system advice, did i get a good deal? amd 2500, abit, with extras under $800

should be quite a good pc. I have close to the same specs and it runs most games awesome. The only weak point is the video card. a 9200se is very low end. it would be worth upgrading to a 9600 xt or pro. If they don;t offer the option of upgrading, newegg.com is a great place to buy computer parts. enjoy!
 
What the hell?? ^ The ram is slow?? I think you're mistaken..

Swapp the video card.. If your on a budget.. But a ti4200.. Its a nice card.. Probably cant play such games like ut2004 but it runs my wc3 tft smoothy..

PS: This shouldnt be here.. More in deal discussion.. Seeing as though you really needed help and its April fools.. It will stay.. Unless.. :roll:
 
Hmmm, couple mispelling's on the site "conponents" and "Realteck" (should be realtek). Also they have the ram listed as pc3200 and 333 mhz, pc2700=333mhz and pc3200=400mhz, so not sure which it is.

About 615 for the parts at newegg, so seems pretty fair in their markup for building it.

The 9200se is what would really kill this as a gaming machine, A 9600 is minimum now for decent gaming performance, I would go 9800 if you can get it.

[quote name='AzN_BaLLeR']Swapp the video card.. If your on a budget.. But a ti4200.. Its a nice card.. Probably cant play such games like ut2004 but it runs my wc3 tft smoothy..[/quote]

4200 is dx8 and phazed out, get a radeon 9600 before a 4200. A nonpro 9600 is a much better choice, pretty cheap but dx9 and a generation past the 4200.
 
That's a rip off. I got a way faster processor than that and a 9800 pro (and bout same everything else) for 800 dollars.

Build your own. You gain experince, and it really ain't that difficult.
 
Also notice that this system doesn't come with an OS. If you don't have an extra copy lying around, to add on xp home would be another $99. If your heart isn't set on the aluminum case, you might want to look at a dell 8300. Right now you could get one from dell small business for about 900 after a 150 rebate that includes:
XP Home
3 GHz P4 w/800 fsb
512 mb pc 3200
80 gig hd
radeon 9800 pro
floppy drive, 5.1 sound card
16 X DVD drive (no cdrw, but these can be found from officemax or best buy and installed cheaply by yourself)

no monitor, speakers, or modem, but the one you linked to doesn't include these either. Plus, if you watch the deal forums at other tech sites, it is often possible to get an 8300 for even cheaper than this. I myself own an 8300 that I got last summer with lower specs than this (2.6 P4, 256 mb, 9800 non pro) and have had no difficulty playing any games out on the market, except for far cry where I can't max out the settings, but that's mostly due to my low amount of ram
 
sound card is horrible

vid card is absolutely pathetic

ram is slow,

hard drive is tiny

mobo is weak u wont be doin much OC'ing with ur cpu on that mobo

horrible deal
 
That system is definitely overpriced. It sounds like the video and sound card are onboard. Dell actually sells pretty decent systems. When they run specials, you can usually get a good system (2.5ghz or better) for about $500. Just add any extra RAM or video card yourself to save money. You also get the OS and other stuff with them.

With that being said, the system you purchased is plenty fast for today's games. RAM isn't the fastest technology, but it'll do fine. As others have said though, you definitely need a new video card. ATI 9600XT is a good choice. You can get 9700 Pro's pretty cheap now too. I went with a Geforce FX 5900 for my system and, depenending on the game/benchmark, it's a definite contender with the 9700 Pro. Just shop around for the best price.
 
Here's a good example from techbargains.com:

P4-2.66Ghz Desktop $399

Dimension 2400 desktop P4-2.66Ghz/533Mhz bus 256MB DDR Memory/80GB HD, 48x CDRW, Floppy, 6 months ISP, Ethernet, Speakers, Modem, Word Perfect/MS Money, XP Home $399 after $150 rebate. Free shipping, tax is charged. 2.8Ghz upgrade only +$30.

Click on Outrageous Dell $399 desktop in left area. Select Desktops Systems. Customize it on left 2400. A similiar desktop with 40GB HD/48x CD and Dell 17" LCD Flat Panel is only +$300 more if you select config on the right. (Save $120)
 
[quote name='AzN_BaLLeR']Swapp the video card.. If your on a budget.. But a ti4200.. Its a nice card.. Probably cant play such games like ut2004 but it runs my wc3 tft smoothy..[/quote]

I have a ti4200, and it plays everything very well. the only games that can get slight fps drops are max payne 2 and (rarely) halo.

I could have built this machine:

case w/ 400w supply $45
amd 2600 barton (2.1ghz) $106
512 400 ddr $95
msi k7n2 delta $80
radeon 9200se $56
wd 80gig 7200 $78
cdrw 523252 $37
dvdrom 16x $31
floppy $6
ms internet kb $10
logitech optical $12

Which is better because of the cdrw drive (faster), the RAM is 400mhz, the motherboard is better, and I actually included a fucking keyboard and mouse.

For the mere price of $556 + $25 an hour to build it (it usually takes an hour for me to build a machine), and of course the money to ship it.

I can also get 17" true flat CRT for around 100-125.
nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 128Mb for around 130.

Take that, retail scum.

In a nutshell, you really can get better deals than the one you bought, but you really didnt get ripped off by a whole lot. Just be thankful you didn't buy a Dell, Sony, Gateway desktop... whatever... and especially be thankful you didn't buy a Mac. I have nothing against Apple (the iPod owns you), but their machines are way overpriced and there are not enough games available on them.

The only time I would recommend any mass PC production company like Dell or Sony would be if you were buying a laptop, because there aren't a whole lot of people--if any--who can actually build them.
 
For a pre-made system it's not too bad of a deal. You could have done better, but you could have also done a lot worse.

However, if you were to put one together yourself, you could have done WAY better for the same amount of money.

I put together an Athlon 64 3200+ system with 1GB of PC3200, a 160GB hard drive, and an 8x dual-format DVD burner for basically the same amount of money. Only thing I didn't include was a video card since I had an FX5900 from my old computer.
 
If you keep an eye on... dare I say it? Fatwallet, often they have deals from Dell on PCs for 400-500 and all you'd have to do is pop in some more RAM (cheap) and a video card.

Sorry if mentioning the FW is against the rules... if so just delete me baby!

Either way, CAG is the BEST and ONLY way to go for video game deals... boohyah!
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. The system is running pretty well so i don't have any complaints there, and i have no idea how to build my own system so i guess the price wasn't that bad.

If my kids start complaining i'll upgrade the card.
 
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