came time to load the XP, I thought - surely this'll be the point where my computer ignorance finally catches up with me. But nope - it loaded and everything just worked.

 

Between the motherboard, cpu, RAM, and hard drive, I spent a total of $250. The satisfaction of building my own pooter with a quad core 3.6 processor - priceless. :wub:

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See, even that high end "gaming" pooter for $429 only comes with a dual core 2.7 ghz. And it doesn't mention how much cache the hard drive has or the Mhz of the RAM.

 

You can build and do MUCH better.

 

 

The hard drive cache or the mhz of the ram makes such a small difference in the end that it can be dismissed completely.

 

I have built 10+ computers in my life, and there are very few reasons to build your own computer anymore.

 

 

ETA: I really can't give you advice on any of those boxes, because they're missing the most important piece of info... the video card. Anything with an integrated card isn't going to cut it. Also, laptops aren't really designed to run games, so I wouldn't generally recommend trying to find one for that specific use. As for the desktop, none of the low end boxes are going to do the trick for a game like Diablo 3. You're better off taking the advice of others and building your own rig. Alternatively, buy one of the lower end boxes and upgrade to a better video card. Even the lower end of the spectrum on those cards (8800 GTX or Radeon 3870) are going to cost you over 150 bucks. A good gaming video card is closer to 400$.

 

Video cards are the MOST important aspect when building/buying a gaming computer, everything else can be sacrificed as long as it means getting a higher end video card.

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The hard drive cache or the mhz of the ram makes such a small difference in the end that it can be dismissed completely.

You obviously know better than me, but I'd at least argue that the RAM mhz probably makes a little more difference than the hard drive cache. Regardless, if you are building it's nice to know what the numbers mean so you can make better decisions. At CompUSA they had a few hard-drives which were identical in price/size/speed, but varied in cache. So, obviously I chose the one with higher cache.

 

Video cards are the MOST important aspect when building/buying a gaming computer, everything else can be sacrificed as long as it means getting a higher end video card.

Not 'everything' can be sacrificed. You can have the greatest video card in the world, but if the power supply isn't sufficient, it ain't gonna work.

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Even the lower end of the spectrum on those cards (8800 GTX or Radeon 3870) are going to cost you over 150 bucks. A good gaming video card is closer to 400$.

XFX Radeon HD 6670 - $74.99

 

According to the nerd sites I've been reading the past few weeks, this is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to video cards that will play all of the latest games currently available. Admittedly, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what the nerds say. :dunno:

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XFX Radeon HD 6670 - $74.99

 

According to the nerd sites I've been reading the past few weeks, this is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to video cards that will play all of the latest games currently available. Admittedly, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what the nerds say. :dunno:

 

Yup. One of those two links I gave him was for a box with a 6670.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285

 

AMD 3.6 quad, 8GB DDR3 1333 MHz, 500GB HD, Radeon 6670 and Windows 7 64.

 

539$ Not a bad deal.

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Yup. One of those two links I gave him was for a box with a 6670.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229285

 

AMD 3.6 quad, 8GB DDR3 1333 MHz, 500GB HD, Radeon 6670 and Windows 7 64.

 

539$ Not a bad deal.

 

Agreed. Very good pooter for the price. And you don't even have to wait for your nerd friends to find a pirated copy of Windows 7 64-bit like some people. :(

 

$539... damn, even if you add up all the stuff I outlined for each of the parts, you end up around $625 (not including monitor/mouse/keyboard). And that's the exact cpu I bought.

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Agreed. Very good pooter for the price. And you don't even have to wait for your nerd friends to find a pirated copy of Windows 7 64-bit like some people. :(

 

$539... damn, even if you add up all the stuff I outlined for each of the parts, you end up around $625 (not including monitor/mouse/keyboard). And that's the exact cpu I bought.

 

Windows 7 home premium is kinda sucky, but it's better than nothing.

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The video card in that box is worse (quite a bit) than the recommended for Diablo 3. Otherwise, a fine rig. It may run Diablo 3, but it is below spec on the video card.

 

What tells you that? ATI vs AMD? Otherwise, both Radeon hd and it has a higher number.

 

Fwiw, min specs call for ATI Radeon x 1950 pro

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I think what I want is something that just meets the recommended specs except I think I would like 4 gb ram. Anything above that is going to be a waste. My plan now is to go to best buy and maybe some other stores Friday. If I don't find something , I may go with the $539 model unless someone knows of something cheaper/ closer to the specs.

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