So this punk kid down the street cracked my MotS CD...

But gawd Conn, now we know why you still think your computer is okay: you consider $400 "top of the line". LMAO!

 

Conn, Flanders is right. There is no way your comp was anywhere near top of the line at that time at that price, rebate or not. I paid almost twice as much for my video card as you did for your entire computer! When I bought my computer, I wasn't looking for top of the line. I just wanted something that would last me at least a year, and that I could be happy with. I paid just under $2000. It's a 1.8 GHz, so it's nowhere near top of the line. If you want a decent computer, be prepared to shell out in excess of $1500. If you're poor, and you only have a $400 price range, stick with a Nintendo Gamecube.

 

The biggest expense of a good gaming PC is going to be the video card and CPU. Get yourself something with a good high end video card and a moderate to high end CPU and everything else can be cheap stuff (cheap sound card, cheap hard drive, etc). The biggest bottleneck for most games anymore is video and CPU. Get good ones of both and you're set. You should be able to get a good video card and CPU for no more than $500.

Why don't you post your specs so we can tell you what you really need to upgrade (in order to play the latest games that is).

 

You should be able to get a good video card and CPU for no more than $500.

Who's your dealer? (No, I'm not talking about parts here)

MSRP for an ATI Radeon 9700 Pro is $649.99 CAD. I think it's about $499.99 USD. Then you're looking at almost as much for the CPU. Of course, she'd need to buy a new machine. She can't upgrade that dinosaur of a mobo. Don't forget RAM. 512 is a must. I cry myself to sleep at night thinking about my 256. Well, no quite, but you know what I mean. Then don't forget the monitor. You can't play the latest games on a 13" roundscreen monitor. It's a waste. There's another $200 at least. Don't forget decent human interface devices. An optical mouse is a must. Last, but not least, you're gonna want a quality surround-sound system... another thing on my to-get list.

Why don't you post your specs so we can tell you what you really need to upgrade (in order to play the latest games that is).

I've seen her specs. I don't remember all of it, but I do remember that she's using a Trident Blade 3D card. I also remember that her father won't upgrade/replace because he says the computer is just fine.

 

"You should be able to get a good video card and CPU for no more than $500."

Good god, I should hope so. With my new 'puter that we got last spring (just before Outcast came out), we got a GForce 3 Titanium 200 for... Ummm, I dunno, but it certainly wasn't $500. This computer kicks the ball out of Jedi Outcast, even though it's not near top of the line anymore, but it's still a VERY nice computer, for what I do with it. And basically, all I do is play Star Wars games, watch DVDs, play music and stuff.

It's 1.8 Ghz, 80 Gig hard drive and 512 MB of RAM. It'll be just fine for another 2 year (though the last year will be a stretch ) of what I do. It'll be able to run Knights of the Old Republic just fine on Medium/High settings, which is all I'm wanting out of it, considering it runs Outcast smooth as glass on all the highest settings.