IS this computer good? pls help

[Suhidu]

k so i should first upgrade the power supply and then the graphics card> okay ill do that but in general can someone tell me if i got a good deal on this computer i paid 400 for it after tax?

It doesn't sound to me like it was overpriced, but it's just not a very good PC for new games.

 

[Crap Daddy]

The price is OK but it's not what you call a PC that you can game on. If you are ready to do it, best would be to take it back and build one yourself, for around 500-600$ excluding the OS you can make a decent PC that can play those games decently.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

The computer is a decent deal for $400. It will run older games at decent settings, but will definitely have issues with newer games.


If you want something more, this is what has to be addressed:
1) What resolution are you playing at. This is a reference to amount of pixels that need to be outputted. Older monitors often have smaller resolutions, and thus don't require as much performance to drive. Common resolutions are 1920x1080, 1024x768, 1440x900, and others listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution


2) What power supply do you have. There are two things that need to be addressed here. Do you have enough wattage, and do you have the appropriate connectors.

Wattage is tricky. No name, or even large producers, often skimp on quality power supplies. They could be "rated" at 430 watts, and only produce 360 stably. A decent new power supply will likely run you between $60 and $140, depending upon features and rated wattage. You should always be willing to spend extra on the PSU (power supply unit), as it can fry an entire system if you cheap out on it.

Connectors are fun. Modern PSUs will always have 24pin, 4 pin, molex, and SATA connections (Motherboard, motherboard, fan/old drive, and HDD/SSD/optical drive respectively). What they may not have is pci-e pins.
Modern middle to high end graphics cards need extra power (above the pci-e bus they are connected to) in order to run. Both 6 and 8 pin connectors are provided in a PSU to deliver this power. You need to have an idea of your graphics card's needs when deciding which connectors you'll need. Given your lack of background, I'd recommend a 6 and 8 pin connector as minimum requirements. You'll need four 8 pin connectors to run two high end
graphics cards, assuming you've got a thousand dollars to spend. This is always difficult to give recommendations on, as future expansion is nice, but immediate costs get high with more connectors.


3) What kind of graphics do you want? At low resolutions (part 1), you can have higher settings than on higher resolutions, assuming the same card is used in both scenarios. Let's start by looking at what you have:

The 5570 is a productivity card. By this, I mean it was not for gaming, but for basic graphics for office work. It won't be able to hold its own versus even mild gaming.

Looking towards playable gaming, you should start with the 67xx series of AMD cards. You might look at Nvidea (550 Ti series), but at your price point AMD is a better fit. Find something like an HD 6770, which should not need extra power connectors (anything better will need them). You'll get playable frame rates from bf3 with lower resolution and maybe medium settings with that card. The near $100 price tag shouldn't hurt too much either.

If you upgrade the PSU, and want a really pretty experience you can shoot for either an AMD 6850 or Nvidea 560 series card. Both come in around $150, and offer substantially better gaming performance (assuming you have the pci-e power connectors from the PSU). Of course, you'll be looking at putting down another ~$250 into this computer to make it gaming ready with both upgrades.


4) A new rig would cost about:
OS: 100
Motherboard: 100
CPU: 200
RAM: 50
Case: 50
GPU: 150
PSU: 60
HDD/ODD: 70
Total: 780 for a very good gaming rig

If we were to rebuild something capable of what you'd want we'd wind up at about $600, and wind up with better performance. Unless you can get money for selling your old PSU and GPU (graphics card) you're looking at an expensive proposition of getting upgraded from an older rig. None of this even touches the older motherboard and other potential flaws (ddr3 ram means next to nothing, 1 TB HDD mean nothing, so we can't conjecture as to performance of these parts).



What I'm trying to say, while being as little of an ass as possible, is that there are far more questions here than we can adequately answer. Some of what I have said is based upon conjecture, and other bits are based upon potentially faulty assumptions. In the future it may be more useful to provide a link to what you've bought (all HP products with model numbers have product pages on HPs website), and ask questions after that rather than listing parts without adequate information, then asking a rather blanket statement of "is this good?" We can offer more help if we know where you're starting from.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

4) A new rig would cost about:
OS: 100
Motherboard: 85
CPU: 130
RAM: 40
Case: 50
GPU: 150
PSU: 75
HDD/ODD: 65
Total: $695 for a very good gaming rig

FIXED

There is this amazing place called TechPowerUp where you can buy some great gear for cheap used. And if you know the right people, you can get stuff that were review samples and basically new for cheaper than retail.

I have (soon to be for sale) a Gelid GX-7, AMD Phenom II x6 1100T, 4 GB Patriot DDR3 RAM kit, ASUS GTX460, Sneekypeet has like 6 cases of various costs and quality levels, Copenhagen is selling some good stuff right now, There is a BitFenix Outlaw case floating around for $35, and Erocker has a one for $85 that is great, but no one has snagged just cause it is not modular. That is off the top of my head. The only thing I could honestly say would be an issue finding on TPU is a HDD.

Yes, he will still ending spending a little more, but it can be done for around $550. Many of the items I mentioned are still under warranty.

