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I work for an IBM business partner, and I am able to buy anything we sell at cost for personal use. I am trying to get a desktop for gaming, but I have no idea what would be a good system. I had my distributor come up with this model:

Link to Lenovo Spec Sheet

Its has the following:
3.2 GHz Processor
2 GB of RAM (I added an additional 1GB stick)
128MB Graphics Card
160 GB HD

In your humble opinions, how well do you think this would work as a mid-range gaming computer? Thanks!

What kind of Intel Processor is that? Whats the graphics card?

Not enough information.

Intel P4? No no no no.

Just run away. And that GPU is pathetic.

Dest, what are you smoking?

That video card is wholly inadequate for a gaming rig. You can get a 512 MB Radeon X700 Super for like $95 retail. I suggest bumping it up to that level if you want to keep the system viable for any length of time.

Mind, I am not up-to-date on the latest video card development reports, so it's entirely possible you should wait for the "ZOMGZ LATEST AWESOME!" card to come out and take advantage of the price drop.

Just try and check if that CPU is the 65nms, or you won't need a heater during winter...

The X300 is absolutely horrible for gaming (and pretty much anything else...), and the P4 is questionable. An X700, X800 or 7600 would be much better for graphics, and a Core 2 Duo E6300 or 6400 should be cheap and powerful.

Haminal, what's your budget?

Arrow wrote:The X300 is absolutely horrible for gaming (and pretty much anything else...), and the P4 is questionable. An X700, X800 or 7600 would be much better for graphics, and a Core 2 Duo E6300 or 6400 should be cheap and powerful.

Haminal, what's your budget?

Looking to spend about $1500. Keep in mind that I can buy many parts at cost, so a higher price than that might not be a problem.

Would it be possible for me to buy a separate graphics card and keep the rest of the system?

Haminal10 wrote:Would it be possible for me to buy a separate graphics card and keep the rest of the system?

Sure. The X300 should be a PCIe part (verify with your vendor) so any other PCIe card will work. For the higher end cards you'll need power directly from the power supply, so make sure you've got a big enough supply.

Jesus, with $1500 you could get a fairly high end system.

Quite so, check out the Ars Technica.com buyers guide for a rough guideline.

Uraniun235 wrote:Jesus, with $1500 you could get a fairly high end system.

What would you recommend? That model is not set in stone, and I am open to suggestions.

Wow. With $1500 to work with you have no need of that system man... shop around, you will find far better stuff.

Haminal10 wrote:

Uraniun235 wrote:Jesus, with $1500 you could get a fairly high end system.

What would you recommend? That model is not set in stone, and I am open to suggestions.

I'd recommend buying it piecemeal, and getting a Core 2 Duo E6300 or E6600 (depending on whether you want the double L2 cache or not). Get a Nvidia 7900GT or ATi X1900XT (both should be good, IIRC, the ATi is slightly faster). The Arstechnica guide is slightly out of date with respect to the processor and motherboard, but otherwise, should be a good bet. You could probably ignore a sound card to start with, unless you really like your tunes.

Ace Pace wrote:Check out this guide to see roughly what parts you should look for.

Perfect!

My distributor carries all but the DVD burner. I got a Lenovo one that should work.

Good, I'd advise checking around other websites(or SDN members) for reccomendations on a differant Mobo. Check the feature sets of compareable(in price) boards from Gigabyte and ASUS, each has their own strongpoints.

Haminal10 wrote:

Ace Pace wrote:Check out this guide to see roughly what parts you should look for.

Perfect!

My distributor carries all but the DVD burner. I got a Lenovo one that should work.

That system is a googleplex times better than what you were looking at, but I would still make a couple substitutions, provided you can get them at cost. If not, just go with what's there. It will be a righteous gaming rig either way.

1. The Radeon X1900 XT has enough of a performance edge over the X1800 XT they listed to be worth the difference.

2. You don't need a seperate sound card unless you're a real audiophile. 95 out of 100 people will never notice the difference.

3. For the hard drive, go with a Seagate 7200.10 series 320 or 250 GB if available.

Is it worth it to buy the components and build it yourself or are say Dell's prices reasonable? Is the convenience worth the cost?

For the really low-end, you can't beat pre-built prices, but on the high-end, you're paying double or more for the same or even inferior components. Now, I won't lie to you, putting together a machine is a pain in the ass. It's a simple enough process, but something always goes wrong and you usually won't have a fully functioning computer until the next day or even a few days later. However, not having to deal with that isn't worth a thousand dollars or more to anyone with more sense than money. That said, putting it together yourself is not normally risky financially unless you're very clumsy or careless. It's the people who know just enough to be dangerous that end up frying their components.

But be advised that choosing components is a mine field where you can pay the same price for a shitty product that sounded better than a good one. What makes it worse is the large number of people who sound like they know what they're talking about and give bad advice with great confidence. Best to start a thread asking for advice on components and I or someone knowledgeable will give some recommendations.

Haminal10 wrote:

Ace Pace wrote:Check out this guide to see roughly what parts you should look for.

Perfect!

My distributor carries all but the DVD burner. I got a Lenovo one that should work.

As I mentioned earlier, the two parts from the guide you don't want to follow are the mobo and CPU recommendations. Core 2 Duo will own their recommendation. Do note that the guide is two months old, so they didn't have any Core 2 Duo available at writing time.

And you probably want to get the X1900XT. It's not a significant cash difference, but it is a significant enough performance difference.