Need some help buying a PC

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krazyeyezkilla

New Member
Well my old Dell Dimension8400 P4 is finally dead and I need a barebones kit in the $300-500 CAD range. Something dual-core ~2.0ghz, PCI-E, at least 1GB RAM. A harddrive would be a nice addition, but I know most barebones don't include them. I've seen a few on tigerdirect.ca but I just don't know enough about the components to recognize a good bargain. I'm a student so $$ is an issue. I do play games, fairly basic ones though, CounterStrike:Source, Battlefield 2. Not sure what video card (Radeon maybe? it was AGP for sure) my old comp had but it ran those games on reasonably high settings with no problems at all.

I don't mind having to wait until boxing day to pick up a decent video card and a DVD burner. So those aren't a priority, I also don't need an OS. Any suggestions are welcome, even just what I should narrow it down to. AMD or Intel? I like to game, and I don't do music or video editing of any kind. Other than games I run very basic programs. Thanks in advance, cheers.


Is this a decent starting point?
http://www.canadacomputers.com/main.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=014761&cid=170
 
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directcanda, ncix and candacomputers are website to start with.
And I seldom find a barebone provide good deal...

Anyway, what is your overall budget?
 
i've gone thru ncix and tried to piece together all the components to put together a PC and can never seem to arrive at something cheaper than what's being offered by CanadaComputers or other places like this: http://www.globalepc.com/product.asp?product_id=SOHOAMD

i absolutely do not want to spend over $500 CAD with taxes/shipping, that'd be my overall budget. thanks for ur help so far

if i could stay in that ~$350 range that would be great, what do you think is a better deal, the SOHO from global mart or the visionary from canada computers posted above? the motherboard seems to be slightly different. canadacomps' offers a 500w PSU compared to a 450 from globalmart. however, globalmart offers a dual-layer DVD drive, and it doesn't look like canadacomputers does. canadacomps DOES offer a free epson printer though. i need something relatively quick, canadacomps' deal ends tomorrow too. looks like canadacomp is offering a slightly faster CPU, is the RAM difference something to be concerned about? thx again
 
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I would say get a barebone (case + motherboard) and get a cpu + hard drive seperately. Go for AMD's Athlon X2 line if you are on a tight budget.
 
why the sad face? that integrated video doesn't seem good...were u joking? i don't think it would play many games at all, but correct me if i'm wrong.

so AMD is the mobo manufacturer? i can't find a spec sheet on this mobo on the site, i just want to verify how many RAM slots it has, how many PCI-e slots there are etc.
 
krazyeyezkilla said:
why the sad face? that integrated video doesn't seem good...were u joking? i don't think it would play many games at all, but correct me if i'm wrong.

so AMD is the mobo manufacturer? i can't find a spec sheet on this mobo on the site, i just want to verify how many RAM slots it has, how many PCI-e slots there are etc.
Click to expand...

x1250 may be integrated, but judging by the model, it's good. You can probably play Halo, BF2, and some other games with pretty good FPS. Look up like the ATI x800 or something if you have doubts. Their great cards. :D
 
hmm x800 its not, but looking through the video's, it would easily beat the 6200LE that i have in my HP, and that thing actually boots (and plays on lowest settings) stalker.
 
thanks a lot for the help so far. i plan on looking at upgrading the graphics on boxing day, so i'll be asking you guys about that later.

any speculation on what that mobo might be? who makes it, what specs it has?

all it says on the site is "AMD 690G Chipset with AMD Live Support" so that could mean it could be any random brand mobo just with the 690G chipset right?
 
i called Canada Computers and verified that it is in fact an Asus mobo in this system, however, only 1 pci-e slot and 2 RAM slots. do you guys think it's still a decent value?
 
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