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Best place to buy a decent gaming PC?

anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it.Registered User regular
edited February 2012 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
I'm talking about places I can go to like Best Buy. I'm not interested in ordering online or building my own. I basically just want to buy a decent PC somewhere that I can play SWTOR on. I don't want to spend more than 600 dollars. Any help would be appreciated.

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    minor incidentminor incident expert in a dying field njRegistered User regular
    ...Best Buy?

    I mean, if you're looking for a budget machine, I'm guessing any store that sells PCs will have something. Microcenter/Fry's would be a good place to start.

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    anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it. Registered User regular
    I've never heard of those stores before. Is it even possible to buy a decent gaming PC for around 600?

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    Day of the BearDay of the Bear The Qun demandsRegistered User regular
    Swtor isn't too demanding, should be playable on a decent 600 dollar rig

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    a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    Do you need a monitor? If not, you can get this system at Best Buy that would be your least-bad option for gaming.

    The other option would be to buy a cheaper system (like around $500) and add a cheap video card to it. Pretty much anything sold these days has enough CPU and RAM to run any game decently, but the graphics on low-end systems usually lag behind.

    If you need a monitor, then the best you're looking at is something like this, which won't really be adequate for gaming of any kind without a graphics upgrade, even a low-intensity game like SWTOR.

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    anoffdayanoffday To be changed whenever Anoffday gets around to it. Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    a5ehren wrote:
    Do you need a monitor? If not, you can get this system at Best Buy that would be your least-bad option for gaming.

    The other option would be to buy a cheaper system (like around $500) and add a cheap video card to it. Pretty much anything sold these days has enough CPU and RAM to run any game decently, but the graphics on low-end systems usually lag behind.

    If you need a monitor, then the best you're looking at is something like this, which won't really be adequate for gaming of any kind without a graphics upgrade, even a low-intensity game like SWTOR.

    Thanks for the input. That first choice has this: AMD Radeon HD 6550D graphics. Is this any good? Or is it like integrated?

    Also if I do buy something cheaper with integrated graphics, can I still install my own graphics card or will it be locked or something since integrated cards are built into the motherboard? Also, I have a monitor I plan to use.

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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited February 2012
    The two problems with adding your own card are that you might need a new power supply and if the computer you bought has a slim case then a bigger might not fit.

    Also, last I checked the prices BB charged for cards was pretty outrageous.

    Integrated graphics should be overridden by a video card with no problem.

    But really, trying to buy a computer for gaming at BB is just a terrible idea. One possibility is to look for computers with AMD's LLano chips like the one a5ehren linked to. Their integrated GPU is much better than Intel's.

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    fightinfilipinofightinfilipino Angry as Hell #BLMRegistered User regular
    you may want to reconsider your stance on ordering online. there are a few very good PC manufacturers that can build beastly AND low-cost systems, including:
    http://www.ibuypower.com/
    http://avadirect.com/
    http://www.falcon-nw.com/

    you won't find a local brick-and-mortar store selling gaming desktops anymore outside of Best Buy. CompUSA and Computer City self destructed. Frys are decent, but you'd be lucky if there's one in your area.

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    a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    anoffday wrote: »
    a5ehren wrote:
    Do you need a monitor? If not, you can get this system at Best Buy that would be your least-bad option for gaming.

    The other option would be to buy a cheaper system (like around $500) and add a cheap video card to it. Pretty much anything sold these days has enough CPU and RAM to run any game decently, but the graphics on low-end systems usually lag behind.

    If you need a monitor, then the best you're looking at is something like this, which won't really be adequate for gaming of any kind without a graphics upgrade, even a low-intensity game like SWTOR.

    Thanks for the input. That first choice has this: AMD Radeon HD 6550D graphics. Is this any good? Or is it like integrated?

    Also if I do buy something cheaper with integrated graphics, can I still install my own graphics card or will it be locked or something since integrated cards are built into the motherboard? Also, I have a monitor I plan to use.

    The Radeon 6550D is integrated, but it is actually usable (unlike the Intel graphics) for stuff like SWTOR as long as you don't expect to play on maximum settings.
    The two problems with adding your own card are that you might need a new power supply and if the computer you bought has a slim case then a bigger might not fit.

    True, but any cards in the sub-$100 range should run just fine on the power provided by the PCIe slot, and these prebuilt systems usually have a high enough overhead for that. The second concern is very much valid, though. OP would need to come back here and ask us for some recommendations (and give us some measurements).

    a5ehren on
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    a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2012
    fightinfilipino wrote: »
    you may want to reconsider your stance on ordering online. there are a few very good PC manufacturers that can build beastly AND low-cost systems, including:
    http://www.ibuypower.com/
    http://avadirect.com/
    http://www.falcon-nw.com/

    you won't find a local brick-and-mortar store selling gaming desktops anymore outside of Best Buy. CompUSA and Computer City self destructed. Frys are decent, but you'd be lucky if there's one in your area.

    The cheapest system I could build from any of those that matches the A8 system I linked earlier was $589 (and it was...another A8 system with no external graphics). These guys don't really cater to the low-end because there isn't any money there.

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    lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    This might be worth looking at. Note that it's open box though. If you needed to upgrade the graphics later it should be pretty easy.

    I'm not too familiar with desktop A8s but the graphic card in the open box system should be quite a bit better.

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    a5ehrena5ehren AtlantaRegistered User regular
    lowlylowlycook wrote: »
    This might be worth looking at. Note that it's open box though. If you needed to upgrade the graphics later it should be pretty easy.

    I'm not too familiar with desktop A8s but the graphic card in the open box system should be quite a bit better.

    Yeah it would be. If OP decides to buy online, this would be a good system to get.

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