Decent, Somewhat Cheap Computer?

Hey all, my neighbor asked me about their computer. They are somewhat computer illiterate, so it is hard to explain to them what they need to do. They have kids that constantly play games.Their Current computer:100GB Hard Drive
Windows XP Home Premium SP3
512 MB of RAM
2.33 GHz Processor speed
Graphics Card that sucks (IDK what it is)Their younger son usually plays games of lower specs (old star wars games), 512MBs of RAM is a minimum requirement for a lot of their games, and that is what their computer has. Their olderdaughter plays games around the same requirements. For Christmas, they have gotten games that take on a higher level of gaming. The games need DirectX10 GFX card, 3 GHz processor speed, and 1+GB of RAM. Can someone tell me whether it would be a smarter AND cheaper idea to just upgrade the computers internal stuff, or just to get another computer.This family are middle class cheapskates, even though they have a decent income. They don't know much about computers, and neither do their kids. Their kids mistreat the computer, and has caused their old computer to get somewhat messed up, which I had to fix. They don't know how to maintain and protect their computer, they have no antivirus, so I just installed one. I had to defragment the computer, run diskchk, and a whole buncha other stuff. I am still working on defragmenting it, the defragmenting software I am using has about thirty minutes left to go. Any ideas?

if you can tell me what the processor is, and what expansion slots it has, then I'll be able to give you a better answer (hint, a program such as Dr. Hardware or PC Wizard may help).

LOL! Their PC is way better than my PC!AMD Athlon 1800+ @ 1.53 GHz
256MB of RAM
40 GB HHD
WinXP Pro SP2
NVIDIA GeForce 4 ... somthing... 64 MB of RAM in Graohics Card
My PC is so slow, it lags often and takes 8 minutes or so to boot up! (until I can actually so something on it e.g. run Word or at least have 100 MB of RAM hat is free...
I would want a new PC overall but my dad said that I will get in at the end of the school year which is half-a-year from now! Either way, upgrade is better than a new PC overall of they are cheap.

If you have a Pentium 4 processor i would buy a new one .I would look for the Medion pc's , Medion is a germany brand that gives you High End Specs Very Very cheap .

Medion are a lottery. either you'll get a very good one that will give you years of service or you will get one that gives no end of trouble, depending on your luck. I wouldnt reccomend them for that reason alone.

You should find out how much they are willing to spend on a new PC/parts. It would definitely be better to get a new PC if they have the money. You can get a PC that could easily meet the game specs (plus a lot of other newer games) for around $700 with everything except for the monitor being new. My friend and I built one about 3-4 years ago for around $700 that can still play all of the game now days without any lag. So you should be able to get just as good of a computer for quite a bit cheaper now days. If they don't want to spend money on a new PC you would only need to upgrade the CPU, video card, and RAM. The CPU would be the hardest of the three to replace depending on the socket type. If it is an old socket type then you would also need a new motherboard. Also make sure the new video card and CPU is compatible with the motherboard. This is more of an issue with older hardware, it is rare to see that kind of issue with newer hardware.

I'l just build a decent System For gaming on the Dell Sitehttp://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dxcwkw1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=studio-xps-8000there , now the kids could play all the new games decent on high :p

dell are overpriced.

Replying to #8

ArgeedI'l got one from medion at home and use it for playing games (prototype , modern warface 2 and more)
for only €800 :)
Specs :
Intel® Core i7 processor I7-920•Speed: 2,66 GHz
•Front Side Bus (FSB): 4.8 GT/s
•L3 Cache: 8 MBATI Radeon HD 48503 GB DDR3 intern memory1000 GB (1 TB) hard diskwindows vista home premium sp1It's working great for me , if i'm gaming all on high you won't hear the system's noise , and the price is also good .

Quick Fix: upgrade the RAM to 2 GB (well, 1 GB if they're cheapskates), upgrade video card (if it's GPU, not AGP)That'll get you playing MOST medium-requirement games just fine. Still, that won't solve the other problems though.

Replying to #10

You mean PCI-E. GPU is an abbreviated name for a graphics card. His board will not be PCI-E, it will be AGP 4x or 8x. but never the less there are much better AGP cards than the one he has (though it would be a glass ceiling upgrade).

You could try building your own it's really not that hard. Here are some good parts for a budget gaming pc.AMD Phenom ii x2 black edition. This is an amazing cpu for the price not only is it clocked at 3.1ghz its actually a quad core and with the right motherboard and bios you can actually unlock the other 2 cores.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=amd+phenom+ii+x2+550&x=0&y=0Gigabyte GA-MA785G-UD3H. One of the motherboards that lets you unlock the extra 2 cores.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128395&cm_re=gigabyte_ud3h-_-13-128-395-_-ProductThe case and power supply arent such a big deal and 500 watts is more than enough.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.303268As for a hard drive you don't really need more than 500gb for home use.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168221484954gb of ram should be enough to play games on and this is pretty cheap.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148111The 4850 is a pretty good card for the price.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141103&cm_re=ati_4850_1gb-_-14-141-103-_-Productand finally a cheap sata disc drive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118031I'm assuming they already have a monitor keyboard mouse and speakers so i didn't include those. You do however need an operating system which will cost somewhere between 50-100 bucks depending who you buy it from.

Replying to #12

This is an EXTREMELY BAD idea. they are disabled for a reason, that is they are not stable. AMD only produces quad core chips, if one core has a fault, rather than throwing the entire wafer out, they disable the faulty core and sell it as a triple core processor. Likewise if two of the cores are faulty they disable both faulty ones and sell it as a dual core. This increases their yields and reduces production costs, contributing to their lower prices.

Replying to #12

Actually the power supply is a VERY BIG deal. If it blows up it could destroy the rest of the components. NEVER use a power supply that comes with a case. That power supply is a no-name brand and has passive PFC. AVOID.

Replying to #12

RECERTIFIED?! AVOID.I would not touch a computer you have built, if this is how you choose parts.

ssupersonic16 · #12As for a hard drive you don't really need more than 500gb for home use.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148495

did you see the reviews? crash and burn baby burn.

Okay all great stuff. Really only need 150GBs of HDD space. I think the best solution is to let them borrow my HP Pavilion for their gaming stuff, meets minumum requirements. Only problem is I had to swap out my GFX cards between the Pavilion and another computer, cause ATI Radeon graphics suck.

Best solution is to keep that one and possibly spend $100 for minor upgrades that do a lot, as a server and a second pc.
The new pc is best to keep it local. Either build it for them or find a local shop willing to get the components you specify. I don't suggest ebay or best buy type pc's, however check the local pawn shops as sometimes they have amazing deals which could work as the shell for something nice. At any rate you absolutely need someone to put their thumb down and get the pc dusted down, software unfuddled, and talk about potential future upgrades minimum once a year. The dusting should be top priority! Find someone willing to do all that for at least somewhat cheap ($50 or less).As far as good parts over the internet - newegg and pricewatch. Dealextreme for peripherals and minor parts. And last but not least...do not forget the extreme comfort chair and monitor positioning.