My Computer and My Budget

[tipsyhitman]

Ok i got a computer running windows 98, pent 2 (450mhz), a 4mb vid card(built in), and 320mb of ram. I got $260 to spend. What should i get or buy to make this run better or any computers i should get instead? It runs Quake 2 and CS 1.6(a bit slow).

[[BTF]adam]

Hmm.. 260 is about 130 to me.. 130 won't get you much worthwhile imo, i'd save that until you have about 4-500 dollars maybe.. and get a full system with it instead of upgrading the outdated thing you have now that's what I did, I had a p2 350, 260mb ram and a voodoo3.. instead of upgrading that/getting a crappy new system with the lil bit of birthday money I had, I waited until I had some more and now I have .. http://adam.tastyspleen.net/rig/ - cba to type it out

[tipsyhitman]

well i dont work, i goto school. so i dont have income.

[[BTF]adam]

same, i'm 16 I just saved mate.

[Punk_FAS]

Don't listen to Adam... well for this anyway.  Adam is from the UK and the prices suck there for computer stuff... well at least compared to the prices here in the US, assuming you're in the US =)

As for computer suggestions.... I don't have time to help you right now, but I'll try to put my 2 cents in later, if others haven't already given you some good suggestions by then.  $260 can maybe buy you a really low end rig, that might be enough for your needs, you might need a little more, not sure.  Besides, a "really low end rig" is more than enough to play Q2 and CS 1.6 very smoothly these days.  Q2 is 10 years old this year (I think).

[vibes]

your system can handle Q2 no problem.
If you are able to ADD ram to the Vid, if you really want to so something NOW.

[magical pig]

I played on a p3 500 for years in software mode - Punk is right - most low end systems can handle q2 no prob...

CS? well that's for CS'ers   

I just bought a $700 rig off the shelf that is amazing - might be worth it to save up for a while...

I don't think you can add vid RAM to onboard graphics 

just my $0.02

gl

[X'tyfe]

dude, you should have no problem getting something to run both of those smoothly for under 300 these days
just might have to look around, cus of course these parts arnt made or sold anymore

it really doesnt give you much choice, but id try to get atleast 2ghz, 512 ddr and a geforce4(or similer from ati)

[MyDocuments]

Look on Ebay until you find something. I found this within 2 minutes

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-SX260-P4-2-66GHz-512MB-DVD-CDRW-Combo-XP-Home-CD_W0QQitemZ230073173769QQihZ013QQcategoryZ140070QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hopefully the shipping won't be to high. You might need to save up for a better gfx card, but that should do nicely for now.

[X'tyfe]

its certainly not bad, even that intergrated card should be enough to run both quake2 and CS smooth enough
assuming of course your talking about the old CS 

[splisskin]

The pc in MyDocuments link only has a 150 watt ps! So if you do opt for a low priced pc with the idea of adding a vid card later you will prolly need to upgrade things like that also.   

A vid card and maybe some memory would serve you just fine to play Q2 and CS. As long as ur pc has pci or agp interface you can get a cheap vid card for Q2.

example:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127181

good luck!   splisskin

[Ghost9]

With a computer that slow your best bet is to by a whole new computer with the money.  You can get a kickass video card for $50-80 bucks to go with a low-end machine.  I think a video card and ram are the two most important things after the actual computer.

If you already have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard, there's no need to waste money on that stuff.