Good Computer specs? No?

[Lex1337]

I'm getting a new computer for Christmas and it's a HP Pavilion Slimline s3600z.

Specs:


Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4450e dual-core (2.3GHz
3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS
250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
LAN port on system board (10/100Base-T)

I'm not good with this stuff so, Is this a good computer just for daily uses like browsing the internet and such? What new games or FPS' can this support?

-Lex1337

[Amit]

Price is what determines "good" specs. If I were you, I wouldn't buy it. Low-end parts that are somewhat old. IF you mean good specs for gaming...well forget about anything you put in that computer to run much of any modern games. The case is just too small, but I like it because I think it's around $379 on most sites and it's small. Gaming depends on what kind of PSU and video card you can fit it there.

[Lex1337]

Price is what determines "good" specs. If I were you, I wouldn't buy it. Low-end parts that are somewhat old.
Eh, I already bought it for 659$. I'm just planning on which games to play on this and such.

[LlamaMaster]

Don't ever buy HP, ever. It has given me nothing but trouble. Build your own computer and you will be able to have much better specs than that. To answer your question, no, those specs aren't good.

Edit: Oh my god...why would you post this AFTER you bought the computer?

[Amit]

Eh, I already bought it for 659$.

In any currency, that's not good. You said you were going to get it for Christmas and not that you already had it. Well you paid twice the price of what it's worth, basically. Not much you can do now.

I'm not sure why you'd buy it and then ask if it's good. Can you return it?

[Lex1337]

In any currency, that's not good. You said you were going to get it for Christmas and not that you already had it. Well you paid twice the price of what it's worth, basically. Not much you can do now.

I'm not sure why you'd buy it and then ask if it's good. Can you return it?
I bought it online for christmas. It's also coming with a 24" monitor which is why I said it's 659$. Without the monitor it's 450$. I thoought it was a good computer.

[Amit]

I bought it online for christmas. It's also coming with a 24" monitor which is why I said it's 659$. Without the monitor it's 450$. I thoought it was a good computer.

Ohhh, 24" monitor. Well waste of money, no real use for the huge screen except for work/school/web related stuff.

Well, check with us before, not after. Nothing you can do now if you can't cancel the order and wait for us to find you a better PC.

[InnerGoat]

Minus the monitor, that's still just 200 dollars of parts that you could have gotten at newegg or wherever.

[Lex1337]

Ohhh, 24" monitor. Well waste of money, no real use for the huge screen except for work/school/web related stuff.

Well, check with us before, not after. Nothing you can do now if you can't cancel the order and wait for us to find you a better PC.
Next time I will. I want to know if this somewhat okay specs for a comp., good enough to run a lot of programs at once, good enough to play some games, and stuff.

I thought big screens are good for gaming.

Also what specs would've been good?

[Amit]

Next time I will. I want to know if this somewhat okay specs for a comp., good enough to run a lot of programs at once, good enough to play some games, and stuff.

I thought big screens are good for gaming.

Also what specs would've been good?

We actually have a specific for this kind of thing. Use the search function to find the Computer Specs thread. The one made by Bodzilla I believe.

Bigger screens are generally worse for games if you have crappy specs. They're good only when you have a video card and system capable of running it at the LCD's native or primary resolution. The 24" monitor is 1920x1080 resolution.

[Lex1337]

We actually have a specific for this kind of thing. Use the search function to find the Computer Specs thread. The one made by Bodzilla I believe.

Bigger screens are generally worse for games if you have crappy specs. They're good only when you have a video card and system capable of running it at the LCD's native or primary resolution. The 24" monitor is 1920x1080 resolution.
Ok, so I can still customize this computer though, correct? If I do can you guys help me find which parts I should buy and such?

Also my friend at ITT tech said I was getting an up to date computer.

[343guiltymc]

Ok, so I can still customize this computer though, correct? If I do can you guys help me find which parts I should buy and such?

Also my friend at ITT tech said I was getting an up to date computer.
Well depends on his definition of "up to date", if he means for everyday tasks then yeah. If you were talking about 3D gaming, not even close pal. Also most vendors like HP do not include a good Power supply so your upgrade options may be limited.

[Amit]

The only problem is that you may be restricted in what parts you can buy because your case is so small. If it can fit a Geforce 9500GS, you should be able to fit an ATi Radeon HD 4670. It's a realy good midrange card that will actually fit in your case, is really cheap at around $100US and works with most games. The 9500GS would struggle with Call of Duty 2.

Check out this benchmark, the HD 4870 holds it's own on Call of Duty 4 AND Crysis: Gaming: Call of Duty 4 and Crysis (http://www.guru3d.com/article/ati-radeon-hd-4670-review/9) The HD 4870 should be able to max out everything or jsut about everything at your 24" monitor's 1920x1080 pixel resotuion which looks abso-fucking-lutely amazing.

Only problem now is finding a power supply that works with the card but will fit into your case. When you buy a new power supply you have to rewire all the power connectors on your motherboard, components, and on the case.

[Terin]

Well depends on his definition of "up to date", if he means for everyday tasks then yeah. If you were talking about 3D gaming, not even close pal. Also most vendors like HP do not include a good Power supply so your upgrade options may be limited.

"Not even close?"

Sorry, a 9500GT is not "not even close". My x300 is "not even close". Sure, it can't run Crysis or UT3 at full settings, but it's not like this 5 year old piece of shit you're all seeing it as. Grr.

But you could have gotten a lot more with your money if you built it. It'll work for now, but sometime down the line, it's good to get a system that can be widely upgraded.

