Hey guys and girls, I am planning to buy a computer soon and I'm not really sure what exactly to look for.
I've got a very limited budget(around $500) and I need a decent computer, It's primary use will be for gaming, dont need any business programs or anything. I might be able to get some upgrades later on after i've saved up a bit more money(for like buying a better video card or more ram).
I dont really care if its second hand or not as long as it works good. It needs to be powerful enough to run this game well. It would be nice if it had windows XP, but as long as the operating system worked with EQ2, i could upgrade later.
Im not very good at looking for this stuff online so any help would be greatly appreciated. Its main use would be for playing this game so, its important that it can play this game well as it is or with very few upgrades. I would prefer if it was from a big name computer company website like Dell or something so...
Help if you can.
- Forums
- EverQuest II
- General Discussion
- Help me find a comp
Help me find a compFollow
or if anyone got their computer for around this price and can give me a link to the website they got it from
Here's the link to the game minimum specs, and posted here for ease.
Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Processor: 1 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 64 MB of texture memory
Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware
I have XP, 1.7MHZ, 768MB RAM, GeForce 5200 128MB video card, onboard sound. With this setup I have to run the game on Extreme Performance, and it runs just ok.
You should be able to get a bare-bones system from Dell for under $500, they have some good deals. And they usually come with a software bundle. You main investment will be your video card as that will greatly impact the game. Plan on spending at least $100 for a decent card.
Scroll down a bit to check out some of the very good threads about video cards.
Operating System: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
Processor: 1 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
Video Card: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 64 MB of texture memory
Sound Card: DirectSound compatible audio hardware
I have XP, 1.7MHZ, 768MB RAM, GeForce 5200 128MB video card, onboard sound. With this setup I have to run the game on Extreme Performance, and it runs just ok.
You should be able to get a bare-bones system from Dell for under $500, they have some good deals. And they usually come with a software bundle. You main investment will be your video card as that will greatly impact the game. Plan on spending at least $100 for a decent card.
Scroll down a bit to check out some of the very good threads about video cards.
Hello:
I was able to build my PC #2 for EQII on a $450 budget (this does NOT include monitor, but hang tight). Here's what I used:
Motherboard:
I prefer to avoid 2nd tier or lower here; there are a lot of signal integrity issues in layout of a good motherboard, despite the well published reference designs. If you'll examine closely the tech forum for EQ2, a lot of people complain that the high end AMD CPUs aren't working cleanly with EQ2, especially dual core, which they get for close to Intel Pentium price. I'm thus fond of staying with Intel. So:
my choice ASUS P4S800D-X cost around $58
If you had about $100 more budget, I'd consider an Intel chipset using the PCI-Express video bus rather than AGPx8, as PCI-E in x16 data width is about 2x more bandwidth, and low end PCI-E video cards are available in the near $100 range.
CPU:
the first advice is processor bandwidth is not just the clock speed at the CPU (ie "how many gigahertz?"), but also the speed of how fast data moves from memory and video card (the so-called "Front Side Bus [FSB]speed"). In other terms, a low end pentium 4 starts with a FSB of 400 Mhz. The next group was released with 533 Mhz FSB, and then now the most expensive ones do 800 Mhz FSB. The above motherboard can accomodate ALL of those speeds. But to keep under $500, you can forget about 800 Mhz for now. We want, if its nearly the same money, to aim for 533 Mhz FSB. But we're (or at least I am) cheapskates.
So, you want a Celeron-"D", at 2.4 Ghz or just slightly faster, which costs between $76 and $90. The "D" states its a 533 Mhz FSB, and you want it to be the "BOXED RETAIL VERSION". This gives you a bundled Intel approved fan, and a 3 year international warranty from Intel. The not "boxed retail" CPU gives you a 30 day warranty, good at the store you bought it ONLY.
CPU Celeron-D 2.4 $80
That saves about $70 off the top from the same speed P4, at the loss of some cache. It actually doesn't greatly increase speed to use the P4; the main speed increase is from the higher FSB, and that's why only the Celeron-D is acceptable when substituting.
RAM:
DDR-400, 2 pieces, 512 MB each. Should cost $45-50 each, you want Samsung, Kingston, Corsair, or PQI. The first 3 listed are 1st tier, as is Infineon or Toshiba. PQI is second tier but acceptable. Don't even consider generic "house" brands. The two pieces because this allows the dual channel memory motherboard above to read from both memory modules concurrently, rather than sequentially, thus doubling memory bandwidth. Put the memory into the color coded slots, in this case the two blue slots are bank 1 for dual channel support.
Video Card:
This is painful. I'd go ATI Radeon 9550 in minimum 128 MB DDR video RAM, in my case from ASUS also. I got 256 MB video RAM, 128 bit data path, and I spent $88. I'd aim for under $100 on the video card, and upgrade at a later time to a better video card, or even different motherboard in 18 months. For now, cheap is king. Of course, the video card should support AGPx8. I am fond of Nvidia, but I can't seem to find a good one in the under $100 category, so for now its ATI.
HOWEVER, there's a bug with ATI catalyst drivers newer than version 5.2, which causes video processor unit (VPU) resets when tradeskilling and near water (both have associated special effects). Also turn off the anisotropic filtering option outside the game, at the catalyst control panel. One last thing -- ATI drivers want service pack 2 XP to install cleanly, although I managed to get mine running without any SPs in Win XP.
