New Computer

B

BryanD

New Member
Hey guys.

First post here and I was wondering if I could get your opinions on this computer I have decided to purchase.

Let me give you some background. Right now I have a 4.5 year old apple G4 laptop that has been great. It has been giving me a headache with the internet lately because of its old airport card, lack of upgrading ability, and range so it has been more or less useless to me. I don't use it for anything else anymore besides the internet, music and photos (which is more or less the same with PC and mac, at the level I do it at), I have decided to sell it to a cash4macs website for $300 and buy myself a desktop.

My primary use for the desktop is going to be surfing the web, checking mail and websites and what not, nothing fancy, storing music, storing photos/looking at photos and just a little bit of counter strike playing to kill an hour or two. I was wondering if you guys could check out the system that I just bought and let me know how it will run. I am thinking that counterstrike will be the only problem I will be having on it.

So here it goes:

Acer Aspire Athlon 64 Desktop Computer ($229.99 + $5 shipping)

Features:

* Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz
* Memory: 1GB DDR2
* Hard Drive: 160GB 7200rpm SATA
* Optical drive: DL DVD±RW
* Ethernet: Gigabit LAN
* Memory card Flash Reader
* Operating system: Windows Vista Home Basic

Supported Memory Cards:

* SmartMedia
* xD
* CompacFlash I/II
* SD
* MultiMedia Card
* Memory Stick/PRO

Front Panel I/O ports:

* Two (2) USB ports
* Mic in
* Headphone in

Rear I/O ports:

* Four (4) USB ports
* Two (2) PS/2 ports
* One (1) 9-pin Serial port
* One (1) 15-pin VGA port
* One (1) Parallel port
* One (1) IEEE 1394 FireWire port
* RJ-45 Ethernet port
* Six (6) Audio channels

In the box:

* Acer Aspire T180-UA380B Desktop Computer
* Speakers
* Keyboard
* Mouse
* Power Cable

Also, for immediate upgrades I bought:

* Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804
$ 60.99 - ($ 30.00 rebate)

* MSI NX8400GS-TD256E GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $ 35.99 ($ 10.00 rebate)


Total: $344.99 including shipping less $40.00 rebates
$304.99


Anyone want to put in their 2 cents? I probably could put a computer together, however, I am not an expert by any means so I think this pre-built one suits me nice for the price. I have already bought the stuff, I should of asked for advice first, however, it will be good to learn from mistakes. Anyone think CS will run decently on this computer?

Thanks in advance!

- Bryan
 
Last edited:
Come on.... anyone? Looking for some feed back?

Alright setup? Waste of money? Okay for what I want to do?

Good price? Anything?
 
First of all, welcome to the forum :)

On topic:

Everything looks good for what you're going to use it for except the video card. A 8400GS is not going to let you play everything max on Counter Strike with good FPS. If I were you I'd return it and get a 7600GT/8600GT

;)
 
It will probably play CSS pretty well, that game is pretty old and the requirements to play it well are pretty low, though you definitely would be better off getting the 7600/8600GT (8600 for the obvious reasons).
 
i think for vista you would need dual core and need 2GB of ram.

otherwise i think it looks good.
 
It looks alright but as cohen said you will want atleast a dual core and 2gb of ram for vista. Matter of the fact a single core and 1gb ram can barely handle anything now days! Save up more money and go for a HP! I got mine for $550 and it has 2gb ram, vista home prem, AMD X2 5200, 17" monitor and all brand new at CC! Crazy good price I found it for.
 
g25racer said:
It looks alright but as cohen said you will want atleast a dual core and 2gb of ram for vista. Matter of the fact a single core and 1gb ram can barely handle anything now days! Save up more money and go for a HP! I got mine for $550 and it has 2gb ram, vista home prem, AMD X2 5200, 17" monitor and all brand new at CC! Crazy good price I found it for.
Click to expand...

yes i say go for a HP they are much better!
 
Yup! I am very happy with mine and having fun upgrading it. The only complaint I have is the case is kinda small but, isnt that always the case with prebuilts?
 
g25racer said:
Yup! I am very happy with mine and having fun upgrading it. The only complaint I have is the case is kinda small but, isnt that always the case with prebuilts?
Click to expand...

yes the cases are small..... but what else can you do.... buy another box and put it on in.... that is time and $$$
 
CPTMuller said:
It will probably play CSS pretty well, that game is pretty old and the requirements to play it well are pretty low, though you definitely would be better off getting the 7600/8600GT (8600 for the obvious reasons).
Click to expand...

"Recommend Requirements: DX9 GFX"... No matter how old those games are, they still are demanding. With my OC'd FX5200, I still cannot max out Halo 1! And the requirement is a GeForce 2 :o
 
I was shopping on a budget of $300. I don't have much more to spend than that on the computer because I am getting $300 for my mac.

How well will I be able to run vista with that processor, 3 gb, and the video card? Will it be useable?

How about CS? Will I even be able to play or will it just be jumpy? I am not looking to be a serious gamer... just a guy who hops on a couple times a week to shoot some guys. My days of having an alienware and playing 8 hours have come and gone.
 
Thanks guys!

Actually said that I bought vista already with the system :D

I think I got a pretty good deal because I am not looking for much and I don't think I could get much better without spending a lot more. Thats why I was asking.

Thanks again!
 
Bryan-

That processor will do well enough for Vista with your 3GB of memory. People on here to go a little nuts spec-wise and assume you need better than you actually do for most any tasks/OS. Guess it's the price you pay for an industry that improves as fast as this one does. :)

IMO you paid a good price for everything you got. As far as the video card goes, that would be your only weak spot. My guess is it would play CSS very well if you were willing to not play on max settings. Like others have said, if you want to upgrade your video card, the 7600gt and 8600gt are your best bets. My advice there is to look at CSS-video card benchmarks online if you're wondering where you will be at.

note to others: This guy stated in his first post he already has 3GB of ram. Make sure you read someone's ENTIRE post before giving advice.
 
BryanD said:
Thanks guys!

Actually said that I bought vista already with the system :D

I think I got a pretty good deal because I am not looking for much and I don't think I could get much better without spending a lot more. Thats why I was asking.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

OH ok... well all you will need it more ram.
 
oscaryu1 said:
"Recommend Requirements: DX9 GFX"... No matter how old those games are, they still are demanding. With my OC'd FX5200, I still cannot max out Halo 1! And the requirement is a GeForce 2 :o
Click to expand...

from past experience CSS runs light enough for older PCs.
 
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