Please help

[CryingFreeman]

Greetings sharky team!

This is my first time posting in your forums but i've been in your site a lot of times. I noticed in your NEWS portion that you gave tips on what parts you have to buy in order to have an extreme(very high-end) gaming PC. I just want to ask how about the entry level systems? can you guys give me tips on what to buy to have a cool entry level system. Celeron or Duron whatever, just gimme something!

[Vodka]

The value guide should be coming out soon. You can always check out July's guide.

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/guides/...le.php/1380991

[Trav2003]

Originally posted by CryingFreeman
Greetings sharky team!

This is my first time posting in your forums but i've been in your site a lot of times. I noticed in your NEWS portion that you gave tips on what parts you have to buy in order to have an extreme(very high-end) gaming PC. I just want to ask how about the entry level systems? can you guys give me tips on what to buy to have a cool entry level system. Celeron or Duron whatever, just gimme something!

You'd have the best luck posting in the general hardware forum, but if you want a cheap fast system i'd go with a lower end Athlon XP, add some pc2100 DDR RAM (256MB or so) and then get a good geForce Ti4200, or Radeon 8500 for gaming...

[dudewth]

I was just wondering...but why does CryingFreeman have 0 posts?

[jester22c]

Originally posted by dudewth
I was just wondering...but why does CryingFreeman have 0 posts?

I just noticed that too, very weird. Only thing I can think of is he deleted his account

[Steve R Jones]

Originally posted by CryingFreeman
Greetings sharky team!

This is my first time posting in your forums but i've been in your site a lot of times.

[seniorstooge]

You guys forget that all posts in this forum (and in feedback) do not increase the post count. A person can have thousands of posts here but still have "0 posts".

Anyways, I agree with Athlon XP, 256MB DDR, and Ti4200 as a base for a good lower-end computer. Forget about Duron and Celeron.

[jester22c]

Originally posted by seniorstooge
You guys forget that all posts in this forum (and in feedback) do not increase the post count. A person can have thousands of posts here but still have "0 posts".

Oh yeah lol...

[posthumous_GRIN]

Originally posted by Trav2003


You'd have the best luck posting in the general hardware forum, but if you want a cheap fast system i'd go with a lower end Athlon XP, add some pc2100 DDR RAM (256MB or so) and then get a good geForce Ti4200, or Radeon 8500 for gaming...

That is NOT a low end, entry level system! I have a 900 duron, 256mb sdr and a 32mb DDR vid card. Now that is entry level (also good if have no money and a wife who thinks computer upgrades are stupid...)

[CryingFreeman]

i guess the
Athlon XP, add some pc2100 DDR RAM (256MB or so) and geForce Ti4200, or Radeon 8500 for gaming...is ok. one of my friends recommended this setup:

EPoX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A motherboard
AMD Duron 1.3 GHz
Geforce 2 MX 400 32MB
40 GB Seagate Barracuda HD
256 MB pc2100 DDR RAM
16x DVD ROM
SBLive X-Gamer 5.1

is this good????

[Trav2003]

Originally posted by CryingFreeman
i guess the
Athlon XP, add some pc2100 DDR RAM (256MB or so) and geForce Ti4200, or Radeon 8500 for gaming...is ok. one of my friends recommended this setup:

EPoX 8KHA+ VIA KT266A motherboard
AMD Duron 1.3 GHz
Geforce 2 MX 400 32MB
40 GB Seagate Barracuda HD
256 MB pc2100 DDR RAM
16x DVD ROM
SBLive X-Gamer 5.1

is this good????

Good motherboard, though a KT333 chipset ain't bad either (actually it would be better).

Shy away from that video card, you're not going to get much gaming out of that.

A low end athlon XP isn't going to cost much more than the Duron 1.3Ghz, and will perform better.

everything else is pretty good.

If you do anything get a better video card. At LEAST get a geForce 2 GTS-V. If you must go as low as possible the duron will work, as will the motherboard, but make sure to get a better vid card.

[seniorstooge]

It depends on what games you play. Always buy hardware based on what software you will be using.

That GF2MX and Duron will be more than enough for most strategy and vehicle simulators. And you can play (not necessarily win) some first person shooter games if you lower the resolution and colors and quality.

But if you play a lot of first person shooters, and want a good chance to win, play at a decent resolution, colors, quality, then you should try for an Athlon XP and GeForce 4 Ti4200.

Buying a new GF3 Ti200 and Ti500 would not be bad except the GF4 Ti4200 is cutting into the GF3 price range. So the GF4 Ti4200 would be your best bet, and it is faster than the GF3, too.

Upcoming games, such as UT2003 and Doom3, seem to want to use more CPU and video horsepower, according the the tech previews of these games.

Again, the Athlon XP and Ti4200 for a *low* end system, at least for first person shooters. Remember, this is SharkyExtreme/SharkyForums, not Cnet.

But if you still want a Duron and GF2MX, and you don't mind suffering in first person shooters, then do as Trav2003 suggests and look to replace the GF2MX with the GF2GTS or GF2Ti. If it doesn't cost too much more than the GF2MX (or maybe it will cost a little less!) then that will give you a bit more horsepower. The GF2MX400 has two rendering pipelines and 128-bit SDR. The GF2GTS and GF2Ti has four rendering pipelines and 128-bit DDR.

I just looked on www.newegg.com and the lowest priced GF2MX400 was $50, the GF2GTS-V was $47, and GF2Ti was $40! Forget the GF2MX400 with these crazy prices.