So, Video card ATI 9550 with 128-bit data path, minimum 128 MB DDR video RAM, AGPx8 $90-95
How much did we spend yet?
Next post: everything else...
- GS
I was able to build my PC #2 for EQII on a $450 budget (this does NOT include monitor, but hang tight). Here's what I used:
Motherboard:
I prefer to avoid 2nd tier or lower here; there are a lot of signal integrity issues in layout of a good motherboard, despite the well published reference designs. If you'll examine closely the tech forum for EQ2, a lot of people complain that the high end AMD CPUs aren't working cleanly with EQ2, especially dual core, which they get for close to Intel Pentium price. I'm thus fond of staying with Intel. So:
my choice ASUS P4S800D-X cost around $58
If you had about $100 more budget, I'd consider an Intel chipset using the PCI-Express video bus rather than AGPx8, as PCI-E in x16 data width is about 2x more bandwidth, and low end PCI-E video cards are available in the near $100 range.
CPU:
the first advice is processor bandwidth is not just the clock speed at the CPU (ie "how many gigahertz?"), but also the speed of how fast data moves from memory and video card (the so-called "Front Side Bus [FSB]speed"). In other terms, a low end pentium 4 starts with a FSB of 400 Mhz. The next group was released with 533 Mhz FSB, and then now the most expensive ones do 800 Mhz FSB. The above motherboard can accomodate ALL of those speeds. But to keep under $500, you can forget about 800 Mhz for now. We want, if its nearly the same money, to aim for 533 Mhz FSB. But we're (or at least I am) cheapskates.
So, you want a Celeron-"D", at 2.4 Ghz or just slightly faster, which costs between $76 and $90. The "D" states its a 533 Mhz FSB, and you want it to be the "BOXED RETAIL VERSION". This gives you a bundled Intel approved fan, and a 3 year international warranty from Intel. The not "boxed retail" CPU gives you a 30 day warranty, good at the store you bought it ONLY.
CPU Celeron-D 2.4 $80
That saves about $70 off the top from the same speed P4, at the loss of some cache. It actually doesn't greatly increase speed to use the P4; the main speed increase is from the higher FSB, and that's why only the Celeron-D is acceptable when substituting.
RAM:
DDR-400, 2 pieces, 512 MB each. Should cost $45-50 each, you want Samsung, Kingston, Corsair, or PQI. The first 3 listed are 1st tier, as is Infineon or Toshiba. PQI is second tier but acceptable. Don't even consider generic "house" brands. The two pieces because this allows the dual channel memory motherboard above to read from both memory modules concurrently, rather than sequentially, thus doubling memory bandwidth. Put the memory into the color coded slots, in this case the two blue slots are bank 1 for dual channel support.
Video Card:
This is painful. I'd go ATI Radeon 9550 in minimum 128 MB DDR video RAM, in my case from ASUS also. I got 256 MB video RAM, 128 bit data path, and I spent $88. I'd aim for under $100 on the video card, and upgrade at a later time to a better video card, or even different motherboard in 18 months. For now, cheap is king. Of course, the video card should support AGPx8. I am fond of Nvidia, but I can't seem to find a good one in the under $100 category, so for now its ATI.
HOWEVER, there's a bug with ATI catalyst drivers newer than version 5.2, which causes video processor unit (VPU) resets when tradeskilling and near water (both have associated special effects). Also turn off the anisotropic filtering option outside the game, at the catalyst control panel. One last thing -- ATI drivers want service pack 2 XP to install cleanly, although I managed to get mine running without any SPs in Win XP.
So, Video card ATI 9550 with 128-bit data path, minimum 128 MB DDR video RAM, AGPx8 $90-95
How much did we spend yet?
Next post: everything else...
- GS
Power supply and case:
The case is just plastic and steel, the main thing is for it to be ATX compatible, with mounting holes and standoffs for the various ATX footprints. Well made cases also grind the sharp edges from cut metal plates so you don't cut yourself in assembly, but that's part of the ritual I suppose for a true cheapskate...
The POWER SUPPLY is important. It needs to be 350W "P4" rated, which actually means it has an extra 4-pin 12V cable to supply energy to the voltage regulator used to power the CPU core, which runs at a different voltage than the 3.3V and 5V pins supplied by a normal power supply harness. If that cable isn't plugged in, your system won't power up. Technically, you're looking for a ATX 2.0 350W P4-capable power supply;
the very best on a budget would be a Fortran PSP-60 350W with PFC, which costs about $40-45.
But otherwise you're stuck with the bundle that came with your cheap case, expect it to be most likely a Codegen 350W power supply which wholesales about $19 to $15, plus around $8 to $12 for the case, as a combined bundle in the $35 to $48 range.
Floppy disk -- $9 from Sony, Teac, *********** NEC etc. In fact, if it sounds Japanese, buy it.
DVD/maybe CD writer/possibly DVD writer:
A pure DVD reader can be had on a $26 budget, or thereabouts.
Add CD-writing capability and now the cost is closer to $41.
Add DVD as well as CD-writing and the cost is now $50-65.
I chose a LG brand DVD writer for $62 4 months ago, but the same model now sells for $49. For the cheapskate, consider spending about $40 for a so-called "combo" drive, which is DVD read and CD-RW.
