Woot Computer?

[asterroc]

Today's Woot is an HP AMD PC. I want a new Windows computer for video games. Is this one worth it?

Comments

[allandaros.livejournal.com]

It looks pretty shiny, but I wouldn't trust HP or Compaq PCs farther than I can throw them. (Which is a moderate distance.) I have had nothing but bad experiences with HP/Compaq hardware reliability.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

If you want to play any modern 3D games, you'll need to shell out an additional $70 for a decent video card. Also remember that this unit doesn't come with a monitor.

All that said, it's a pretty good value. I'd go for it.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

High value, low-end video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814141031

Of course, you can always start with the onboard GeForce and see if it suits you.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

I do have a monitor already. From the discussion page, I suspect that you can't replace the graphics card, but I'm unclear on this.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that's incorrect. The product specs clearly state that there are expansion slots. Can you link me to the relevant comment(s)?

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all the comments I'm reading suggest that buying a video card is the recommended course of action. I'm certain you can upgrade.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Regardless, it's sold out. Oh well.

Edit:
But it's my understanding that the graphics card is part of the motherboard, and that in that case you can't add a video card.

[sirroxton.livejournal.com]

You can add a video card to a system with onboard video. You can even get a dual-monitor display that way.

More of an FYI at this point, but seriously, if you have any hardware questions, feel free to kick them my way. roxton (at) gmail.com

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

too late, it's sold out.

Quinlan dual-boots XP on his iMac and that seems to work very well for him. you could just use the BootCamp.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Oh well.

I tried that with one video game I have (Evil Genius), and the laptop kept crashing.

[l0stmyrel1g10n.livejournal.com]

how much RAM do you have? you might have to upgrade...

[weirdlilfaechld.livejournal.com]

Hard drive is nice, chipset and CPU are decent mid range parts, nice amount of memory but personally I wouldn't get it unless I knew the brand (Kingston, Mushkin, or Corsair only or you are asking for it to fail), the on board sound is okay but again I would like to know the brand, video card needs to go, less important parts are good, but it's HP. Hisssssssss Don't waste your money on anything from HP, the only reason they can offer cheap prices is because they skimp on the power supply and cooling so it won't take long to have a fried board and components that have failed from lack of power. If you do get something from HP immediately replace the power supply and all of the fans, add more fans everywhere you can, and fix up the messy wiring job that will hinder air flow.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

Due to the late date at which I attempted to open that link, it no longer led me to an ad for a PC. HP used to make excellent PCs, in fact I'm using an older HP at this very moment. However, since the takeover of HP by Compaq, the quality has really fallen off. It is still WAAAY better than E Machines but you can do so much better.

Among brands that are better are gateway, dell and IBM. The list probably does not stop there, but those are the ones that I can list off the top of my head. Of course given that post is a few days old and you may have already purchased one, I'll refrain from looking up something I'd recommend, but if you reply, and are interested I'll gladly do so.

It would help me if you told me which games you particularly want to play. At this time I'll assume World of Warcraft as everyone else seems to want to play that today. It really is neither difficult nor expensive to come up with a system fast enough to play that game rather well. It would also help me if you listed what sort of PC you have currently, processor type, speed and amount of ram currently in your system.

Reading on through comments I see you have a mac.. but I"m not clear as to whether you also have an older pc or not. As for your comment about VGA on motherboard... Emachines computers with vga on the motherboard typically lack the AGP slot allowing for upgrade. HP computers with VGA on the motherboard (as recent as 4 years ago) typically had the AGP slot as well allowing upgrade.

Oh, and in case you are wondering I encountered your LJ while reading sammka

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

It was an HP Athlon with a built in video card. I forget what else.

I have a MacBook and most recently was playing Baldur's Gate II for Mac on it. A while ago I had installed Win XP on a previous incarnation of it and tried to play Evil Genius, but it kept crashing the whole computer, I was guessing overheating but I forget what led me to that thought.

I also have a Pentium III 330 MHz that barely runs Win XP. I must have a virus or something on it despite having Norton and avoiding normal pitfalls b/c recently whenever I try to do anything it crashes, especially any music programs whether WinAmp or Windows Media Player.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

If your MacBook was literally overheating, and that can happen to laptops, then it will likely happen again regardless of what it is running. I've repaired several laptops, but never a mac laptop, and in recent years one sort of repair I seem to be doing a lot of is back flushing dust out of laptop cooling systems with compressed air. I suppose you could use canned air but since I have an air compressor I tend to use that.

