Need a (technical) sanity check...

[HELLFIRE]

Just got these machines in at work for about $700CDN, minus the screens (they suck
anyways, i've seen them before). Tack on a PCIe gfx card in the X800 / 6800 class is
about another $300CDN. Don't care about warranty, I can handle that myself. A copy of
WinXP Pro can be had for not that much more.

If I really wanted to break the bank, I could tack on a BenQ 23" LCD for about a grand CDN extra.

...go or no go?

Reasons not to go:
- it's HP (duh!)
- it's a crapload of money (I don't have now)
- driver support w/o going thru HP's site blows
- I'm more a techhead so buying namebrand prebuilt goes against EVERYTHING I believe in

Reasons to go:
- it's a smoking gaming machine for about $1000CDN baseprice w/o upgrades to chip or RAM
- very expandable (S939, PCIe, 4x SATA, 4GB max DDR)
- JUST CUZ I SHOULD!!

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?














Regards

[Circle]

Large monitors for gaming... well, my bro tells me he has to raise/lower his head to read the chat messages that appear on the top/bottom edges cuz he sits too close to his 19inch flat panel.

So your work bought these? For gaming? They gonna pay for the 23 inch? :p

[DragonSlayer]

If you want a gaming pc, I suggest going with a cable monitor instead of a flat monitor. They are considerably cheaper and generally better for gaming. I think that it would be better to invest your money that way if you are going to buy a PC which you can use at home.

But 23" flat... that's large. Check out 25" cable monitors and compare prices, they are about the same size I think.

[Taurec]

- very expandable (S939, PCIe, 4x SATA, 4GB max DDR)

Yeah but no room in the case for 4 hdd's since it's micro atx
Also since it's small heat can become a problem.

The bios will suck since it's HP custom so nooo tweaking *gasp* but if you aren't planning on overclocking it's not that of a problem.

23" is nice if you work with photoshop or watching movies from a distance. but for gaming I would go for 2x 17"
A X800 is nice but you won't get a decent framerate @1920×1200
and if you lower the resolution the monitor with stretch the image using ACME AA making it look sucky...
You are a techie dammit .. come to your senses !!!

[Katyusha]

Reasons not to go:
- it's HP (duh!)

MORE than enough reason not to go. If you want a good gaming rig, build it yourself. If you want a good, FREE gaming rig, work for Steam.

[KiLlEr]

Err. Just because it says PCIe, it may not be for the GFX card (I.E. PCIe x16). 'specially since its integrated on the mobo.

Check before you buy.

[Taurec]

@KilLer you n00b, read the specs .. It has a MSI-7093 mainboard

[HELLFIRE]

The LCD screen's TOTALLY optional... besides, I don't think I'll have
the money for it for a very long time.

@Killer
Yeah, it's PCIe SLOT... don't worry, I ALWAYS check the goods

I'm torn on this myself, but if any idi... errr, customers come thru the
door, I'll see if I can offload some of these pieces of.... beauties on them

@Katyusha
Got their number?

Thanks everyone!















Regards

[HELLFIRE]

Seems the manager was thinking along the same lines. Now we got a
(HP?) debrand with a dualcore P4, 2GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB SATA and
a PCIe 6600 WITH the 23" Benq WITH a 2.1 Logitech speaker system for $2000.

To say nothing of having Halo running at a pretty playable 30-40fps
@ 1280x1024 max gfx settings for a couple hours on sunday

// kinda messy with peripheral vision, but it was ALOT of fun

... I gotta see about arranging an insurance accident to pay for this system














Regards