Age of Conan

That's probably what you're all wishing  too bad. I got my own questions about upgrades... who knows, maybe you'll find a great deal if you're looking for a new comp too.

O.K. all, so about a week or so ago I figured I would be able to play this game... I asked around on this and other sites and got the same information... my processor being a single core, I would benefit more from buying a new computer... I dreaded this idea, and hoped that I could just get some more RAM and a better vid card, but it appeared to be true. My comp is basically bottlenecked after 3 years of worth... well, good ol' comp, it was fun while it lasted I guess... (excluding the fact that even when you were only a year old you could barely play WoW or Sims 2) Here is the link to the old comp:

http://www.netcostcomputersstore.com/hpcompaqd220mt.html

So yes, now I'm looking at either building a completely new computer or buying a new one. At first, I figured it is a much cheaper deal to just build one from scratch... but recently I'm finding a LOT of really suprising deals. I went from store to store and last but not least went to good ol' Circuit City... I like the store (at least my local one) because the people in there are complete nerds and know their stuff. I found this particular computer; the Gateway GT5676 Desktop PC. I could just list all the information here but it's just easier for everyone if I just give a link:

http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid/207698/context/99756018/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

...when I went to newegg to try and find the best deals possible, I found the best I could do was $800 that was of much lesser quality than what this thing is offering, excluding it's vid card (which seems it can be fine). quad core!?!? STFU! NO U!

So basically, there is a good chance I will just go ahead and buy this computer. The good thing that has happened from all that I've been doing for the past 2 weeks is that I've learned a LOT more about computers, at least more than I used to know. The way I look at it, when I got the computer I have now three years ago, it was a low-end computer then. I could go ahead and every three years by a mediocre $350 dollar computer that can run things at min settings. Or, I could buy a $700 dollar computer, get a new one every six years, and do things on the highest possible settings. Overall, the way I see things, is that the $700 computer compared to the $350 one is much more manageable... I'm not saying that this $700 dollar computer is "god". Sure, it is good at the moment (I'm sure some of you guys can find some better) but in a year from now computer capabilities will double, it's just simple electronic advancement. With the $700 dollar computer, I will be prepared to upgrade it when needed, unlike the $350 dollar computer. I am learning of what happens when you buy the $350 dollar computer compared to the $700 computer when you use it for gaming, and I don't want to end up going through the same cycle.

So after all this, what I'm asking is; is what I'm getting a good deal? Is it a smarter option to go for the $350 dollar computer and upgrade it every three years if you're into gaming? Would anyone be able to show me a better deal here? Could I build a computer myself for cheaper?

Info is greatly appreciated friends.

God damn people, how did we turn this fine mmorpg.com's AoC forum into some fekking tech-forum? You all deserve to be probed by aliens.

I have a question for those who know.

I saw that the OP said a Quad Core Processor was important and so I checked out the CPU I want to buy from Newegg. The one I want has a Dual Core Processor, but the speed reads 3.0 GHz while the Quad Core only has a speed of 2.3 GHz.

Why would a Dual Core be faster than a Quad Core? Is it more important to have a slower Quad than a faster Dual?

The problem with upgrading is that the technology changes too fast these days and alot of the time an Upgrade is out of the question and a new rig is the only way and newer tech does not  fit older boards/cases and such most of the time.

IF you can wait and save a little more money I would suggest getting something  better but if this is not an option then dont expect to play at  good settings, thats the downside with pc's if your a gamer, only other option is to go to consoles and not allot you can do about it sorry to say.

Never play games with an onboard graphics card if your a Real gamer. The machine you linked is ok but if you buy it you must buy a seperate grapics card, I'm an Nvidia fan myself as thats the most supported inside games.

Originally posted by Laserwolf

I have a question for those who know.

I saw that the OP said a Quad Core Processor was important and so I checked out the CPU I want to buy from Newegg. The one I want has a Dual Core Processor, but the speed reads 3.0 GHz while the Quad Core only has a speed of 2.3 GHz.

Why would a Dual Core be faster than a Quad Core? Is it more important to have a slower Quad than a faster Dual?

You would be better off with the Dual core, as nothing right now takes advantage of the quad core, plus the front side bus on the dual cores is faster. 

Originally posted by Laserwolf

I have a question for those who know.

I saw that the OP said a Quad Core Processor was important and so I checked out the CPU I want to buy from Newegg. The one I want has a Dual Core Processor, but the speed reads 3.0 GHz while the Quad Core only has a speed of 2.3 GHz.

