Decent $500ish computer?

[pinballjim]

So Torchlight 2... torched my other motherboard.   It was some HP Pavilion with an AMD X2 4600 or some such BS and it cost me $300 6 years ago.  Motherboard doesn't do squat even with everything unplugged so there we go.

Anyway, I went down the street to some used PC place.  Guy said, "oh this is far too new for us, we don't carry anything like this.  you need a new CPU/motherboard combination."  Apparently those stacks of CPUs and motherboards behind the Comic Book Guy clone weren't for sale.

Tried dealing with Craig's List, got the usual 16 year olds that quit answering the phone or doubles the price when it's time to deal.  Pass.

So I'm on some $40 special from Goodwill.  Some single core Celeron but hey, here I am.

Went to a few stores.  Seems like the big box guys all want to sell laptops now.  I tried about a dozen of them and couldn't tell any difference.  Every manufacturer has a $350, 600, and $1,000 model.  To run Diablo 3, I was told I needed to get some special edition Asus that was $1,200.

I can get an Xbox 360 for under $200 any day of the week.  I'm told to get anything comparable on a PC I need to prepare to buy a $600+ system, $200 video card, and $100 after market power supply.


So, long story short, is there some system in the neighborhood of $500 that won't turn out to be a huge mistake?  I'm so out of date that I can't help but be appalled when I'm told things like, "but this one has 2.1Ghz!" when I'm churning 3 on the cheapo I got this morning.

[Nephasth]

Nevermind, pickup only and not in Tejas...

[pinballjim]

Nevermind, pickup only and not in Tejas...

Don't tease the jackass, bro.

[Nephasth]

Try Newegg?

[pinballjim]

I'm asking for system suggestions, not vendor.   

[Well Fed Games]

Subscribe. I am really tempted to build a Steam Box to hook up to my TV, and could use knowledge too!

[Yenome]

I build my gaming pc for round a 500 dollar budget. When i built this one 3 years ago i was playing the current games with decent fps. now days i would go with a intel for cpu and still ati for gpu. if you want i could put together a build with links to the parts and you can just build it your self.
*edit*
I was in the beta for diablo 3 and never saw a slow down. also in the closed beta for mechwarrior online all with my 3 year old system and it runs 30-40fps at max setting. I would suggest you go the build it route.

[pinballjim]

That would be extraordinarily helpful, Yenome.

[xefned]

Posted in another thread was this Dell 3.2GHz i3 machine if you have a Frys nearby. [store pickup only] Unbeatable price considering it includes a 20" monitor, keyboard, mouse, and Windows 7. It looks to meet the Diablo 3 specs if that's really a requirement.   

I'm building two machines at the moment if you're interested in my newegg lists.
One is a low-power, low-heat, as-silent-as-possible Mame cocktail build for $430.
And a higher end machine for my wife's intensive photoshop filtering of raw camera files (she's a pro photg) for around $700.

  •  Quiet cocktail cab, Dual core Pentium

  •  Blazing Photoshop machine, Quad Core i5

The first one is up-and-running swimmingly on my bench. It's fitted with a giant-ass heatsink to be cooled with a single low-speed cabinet fan. If noise level is not a concern, you can chop $50 off the price by eliminating the gourmet heatsink and just using the stock heatsink included with the processor. You could also use a standard HD in place of the SDD, and use a cheaper PSU, which brings it closer to $350.

[GibsonRiddler]

Try this link

http://pcper.com/hwlb

They update it with different budget builds as hardware changes

[pinballjim]

Great links, guys, thanks.

Regarding this one:

Quiet cocktail cab, Dual core Pentium

My $40 special is 3Ghz.  Is that 2.6 really going to be faster? 

[SithMaster]

My advice is to reuse your case (check for cd key label if it will work with your desired operating system) and check for part sales via slickdeals.net.  Maybe a month(?) ago they advertised a newegg sale for a $145 build missing only a harddrive (pc case included) so if you don't need your fix now wait and see what comes along.  Premade isn't worth the extra cost for the bragging rights of owning a brand name desktop.

From newegg look into the corsair builder series 400 or 430w psu (~$20 with rebate if it will meet power requirements), ram that will match your mobo slots (ram is ram so unless you plan on overclocking go with something not too cheap), the recommended video card for torchlight 2 or better, a motherboard that has features you want, and a cpu that meets or exceeds torchlights requirements.  I don't know if your previous HP AMD experience has turned you away from AMD processors or not so just keep in mind that you should pick a processor and then find an acceptable board to go with it.  You also might be able to skip a graphics card if the motherboard you pick has decent on board graphics processing otherwise go Nvidia since ATI has a stupid numbering system.

I'm curious if your replacement is multicore or not.  Keep in mind that the 2.6 is per core making it more like 5.2 total.

edit-reread your post and answered my own question.

[xefned]

My $40 special is 3Ghz.  Is that 2.6 really going to be faster?