So, I understand you have a monitor you can use. Actually Mac monitors are, to my understanding PC monitors these days so all you need is a switch to go between your mac or your PC.

If you'd like to give me a price range for a PC, I'd try to recommend something in that price range. As you know, I can't tell what that HP Athlon cost or what it included.

Without such information this example is simply sort of a best guess that you might like. At least I consider it a good value, but if you have certain criteria of price, or speed, or warranty. Personally my desire to be able to open a computer and swap out the vga card without voiding an annoying warranty motivates me to pay LESS for a computer with a shorter warranty period.

IBM P4 3ghz, 512mb ram, 40g HD, AGP video $147 plus shipping (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=TCS50-10B&cpc=RECOM)

Being it is IBM, it almost certainly has an available AGP slot, although the VGA it comes with is almost certainly integrated into the motherboard. You are getting a better value because it does not include an operating system and because it is refurbished as opposed to new.

This other informative link (http://www2.dealtime.com/xPF-IBM-ThinkCentre-S50-8183-818343U) at dealtime reveals that the design allows the CPU itself to be upgraded to a faster one if you choose to later.

The worst thing I can think of to say about it is that it does not include a DVD reader for easier software installation, although if you want one, this same company sells one separately for $14 here (http://search.geeks.com/search.aspx?SI=586c7829-54bb-4be1-9b89-7a605fad5783&Action=14&AXD=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geeks.com%2fdetails.asp%3finvtid%3dBLK-BDV-316G-DO%26cpc%3dSCH%7eBLK-BDV-316G-DO%7eBDV+316G+16x+DVD-ROM+IDE+Drive+(Black)%7e13.99), although I think it would be a better value to pay $30 and buy this LG brand (my favorite) Dual Layer DVD burner with LightScribe (http://search.geeks.com/search.aspx?SI=586c7829-54bb-4be1-9b89-7a605fad5783&Action=14&AXD=http%3a%2f%2fwww.geeks.com%2fdetails.asp%3finvtid%3dBLK-GSA-H12L-DO-R%26cpc%3dSCH%7eBLK-GSA-H12L-DO-R%7eLG+GSA-H12L+18x+DVD%c2%b1RW+DL+IDE+Drive+w%2fLightScribe+(Black)%7e29.5)

I don't know many games that work well on a pentium 3 of any mhz, but 330 is slow even for a p3. If you feel like seeing what you can do with that old P3 on the cheap, I could recommend a particular version with LINUX which includes WINE (a windows emulator that is rumored to run some older games better than windows) Most linux versions these days boot from cd or dvd, depending on whether that Pentium 3 even has a DVD reader, (not impossible).

I love winamp (or I used to until very recently) but I"m constantly annoyed every time they come out with a new version and seem to twist my arm into upgrading instead of just letting me enjoy what already works. Windows media player is such junk I feel physical pain ever time even see the name.

That said, I will guarantee that even if the pentium 3 does not play your games under linux at least linux will breathe new life into that machine, even for simple things like playing music or videos. The basic players linux includes upon installation work better than anything winamp ever made. It just totally blows my mind, AND it is free!

I have an old pentium 2 that's even slower than your P3, but with linux on it and only 128 megs of ram, it feels like a new system. And for the record, I'm actually a linux novice. It's just that this stuff has become so EASY to learn lately. Seven years ago, Linux was intimidating. These days it is easier to install Linux than to install XP.

[fixx.livejournal.com]

Oops, I forgot to mention. This company gets these things in small quantities, so if you like that pc, you might not want to delay purchase. I personally feel confident assembling computers from a motherboard here, a vga card there and any one of a dozen old cases I have laying about, and EVEN THEN I have difficulty resisting the temptation to order that PC I just linked you to. I swear I can't build a comparable system for less than the $147 price on it.

Honestly, try pricing a 40 gig HD (guessing $30), 512mb ram (guessing $20), P4 motherboard (guessing $40), 3ghz cpu (guessing $40), AGP video (guessing $20)... that's $150 before you get to the Case, Power supply, floppy drive, cdrom drive, all of which I have in my old cases.

You know... if your Pentium 3 is housed in a standard ATX chassis, you could simply buy a new motherboard, CPU and modern memory module for it and save on shipping, but as I don't know anything about your pentium 3, I'd be afraid to suggest it. If you list it's brand and model number (hopefully listed on the back) I'll try to look it up for you to determine if it is a good candidate for a new motherboard. There is a liklihood however that depending on the style of new motherboard, you'd still have to put an extra $20 in to buy a P4 style power supply, although not all P4 motherboards actually require that.