Perfect Gaming Comp(?) ONLY $1,300!

[prelars]

Hey all!

I'm finally putting forth some of my savings towards a computer I can use for gaming - at a /realistically reasonable/ price! Upgrade from my Dell Inspiron 5100 laptop, which only has a 32MB ATI Radeon Mobility M9 in it.

I was wondering how these specs sounded in terms of good quality gaming - not unbelievably high end, but at least possible to cleanly, fluidly play the only three graphically-advanced games I'm aiming for: World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, and Guildwars.

Here's the specs!
Dell XPS 210 MY COMPONENTS:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache, 2.4GHz, 1066FSB)
OS: Genuine Windows XP Home
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Optical Drive: 8x DVD+/-RW Drive
Monitors: 19 inch SE198WFP Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
Video Card: 128MB ATI Radeon X1300
Sound Card: Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio


Now, the games state that the recommended requirements have a Pentium 4 or equivalent processer - I'm /assuming/ that the Core 2 Duo is an equivalent or /better/, am I correct in that? I know that it allows two equal processing power to flow through it, but I don't know if that /seperates/ the processing power as well. Anyone know about this?

The other big question is with the Video Card. Oblivion recommends an ATI X800 series or better - I'm assuming that the X1300 is 'better', thus the higher number, but is this right? World of Warcraft requires a 64MB VRAM NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 or better, but I mean, I can even play it.../alright/...on my 32MB ATI Radion M9, which is WAY lower than any of the ATI Xseries.
Do those more knowledgeable in the ways of video cards think this 128MB Radeon X1300 would play these games fine without much choppiness, especially paired with the processer I'm getting?

The only other issue I'm worried about is overheating. My laptop already overheats a lot, and I /NEED/ to have a fanpad running underneath it whenever I'm running a game, or else it just completely shuts itself off. I wouldn't suffer this problem with a big PC with these specs at all, would I?

Any and all information or comments or thoughtful words of insight are GREATLY appreciated! Thank you all!

[cHiNgY1788]

$3000 for that?!

im going to go off and gather a list of parts from
www.msy.com.au, new egg if you're from usa

[cHiNgY1788]

Done
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 325
Gigabyte P35-DS3P(Pro) 168
4G Kit-667 (2x2G) Kingston 245
768M 8800Ultra Gigabyte 970
W.D. SATA 1TB 374
18x Asus SATA D.L. DVD-RW 45
Thermaltake Matrix 99

22” Viewsonic VX2235WM 313
Logitech X540 5.1 108
Logitech Keyboard G15 89
Logitech Laser G5 72

$2808

Thermaltake ToughPower 850W 256
(maybe needed)

All prices are in AUD from www.msy.com.au

Unless you want a gaming laptop
thats a different story

the X800 is better than the X1300
the last 3 numbers are usually the model of the generation
the first 1 or 2 numbers is usually the generation of the card

EDIT:
uhhh
i mis read $1300 as $3000
perfect gaming comp, i would expect the 3 to come first
be back in a tick

Done:
AMD Athlon X2 6000 185
Gigabyte M52S-S3P 84
2G-667 A-DATA(Samsung) 69
320MB 8800GTS Gigabyte 302
W.D. SATA 500G 129
18x Asus SATA D.L. DVD-RW 45
Thermaltake Matrix 99

22” Viewsonic VX2235WM 313
Logitech R10 2.0 15
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 46

$1287

All prices are in AUD from www.msy.com.au

I would get the 8800GT, but i didnt have a price handy, and they aren't out everywhere

oh right you need an os as well
exchange the video card for
512MB 8600GT Gigabyte 138
add
OEM Microsoft 32bit Win XP Home 115

$1238

thats if you are bothered to build it

[Porthos]

Video Card: 128MB ATI Radeon X1300

Get a better video card and you will be fine with the Dell if it is what you want.

Just noticed the 210 is a small form factor..Get a FULL size tower. The video card selection bites for those little computers.

[prelars]

Awww crap, cause yeah, the X1300 is the only other card besides stock that they're offering in the XPS 210, and if I go for their actual 'gaming computer' XPS 720, it's WAAAAY more expensive for the only real difference being the video card - jumping from the X1300 to the 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS.

Rar, I figured for sure that the X1300 was better than just the X800. I take it they went four digits, then when they reached a 1900 they just went down to X100 or some such thing?

And yeah, Chingy, the huge draw to buying it packaged like that is the warrenty I can get for it, which covers /everything/. If I'm paying this much, I certainly don't want to pay for something to be fixed on top of it or if the build doesn't even work right.

The other big problem is SO MANY PLACES are pressing so hard for Vista as being the main OS installed! Barely ANY games seem to be compatible with Vista, yet they make the claim that DX9 is the last one windows XP will have, and all the rest of the advances will be only for Vista.

Does anyone have a better idea or place I might be able to go to for an affordable, warrentied system? I thought I found it there, sooo glad I asked about the video card thing since that's the ONLY REASON I'd be getting a desktop - to play those three games.

[Porthos]

the huge draw to buying it packaged like that is the warrenty I can get for it, which covers /everything/

If you look closely at the parts that have been recommended you will find that every thing has at least a year warranty some parts have 2 to 5 yr on them and some times Lifetime. And you can choose quality parts and not the cheap stuff OEM's use to assembly line their systems.

[cHiNgY1788]

the only difference is is finding out the component causing problems
which is what we at CTH are here for

[sigprn]

I do know the 6750 processor gets better reviews then the 6600 i don't think you can get windows xp home on that. But i could be wrong. I thought the only xps you can get windows xp on now is the big daddy(is that 720 the big one) and that is xp media.