Yes. But not enough to justify 8x the cost. It's pretty hard to beat $40. You might just wanna stick with that till the black friday sales.

Damn, that's quite a bang-for-the-buck find. Most computers I've seen at Goodwill are from 2001. 

[pinballjim]

Yes. But not enough to justify 8x the cost. It's pretty hard to beat $40. You might just wanna stick with that till the black friday sales.

Yeah, my wife will love that.   

Damn, that's quite a bang-for-the-buck find. Most computers I've seen at Goodwill are from 2001.

I've actually done fairly well raiding whatever is on clearance.  The LCD I'm currently using was $20.

Don't get me wrong, this thing is a crummy single core Celeron D (with "Connie's Computer - DON'T SELL" written on the side in marker) but it boots quick and actually quite a bit snappier than the one it replaced.  I also can't knock the software suite they put on it.  XP has done over 100 updates as soon as I got it online, though.  Yeah, you read that right.  100+.  It spent 2 hours shutting down earlier today.

Won't recognize a couple of harddrives from my other system and Torchlight unfortunately runs like crap... but it'll download and burn Dexter...   

[lilshawn]

I upgraded my rig not to long ago with an AMD FX 4100 AM3+ processor and asus board combo and 4 gb ram...reused everything else... was about 100 for the CPU and about 100 for the board and 40 for ram.

i splurged a little on the board (could have bought one for 58) so i can upgrade to an 8 core processor later by just dropping it in. so about 250+tax and i'm rollin.

[yotsuya]

Don't get me wrong, this thing is a crummy single core Celeron D (with "Connie's Computer - DON'T SELL" written on the side in marker)

 

[xefned]

I've actually done fairly well raiding whatever is on clearance.  The LCD I'm currently using was $20.

I like your style. That's how I roll with vehicles: buy the cheapest thing that runs. Drive it into the dirt. Rinse and repeat. A strategy that's served me well since 17.

Don't get me wrong, this thing is a crummy single core Celeron D (with "Connie's Computer - DON'T SELL" written on the side in marker)

I'm with yotsuya: 
"Don't sell" = BUY!

done over 100 updates as soon as I got it online, though.  Yeah, you read that right.  100+.  It spent 2 hours shutting down earlier today.

Might be a good candidate for Tiny XP. I installed Superior XP 64 on aforementioned cocktail cab and it's quite sprightly.

I recently started season 1 of Dexter incidentally. Rita FTW. 

[Yenome]

ill make you a parts list in the morning when i get off. ill just send you the list of what i would build for my next rig if i was to build one now.

[pinballjim]

I like your style. That's how I roll with vehicles: buy the cheapest thing that runs. Drive it into the dirt. Rinse and repeat. A strategy that's served me well since 17.

Yeah, when I was 17 I ended up with a $800 Grand Am.  The previous owner had gotten smashed and driven it into a palm tree 2 days before I was slated to buy it (for $1,500).  Oh, no big deal it still starts.  Yeah, and, no paperwork so that was a $150 bribe to get an official title.  Spent another thousand, easily and not counting parental contributions, on parts and repairs.  Engine only had to be pulled three times with my shiny new engine hoist.  By the time I graduated high school, I was good friends with everyone at Western Auto.

When I was 25, my dad admitted he had planned on buying the jacked up $2,000 Bronco that weekend and my mom freaked.  Hooray Grand Am!

Last I heard it was still running like a champ.  Ought to be good forever at this point.  (Previous owner joined the Navy, got some Chinese girl pregnant, and then decided he was gay and went AWOL)

Anyway, I like cheap cars but the instant I can't count on it it's toast.  I've been driving my F-150 for 11 years.


So, I've bought more DDR RAM, an old PCI video card (for just as much as I paid for a 2GB super duper one last week), and a bunch of SATA->IDE converters.  Here's to hoping I can read all my old hard drives without formatting.   

[Le Chuck]

I upgraded my rig not to long ago with an AMD FX 4100 AM3+ processor and asus board combo and 4 gb ram...reused everything else... was about 100 for the CPU and about 100 for the board and 40 for ram.

i splurged a little on the board (could have bought one for 58) so i can upgrade to an 8 core processor later by just dropping it in. so about 250+tax and i'm rollin.

I've got the same processer and similar mobo sitting out in the garage along with 8gb ram and a new shiny graphics card.  Haven't put any of it together yet to start testing.  What're you able to run, where do you stall out?  Blitz doable?  How's supermodel shizzle?

[yotsuya]

By the time I graduated high school, I was good friends with everyone at Western Auto

Western Auto? How old are you,bro? Last time I saw a Western Auto, you could play a straight-off-the-assembly-line Ms. Pac-Man.

[Yenome]

Here is the system i would build right now if i was building a new one. Im assuming your using some of the parts from the old one. (case, HDD,) if you do this build will put you under your 500 budget. which means room for extra bells and whistles. or you just save money. or you can buy  a new case and HDD.