Hard Disk -- absolutely I'd go SATA IDE, in the 80 to 160 GB range. My preferred company is Hitachi, which means they were designed by IBM San Jose (CA, USE) before being spun off to Hitachi. Price -- $63ish 80 GB
$105ish 160 GB
$120ish 200 GB
80 GB is fine.
There's just one thing -- if you have an older (non SP2) Win XP install, it doesnt support installing directly to SATA; it wants a diskette based driver to make the install. (See, there IS something you need the floppy for...) When XP is loading off the bootable CD, it looks for a IDE hard disk on IDE channel 0, and if it doesn't find one, it gives up! But about 10 seconds after it starts booting from CD, it prompts "Press F6 to add driver for SCSI or RAID". That's your cue.
Press F6, and it's waiting for you to insert a "RAID driver" for your SATA RAID chipset (there's one on the above mentioned motherboard). You download this driver from SIS; I'm not sure your motherboard box has it. It might. There's more than one download; the one you're after says "Floppy disk image" in the description, and is 1.44 MB or thereabouts, rather than 3-4 MB.
Audio -- built in to the motherboard, skip this.
Audio CABLE from DVD: yep, the industry will charge you seperately for this cable. Expect to pay $5 for a 80 cent cable.
Keyboard: Logitech OEM are great. $9-15
Mouse: Optical is best, but I am pretty cheap. $3-$5 for button PS-2 style mouse suits me, except they get dirty fairly fast and need replacing every 9 months. In theory, you CAN clean them, but maybe I'm lazy beside cheap.
Beer err I mean mountain dew and R-rated movie tickets for your duly authorized computer expert to assemble the above: PRICELESS. But now I'm joking. You might have to pay $40-$50 for an hour's time. Adding the OS and such a little longer. Call it two hours.
Can it be done on $500 budget??? YES
Is it better than from Dell, etc? ABSOLUTELY
Why??
The Dell, HP, Earthlink, etc solution is to put everything onto the motherboard, make the footprint proprietary, and thus make the PC a commodity item that must be discarded rather than upgraded. Do it yourself, and now you can use better quality parts.
DISADVANTAGES:
Software Bundle. There isn't any. Which means, err um, it's possible to overspend your budget, considering Win XP home version, OEM, costs about $95 in stores.
Add it up:
$60 Motherboard
$80 CPU
$95 RAM, 1 GB in DDR-400
$40 case/PS (technically, you need the Power Supply, the Case could be a slab of wood...)
$10 Floppy
$65 SATA 80 GB IDE HDD
$30 DVD no writing, +$15 add CD-RW option
$90 Video card (DO NOT use ATI 9250, use ATI 9550)
-----
$470
plus tax
Add Win XP Home: $95 ==> $565 for a very sweet EQ2 box
you really must have more than 512 MB to play well.
The above system is $65 away from RAID-1 or RAID-0 capability, and will be around 50 to 85% faster than a P4 running at 2 Ghz with a single 1 GB DDR memory module, due to faster FSB, dual channel memory, embedded SATA (150 MB/sec rather than 66 or 100 ATA in an older generation system).
Its a solid game platform, it's what I run.
I've built at least 400 computers by my own hands, and have 21 years paid engineering experience. But mostly, I only had around $500 for my budget, and I built mine end of April to middle of may, in stages according to my salary, so I know what the market has now.
If you had about $125 more, you could adjust the starting motherboard to PCI-Expressx16 capable, and substitute a $100ish PCI-E video card instead. More or less everything else stays the same. But then again, you could do that next year, when the motherboard is less and the video cards more stable...
Cheers
- GS
The case is just plastic and steel, the main thing is for it to be ATX compatible, with mounting holes and standoffs for the various ATX footprints. Well made cases also grind the sharp edges from cut metal plates so you don't cut yourself in assembly, but that's part of the ritual I suppose for a true cheapskate...
The POWER SUPPLY is important. It needs to be 350W "P4" rated, which actually means it has an extra 4-pin 12V cable to supply energy to the voltage regulator used to power the CPU core, which runs at a different voltage than the 3.3V and 5V pins supplied by a normal power supply harness. If that cable isn't plugged in, your system won't power up. Technically, you're looking for a ATX 2.0 350W P4-capable power supply;
the very best on a budget would be a Fortran PSP-60 350W with PFC, which costs about $40-45.
But otherwise you're stuck with the bundle that came with your cheap case, expect it to be most likely a Codegen 350W power supply which wholesales about $19 to $15, plus around $8 to $12 for the case, as a combined bundle in the $35 to $48 range.
Floppy disk -- $9 from Sony, Teac, *********** NEC etc. In fact, if it sounds Japanese, buy it.
DVD/maybe CD writer/possibly DVD writer:
A pure DVD reader can be had on a $26 budget, or thereabouts.
Add CD-writing capability and now the cost is closer to $41.
Add DVD as well as CD-writing and the cost is now $50-65.
I chose a LG brand DVD writer for $62 4 months ago, but the same model now sells for $49. For the cheapskate, consider spending about $40 for a so-called "combo" drive, which is DVD read and CD-RW.