Why would a Dual Core be faster than a Quad Core? Is it more important to have a slower Quad than a faster Dual?

Dual core or 2 core duo? yes there is a difference and I dont know if you know :)

The issues you will see with pre-built machines is the quality of the components. Yes its got 4gb of DDR2 ram, but what speed is it running at? It may have a 640 GB HD but what brand?

The largest problem you will have with any standard pre-built machine is the video card. That machine has 256 mb of shared video RAM. That means its most likely an on-board video card using your regular RAM as video RAM. This will be the first bottleneck you find. You'll have to upgrade your video card almost immediately and that will set you back at least a hundred bucks. But then you have to find out what kind of video card to get. You need to find out if that motherboard supports PCI-E 2.0 or if it even has any PCI-E slots. If not, then the PC will be pretty much useless for gaming now and completely useless in the future.

Building your own machine may seem more expensive, but you can make sure to get quality parts. You want a GOOD motherboard that you can expand on. Make sure you can put a quad-cpu chip in the future, but for now just get a dual-core. Make sure it has DDR2 expandable to 8 or even 16gb. Just stick 4 in it for now. Make sure it has dual PCI-E 2.0 slots. But just put a basic 512 mb PCI-E 1 card in it for now. You can do all this for about 600-700 bucks (if you get the right deals).

Then, in the future, when you have the extra funds, you can beef it up.

And for the dual-core and quad-core. Here is a 'basic' explenation (not going to get technical or even exact). Say you have dual-core running 3.0. Thats a total of 6.0. If you have quad-core running at 2.3, thats a total of 9.2. (Again, its not accurate, but it gets the point across).  Is it worth it? That depends on if you want to dish out the money for the latest-and-greatest or wait for prices to come down.

Originally posted by Laserwolf

I have a question for those who know.

I saw that the OP said a Quad Core Processor was important and so I checked out the CPU I want to buy from Newegg. The one I want has a Dual Core Processor, but the speed reads 3.0 GHz while the Quad Core only has a speed of 2.3 GHz.

Why would a Dual Core be faster than a Quad Core? Is it more important to have a slower Quad than a faster Dual?

Originally posted by GaminKWB

The issues you will see with pre-built machines is the quality of the components. Yes its got 4gb of DDR2 ram, but what speed is it running at? It may have a 640 GB HD but what brand?

The largest problem you will have with any standard pre-built machine is the video card. That machine has 256 mb of shared video RAM. That means its most likely an on-board video card using your regular RAM as video RAM. This will be the first bottleneck you find. You'll have to upgrade your video card almost immediately and that will set you back at least a hundred bucks. But then you have to find out what kind of video card to get. You need to find out if that motherboard supports PCI-E 2.0 or if it even has any PCI-E slots. If not, then the PC will be pretty much useless for gaming now and completely useless in the future.

Building your own machine may seem more expensive, but you can make sure to get quality parts. You want a GOOD motherboard that you can expand on. Make sure you can put a quad-cpu chip in the future, but for now just get a dual-core. Make sure it has DDR2 expandable to 8 or even 16gb. Just stick 4 in it for now. Make sure it has dual PCI-E 2.0 slots. But just put a basic 512 mb PCI-E 1 card in it for now. You can do all this for about 600-700 bucks (if you get the right deals).

Then, in the future, when you have the extra funds, you can beef it up.

And for the dual-core and quad-core. Here is a 'basic' explenation (not going to get technical or even exact). Say you have dual-core running 3.0. Thats a total of 6.0. If you have quad-core running at 2.3, thats a total of 9.2. (Again, its not accurate, but it gets the point across).  Is it worth it? That depends on if you want to dish out the money for the latest-and-greatest or wait for prices to come down.

 

@ Mortemia: The fact that you didn't read my first two sentences disturbs me.

@ GaminKWB: Well you see that's what I'm looking for. I'm trying to find the BEST possible computer so I don't get bottlenecked like I did with my current comp... the motherboard is what you are suggesting, and the computer is certainly expandable. I like your thinking because you're suggesting exactly what I am thinking; I want a computer that doesn't get me screwed over in the future since computers are improved on so frequently. Like I said, yes I did originally want to build a CPU myself because I could choose everything and make sure it was expandable in the future, but this pre-made comp seems to be the real deal... I just want to know if my presumptions are correct before I make any final decisions (other than info on the vid card, I realize that is probably it's biggest downfall).