Will this work?

[The Frenchman 0]

Last night my parents decided to buy this for a family christmas present:Gateway Desktop Computer with 3.2GHz Pentium 4-HT, 250GB Hard Drive, 1GB RAM, DVD Burner

Overkill IMO.

When I looked to see what the graphics card was:

Quote[/b] ]Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics

I have no idea what this is. Is this a graphics card? Or is it something else? If it is, would it be able to handle the current and future games?(HL2 etc) And if it isnt, what would be a good choice for a graphics card?

[red oct 2]

eeeew Gateway

i have a gateway and i haven't been able to get the damn mouse and keyboard to work properly since i reformated the P.O.S. i've had to gone w/out playing OFP for about a year now  i dunno maybe the newer ones might actually work.

Quote[/b] ]Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 graphics

never heard of it so i duno, the card my PC came w/ was a Nvida TNT2.i would guess the one you have is just a generic brand. the card you have might be able to handle newer games as long as you set the Res down. you'll just have to try it and see. otherwise you can find something better online somewhere for a good deal.

[korax 4]

I say your looking at about the equivalent of a radeon 9600 card, its not too shabby and will run HL2 etc (Dont expect smooth gameplay if you run with high details and AA/AF), but you'd get a huge performance increase with something like a 9800 pro or a geforce 6600 GT

[Milkman 1]

Do yourself a favor and make a computer. Save thousands of dollars and will own that pathetic gateway.

EDIT: That graphics card is an onboard card. Might not even support AA/AF.

[EiZei 0]

The result of 30 seconds of googling.

Its performance is comparable to the shittier version of the shittiest geforce FX display adapter. Like installing wheelbarrow wheels on a F1.

[red oct 2]

Do yourself a favor and make a computer. Save thousands of dollars and will own that pathetic gateway.

EDIT: That graphics card is an onboard card. Might not even support AA/AF.

LOL!  i could see it, the frenchman goes to his parents holding up what was once the PC and says "Hey mom and dad, look what i did!" they propably wouldn't be too thrilled if he went and cannibalized the PC

[EiZei 0]

Do yourself a favor and make a computer. Save thousands of dollars and will own that pathetic gateway.

How can he save thousands building a computer that costs about 1200USD?

[red oct 2]

Quote[/b] ]How can he save thousands building a computer that costs about 1200USD?  

Dell computers run about 500-600 dollars, though i don't really have any idea how good they are. if it wasn't for the really gimmicky commercials they always air i would probaly buy one. but i dunno.

[shinRaiden 0]

You're going to need that gig of ram on that IGP, and that might not even be enough to survive. I just up'd a friend's HighlyProprietary pc from a 845igp to a PCI R9200-128. Memory usage dropped by ~40mb and the 2d and 3d was actually usable.

The big problem is that IGP's are leeches. They were designed for the OEM market officially to make business PC's cheaper, but it seems the sicko's decided to hang them out on the shelves of the box stores for gullible customers to pick up and widen their margins.

Rather than have it's own independent system and memory, IGP's steal it from the main RAM. So instead of your CPU deciding how to calculate that BMP aiming at you in OFP, it's busy trying to decide how much of the RAM to set aside for the IGP, and also has to coordinate the memory transactions.

It makes lots of sense if you need a cheap Point-Of-Sale machine or something to use Word or Excel on, but is an absolute nightmare to use if you plan on ever running 3d apps like games. Adding in a replacement card and switching it over can be a pain too, you really need two monitors through the whole process up until when you disable the IGP in Windows. (You can't disable it in the BIO's, and you wouldn't want to, but you can tell Windows to ignore it.)

[Gadger 0]

Like installing wheelbarrow wheels on a F1.

Haha, couldn't of said it better myself.

[Supah 0]

eeeew Gateway

i have a gateway and i haven't been able to get the damn mouse and keyboard to work properly since i reformated the P.O.S. i've had to gone w/out playing OFP for about a year now  i dunno maybe the newer ones might actually work.

Try buying a new mouse and keyboard combo And yes building your own machine is cheaper but I think it would be more in hundreds of dollars instead of thousands.

[Pathy 0]

I'd say build your own, then you can decide exactly what you want, and you know every component will be quality.....

Buy a packaged PC and it usually sounds good but is usually full of cheap shite by unknown companies.

Only plus side of a package is you get all the OS and utilities for free.....otherwise your looking at another Å200 or so for XP, Office, ect.

