Zog's Blog

Power supply is weak, but if you aren't playing any demanding games, it should be fine.

I personally, am a fan of ordering everything via Newegg and building it myself. Especially if you have a case that it will fit in.

The price of ram and processors is mindblowingly small now.

1 Gig of Ram? Wow, lol. I'll send Joracy over your way, he helped me pick out my comp and I've been happy with it ever since.

I should note that this is a build-it-yourself system. What the retailer has done is put together a package of components and knocked approximately 33% off the total price. Of course you save even more by not having someone else put it together. With all of that factored in, if I were to buy it pre-assembled at full price it would probably cost somewhere around $500, perhaps a bit more.

To prioritize upgrades I would make:

Short-Term

Increase RAM to 8GB (~$170)

Medium-Term

Increase power supply to ~600W (~$50)

Change HD to TWO 1TB/7200/64MB Drives - Implement RAID 1 ($100-$120)

Long-Term or Not At All

Wireless Network Adapter (PCI/USB)

Sound Card (PCI)

I recommend getting a laptop, since gaming power isn't important to you. Desktop computers are basically pointless these days, unless you're attempting to play the latest video games. I recommend a Sony Vaio....I have a 19" widescreen variety that has a blu-ray burner and plenty of specs necessary for playing older games (I have BF2, BF1942, CS:S, and Unreal Tournament on mine). It came with Vista, but these days they come with Windows 7.

I would if I were you, go ahead and get a slightly more power video card, unless you're looking to run Tropico 3 on all low settings with a very low resolution

EDIT: and in terms of upgrades, increasing the RAM you've got probably won't do anything unless you're using RAM intensive software which a $300 PC won't run well anyway

You don't want to skimp on the power supply. I'd really suggest upgrading it. 4GB ram is good enough for almost everything these days...er, at least it was a few years ago But that's easily upgradable in the future. I dunno about the mobo, I'm not that fond of Microatx..

I have a "Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" for my graphics card. 60GB hard drive, and I used to have 256MB of RAM but I was sort of forced to upgrade that.

I have a "Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" for my graphics card.

Um.....isn't this just an onboard video chipset?

It will be a huge upgrade over what you got, but is a bit behind the newer stuff. If you don't game or do graphics it will be fine for a long while still.

It will be a huge upgrade over what you got, but is a bit behind the newer stuff. If you don't game or do graphics it will be fine for a long while still.

Like I said, most of the games I play are older ones. And really, my interest in new ones is minimal. If can't run the newest Sims or the latest version of Tropico, I'm quite content to stick with Sims 2 and my older version of Tropico. (I should note that all games installed on my computer are from 2004 or earlier.)

Oh, and nippy....we already have a brand new HP laptop and my Netbook with its SSD and Linux installed.. The main reason for getting a desktop PC over a laptop is that I have an insatiable desire to take things apart and put them back together again. Upgrading a desktop PC allows me to do that. Notebook upgrades are....well, apart from RAM....pretty much a no-go. Besides, you end up paying more than you would for a PC with comparable processing speed, and I'm cheap.

I have a "Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller" for my graphics card. 60GB hard drive, and I used to have 256MB of RAM but I was sort of forced to upgrade that.

My God....your system must even older than mine.

Dunno that I would bother with 8gb of ram. 4gb is usually sufficient for almost anything short of enterprise level applications or CAD stuff

With regard to RAM, I have a sneaking suspicion that Windows 7, like all Windows distributions before it, will gradually suck up more and more memory as it is upgraded through security tweaks, service packs and so on.

Currently, Windows 7 64-bit requires at least 2GB of RAM. In my experience with Windows systems -- which goes back nearly 30 years (ugh) -- minimum requirements are only barely satisfactory.

I run 4gb in both my laptop and dev workstation. It's way way more than needed. We run our Windows 2008 R2 servers with 4gb as well. Heck, our exchange 2010 server only has 8.

Just my opinion having used 7 since it's release. Ram is cheap enough that 8 won't set you back a ton at least.

Have you looked at NCIX.com (They are a Canadian computer store), and they have pretty good deals.

With regard to RAM, I have a sneaking suspicion that Windows 7, like all Windows distributions before it, will gradually suck up more and more memory as it is upgraded through security tweaks, service packs and so on.

Currently, Windows 7 64-bit requires at least 2GB of RAM. In my experience with Windows systems -- which goes back nearly 30 years (ugh) -- minimum requirements are only barely satisfactory.

That's Super/Prefetch at work; they'll release plenty of memory as other programs ask for it, they just keep commonly used programs in memory to reduce load times. The actual requirements for the OS to run are lower. That said, 4 GB will do you fine, I ran a rather underpowered business laptop on Vista for two years on that without issue. If you want more, I would get it now, rather than having to shelve the perfectly good smaller sticks, but if you intend to go with the smaller ones now, I'd just stick with them. You probably won't have any issues with them.

Just don't use Windows7 with it if you're playing old old games. I know from experience that StarCraft the original tends to freeze the screen after a random amount of time has passed. Something about Windows7 not properly allocating something to somewhere.

Not really a brilliant computer mind, myself, but I've read reports about how old games don't work well with 7. It's rather annoying.

unless cost is your main concern, i'd get Intel processor, and DDR3 RAM, but that's just me.

unless cost is your main concern, i'd get Intel processor, and DDR3 RAM, but that's just me.

I used to follow the AMD/Intel 'debate' quite closely. At one time AMD was ahead, now Intel is 'winning'.

The only thing I really remember from all the arguments I witnessed is that AMD is cheaper and their CPUs tend to run hotter than comparable Intel versions, requiring a bit more cooling.

I think now would be a good time to thank everyone for their input. I'm going to go ahead and buy this once tax time arrives in a couple of weeks. (I always file early and electronically; I typically have my return processed and my refund back in 10 business days or less.) I'm going to knock 'More RAM' way down my to-do list, and get a better power supply before anything else.

I'd suggest a DDR3 option. DDR 2 is pretty much obsolete already. It will cost a little extra now but long term its a better option. For run of the mill stuff it looks ok though.

My computer uses DDR1 RAM. It's super fun trying to upgrade that.