ASRock N68C-GS FX AM3+ NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
$44.99

XFX Double D HD-685X-ZDFC Radeon HD 6850 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 (same brand i have)
$139.99
   
RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V(same brand PSU i use)
$39.99

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
$39.99

AMD FX-4170 Zambezi 4.2GHz (4.3GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Quad-Core
$119.99

total is $384.95 before shipping or any tax depending on where you live to me in Nc it would be $395.59 shipped. no tax for NC
also get a free photo editing software with the game.
 
If you need a HDD and a case i would get the following

Rosewill FBM-01 Dual Fans MicroATX Mini Tower
$29.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
$79.99

With everything its $510.56  shipped to NC still round 500 for an entire system with the best gaming cpu and gpu for the money at current time.

[pinballjim]

Western Auto? How old are you,bro? Last time I saw a Western Auto, you could play a straight-off-the-assembly-line Ms. Pac-Man.

It was the Caribbean.  Things are different there - they still have KMart.   



Yenome - That parts list looks great.  What are you doing for an operating system?

[HaRuMaN]

Yenome - That parts list looks great.  What are you doing for an operating system?

8Gb of RAM, so it needs to be something 64 bit at least.  XP64 is atrocious, I would recommend Win 7 64.

[Le Chuck]

Yenome - That parts list looks great.  What are you doing for an operating system?

8Gb of RAM, so it needs to be something 64 bit at least.  XP64 is atrocious, I would recommend Win 7 64.

I had totally planned on using XP64, got it downloaded and everything ready to go.  Is there a certain build that was just crap or is the general consensus that they're all junk?  It shouldn't be too hard for me to squirrel up Win7 64 but had wanted to go with a slimmer build.   

[Hoopz]

Yenome - That parts list looks great.  What are you doing for an operating system?

8Gb of RAM, so it needs to be something 64 bit at least.  XP64 is atrocious, I would recommend Win 7 64.

I had totally planned on using XP64, got it downloaded and everything ready to go.  Is there a certain build that was just crap or is the general consensus that they're all junk?  It shouldn't be too hard for me to squirrel up Win7 64 but had wanted to go with a slimmer build.

XP64 is a turd in the punchbowl.  Win7-64 is just much better.

[Le Chuck]

Yenome - That parts list looks great.  What are you doing for an operating system?

8Gb of RAM, so it needs to be something 64 bit at least.  XP64 is atrocious, I would recommend Win 7 64.

I had totally planned on using XP64, got it downloaded and everything ready to go.  Is there a certain build that was just crap or is the general consensus that they're all junk?  It shouldn't be too hard for me to squirrel up Win7 64 but had wanted to go with a slimmer build.

XP64 is a turd in the punchbowl.  Win7-64 is just much better.

I appreciate the feedback.  No sense in trying to make something work when there are better solutions available.

[Hoopz]

I appreciate the feedback.  No sense in trying to make something work when there are better solutions available.

Quitter.

 

[pinballjim]

Leaning towards this...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158433

It's big and has BluRay.   I think it's powerful enough to chase goblins with.

Thinking now I'll just get my Goodwill PC going as good as it can get (which ain't much) and just keep it around for hobby related crap like flashing firmware. 

[Yenome]

yea forgot bout the OS i would of went win7 64. if you reused case and hdd you could snag a copy and still come under budget. course that laptop would work too. im more a desktop fan but i like being able to upgrade later for cheap compared to a new system.

[pinballjim]

Alright, the computer scientist friend talked me out of the other one.  You give up too much horsepower if you require a BluRay drive and I think I own 10 BluRays.

I got an open box version of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246491

And added another 4GB of RAM. 

Assuming Fat Wallet coughs up the 3% cashback, and they've been good about it, it'll total ~$477 shipped.  It's a little soft on the hard drive size but otherwise happy.

 

[Nephasth]

Newegg... What'd I tell ya...

[pinballjim]

No tax basically meant a $50 discount compared to other vendors.  Anyway, assuming the condition is good it'll be an excellent price.  There's few vendors besides New Egg I'd trust on open box.  Actually, probably nobody except New Egg.

[Mysterioii]

Don't get me wrong, this thing is a crummy single core Celeron D (with "Connie's Computer - DON'T SELL" written on the side in marker)

 

Somewhere, Connie is PISSED...   

[pinballjim]

Well, Connie's computer with 2GB of DDR1 RAM and a PCI GeForce 5500 shoved into it actually runs Torchlight 2 fairly well.  Only had to pay double market price to get hardware that's so archaic. 

Laptop from NewEgg showed up today.  As hoped, "open box" meant "mint condition for $150 off."  Was able to register it the $15 Windows 8 upgrade, too.   



 

[SNAAKE]

why dont you make one yourself. its easier than it may look/sound.

and 500 is plenty for a decent computer. go with an AMD rig.

[Yenome]

yea i had put together and amd rig for him but he got that laptop instead. tho it was a good buy i probly would of went with it too but im a desktop fan boy