Hard Disk -- absolutely I'd go SATA IDE, in the 80 to 160 GB range. My preferred company is Hitachi, which means they were designed by IBM San Jose (CA, USE) before being spun off to Hitachi. Price -- $63ish 80 GB
$105ish 160 GB
$120ish 200 GB
80 GB is fine.
There's just one thing -- if you have an older (non SP2) Win XP install, it doesnt support installing directly to SATA; it wants a diskette based driver to make the install. (See, there IS something you need the floppy for...) When XP is loading off the bootable CD, it looks for a IDE hard disk on IDE channel 0, and if it doesn't find one, it gives up! But about 10 seconds after it starts booting from CD, it prompts "Press F6 to add driver for SCSI or RAID". That's your cue.
Press F6, and it's waiting for you to insert a "RAID driver" for your SATA RAID chipset (there's one on the above mentioned motherboard). You download this driver from SIS; I'm not sure your motherboard box has it. It might. There's more than one download; the one you're after says "Floppy disk image" in the description, and is 1.44 MB or thereabouts, rather than 3-4 MB.
Audio -- built in to the motherboard, skip this.
Audio CABLE from DVD: yep, the industry will charge you seperately for this cable. Expect to pay $5 for a 80 cent cable.
Keyboard: Logitech OEM are great. $9-15
Mouse: Optical is best, but I am pretty cheap. $3-$5 for button PS-2 style mouse suits me, except they get dirty fairly fast and need replacing every 9 months. In theory, you CAN clean them, but maybe I'm lazy beside cheap.
Beer err I mean mountain dew and R-rated movie tickets for your duly authorized computer expert to assemble the above: PRICELESS. But now I'm joking. You might have to pay $40-$50 for an hour's time. Adding the OS and such a little longer. Call it two hours.
Can it be done on $500 budget??? YES
Is it better than from Dell, etc? ABSOLUTELY
Why??
The Dell, HP, Earthlink, etc solution is to put everything onto the motherboard, make the footprint proprietary, and thus make the PC a commodity item that must be discarded rather than upgraded. Do it yourself, and now you can use better quality parts.
DISADVANTAGES:
Software Bundle. There isn't any. Which means, err um, it's possible to overspend your budget, considering Win XP home version, OEM, costs about $95 in stores.
Add it up:
$60 Motherboard
$80 CPU
$95 RAM, 1 GB in DDR-400
$40 case/PS (technically, you need the Power Supply, the Case could be a slab of wood...)
$10 Floppy
$65 SATA 80 GB IDE HDD
$30 DVD no writing, +$15 add CD-RW option
$90 Video card (DO NOT use ATI 9250, use ATI 9550)
-----
$470
plus tax
Add Win XP Home: $95 ==> $565 for a very sweet EQ2 box
you really must have more than 512 MB to play well.
The above system is $65 away from RAID-1 or RAID-0 capability, and will be around 50 to 85% faster than a P4 running at 2 Ghz with a single 1 GB DDR memory module, due to faster FSB, dual channel memory, embedded SATA (150 MB/sec rather than 66 or 100 ATA in an older generation system).
Its a solid game platform, it's what I run.
I've built at least 400 computers by my own hands, and have 21 years paid engineering experience. But mostly, I only had around $500 for my budget, and I built mine end of April to middle of may, in stages according to my salary, so I know what the market has now.
If you had about $125 more, you could adjust the starting motherboard to PCI-Expressx16 capable, and substitute a $100ish PCI-E video card instead. More or less everything else stays the same. But then again, you could do that next year, when the motherboard is less and the video cards more stable...
Cheers
- GS
Outstanding posts DobriyIvan! Rate up on each of them! I have only one question;
I have an ATI 9600 with 256MB and as per your recommendation, I looked for the option to turn off the anisotropic filtering option in the catalyst control panel.
All I could find was a check box that would allow me to turn off "application preference" for this feature and choose a custom setting. I did not, I just left things as I found them! Is "application preference" an acceptable option in lieu of an off switch?
BTW - I totally agree that building a custom box is the only way to go. Back in the day, when I built my first computer, you had to spend an evening setting all the dip switches on the mother-board and then spend a day or two in assembly and trouble shooting.
Now days, a new computer will pretty much fall together in a couple of hours! Formatting a pair of large hard drives and installing the software takes longer than building the machine!
Thanks again for taking the time to detail just how much can be done even on a tight budget.
I have an ATI 9600 with 256MB and as per your recommendation, I looked for the option to turn off the anisotropic filtering option in the catalyst control panel.
All I could find was a check box that would allow me to turn off "application preference" for this feature and choose a custom setting. I did not, I just left things as I found them! Is "application preference" an acceptable option in lieu of an off switch?
BTW - I totally agree that building a custom box is the only way to go. Back in the day, when I built my first computer, you had to spend an evening setting all the dip switches on the mother-board and then spend a day or two in assembly and trouble shooting.
Now days, a new computer will pretty much fall together in a couple of hours! Formatting a pair of large hard drives and installing the software takes longer than building the machine!
Thanks again for taking the time to detail just how much can be done even on a tight budget.
DobriyIvan amazed us with:
Ok, I hereby vow never to try to answer any technical questions when I know DobriyIvan has the REAL answer. :)
Edit: forgot to add...
I prefer to avoid 2nd tier or lower here
Can I harvest Tier 2 motherboards at Fry's? :)
Edited, Fri Aug 19 12:42:22 2005 by tutanbriarpaw
Quote:
Hello: ...and everything else
Ok, I hereby vow never to try to answer any technical questions when I know DobriyIvan has the REAL answer. :)
Edit: forgot to add...