 

[xBruce88x]

looks like a decent comp for the price, though i'd see if they'd take out the gpu and let you add your own. I'd go with at least an HD 5770. (if Med settings is all you're aiming for for BF3, L4D2 should run pretty well on high)

or do what the above poster said

 

[lillukic]

FIXED

There is this amazing place called TechPowerUp where you can buy some great gear for cheap used. And if you know the right people, you can get stuff that were review samples and basically new for cheaper than retail.

I have (soon to be for sale) a Gelid GX-7, AMD Phenom II x6 1100T, 4 GB Patriot DDR3 RAM kit, ASUS GTX460, Sneekypeet has like 6 cases of various costs and quality levels, Copenhagen is selling some good stuff right now, There is a BitFenix Outlaw case floating around for $35, and Erocker has a one for $85 that is great, but no one has snagged just cause it is not modular. That is off the top of my head. The only thing I could honestly say would be an issue finding on TPU is a HDD.

Yes, he will still ending spending a little more, but it can be done for around $550. Many of the items I mentioned are still under warranty.

k thx alot for the help but would you be able to name of the mother board and the graphic cards i should get to so i can make the computer and how much ram is the computer gonnna have 8 gb or less?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

You need to work out what you want from your system.

*Go for 8 GB (2 x 4GB) of RAM. RAM is cheap so why the hell not.
*CPU, get something with at least 4 threads/cores. If you go with an AMD FX, then get at least 6.
*As long as the GPU is roughly $150 to $225 in cost like a 560Ti or 6950, you should be good on graphics. ASUS, GIGABYTE, or XFX personally.
*Get a solid PSU in the 600 to 700W range
*You can skimp on the case for now. Stick with stuff that is functional but cheap like a Source 210, Outlaw, Antec 302, etc.
*Mobo go with ASUS or GIGABYTE in the budget tier. That way you can save a little cash without sacrificing too much quality.

 

[PaulieG]

Just out of curiosity, did the system you bought at $400 come with a monitor, or did you already have one?

 

[Kantastic]

Just out of curiosity, did the system you bought at $400 come with a monitor, or did you already have one?

+1

I have a tenant looking for a computer, and if $400 includes a monitor I'll just have him buy it. I would rather not have to build him one, because that means I'll be a 24/7 hotline for support.

 

[lillukic]

Just out of curiosity, did the system you bought at $400 come with a monitor, or did you already have one?

no it did not come with a monitore..............

 

[Dent1]

lillukic,

The computer you originally quoted was good. Only the video card was lacking, throw in a midrange video card and that rig would eat up BF3 easily.

If you feel confident building I would recommend that. $400-500 is a tiny budget. But you should be able to build a decent build around AM3+ easily and with a decent video card to boot.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

FIXED

There is this amazing place called TechPowerUp where you can buy some great gear for cheap used. And if you know the right people, you can get stuff that were review samples and basically new for cheaper than retail.

I have (soon to be for sale) a Gelid GX-7, AMD Phenom II x6 1100T, 4 GB Patriot DDR3 RAM kit, ASUS GTX460, Sneekypeet has like 6 cases of various costs and quality levels, Copenhagen is selling some good stuff right now, There is a BitFenix Outlaw case floating around for $35, and Erocker has a one for $85 that is great, but no one has snagged just cause it is not modular. That is off the top of my head. The only thing I could honestly say would be an issue finding on TPU is a HDD.

Yes, he will still ending spending a little more, but it can be done for around $550. Many of the items I mentioned are still under warranty.

Note the word NEW in my original post. If you can find good used parts you can do much better than what I quoted.

 

[lillukic]

lillukic,

The computer you originally quoted was good. Only the video card was lacking, throw in a midrange video card and that rig would eat up BF3 easily.

If you feel confident building I would recommend that. $400-500 is a tiny budget. But you should be able to build a decent build around AM3+ easily and with a decent video card to boot.

so what do you think the best option would be just keep the desktop and just upgrade the graphics card later on?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

so what do you think the best option would be just keep the desktop and just upgrade the graphics card later on?

That is really up to you. If you upgrade the GPU later on, then you are going to need a more reliable PSU as well. With a decent aftermarket cooler like the new CM 212 Hyper for $20, you could also potentially get that 925 up to 3.3 to 3.5 GHz which would help more than you think.

The RAM, HDD are both things you can keep even if you upgrade to an all new system (RAM may depend on its speed and what you upgrade to).

What we are all trying to say in too many words is its not a bad deal, but it is no gaming rig. The best option would have been to set the money aside, save another $250 and built your own.

But you have it now so you might as well use it and see what it can do for you. Hell, if your monitor is on 1024 x 768, that 5570 might let you play BF3 on medium/low. You really won't know until you try it out I guess.

 

[Dent1]

so what do you think the best option would be just keep the desktop and just upgrade the graphics card later on?

It depends, if you are in a position to return it and you are willing to learn to build your own I would go down that route.

If you keep your existing rig, you can upgrade the video card later on yes. You might need to upgrade the PSU. With it being store bought the motherboards are often flakey so overclocking may be gimped and you'll be more restricted as far as future upgrades i.e. dropping in a AMD Bulldozer or Piledriver CPU.

And to be fair the 5570 isnt a gaming video card, so you'd be forced to upgrade the GPU literally immediately to stand a chance at playing BF3 at any level of detail.