Minimum specs for a PC (advice needed)

[Squeak the Rat]

Howdy,

I'm helping my old man buy a PC and I want to know the minimum specs I should get. He's mainly going to use it for surfing the net, but will play the odd game, mainly strategy type games like Age of Empires or whatever the modern equivalent is. Won't be into video editing, flight sims or anything else super draining.

What's the current recommended spec for these types of games?

• Processor speed
• RAM
• Video memory
• Anything else?

Please - it's for my old man so I'm not interested in the latest geeky stuff. I want to get the cheapest system that will do the job satisfactorily.

Help much appreciated, thanks!

[pervert]

A cheap Celeron CPU will do fine.

512MB of RAM will also suffice although hardcore geeks will disagree.

Then get a cheap graphics card and an 80 or 160 gig HDD and it will be sweet.

I'm sure plenty of people will disagree and say he needs more, but I've built plenty of similar spec'd systems for people with similar needs and they are more than happy. Especially when the price is around $500 if you get good deals on parts.

[Wasp]

whats this disagreeing business? guess im not a geek....

what pervert said, would be nice to know exactly what strategy game - the new Command and Conquer will probably need a better gfx card then the old one

[pervert]

whats this disagreeing business? guess im not a geek....

I guess I just know too many people who claim anything less than 2 gig of dual channel memory is not enough...

[oldguy]

I'm an AMD person myself don't know much about Intel'

CPU. Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.8 GHz

Ram min. 512 DDR

Vid card. 256mb/128bit will do most

and at least 80gig of hard drive,

what ever you do don't go to Dick Smiths or Noel Leemings.

[pervert]

AMD's also good!

...but as soon as Intel Pentium comes into the equation though price goes up big time...sure they outperform cheaper ones...but at three times the price it's not worth it for such minimal needs.

Best advice would probably be to try and pick something up ex-lease, they are perfectly good machines, at great prices!

[MOTOXXX]

ive always been of the opinion if you can buy once, buy right.

spend a bit more on the ram (1gb) and a decent proc.
imo i would stay away from celerons and get a mig range intel or amd.

hard drives are cheap as chips and can be added on as they are needed.

graphics card wont need to be high spec.

maybe wait another month or two as vista is out in feb i think and that needs a bit to power it

[Squeak the Rat]

Cheers guys - what spec/speed is a "mid-range" AMD, i know not much about these.....?

[Oakie]

As far as RAM is concerned you probably need to be guided by what Microsoft's new OS 'Vista' recommends. I believe it's not far from release (like it has been for the last 18 months) so that's what I'd be doing, just as a wee 'future-proofing'. I'd suggest a gig of RAM just to make sure things keep whizzing along for a few years.
My old PC had a celeron processor and playing 'Age of Empires' got a bit tedious with the demands put on it. I'd go for the normal processor rather than the economy version.

[boomer]

in terms of ram just buy a 512 stick and if ya old needs more he can always add to it; get a 3.2 amd as that will suffice and isn't much more than a 2.4 or a 2.8 and as the rest have said re hard drives, just get a 120gig or a 200 and bobs ya unkle.. shove it in a cheap box with a half decent,400+ watt, power supply with a couple of fans and a el cheapo gfx card and hes laughing. Don't forget a mobo too.. does he want to add speakers, surround sound, dual processors blah blah blah... reviews

if you want i can help get teh stuff 'cheap' and/or help build it if you don;t want to get one of the shelf

You can also look here when you know what you want pricespy

edit * don't forget an lcd to go with it all, one with a decent response time, the less 'ms' teh better!~

[pervert]

hard drives are cheap as chips and can be added on as they are needed.

Much like RAM.

maybe wait another month or two as visa is out in feb i think and that needs a bit to power it

Visa's have been around for a while now...

[boomer]

a quick search on the inter dweeb shows this muppet; pretty much hit the nail on the head and hasn't forgotton the majors like we did ( Sound cards, dvd/cd drives etc.. )

dweeb link.. helps for reference

[The_Dover]

in terms of ram just buy a 512 stick and if ya old needs more he can always add to it; get a 3.2 amd as that will suffice and isn't much more than a 2.4 or a 2.8 and as the rest have said re hard drives, just get a 120gig or a 200 and bobs ya unkle.. shove it in a cheap box with a half decent,400+ watt, power supply with a couple of fans and a el cheapo gfx card and hes laughing. Don't forget a mobo too.. does he want to add speakers, surround sound, dual processors blah blah blah... reviews

if you want i can help get teh stuff 'cheap' and/or help build it if you don;t want to get one of the shelf

You can also look here when you know what you want pricespy

edit * don't forget an lcd to go with it all, one with a decent response time, the less 'ms' teh better!~

don't forget the watercooling boomer

[McJim]

I've got an old laptop that I still use - 400Mhz, 128Meg of RAM - it surfs the net, types letters and can calculate all the niceties of a $140M turnover company.

I don't actually NEED any more than that. Never use it for games - except the odd game of Unreal Tournament when I'm of on business.

I have other priorities and have therefore stopped upgrading any home IT equipment for the past 2 years.

Haven't had a problem so all's well.

[boomer]

don't forget the watercooling boomer

ahhahaa, thats from my nerdy days when i cooked the north bridge, gpu & cpu so i could get all the horsies i could out of the old girl

Now adays its just another black box collecting dust