I prefer to avoid 2nd tier or lower here
Quote:
I prefer to avoid 2nd tier or lower here
Can I harvest Tier 2 motherboards at Fry's? :)
Edited, Fri Aug 19 12:42:22 2005 by tutanbriarpaw
wow amazing posts, but there are a few problems... i couldn't build a computer if my life depended on it, i doubt all those prices are canadian (which is a big deal, since i am canadian and $550 american would probably be closer to 600 and something canadian dollars) , i dont really have much time to gather all these pieces of hardware and i dont have a credit card, so i have to use my aunts CC, and she'll only let me use it if i buy my comp from a big named computer company like DELL
Edited, Fri Aug 19 21:35:57 2005 by DarkenedDne
Edited, Fri Aug 19 21:35:57 2005 by DarkenedDne
If you are from around montreal, i can send you to the cheapest store around, they will build the pc for you if you cant ( for an extra fee )
They deal with indians tho but they honor all their guarantee even if nothing hiolds them to it. Ben dealing with them since 1997, they chaged name like 7 time but they never refused me any change of hardware when it wasnt working good enough for my tatse.
They deal with indians tho but they honor all their guarantee even if nothing hiolds them to it. Ben dealing with them since 1997, they chaged name like 7 time but they never refused me any change of hardware when it wasnt working good enough for my tatse.
After all that, DarkenedDne confessed:
Hmmm... I guess it's true what they say... you can lead a horse to water...
Quote:
...i couldn't build a computer if my life depended on it... i dont really have much time to gather all these pieces of hardware...
Hmmm... I guess it's true what they say... you can lead a horse to water...
Nah, im not from Montreal, Im from the west coast. I wish i could build my own computer but i want a new computer A.S.A.P and I honestly don't have the patience to learn how, gather everything and then put it together.
Is it possible to remove the RAM from an older computer of mine and put it in the new computer?, how would i do that? Also, there is a floppy drive in the old computer... could I take that out and put it in the computer if it doesnt have one?
Is this computer a total rip off or is it alright?
http://ecomm.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=CFG&~tab=1
I already have a monitor, although its older(does the monitor make a big difference in how the game plays?
I also have computer speakers that will be alright and my aunt has windows XP or something w/ WORD, EXCEL and POWERPOINT etc... so thats not too important. After stating all that, would the computer in that link be alright? I could probably buy more RAM(how much would it cost to go from 256mb to around 750mb or 1gb RAM?) and a better video card later if i need to.(Do i need a better video card then the one there?)
-Thanks
Is it possible to remove the RAM from an older computer of mine and put it in the new computer?, how would i do that? Also, there is a floppy drive in the old computer... could I take that out and put it in the computer if it doesnt have one?
Is this computer a total rip off or is it alright?
http://ecomm.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?c=ca&cs=cadhs1&l=en&s=dhs&itemtype=CFG&~tab=1
I already have a monitor, although its older(does the monitor make a big difference in how the game plays?
I also have computer speakers that will be alright and my aunt has windows XP or something w/ WORD, EXCEL and POWERPOINT etc... so thats not too important. After stating all that, would the computer in that link be alright? I could probably buy more RAM(how much would it cost to go from 256mb to around 750mb or 1gb RAM?) and a better video card later if i need to.(Do i need a better video card then the one there?)
-Thanks
or if the computer at the link above isnt any good, is it possible for anyone to find a good website where they could build a computer for me and give me the link? It would again have to be in the price range of $500-600 CANADIAN dollars. it does NOT have to have speakers or a monitor or a printer, but it has to be close to being ready to play EQ 2, again, i can make a few upgrades later on (like RAM and a better video card)
Edited, Sun Aug 21 02:12:34 2005 by DarkenedDne
Edited, Sun Aug 21 02:12:34 2005 by DarkenedDne
Ok, you can keep your old monitor, the monitor dosent effect on the performance tho it can limit the resolution you can play the game in.
Old ram can always be remove and place in the new computer, but if yours is old its probably not worth it since their are different quality and speed of ram and your old one probably wont fit in your new mother board.
Floppy disk, sure dont buy a new one of that, open your old case and it will be fix by ***** on each side and plugs behind that can be salvage and put back in the new machine. same for cd drive if you have one, its the same principle.
So what youll need for a new computer is
New case (if the one you have is really old.)
Mother board
Ram
Videocard
CPU
Power supply ( yours is probably too weak for the new hardware)
hard drive if yours is too old or dosent have enough space
and you can keep
Monitor
sound card
Floppy
Cd drive
Powersupply if 400w or more you can keep
Casing (if new mother board fits in it)
You can always upgrade the monitor, sound card, cd drive eventually but for now they will work
Old ram can always be remove and place in the new computer, but if yours is old its probably not worth it since their are different quality and speed of ram and your old one probably wont fit in your new mother board.
Floppy disk, sure dont buy a new one of that, open your old case and it will be fix by ***** on each side and plugs behind that can be salvage and put back in the new machine. same for cd drive if you have one, its the same principle.
So what youll need for a new computer is
New case (if the one you have is really old.)
Mother board
Ram
Videocard
CPU
Power supply ( yours is probably too weak for the new hardware)
hard drive if yours is too old or dosent have enough space
and you can keep
Monitor
sound card
Floppy
Cd drive
Powersupply if 400w or more you can keep
Casing (if new mother board fits in it)
You can always upgrade the monitor, sound card, cd drive eventually but for now they will work
I agree with Prometeus Vitar above, except that most likely your old CD isn't able to read DVD, and thus needs upgrading to DVD. Since you only have around USA $ 450 budget, it's highly doubtful you'll be able to get a solid EQ2 machine from day one, but you might get in the vicinity of one and add RAM later, etc.
