Need everyones help!

[Jp28144]

I have a older desktop. It's a dell dimension 2400, with a Celeron processor. Is there any possible way I could upgrade this to be able to run ARMA III, Skyrim, and so forth. WIndows XP home Edition

 

[Cerb]

There is no way to even come close to the minimum requirements for either of those games. It would not be an exaggeration to say that there are popular cell phones as powerful as that computer--in some ways, more powerful.

ARMA III requires a midrange CPU of at least 3 generations ahead, a midrange video card from no earlier than about 2009, and at least Windows Vista. Skyrim's requirements are much lower, but still would require an entire new computer from 2005 or newer.

 

[Jp28144]

So do you think I would have to build from scratch?

 

[b0r]

Build from scratch or at the very least buy a CyberPower or XPS or -insert retail boxed name here-. I would not advise using or attempting to use any of those parts. The HD is probably even IDE. The power supply is incapable of anything other than what's currently plugged into it.

 

[Jp28144]

And now that is another problem I have. I don't know to much about computers. I know enough to get by, but not the advanced portion to build one. Is there a baseline someone to get me started? I'm tired of the Xbox and plantation with all the bull they're doing. So this why I'm getting into the pc gaming

 

[Jp28144]

What would be a good site to go to? For the cyber power or xps

 

[Cerb]

Build from scratch or at the very least buy a CyberPower or XPS or -insert retail boxed name here-. I would not advise using or attempting to use any of those parts. The HD is probably even IDE.

No probably about it. 90% chance it was an 80GB, from what I've seen (these were common cheap PCs, and they've been reliable enough that people are still running them all over the place). Also, the AGP slot was never soldered in, to give you an idea of what class of PC it was.

And now that is another problem I have. I don't know to much about computers. I know enough to get by, but not the advanced portion to build one. Is there a baseline someone to get me started? I'm tired of the Xbox and plantation with all the bull they're doing. So this why I'm getting into the pc gaming

Well, you could go for it and try building, or buy a prebuilt you can upgrade (Lenovo and Gateway usually make decent ones), or getting a custom-made one from somebody like CyberpowerPC.

An ATX prebuilt can typically have a lower end video card added, or have the PSU replaced and then a midrange video card added, for instance, which would make it easy to do.

Now, I'm not saying, "this is the PC for you," but I am fond of these Gateways, and one like this would be a good start:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+...specifications

The integrated graphics aren't enough, but depending on the power supply it comes with, it could handle a midrange gaming video card, making it awfully easy (also, a monitor, if you don't have one, or have an ancient one). We get to tweak things, and carefully choose parts, and all that, but there won't be any games out for a few years that an i5-3330, 8GB RAM, and a good $150-250 video card won't play well at 1080P.

After that, and a monitor, a good mouse is usually around $50.

You can do the same thing with any ATX Dell or Lenovo, too. The positive to this is that it's fairly easy, and the full size towers are quite upgradable. I know a couple people that used to build their own that don't bother anymore, because they can just add a couple parts to a good prebuilt, remove a little crapware, and be done with it.

Now, the downside to that, aside from neeidng to choose a model conducive to such upgrading, is that they make only a few models, and you can't get one faster, or that comes with an SSD, or that has any fancy chipset features, or whatever else. Even though they are upgradable, the base part selections are somewhat limiting.

You can make a nice gaming PC for $800-900 that way, but if you're up to spending more, Lenovo's and Dell's prices quickly rise, and they never have the breadth of parts choices that we're used to, further leading to low bang/buck, because they then jump up to their $2000+ premium lines, when all you wanted was a $50-75 higher price point video card on the $750 machine. So, if you want to spend $1000-1500, the big OEMs provide much lower value (they sell many lesser computers that don't get custom configurations for every one higher-end one, so they get more margin per unit on those). In addition, some people have a very good idea of what they want, and it often isn't offered by the big OEMs (such as an SSD boot drive on a system that's not $1000+).

CyberpowerPC is a company that makes gaming PCs out of regular off the shelf parts. There are probably some others, we're just not well versed in that market, for the most part.
XPS refers to a Dell XPS system.

 

[John Connor]

Check out Newegg.com for pre built systems and bare bone kits.

 

[Ketchup]

Hello Jp28144, you have a couple options here.
1. You can go to best buy/walmart/etc and buy a computer at a low price. The lower end computers are priced about what it would cost to build one, and it would be a good bit faster than what you have. The downside is that the graphics would not give you a good gaming experience, assuming it would even run the games you want.
2. You can build you own. If you have never done so before, I recommend 2 main steps.
a. Start a thread answering the questions in this thread over in General Hardware
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=80121. Folks will put together a nice system for the amount you are able to spend.
b. Find a good computer building guide and learn something new. For example, this one looks pretty good: http://www.buildeasypc.com/category/build-pc/how-to-build-a-computer-step-by-step-video-guide.htm

Good luck!

 

[AnonymouseUser]

I would recommend buying a pre-built PC since you know nothing about building PCs, and Lenovo's outlet store is a good place to start for great pricing for decent PCs (if you can wait, they have sales periodically with even better pricing).

For gaming, the Core i3 or any AMD quad core should be the minimum. After buying the PC, you'll also need a discrete graphics card, and for that I'd recommend either the Radeon HD 7790 or Geforce 650 TI so you won't have to upgrade the PC's power supply. That type of setup should cost less than $500 total, and be a decent 1080p gaming computer for a while.

 

[John Connor]

FYI. If you buy new your stuck with craptastic Windows 8.

 

[Steltek]

I would recommend buying a pre-built PC since you know nothing about building PCs, and Lenovo's outlet store is a good place to start for great pricing for decent PCs (if you can wait, they have sales periodically with even better pricing).

For gaming, the Core i3 or any AMD quad core should be the minimum. After buying the PC, you'll also need a discrete graphics card, and for that I'd recommend either the Radeon HD 7790 or Geforce 650 TI so you won't have to upgrade the PC's power supply. That type of setup should cost less than $500 total, and be a decent 1080p gaming computer for a while.

I agree with this recommendation. Either a Lenovo outlet system, or a Dell XPS 8500 from the Dell outlet would be a good starting base to build from if you don't feel comfortable actually assembling your own system from components.