PCA Forums

due to circumstances beyond my control, mainly the wife i won't be able to build the budget gaming PC i was planning. i'm kinda stuck on getting a "retail" pc from best buy.

my choice has been brought down to a HP a1230n. I think it's basically a 3700+, 1GB ram, 200GB, etc.

i'm pretty sure that if i was to stick in a mid-level card (ati x800 pro), the system be decent enough for gaming.

but i noticed on HP's website the PS is rated at 300w, how easy would it be to replace it. or should i be fine if my only immediate plan was to add on a vid card? i haven't built or bought a new system in awhile and i believe today's "systems" require alot of juice.

First of all, make sure it's got a PCI-E card in it and not an on-board. You DO NOT want onboard video. Even if it has a PCI-E slot in addition to the onboard video YOU DO NOT WANT ONBOARD VIDEO.

OEM vendors under-rate their PSUs (actually more accurately, 3rd party PSU makers over-rate their PSUs). It'll be dicey, but that onboard PSU is probably closer to a 350w Antec in actual ratings and should work fine. HOWEVER be aware that HP systems are notoriously un-expandable.

Frankly I'd recommend a Dell E510 which has a better chance ofl supporting an X800 Pro. And they'll come to your house and fix any failed hardware for free for a year. If it was me, I'd rather own a Dell than an HP any day. I've seen inside both of them.

The CPU may seem slower, but in actuality this system will probbaly be on-par with that HP. HP uses some really performance crippled mobos on their systems. They trade off performance for stability.

I just priced one out for $720 before shipping and tax.

Go here: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/ ... 51F4&s=dhs

Don't freak - the base price is $974 but that's with a monitor and TV tuner card.

Now select the following features:
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 630 w/HT Technology (3.0GHz,800FSB)
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (4x256M)
Deselect the TV tuner and remote
Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard
Monitor No Monitor
Video Card 128MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon X300 SE HyperMemory
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Floppy Drive and Media Reader No Floppy Drive Included
Mouse Dell® 2-button USB mouse
Network Card Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
CD ROM/DVD ROM Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
Sound Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability
Speakers No speakers
No Productivity Suite - Corel WordPerfect® word processor only
No Security Subscription
Hardware Warranty 1Yr Ltd Warranty, 1Yr At-Home Service, and 1Yr HW Warranty Support

Oh, and they give you a free printer. This deal is only valid until midnight this Wednesday.

If that's too soon for you, check this site on Thursday morning for next weeks unadvertised specials:
http://www.gotapex.com

or just buy my dell 8400 w/ x800 pci-e video card...

sorry, shameless for sale plug.

my desktop at work is a plain vanilla hp/compaq d325 cost $550 new .... 1.8 ghz athlon - riced out with a gig of ram and a 9800 pro...it plays hl2, WOW at 1024 just fine...If you're getting a value office desktop i would stick with amd

8400 is a nice system. It's the same mobo that they were using in the XPS gaming system last year. I seriously debated buying one of those instead of my last custom build.

First of all, make sure it's got a PCI-E card in it and not an on-board. You DO NOT want onboard video. Even if it has a PCI-E slot in addition to the onboard video YOU DO NOT WANT ONBOARD VIDEO.

actually it is onboard video. i think x200 or something. it does have an available pci-e slot. since i'm clueless on the subject, why don't you advise onboard vid? wouldn't i be able to simply disable it and stick in a decent vid card.

if you want to go with the evil Mumbai (Dell) empire, there are some decent deals on refurb 8400s and maybe a few 8300. I got an 8300 with 3.0, 1 gb and a 9800 pro for about $500 shipped about 9 months ago. There is a thread working on the refurb 8400s at AT hot deals i think

actually it is onboard video. i think x200 or something. it does have an available pci-e slot. since i'm clueless on the subject, why don't you advise onboard vid? wouldn't i be able to simply disable it and stick in a decent vid card.

Because OEM systems with onboard video are usually a bitch to get working properly with an add-on video card. They're not really designed to be upgraded - especially HPs.

Get a system that comes with an add-on video card already and you'll have less hassles.

I can second that....had a heck of a time finding a add on card for my HP that would work. Tha one that finaly would work still gives me trouble once in a while. Same goes for upgrading RAM if you dont buy RAM exactly made for the HP you have it most likely will not work. Thats where i learned to buy Crucial RAM, dealing with HP and Compaqs.