In my opinion, you can salvage your old hard disk to lower cost; you *might* be able to salvage your old video card, I'm not sure what you have. It's also possible to shave a few farthings by getting a used video card from ebay, although it sounds like you don't really know what to look for there, and the place is full of borderline deals/dealers. That said, I've been lucky there, although even so I'd guess I've been burned 1 time in 5, on average, burned meaning something was borderline. I factor it in on my bid price, and still come off ahead over time.
Well, in this case, I guess my post were most relevant for the people who really are hard up for cash and not using their Aunt's credit card. But its very hard to get great quality without paying extra, even in these commodity days. Let me look over your link and I'll critique it further. Did I mention I once was worth $2 a minute on Acer's 900 premium tech support line? That was 10 years ago... be happy to get answers for free!
And thanks, it's a pleasure to help someone again.
- GS
In my opinion, you can salvage your old hard disk to lower cost; you *might* be able to salvage your old video card, I'm not sure what you have. It's also possible to shave a few farthings by getting a used video card from ebay, although it sounds like you don't really know what to look for there, and the place is full of borderline deals/dealers. That said, I've been lucky there, although even so I'd guess I've been burned 1 time in 5, on average, burned meaning something was borderline. I factor it in on my bid price, and still come off ahead over time.
Well, in this case, I guess my post were most relevant for the people who really are hard up for cash and not using their Aunt's credit card. But its very hard to get great quality without paying extra, even in these commodity days. Let me look over your link and I'll critique it further. Did I mention I once was worth $2 a minute on Acer's 900 premium tech support line? That was 10 years ago... be happy to get answers for free!
And thanks, it's a pleasure to help someone again.
- GS
In your price range, Dell only has the 2400 and 3000.
The 2400 features a Celeron with 400 Mhz FSB (so-so), 256 MB DDR RAM (you'll need to add memory later, the memory MUST be DDR-400 Mhz, but this is very low cost), integrated video (it won't run EQ2 without an add in AGP card, and that will cost you), good news is bundle price $350 USD plus shipping.
You'll need to add about $115 to add a $90 video card (not from Dell) and a $25 256 MB DDR memory module, plus budget $25 to $35 for a tech to unscrew the system and add each in. It will take them all of 10 minutes, but actually its possible to break the RAM socket if you have the strength of Hercules and insist on jamming it in backwards. There are also precautions as to static electricity in handling the memory and unplugging power from the system so that the AGP bus isnt energized (Vaux) when you insert the video card. It's pretty simple, but so is driving a car, and I'd wager you're still in the process of mastering that. All sorts of mayhem can occur if you're not sure what to do...
The Dell 3000 looks much sweeter, with this week's discount bundle moving a free (err, its worth about $105 to Dell) 17" monitor, which means you might be able to sell your old 15" or smaller monitor, and otherwise no real value to having a second monitor. But the processor is a Celeron-D, at 533 Mhz FSB, which makes the system 1/3rd faster (533/400 == 4/3 == 1/3rd faster)...
This FSB bandwidth influences GREATLY the video performance, and also RAM use. EQ2 has a lot of RAM access, and very small RAM will make an otherwise acceptable system creep.
At $450+shipping, the Dell 3000 completely uses up your credit card allowance... So you'd have to sell off pieces of your old system to finance your video card. As before, they've substituted a $15 to $18 video chip embedded on the motherboard in-lieu of a $80-$90 gamer video card, for the lowest cost bundle. That video chip isn't on the EQ2 list of supported video, so you're ummm SOL (Sony Online Limits)
I hope I'm not rated down for this :)
Hey, I hope to see you online soon. I'm on Shadowhaven and Splitpaw. Good luck!
- GS
The 2400 features a Celeron with 400 Mhz FSB (so-so), 256 MB DDR RAM (you'll need to add memory later, the memory MUST be DDR-400 Mhz, but this is very low cost), integrated video (it won't run EQ2 without an add in AGP card, and that will cost you), good news is bundle price $350 USD plus shipping.
You'll need to add about $115 to add a $90 video card (not from Dell) and a $25 256 MB DDR memory module, plus budget $25 to $35 for a tech to unscrew the system and add each in. It will take them all of 10 minutes, but actually its possible to break the RAM socket if you have the strength of Hercules and insist on jamming it in backwards. There are also precautions as to static electricity in handling the memory and unplugging power from the system so that the AGP bus isnt energized (Vaux) when you insert the video card. It's pretty simple, but so is driving a car, and I'd wager you're still in the process of mastering that. All sorts of mayhem can occur if you're not sure what to do...
The Dell 3000 looks much sweeter, with this week's discount bundle moving a free (err, its worth about $105 to Dell) 17" monitor, which means you might be able to sell your old 15" or smaller monitor, and otherwise no real value to having a second monitor. But the processor is a Celeron-D, at 533 Mhz FSB, which makes the system 1/3rd faster (533/400 == 4/3 == 1/3rd faster)...
This FSB bandwidth influences GREATLY the video performance, and also RAM use. EQ2 has a lot of RAM access, and very small RAM will make an otherwise acceptable system creep.
