Quote:
Originally Posted by Eddie Bronze
One thing I noticed in that article that stood out was:
Graphics cards are expensive, so it’s really hard to build a gaming system with a $500 budget limit.
I currently have a NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT. Would be wise to get a new one, or re-use my current one (which is about 2 years old) in a new system? Could always replace it in a couple years if need be.
Also, how do you intentionally get a computer to overclock? I know it means making it run at a higher clock rate than it's meant for, but not sure how to do it.
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Yeah, that article is skewed for gaming so it wouldn't really help him that much. Basically it's saying you can get a great gaming computer for $500. A non-gaming PC will be cheaper. The graphics card industry has slowed to a crawl compared to 1 or 2 years ago because of various factors (one company has fallen behind leaving a near monopoly, consoles are way more popular than computer gaming, etc.). You can get a near top of the line performing card for under $150 and since you don't game, you could just carry your 6600GT over which saves you money. Do you know if your 6600GT is AGP or PCI-E? New computers will all use PCI-E for the videocard so you couldn't carry it over in that case. Again, if you aren't going to game, you could just put in any old dirt cheap PCI-E videocard and it would be fine, save yourself a lot of money.
Why don't you tell us what your current computer is. $500, heck, even $300 is plenty good enough to get a computer that will do the things you asked for. I bought my grandparents a Dell (from a Dell sale) for $250 that can handle all of that and more (AMD X2 Dual Core, 2GB of ram). Honestly, if you aren't gaming, save the money and spend it on a good monitor since that is what you will be looking at the most. A hint for finding a good monitor, prowl the futureshops, etc. they usually have a big table with a red cloth on it setup near the computer area that has open box stuff or returns, etc. that is perfectly fine and still warrantied and still returnable to the store but at 10-40% off. I have come across many excellent and perfect monitors cheaply that way.
Overclocking is complicated to explain but actually really simple if you know how to do it. It will depend on your computer though. The settings for overclocking are in the BIOS of the motherboard. You can get into a BIOS menu when you first start up your computer and press a certain key (usually DEL or F1, etc.). There are also applications for overclocking inside Windows which might be easier and more friendly but not guaranteed to always work with every piece of hardware. Videocards can also be independantly overclocked as well. Unless you know what you are doing, I wouldn't recommened it, it can be highly technical and you could damage your computer accidentally. A brief explanation of how it works. Your system runs on a certain clock speed. The CPU takes this clock speed and multiplies it with a multiplier and that equals the CPU speed. For instance, if your computer clockspeed was 250MHz, and you multiply it by 10x multiplier, your CPU would be 2500MHz or 2.5GHz. Usually the multiplier is locked on retail CPUs...but if you increase the clock to 275MHz, then it becomes 275x10 = 2.75GHz. However, your CPU might not be able to make it at that speed with the stock voltage that it's using, thusly you may need to increase the voltage going to your CPU. That all results in more potential heat for your system and may require better cooling hardware. I fried one or two CPUs around the turn of the century
Keep in mind, the prices I'm talking about are usually from buying and assembling parts online from companies in B.C. (or whole computers from Dell Deals which has free shipping) as computer prices are strangly a bit higher in Calgary. It's a shame, Memory Express has a near monopoly on computers aside from the Big Box retailers. But if you want to buy from MemEx, etc. (benefit of being local, you can bring it back if you have problems), look to fork out an extra $100 to $150 over the course of an entire computer setup.
Are you going to be keeping your old computer? You might be able to migrate some parts if it's not too old. Could you save money from windows by simply installing your old copy on the new one?