Well this time its an all out budget build off for the cheapest PC possible.
Of course the pc still needs to be able to play the game (ffxi) and look better then a ps2
So here goes, this time around where gonna hit up the forums, heres a few I like personally
https://www.resellerratings.com/forum/index.php
https://www.techimo.com/forum/index.html
https://forums.anandtech.com/
https://www.hardforum.com/
Im only gonna look on a couple of these for what we want since its late and I'm getting sleepy.
heres our guide lines for what we need, we need to pull off a 3dmark 01 score of 3k or higher to insure decent gameplay. Luckily enough we can do this with a crappy ass geforce 4 440mx or better.
1.2ghz PIII or better
geforce 4 440mx or better
512mb ddr or better
and the rest dont matter.
If your a little lost on what better then a geforce 4 440mx just use www.tomshardware.com
look for the vga charts in the graphics section.
We are looking for cards starting waaaaayyyyy back in vga charts II.
https://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... ts-05.html
anything from vga charts III will work since the lowest card is a geforce 4 440mx
https://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphi ... index.html
Ok Im gonna start by hitting up reseller ratings forum.
Im gonna see what I can get for a cpu and mobo on the first few pages.
I first seen this
https://www.resellerratings.com/forum/t112814.html
check that out, for around $130 you could of had a nearly complete system from this guy alone.
And just a reminder dont forget to barder or price haggle, usally if you buy more then one thing from the same seller you can get a decent discount and of course your shipping will be much less.
Then I found another thread, 1700+ tbred (very good cpu for what we want to do, this is one of the last generations of Athlon Xp's and said to be the best.
I got a combo deal with a hsf, cheap mobo, 256mb ddr and a geforce mx440.
Whole shabang costs me $85
Now for those of you that dont like the forums here is what I suggest.
Hit up pricewatch, its pretty much the best out there, once you find a place hat carries some older hardware visit their site and see if they have even older and cheaper stuff.
Mobo & Cpu & Hsf,
https://www.partspc.com/store/product3068.html
$62 for this setup, 1.6ghz duron, mobo, and a heatsink/fan
videocard
https://www.imagestore.us/product.asp?pf ... 440%2D64MS
$31 geforce mx440
Memory
https://www.digi4me.com/product.php?productid=460
$11 x2 get 2 of these, use cupon code usps4 for free shipping
Hard Drive
https://3btech.net/whlamadate201.html
$28 20 gig is enough for win xp and FFXI with all the patches and updates
Case w/power supply
https://www.shopampm.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=534
$24 You could easily snatch one of these from the trash when a office building does some upgrading.
Keyboard
https://www.acortech.com/.sc/ms/dd/11059 ... tail%20Box
$5 gotta be black man
Mouse
https://www.acortech.com/.sc/ms/dd/10796 ... e%20Retail
$5 get the $5 optical mouse while ur there
CDrom
https://www.gearxs.com/gearxs/product_in ... ts_id=3458
$9 48x, cant complain
Monitor
Eh this one is better off purchased locally or just snatched from the trash (yeah trash picking sux azz, but @ 3am whos watching? and its not like its in a dumpster, its just in front of someones house, keep telling yourself that
)Or you could get a bad ass monitor and hand your old one down?
So there is it ultimate budget gamming pc.
You will pull of decent fps, save a bunch of money over a prebuilt pc and still look better then a ps2, woot
TOTAL = $187 @ Most , I spent $120 by using the forums