At $450+shipping, the Dell 3000 completely uses up your credit card allowance... So you'd have to sell off pieces of your old system to finance your video card. As before, they've substituted a $15 to $18 video chip embedded on the motherboard in-lieu of a $80-$90 gamer video card, for the lowest cost bundle. That video chip isn't on the EQ2 list of supported video, so you're ummm SOL (Sony Online Limits)
I hope I'm not rated down for this :)
Hey, I hope to see you online soon. I'm on Shadowhaven and Splitpaw. Good luck!
- GS
Application preference for Anisotropic Filtering (this in reply to OldBlueDragon ?? 's post) is as close as you can get for now, since the other choices force it back on. Bloom effects and Anisotropic filtering don't mix.
Luckily, EQ2 requires hand editing some .ini file to TURN ON anisotropic filtering; off the top of my head I don't know the line or file, but you'll find it in the huge Nvidia 6800 debug topic on the SOE tech support forum. Some people think it needs to be ENABLED for th very high end cards; I have my doubts.
I like having a video card with 256 MB DDR RAM already on it, as video memory is impossible to add later without trading up cards. Unlike system RAM...
Again, the original poster is unlikely to achieve low budget nirvana without hand tuning the video performance later on, since any video card in the cheapskate/scrounger price range is likely to be low performance.
I'd avoid the ATI 9250, which features DirectX 8.1 hardware support and 64-bit internal data path, and aim for the nearly identically wholesale priced ATI 9550, which has hardware DirectX 9.0c and 128-bit internal data path. The game is somewhat unplayable with 64 MB video RAM, without aggressively turning off in-game textures and {number of detailed objects, shortening distance for detailed rendering}. Thus I recommend 128 MB of video RAM at a minimum. It works well on the system I am typing from, which has an old (cheap eBay) Nvidia GF4 TI-4200 video card running at AGPx4. With a little detuning, I kick behind (I once got into trouble saying the original cliche to a customer, while a manager was secretly monitoring).
Good luck in all!
And to TutanBrian --> feel free to comment, your posts are honest and your in-game knowledge extensive! I don't check the forums often enough, and there's some risk of sudden travel keeping me offline for long periods.
I will state I intensely dislike buying motherboards from Fry's, and here is why:
In a phrase, customer returns get sold again as new. This means the tech maybe plugged it in, detected no immediate smoke, and put it back on the shelf. You have no idea if the previous customer static damaged it, bent pins plugging memory modules backwards, tried to overclock something foolishly and now has dangerous and aggressive settings in CMOS, and other knavishness. All for the lure of saving $10 or so...
I'd buy a boxed CPU from Fry's, but not one of their 30 day wonders (see above). I'd buy memory from them, if it's not a house brand generic. I'd CERTAINLY buy a hard disk from them; actually that's one area they shine. They also have decent printers and monitors; they even had EQ game cards, which makes up for their motherboards. They're also a good baseline for price; thus its worth pre-purchase window shopping there.
- GS
Edited, Mon Aug 22 02:42:36 2005 by DobriyIvan
Luckily, EQ2 requires hand editing some .ini file to TURN ON anisotropic filtering; off the top of my head I don't know the line or file, but you'll find it in the huge Nvidia 6800 debug topic on the SOE tech support forum. Some people think it needs to be ENABLED for th very high end cards; I have my doubts.
I like having a video card with 256 MB DDR RAM already on it, as video memory is impossible to add later without trading up cards. Unlike system RAM...
Again, the original poster is unlikely to achieve low budget nirvana without hand tuning the video performance later on, since any video card in the cheapskate/scrounger price range is likely to be low performance.
I'd avoid the ATI 9250, which features DirectX 8.1 hardware support and 64-bit internal data path, and aim for the nearly identically wholesale priced ATI 9550, which has hardware DirectX 9.0c and 128-bit internal data path. The game is somewhat unplayable with 64 MB video RAM, without aggressively turning off in-game textures and {number of detailed objects, shortening distance for detailed rendering}. Thus I recommend 128 MB of video RAM at a minimum. It works well on the system I am typing from, which has an old (cheap eBay) Nvidia GF4 TI-4200 video card running at AGPx4. With a little detuning, I kick behind (I once got into trouble saying the original cliche to a customer, while a manager was secretly monitoring).
Good luck in all!
And to TutanBrian --> feel free to comment, your posts are honest and your in-game knowledge extensive! I don't check the forums often enough, and there's some risk of sudden travel keeping me offline for long periods.
I will state I intensely dislike buying motherboards from Fry's, and here is why:
In a phrase, customer returns get sold again as new. This means the tech maybe plugged it in, detected no immediate smoke, and put it back on the shelf. You have no idea if the previous customer static damaged it, bent pins plugging memory modules backwards, tried to overclock something foolishly and now has dangerous and aggressive settings in CMOS, and other knavishness. All for the lure of saving $10 or so...
I'd buy a boxed CPU from Fry's, but not one of their 30 day wonders (see above). I'd buy memory from them, if it's not a house brand generic. I'd CERTAINLY buy a hard disk from them; actually that's one area they shine. They also have decent printers and monitors; they even had EQ game cards, which makes up for their motherboards. They're also a good baseline for price; thus its worth pre-purchase window shopping there.
- GS
Edited, Mon Aug 22 02:42:36 2005 by DobriyIvan
One last thing...
www.pricewatch.com is your friend.
