Buying New Rig, Max $400. Help?

[cheesemoo0]

Get ready to buy a shitty pc dawg. I'd at least go with 800$ if I could.

You can get a quad core with a top of a line video card for under $650. I wouldn't call that shitty.

[JustGam3r]

I would say for 350GBP you could get decent pc with amd quad core Ill try looking into this but its morning now an I got to go. So my goal is to make Quad core for you for under 400$.

[nub]

I don't see the point in spending only $400. I don't know how bad your laptop is but you're probably far better off saving up to raise your budget to around $800 then buying. Even if a $400 pc is an "improvement" over your laptop, it's hardly going to be future proof. You will either end up upgrading the hell out of it and spending another $400+, or buying a whole new PC altogether.

You could certainly by a "shell" for $400 with lower tier components (CPU, GPU) and like 2 gb of ram, then upgrade as you go, but you'll have to find the absolute right case and motherboard for that. You want a case that isn't garbage, but isn't expensive and has enough room and adequate cooling for when you get better components, and you want a motherboard that's future proof basically; one that could still be considered a decent model by the time you do upgrade.

It's your money man, I can't really help you with building on a budget as I'm totally out of date in the PC hardware scene right now. That's are my suggestion though.

[MrTwoVideoCards]

Get ready to buy a shitty pc dawg. I'd at least go with 800$ if I could.

You can get a quad core with a top of a line video card for under $650. I wouldn't call that shitty.

What about the rest of the pc? I don't think you thought that one through....

[JustGam3r]

So here it is.

Case: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... 7&CatId=32

Graphics Card: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... =A271-5774

Processor and MOBO bundle (AMD TRICORE): http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2417

Now shame that DDR2 went so expensive : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=2261

Im not sure if the processor comes with cooler so the cheapest I found was for 15$:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... &CatId=493

Ohh and last is PSU. I decided not to buy shitty case or psu. You will hate it and will have to buy it again and you will be getting 450Watt PSU which also comes with lifetime warranty, but you gotta register it: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1078

Also last thing I think X3core proc will be powerful enough for BC2 or MW2 or CSS. I used it works great with Civ 5 or anything else. In a future there will be 8 cores and you will probably want it so no point squeezing your pocket out to buy 4 core.

Total price: Around 410$ but thats excluding shipping costs.

[cheesemoo0]

Get ready to buy a shitty pc dawg. I'd at least go with 800$ if I could.

You can get a quad core with a top of a line video card for under $650. I wouldn't call that shitty.

What about the rest of the pc? I don't think you thought that one through....

Actually I did because I recently built a PC. 4 GB of ram with Windows 7 and I had enough to put a custom CPU cooler on for overclocking. My computer actually came out to $550, because I already had a nice power supply.

[Gary]

How does OEM on Win7 work? Your not supposed to be able to transfer it to other computers right? If I upgraded my CPU, would that cause problems?

[MayheM]

Gary, the vidock, according to their site is between $200 and $300 depending on the model you get. You can get a decent card on newegg for about $150 to $200, so the vidock is right at his price. The upside to doing this is later if he chooses to get a new desktop to replace his laptop he can pull the card out of the vidock and put it in the desktop and save money on the back end.

[Gary]

Oh, I was reading the review at toms hardware about it. The pricing there must be old and I do remember it saying it was basically a regular video card with an adapter in a box.

[MayheM]

Well from the looks of it you put whatever card you want into it.It fits any PCI-e card, even double slot cards. So you could really beef up your laptop with this thing. In my opinion, if he really wants to upgrade and only has 400 to spend this is a good option.

[cheesemoo0]

How does OEM on Win7 work? Your not supposed to be able to transfer it to other computers right? If I upgraded my CPU, would that cause problems?

Only the motherboard.

[Terr]

I have no idea how well Vidock works, but the concept sounds like an excellent way to get the most bang for your buck if your main problem is the laptop's bad 3D performance.

I could see myself using $400 for a new "gaming" computer only when there are quite a few parts I'd cannibalize from an older one.

[Gary]

Well from the looks of it you put whatever card you want into it.It fits any PCI-e card, even double slot cards. So you could really beef up your laptop with this thing. In my opinion, if he really wants to upgrade and only has 400 to spend this is a good option.

Sadly due to bandwidth limitations it can't go much higher in terms of graphical power.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/vid ... 933-9.html

Over-clocking with the stock ATI card with CCC's Overdrive seems to help a lot.

Only the motherboard.

Thanks.

[JustGam3r]

Well what do you think of my setup on the top of the page?

[MayheM]

Well what do you think of my setup on the top of the page?

Sadly all the links are dead.