Thinking of selling laptop and upgrading

Call Me Jimmy

So yea, I'm thinking of selling my inspiron 9300 and getting a good gaming desktop.
This is what I'm currently running on:

Intel Pentium M processor 1.86GHz
Geforce Go 6800 256MB
1GB RAM

Firstly, on the selling side, I have 3 keys missing on the keyboard, they work but the top parts aren't there... is there any (cheap) way to replace them? Will it affect how much I can get for it substantially?
Is it even worth selling?

Secondly, if i got a budget pc like in the sticky thread, say 400 - 700 would that run the doom3 half life 2 generation perfectly? And what about new games like cod 4, would it struggle a bit?

Basically I'm looking at my options and would appreciate help from you guys in the know

Thanks.

TerrorFirmer

Even the cheapest machine in the budget thread would run those games maxed out at virtually any feasible resolution.

As to whether they'd struggle on COD4, depends on what you expect out of the machine. Look at the machine in the first and third posts, for example:

Would they struggle to play COD4 at 1920x1200 high settings? Definitely.
Would they struggle to play COD4 at 1280x1024/1440x900 high settings? Not at all.

Take another look at something like this below. Overclock the CPU or swap it out for a basic dual core, and you've got a machine capable of playing the games you've listed at max settings effortlessly and COD4 at a normal resolution at high settings easily. Now with your budget you can obviously do better but it's an indication of what can be squeezed out of a budget.



700 is a decent budget and would get you a machine capable of playing anything at high settings - but first it's worth posting some info to find out exactly how to prioritize the budget.

Are you an overclocker?
What else is the machine used for apart from gaming?
What resolution do you intend playing at?
What sort of games are you playing?

Call Me Jimmy

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Are you an overclocker?
What else is the machine used for apart from gaming?
What resolution do you intend playing at?
What sort of games are you playing?

I have only ever had one computer which is this laptop so I only heard about overclocking a couple of weeks ago :P So long as it doesn't ruin the hardware and wasn't too hard to do i'de be up for it tho.

The machine is used for gaming and... browsing? lol
Well i'de be getting a smallish monitor, under 20 inch anyway so prolly 1440 900 would be the resolution.
I be playing all types of games mon, but mainly fps.

Incidentally, you wouldn't happen to have any advice about what to do with my laptop also?

Overall I'de like to be able to play most of the games released now without having to compromise the graphics if that's possible.

TerrorFirmer

Personally I would get something like this, processor is adequate at stock speeds and overall would run anything at 1440x900 high settings fine - and you can add a second one later if needs be.

There are any amount of things you could do even with this build - change the power supply and card for a cheaper power supply and 8800GT....decide to overclock - which is as easy as chips for moderate overclocks - and put the money saved by investing in a cheaper CPU into another aspect of the build, so on and so forth.

Call Me Jimmy

For a second I was slightly disappointed, thinking it was slightly weaker than I thought I could get but then I realised there's a mother****ing monitor in there too! Nice one, i'll use it as a base and maybe swap some ****, if that's including the monitor I would possibly like to go a little higher. How come the 9600 is cheaper than say the 8800? shouldn't it be better?

Also, on a side note, I'm selling my da's core 2 duo 2.4 ghz, 2 GB RAM, 2x 7800 GT rig and I'm thinking around 500 yoyos, is that a fair price?

Thanks a lot