Also, I have personal positive experience with Acme Micro of Fremont CA, which also had a Canadian office. They're Chinese, but that's a GOOD thing, as they live on a low margin with excellent quality control. Still, you need to know what you're looking for, as they don't play EverQuest (that I know of). I mention them purely because you are in Canada. I'm not sure if they have a Vancouver office. Most of the high tech Canadians seem to be Quebec based, but if you're Sasketchewan or somesuch you'll be looking to Vancouver for mail-order.
Cheers
- GS
www.pricewatch.com is your friend.
Also, I have personal positive experience with Acme Micro of Fremont CA, which also had a Canadian office. They're Chinese, but that's a GOOD thing, as they live on a low margin with excellent quality control. Still, you need to know what you're looking for, as they don't play EverQuest (that I know of). I mention them purely because you are in Canada. I'm not sure if they have a Vancouver office. Most of the high tech Canadians seem to be Quebec based, but if you're Sasketchewan or somesuch you'll be looking to Vancouver for mail-order.
Cheers
- GS
Quote:
And to TutanBrian --> feel free to comment, your posts are honest and your in-game knowledge extensive! I don't check the forums often enough, and there's some risk of sudden travel keeping me offline for long periods.
I think I can only quote about technical stuff I learn from you. :) I honestly know only enough to get myself into trouble, even though I did swap out cases one time...but don't know where this wire goes...
Your tech knowledge is amazing and your ability to put it into plain language is wonderful, especially for a stubborn old fart like myself. I look forward to your very informative posts! I wasn't trying to be condescending in my earlier sassy post, just being sassy. /bow
Wow, thanks again for the great posts, I dont get a lot of chances to check this forum so it takes me a little while to post again.
This buying from Dell.ca is getting a little frustrating and I don't think they give a damn about their customers, only that they're getting paid.
I will most likely enlist the help of a couple of cousins of mine who are pretty good with computers, and see if they can help me build a decent computer for my current budget. I live near vancouver, meaning that I should probably be able to find some decent hardware in the buy and sell.
Again, im not completely sure that the prices you're stating are all in Canadian dollars, which can make quite a substantial difference when you're working with a delicate budget.
I greatly appreciate all your help and hope to see you all soon in the World of EQ2, maybe I can join this websites guild on the Guk server? Minions of Kaos i believe it is? I played EQOA until my account got stolen because im an idiot(long story), anyways, that was the first MMORPG i ever played and never really got a good chance to play it. So im still a N00B and would require the guilds help for a while, while I get used to the game. It may be a while before my computers ready and Ive got my copy of EQ2, maybe end of September or something. It also depends on how easily I can get a gamecard for EQ2 (Im pretty sure my closest EBgames goes through them farely quickly.)
When I play though, I like to play a lot of alts, until I find one that really suits me, then I'll stick with it. These are the 6 characters I will most likely start out with... anyone think I should change any of them? In EQOA, my main was a rogue and I quite liked playing it.
Dwarf- Paladin Gnome-Wizard Iksar-Assassin Kerra-Brigand Ogre-Bruiser Wood Elf-Ranger.
This buying from Dell.ca is getting a little frustrating and I don't think they give a damn about their customers, only that they're getting paid.
I will most likely enlist the help of a couple of cousins of mine who are pretty good with computers, and see if they can help me build a decent computer for my current budget. I live near vancouver, meaning that I should probably be able to find some decent hardware in the buy and sell.
Again, im not completely sure that the prices you're stating are all in Canadian dollars, which can make quite a substantial difference when you're working with a delicate budget.
I greatly appreciate all your help and hope to see you all soon in the World of EQ2, maybe I can join this websites guild on the Guk server? Minions of Kaos i believe it is? I played EQOA until my account got stolen because im an idiot(long story), anyways, that was the first MMORPG i ever played and never really got a good chance to play it. So im still a N00B and would require the guilds help for a while, while I get used to the game. It may be a while before my computers ready and Ive got my copy of EQ2, maybe end of September or something. It also depends on how easily I can get a gamecard for EQ2 (Im pretty sure my closest EBgames goes through them farely quickly.)
When I play though, I like to play a lot of alts, until I find one that really suits me, then I'll stick with it. These are the 6 characters I will most likely start out with... anyone think I should change any of them? In EQOA, my main was a rogue and I quite liked playing it.
Dwarf- Paladin Gnome-Wizard Iksar-Assassin Kerra-Brigand Ogre-Bruiser Wood Elf-Ranger.
You have a wide range of races and classes, so if you enjoy playing them, keep them all.
Or, if you fancy to try another class, decide which is your least favorite and use that slot as your "experiment" slot.
Or, if you fancy to try another class, decide which is your least favorite and use that slot as your "experiment" slot.
Scholar
34 posts
1) Go to E-Bay
2) go to E-Bay Stores
3) look for something like "personal computers" on the menu. A list of vendors will come up. About 4 or 5 down is a company called E-College PC. Look up their first pentium gaming system. It's a monster 3.2 with 1gig RAM and a good video card. It sells for about $700. Check it out.
2) go to E-Bay Stores
3) look for something like "personal computers" on the menu. A list of vendors will come up. About 4 or 5 down is a company called E-College PC. Look up their first pentium gaming system. It's a monster 3.2 with 1gig RAM and a good video card. It sells for about $700. Check it out.
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