[theavonlady 2]

At least buy a Dell - not a Gateway - if you can't slap your own together.

[shinRaiden 0]

Having done field support for Dell, I can't second that opinion. Your best option is to go to a shop that sells DIY parts as many also sell store-built 'white-boxes'. Whatever you pay for repairs or replacements is going to be a lot less than an OEM box. You can pay the OEM $300 for a stick of pc2100 ram, or you can pay a DIY shop $90 for the same thing and have it same day. If you don't know what you want or need, you can walk in, say "I want to play doom, and I want that pretty case, and here's my budget" and a real person will walk you through the setup.

[theavonlady 2]

Having done field support for Dell, I can't second that opinion.

Compared to Gateway?

[D34N 0]

At least buy a Dell - not a Gateway - if you can't slap your own together.

Or get an Alienware.. normally I dont pimp out Alienware but its a better deal than the Gateway and Faster.. go to Alienware.com and make a SFF (Small-Form Factor) PC.. You can make one a couple hundred $$$ Cheaper and much Faster..

P4 3.2GHz

1GB RAM (Forgot which brand comes with it)

250GB HDD

Nvidia Geforce 6800GT

No Monitor though.. it was about $1850.

Compared to Gateway?

Gateway is awesome [fine print]compared to E-Machines [/fine print]

[shinRaiden 0]

Gateway's in my experience are less proprietary than Dell's, but the backend service is the same, about the quality of the droppings of their old corporate mascot the cow - and that was with their corporate accounts.

I've heard mixed reviews on Alienware machines. They avoid the really proprietary shackles of the big OEM's, but make up for it with occasional flakey products and utter lack of service. Service contracter I worked for almost refused to touch their laptops because they were so unserviceable and poorly engineered (on the inside parts and frame etc.)

The only redeeming value I've found in the OEM boxes is that because they control the mobo and case combo's, they can implment oversized shrouded fans for very quiet operation. BTX mobo's will take that advantage away though when they start shipping.

But back the original Freedom Machine at the beginning of the topic. It's a good box, but if you request a video card upgrade in the Dell options it will cost you an extra arm and a leg. You're better off taking it down to a DIY shop after you get it and having them pop in a usable video card. They'll have the setup to do it, and can work out any bugs in the transition. They'll also have a much wider selection than Dell will, and more competively priced.

-edit-

Just for fun decided to run the specs through my favorite local DIY shop that has rediculously low prices Infotech systems

Abit AA8-3rd Eye

P4 3.2GHZ 1mb L2 @ 800fsb

1gb PC3200

250mb WDC SATA

DVD+-RW

Creative Audigy2 ZS

Logitech Keyboard

Optical wireless wheel mouse

Creative 7.1 surround sound speaker set

XP Pro (NOT Home edition! Big difference! You keep the CD!)

Low-noise Thermaltake 420w PSU

Casetek case for all your toys (I got one, I love it, can hold 7 90cm fans, nearly all screwless system)

*Zalman CNPS7000A-ALcu CPU fan

*MSI GFx6600 GT 128mb PCI-E (256mb TD - slower - is $50 cheaper)

**Dell 2001FP (Average ebay buy-it-now price of ~$650)

* not on "customize" list, call or email and they'll roll it in.

** tons of surplus new ones on ebay.

Grand total of $2026.81.

Shipping for the PC and the monitor would round it out to about $2100, and there's a lot of hardware in there that's way better than the Gateway package, including a solid PCI-E video card.

Contrast that with Gateway's list price of $2197.00 for a significantly inferior machine, + $49.94 s&h, and $179.95 2-year support coverage, it adds up pretty quick for a clunky IGP box. You also don't get Norton AV preinstalled, so you can put AVG and Spybot and Firefox on for free instead. The soundcard and video card will come with much better game bundles, and you can always show student ID at any academic bookstore and get an academic price on Office 2003 Professional, if you don't want to use Openoffice.

-edit-

Okay, this is raising MAJOR warning flags...

I just trolled Gateway's website and they don't have a model "702GE". It looks like this model and warranty package is ONLY offered though HSN. Gateway offers direct a similar model to what I priced out above for ~$2200, but with a X800 video card instead. Other components are not nearly as top of the line.

If you look at the other Gateway 7200 series computers, you can get the HSN package for about $450 cheaper direct than through HSN. You will also have a broader range of options and support choices as well. Check the details very carefully before you jump on it.