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pruje · Pilgrim Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 10

This will mainly be used for gaming. I am very tech literate and have built my own systems many times, but I have been out of the desktop loop for a long time and need to catch up.

This system will be mainly used for gaming. I do not need high end, but I need to be able to run stuff like the new Mechwarrior MMO at decent detail settings.

1) The CPU names are kinda crptic now...is it safe to assume any CPU is going to be multi-core nowadays?

2) I need help with the graphics card...the naming conventions are completely different now. The last one I bought was an NVidia 8600 GT.

3) What is the minimum power supply I should consider? One reason I have not upgraded in so long is that the HP I currently have has a proprietary power supply slot (3rd party ones won't fit), and the stock supply is only 300watts.

4) What slots do I need to look for when it comes to expansion?

Right now I am looking at cheap Best Buy desktops in the $400 to $700 range. I am assuming I will probably need to upgrade the card and/or power supply.

These are the kinds of systems I am looking at:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+XPS+Desktop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/6877726.p?id=1218810050386&skuId=6877726#tab=reviews

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Desktop+-+6GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/6835576.p?id=1218809255253&skuId=6835576&cmp=RMX&ky=1whxm51gbOgORrn6M8JOUlLjDtR0yY7Rx

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+ENVY+Desktop+-+10GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/6835567.p?id=1218809260533&skuId=6835567&cmp=RMX&ky=1whxm51gbOgORrn6M8JOUlLjDtR0yY7Rx

I have to buy from Best Buy, since I will be buying on credit with 0% financing. So whatever I get has to be from there. I do not want to build my own system (don't have the time or patience).

Thoughts? (Thanks in advance)

knotscott · Initiate Joined: 26 Dec 2011 Posts: 47

This is probably not the answer you were looking for, but going with an HP, Dell, Gateway, etc., generally limits you to their proprietary parts, and usually means an inferior everything...PSU, motherboard, cooler, fewer features, etc, which restricts performance, makes upgrades difficult, and replacement parts limited.

Bill Me Later is offering 6 months free financing on purchases over $99 (it's a PayPal company)...I can't help but think that you'd get a lot more PC for the money going with a new build or even a barebones kit from Tiger Direct or Newegg. It only takes about 20 minutes to assemble the components, and whatever time it takes to load an operating system.

Just my 2 cents...
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bdub · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 10:20 am Post subject:

any of those systems you buy from bestbuy are going to have crap videocard (for gaming), and if you put a new one in, you will need to upgrade the psu.
take knotscott's advice and look to build your own computer.
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pruje · Pilgrim Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 10

Well, I did kinda take his advice...I did not know about "bill me later" on Paypal. I used that and bought this system off of Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883258007

I don't have the time or patience to put together a system anymore. And this option was affordable. 6 months zero interest. This will play modern games (Radeon HD 7770, 8 gigs RAM, and 6 core AMD CPU). It's expandable and stable. The other options I saw were not.

I know the video card is not top of the line, but I can upgrade that later if I need to. It appears to be non-proprietary. My budget was $650...this ended up costing $705 total.

Thank you guys for your help. I always know if I come here people will know what they are talking about. I love this site.

Roach412 · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:36 pm Post subject:

if you upgrade your graphics in the future, you'll almost-certainly need to do the same to your power supply.

the 12v is split into a triple-rail configuration with only 18a availble on each. i've seen reviews showing the 7770 using ~90w at idle and approximately 250w under full load, which would actually cross over your available power (250w/12v=20.8a).

just be aware that your GPU is running whichever 12v rail you hook it to at essentially max capacity.

-Roach
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bdub · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:41 pm Post subject:

i think everyone here will agree you did the right thing.
the 500w psu will handle the 7770 (which is a pretty good bang-for-buck card, but if you do get something else in the future, remember you would also be advised to up the psu as well.
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my main rig...
asrock 970 extreme3
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zalman cpns5x performa hs/fan
crucial ballistix 2x4gb sport ddr3-1333
powercolor 3850 256bit/512meg vga
antec neo he 650r
kingston hyperx 3k ssd 120GB
seagate 500GB HDD 32M cache
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hitachi 1TB HDD 32M cache
lg wh14ns40 bd burner
optiarc ad-7240s sata dvdrw (nec chipset)

pruje · Pilgrim Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 10

Thanks for the help.

Where does the AMD fx6100 fit in as far as the cpu hierarchy? I know it is a 6 core but I know enough about CPUs to know that doesn't tell the whole story. What is considered average now and how does this compare?

bdub · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 5:57 pm Post subject:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html
_________________
my main rig...
asrock 970 extreme3
AMD athlonII X3 440
zalman cpns5x performa hs/fan
crucial ballistix 2x4gb sport ddr3-1333
powercolor 3850 256bit/512meg vga
antec neo he 650r
kingston hyperx 3k ssd 120GB
seagate 500GB HDD 32M cache
seagate 750GB HDD 32M cache
hitachi 1TB HDD 32M cache
lg wh14ns40 bd burner
optiarc ad-7240s sata dvdrw (nec chipset)

pruje · Pilgrim Joined: 17 Jul 2008 Posts: 10

That is useful, thank you.

So the CPU is reasonably fast as well. I like this system now. Only thing that kinda sucks is that the RAM is already maxed at 8 gigs, but I guess that is good enough for what I will use it for.

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