Well, I went to a computer shop and asked what sort of system they could give me and here's what they came up with, basically.

Intel P4 3.0 GHz
1 GB of RAM
256 MB Nvidia video card, don't konw exactly what though.
160 GB of memory
DVD-RW
speakers and stuff
and XP home.
All totaling to approx. $900 canadian. What do you guys think? Any tips?

Should cover you for a while. Oblivion might be a bitch, but you should be able to have a lot of fun with your machine.

You been saving up for a new system ?

Not really saving it was more of a spontaneous thing. My klein bucks put me over the $1000 mark in the bank account, and I was previously saving for a nice monitor and speakers but then I thought why bother with that when I could get a whole new machine. I still have extra money to upgrade stuff, but this is definitaly a big upgrade over what I have right now. 8 MB 'video card?' Pfft... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Good luck with picking the right stuff dude, you deserve the best. ;)

Congrats SirG! I just got a new PC last summer myself, after 6 years LOL, and what a difference! [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font color=skyblue>I just wish we knew which video card (all MX versions are watered-down versions) and I assume its on-board audio (can be taken care of later [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Everything else sounds reasonable I guess for the price.</font>

[ 02-18-2006, 06:46 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

Find out exactly what graphics card it is before you commit to purchasing. At that price, I'd guess that its a 5200 - in which case, avoid it.

Ask them for a decent graphics card, then ask back here to make sure its half-decent.

Also, try and ensure that the motherboard provides PCI-e graphics slots, and not the legacy (strange to use that word for this...) AGP slots. You'll extend the PC's life by doing this.

Finally, if you are seriously after a good gaming rig, a AMD Socket 939 (not 754) system offers far better performance than the Intel systems at a lower price. That may be worth investigating further with the company (do not get S754).

Again, make sure your motherboard and graphics card are of the PCI-e format.

Well, he said it was a top of the line one, so I just assumed it was decent. Why not a 5200 one, out of curiosity?
Also, why AMD? He mentioned it, but quickly said that Intel was what I should go for.

Yeah, salesmen get paid on commission, so they will recommend the high priced unit. As to the video card, I'm using a 5200, don't remember the exact one, though. I don't seem to have many problems.
Edit: It's the GeForce FX5200. Went to look.

[ 02-18-2006, 09:13 PM: Message edited by: robertthebard ]

<font color=skyblue>As for the AMD vs. Intel, I prefer Intel and so I will always tell people that it is the superior one...but the guy that works in the shop that sells PC equipment near my house says that Intel runs hotter than AMD. Since he prefers AMD, of course he'd push for selling it.

I read something on the 5200 vid card and why it was to be passed up, and when I find the article, I'll edit this post with the info, unless somebody beats me to it.

PS..."he said it was a top of the line"...ROFL. What a liar.</font>

[ 02-18-2006, 09:19 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]