But will it run Neverwinter Nights? LOL! I'm with you, those old 386 and 486's are lots of fun! Have you ever noticed that the majority of the old x86 chips are made by AMD?

<font color="silver">Well, I know I don't need:
1.) A dvd player or burner.
2.) A moniter. (so long as the one we have now will be compatable with the new computer)
3.) Speakers. I have some Monsoons.
4.) A mouse. We have about three. :D

All we really need is the tower. With a pentium 4, a cd burner, about 50-80 gigs of space, something above 128 ram but below the outragoues 500 mark, a GeForce 4 64meg, and a very good sound card.

I don't mind getting upgrades from Dell only (if we get a Dell) so long as they don't over-charge me.

So maybe "state-of-the-art" kinda didn't fit at all. Oops. ;)

Perhaps Dells are indeed the best choice... hmmm.....

What we have now is a custom made computer that was very low priced but lacked reliable components.
It has:
A pentium III equivalent-700MHZ
128 ram
40 gig hard drive
56k modem (I can't get broadband)
CD burner
Stealth III 3d card (sux)
I don't know our sound card but it sux

It ran smoothly until it hit Jedi Knight II. Ouch. So much for my frame-rates. [img]smile.gif[/img]
That and its getting full, is getting quirks, and isn't running quite as smoothly after it crashed to the point of oblivion. Now I can't even play UT. :( And its not all that old. </font>

I'm on a Dell 8200 desktop. I have installed a 3rd party video card, 3rd party rdram, and a 3 party cdrw drive. The system has been on for weeks without a restart. I keep hearing that it’s hard to upgrade a Dell, but I've never had a problem with one that I've used or worked on. The only things that are hard to upgrade is the motherboard and power supply everything else is a breeze. The Dell is the first prebuilt system I have owned (I'm not counting the 486 Pac Bell) and I can't say a bad thing about it. I would recommend
a Dell. The only problem with them is they don't offer AMD and I do like picking out exactly what goes in it. So if you buy a prebuilt go with a Dell, but building one has its pluses. Oh yea if you get a Dell don’t forget to search the net for coupons. I found some pretty good ones when I bought mine.

[ 07-11-2002, 10:14 PM: Message edited by: nick1979 ]

What exactly is a pentium III equivalent? A Celeron perhaps?

Your only real problem with this system is the video card. If you look at most system requirements on software boxes they don't even top 500MHZ. Recommended doesn't even get above 800MHZ.
The biggest problem with technology is it moves too damn fast, but it's at the point now, were it won't go any further without drastic changes. For example, most hard drives are limited to 137GB, as motherboard technology won't recognize single drives bigger but hard drives are still mechanical. CPU's run at 2.0+ GHZ but RAM is limited to the speed of the FSB, which tops out at 533MHZ at the moment. Video cards run at 350MHZ. The CPU may be really fast, but the rest of the system is slowing it down.
I would think that within a year or so, we'll see a drastic change in computer technology. Again, ask yourself what do I really need? 2.53GHZ is cool, but is it really necessary at the moment when next month 3.0GHZ will be the flavour of the day.

<font color="silver">Well also our motherboard cant support anything more powerful than that stealth. Its an older model that dosn't have the power to get a better card in. As for the equivalent... I have no damn idea. Thats part of the problem. I have never heard of most of the components in this damn computer.

The 700MHZ was already installed and didn't cost too much more so we got it anyway. Which came in handy, in the event when our 3d card couldn't handle the graphics (like in Tachyon: The Fringe) we ran everything off the proccesor instead of the card (for a extreame loss in gameplay & graphics) not to mention the cd burner dosen't burn too well. </font>

Well sir knight, I've given you my opinion on the subject, others may have different. Whatever you decide to do, just make sure it's got some head room for expansion. As your probably found out, the motherboard is the most important part of the system, just make sure you can upgrade it,

<font color="silver">Thanx alot Animal! :D [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] :D You have helped a bunch. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanx to everyone as a matter-a-fact. I'm going to let this thread float around to get some more opinions, but right now, its looking like a Dell. ;) </font>

Dell doesn't sell as many computers as they do for no reason. As an after thought, check out their upgrade policy. Many vendors offer to upgrade your PC when the time comes for a substantial reduction in price.

And to confuse you a little bit more Sir Mandorallen Pacard Bell is also a GOOD pc not only Dell so look at diffrent systems and if your cd burner is bad trie Plextor they are wery fast and wery good i have had 3 Plex`s before and newer had any prob so think about that to and soundcard must be Creative Soundblaster it`s the best on the market today!! :D

I have to agree with Megabot. Build your own and you will get a better machine, cheaper than buying a premade one. If you check out www.hugebee.com they have a section where you can buy a case prosessor, motherboard and powersupply assembled by them , but the rest of the case is empty. All you do then is pick what you want and swap all your old drives and cards into the new frame.Doing it that way cost me only $400 to build my new machine because I didnt have to pay for a ton of things I already had.