[Lex1337]

Well depends on his definition of "up to date", if he means for everyday tasks then yeah. If you were talking about 3D gaming, not even close pal. Also most vendors like HP do not include a good Power supply so your upgrade options may be limited.Thanks, that's all I kinda wanted to know.

But one last question. Will this comp. run Halo 2 Vista well?

[Amit]

Thanks, that's all I kinda wanted to know.

But one last question. Will this comp. run Halo 2 Vista well?

Hahaha. Not a chance. Crysis would probably run better at an all time high of 14 FPS :D

[Terin]

D:<

What did I just rage about five seconds ago?

Yes, it will, with a little bit of tweaking the settings.

[Amit]

Sorry, Terin, there is just no way that thing could run Halo 2 Vista without frame lagging every few seconds, even if it's optimized. With Call of Duty 4, however, I have a piece of a config file that i added to my own config to make the game run a huge amount faster with no visual degredation. I can pump the settings up to maximum textures with this old PowerColor Radeon X1600PRO and get a constant 30FPS, provided i turned down some of the other grpahics options like shadows and Anti-Aliasing.

Okay, seriously...WTF?

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/amit9821/wtfcopy.jpg

How does that thing run with only 160W? I guess they might have put in a higher wattage PSU if it would fit in it. You need at least a 400W PSU to run even the most basic midrange video card.

[InnerGoat]

What? The card is a slowpoke but i'll run H2V just fine. You won't be runing anything at high resolutions with it though, even on low quality...

[Amit]

What? The card is a slowpoke but i'll run H2V just fine. You won't be runing anything at high resolutions with it though, even on low quality...

I assumed they were talking in the context of his situation where he has his monitor resolution set to 1280x1024 or above. Seriously, wouldn't 1024x768 res look really bad on a huge 24" monitor?

[Phopojijo]

We actually have a specific for this kind of thing. Use the search function to find the Computer Specs thread. The one made by Bodzilla I believe.

Bigger screens are generally worse for games if you have crappy specs. They're good only when you have a video card and system capable of running it at the LCD's native or primary resolution. The 24" monitor is 1920x1080 resolution.Actually typically 1920x1200, which is actually even worse (remember of course computer monitors are 16:10, not 16:9)

I mean it's not *that* bad of a PC... the CPU and videocard are lower-end but will at least run most games.

The monitor is actually the worst part as mentioned though... it will not be given enough data to fulfill its needs.

So the PC is somewhat lopsided. The CPU and Videocard are slightly lower-end, and the RAM and Monitor are somewhat better than necessary.

I recommend finding a good reputable small business nearby... often they will assemble whole PCs for free... and most are generally almost as cheap as the online resellers. Also, warranties on individual parts are often better than reseller warranties (HP, Dell, etc). This is because companies like HP block warranty requests to the manufactures directly in an attempt to sell extended warranties and such.

Hope that helps...

[InnerGoat]

I assumed they were talking in the context of his situation where he has his monitor resolution set to 1280x1024 or above. Seriously, wouldn't 1024x768 res look really bad on a huge 24" monitor?
Nah, it's a given that it can't run anything at the native resolution. :p

He'll have to stick to 640x480 or 800x600 for most games. It might not bother him running those resolutions full screen. v:-3v

ps i've got an 8500GT as my secondary card. Similar to his 9500gs.

[Higuy]

I have that video card but my other specs are better. Also, my monitors top res is 1024x960 D:, so my games don't look to bad. The only thing I see wrong is the power supply, which is only 160 watts. I can run H2v at 60 fps and above and it dosent drop really. Crysis runs from 25 -40 fps, and UT3 runs from 30 and up, all ingame. If that is laptop, please, please do not get it from HP. My other laptop is from HP and constatly gets extremely hot. It can barley play halo at its smallest settings. Also Hp dosen't have the best help from my experinces. Im not sure if I really have a say in this, but this is what I got a while ago,http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227077 for the practiculy the same price you got that.

[Lex1337]

Thanks for answering my questions. I'm try to take all of you guy's advice,

-Lex1337

[Amit]

I didn't want to discourage you but everything everyone has said in this thread shall help more potential buyers for the coming Holiday Season.

I wish all the best with your computer and have fun! the Geforce 9 series video cards are largely the exact same thing as the Geforce 8, with the exceptions of the 9600GT and 9800GX2.

[343guiltymc]

Sorry, Terin, there is just no way that thing could run Halo 2 Vista without frame lagging every few seconds, even if it's optimized. With Call of Duty 4, however, I have a piece of a config file that i added to my own config to make the game run a huge amount faster with no visual degredation. I can pump the settings up to maximum textures with this old PowerColor Radeon X1600PRO and get a constant 30FPS, provided i turned down some of the other grpahics options like shadows and Anti-Aliasing.

Okay, seriously...WTF?

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h262/amit9821/wtfcopy.jpg

How does that thing run with only 160W? I guess they might have put in a higher wattage PSU if it would fit in it. You need at least a 400W PSU to run even the most basic midrange video card.
Pfft, same deal with Dell Dimension desktops.

[kenney001]

i put together a PC for a friend for $700:

AMD Phenom X4 x9600 Quad-core processor
Radeon HD4850 pro
4gb Corsair TwinX
500gb Western Digital HDD

It ran crysis at 1650x1080 on very high with about 29fps. You got ripped off...

[Phopojijo]

For those watching... the above computer... could have been assembled for free by a local, small business, computer store.

Warranties are (free from the manufacturer) between 1 and 5 years. RMA (Returning dead crap to manufacturers) are done from the small businesses often also for free.