REALLY hard bargain PC

[joker_927]

Okay, I have built computers for friends before. The one thing I am REALLY good at is finding deals, and searching for places to buy online.

I have 6 computers under my belt. Building computers tends to fall in two catgories: "Money is no matter!", "Build me a good gaming rig, but don't go overboard," and "just build me something that will run."

I have a very picky friend that wants the CHEATEST possible computer outthere, but he watns to play games. I told him there was already a problem with that statement.

Well, I have been searching all over for "Cheap" gaming componemts. I realized that buying barebones really saves you money, but you have to find the good ones. (Athlon 2500+ with PC2100 RAM? Come on!)

I was wondering what video card I should put in it. He says he wants to be able to "play WarCraft III".

Any ideas? For some reason I was reading another website about a Radeon 7000 and that seemed to be able to play games well.

I'm good at every other part of the system, but video cards are so hard for me. I know FX's suck, MX's suck, 9800's are good, and Voodoo 3's run HL slow.

Any help?

Thx

[woodbutcher]

According to the reviews i've read the 7000 is about the worst GPU for games. I have one here and I don't like it at all.
I would look at a refurb from Newegg.
Here's a chaintech for $69.00, 64 meg of ram.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...tby=14&order=1

I've bought a dozen refurbs from NE, even the dreaded Gainward Ti 4200 cards andhave not had a problem yet (knocking on wood).

WB

[WingWizard]

9600s are pretty good midrange cards; although if he wants it cheap you might want to go with a 9000 or 9200.

I'm also sure you can find a cheap nvidia Ti4600 or something thereof around nowadays; my friend has one and has been able to play wc3 smoothly and on fairly high detail

[joker_927]

Darn.. Newegg seems t be down. Weird.

By cheap, I mean less than $100. Will look @ card woodcatcher when newegg comes back.

[coldfusion22]

nope, newegg.com is working fine for me right now.

[Omardeth]

best bang for the buck bar none is the good ole ti4200 period ...

a 64 meg should be pretty easy to find for about 70-80$ and it will do anything you throw at it .

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduc...ption=A%2DGX20

http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_v...t=474&showit=1

http://www.amamax.com/intogetiti422.html

http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_v...=1343&showit=1