Buying a new pc with integrated graphics vs older pc with a new video card.

[KrAcKeD]

Hello guys, I'm new here and I want to buy a computer for a long time, tomorrow is the day where I will spend the budget allocated to get a new system, I originally wanted to buy it today but when I went to my computer store the owner was there and he enticed me to buy his new system for a bit more money... basically my first choice was to buy one of the "already made up" computer that the store has, they are used computers who range from 199.99$ CAN to 275.99$ CAN and to add up to 4GB of ram or 8GB of ram and a new video card at around 150.00$ CAN in it and I would have a very good system.

Currently I have a very old Pentium 4 2.8GhZ with 1gb of ram and a video card that's at least 5 or 6 years old. The limitations on my current GPU makes me UNABLE to run Skyrim, I can load it when I wait 5 minutes for it to open but after 2-3 minutes of play the game freezes up or does the outward glitch that spreads multiple black lines in a circle from the middle of your screen...

My goals are to... play flash games on kongregate, play games such as skyrim and other of that sort (I'm very interested in the upcoming GTA5 for PC coming in january 2014) and of course my ol times games Lineage 2... In Lineage 2 you can play many character to help your main char progress such as a fighter using 2 or 3 other character to help with buffs/songs/dances so I would be required to load 2 or 3 instances of the game and it takes a whole lot of memory/graphics/CPU so I know that most website say that no games use up to 4GB of ram but doesnt running 4 instances of a game as heavy as L2 or any other graphic consuming MMORPG or other game of that sort would benefit from having more than 4GB ?

My choices are either I buy an older system and try adding a 150$ video card in it plus some ram or go with an offer that he enticed me with which left me thinking, he's selling an intel core i5 with 1TB hard drive 8GB DDR3 RAM and windows 8 for 500$ I was ready to put in 400 with taxes but he tells me if you have 100 more you could get a VERY good system, his system is newer but ive had problems long time ago with hp pavillon when i used to have a pentium 2, but he told me hp has nothing to do with whats inside the computer and its basically just the casing and i should'nt worry about the name.

So my questions are... what would be better for me, should I spend a litte less, get an older PC, have only 30 days warranty and add ram in it and get a 150$ video card or should I go with the new PC and stay with the integrated graphic card that he sells with the system (he says if he would sell me the video card in that system it would be around 90$ so way less than the 150$ card i'd buy on the older PC) which would be the better choice for me... also there is the issue on RAM, i know I don't NEED 8gb but would it help if i run multiple instance of a game such as Lineage 2 or should I really just stick with 4GB max? And the windows issue, should I up to 7 or 8 or keeping XP is still a good choice ?

I'm an XP Pro guy and I don't want to go windows 7 or 8, he tells me its better to update but I'm not really sure if theres really an issue with staying with XP, I know most ppl who already made the change to 7 or 8 will have already convinced themselves its the best but is there really that much disadvantage in keeping XP with service pack 3 ?

 

[The_OGS]

Hi.
I like XP, it's still good - but most people are going 64-bit OS these days and that usually means Win7.
I would try to buy a newer i5 rig (with integrated graphics) because Skyrim is in fact very CPU-demanding, and a lot of new games too.
Strong quad-core is a good thing.
Then one day if you get a coupla hundred bucks you can buy yourself a nice vidcard, GTX 760 or something (don't scrimp).
Meanwhile, Skyrim won't really play on integrated graphics, heheh...
Mine is the best 'long-term' solution though.
In the short-term, I would be worried that you'd get a cheapo vidcard anyway, and only a dual-core, and wouldn't be happy in the future.
But it's always the same - another hundred here, another hundred there, you can get a killer rig.
In a pinch I'm a vidcard man. Good vidcard is money well spent. Most rigs are vidcard-limited.
A dual-core Intel is pretty good (especially if it HyperThreads) and it's tough to bottleneck.
Most people need more vidcard, less CPU...
No easy answers bro (and it's your money). Hope this helps though,
L8R

 

[Deleted member 217926]

To answer your main question XP loses all support in April. That includes security updates. So as long as you are not connected to the internet XP is fine. Windows 7 is already about 80% more secure than XP and Windows 8 improves on that. When security updates end.....well, don't enter any information you want to remain private.

 

[KrAcKeD]

Ok so I have new information about this, I went to the store this morning, I'm buying the computer in like 1 hour or so around noon when I'll be leaving, so I went to take a few notes and get a feedback on my decision, basically the first dilemna was older pc with newer video card versus newer pc with integrated graphics cards what is better, but when I went and asked again he confirmed me that after looking, the card that is in the newer system comes with the box but it isn't integrated, the company that mounted the computer added a Radeon HD 8470 as the graphic card so it''s no longer really an integrated graphics, he told me that this card was worth around 150$ which was what I wanted to pay for the card on the older cpu so basically now the deal is saving money or going for better.

This is all the info I collected from the 2 systems.

Newer System:

Intel Core i5 3330;
AMD Radeon HD 8470;
8GB DDR3 Ram;
1 TB Hard Drive;
Integrated Audio;
Windows 8 Installed + Liscence;
2 Years Warranty from Manifacturer;
23 Inches HD Silver Flat Screen Monitor;
Price is 599.99$ With the monitor and 499.99$ without it. Taxes are off if paid cash.

Older Systems:

Intel Core 2 Duo 3.6Ghz;
2GB DDR2 RAM;
Can add 2GB Ram for 25$;
320GB Hard Drive;
Windows 7 Pro Installed + Liscence;
30 Days Warranty;
No Monitor and Integrated Audio and Graphics Card w/no spec. (Probably not very good);
209.99$ No taxes if paid cash.

Or

AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 4800 2.5Ghz;
2GB DDR2 Memory;
Can add 2GB for 25$;
80GB SATA Velociraptor 10000RPM Hard Drive;
Windows Vista Installed + Liscence;
No Monitor and Integrated Audio and Graphics Card w/no spec. (Probably not very good);
199.99$ No taxes if paid cash.

Or

AMD Phenom 2 x2 2.8Ghz;
4GB DDR2 Memory;
250GB Hard Drive;
Windows 7 Pro Installed + Liscence;
No Monitor and Integrated Audio and Graphics Card w/no spec. (Probably not very good);
224.99$ No taxes if paid cash.

There is other older systems also but it's all approximately the same as the 3 I just listed above, the main differences was the processor AMD Athlon AMD Phenom or Core 2 Duo.

So now my decision isn't about which is more performant, since the card has been revealed to be an off-board video card I'm pretty sure it will do extremely well it's basically the dilema of if I want to pay around 500 for a newer better system or half the price for something less performant, do you guys think the extra money is worth the difference between the 2 systems? Of course If I buy the older system I would probably add a better video card so in the end which would be better for me?


Also on the side, there is still the 2 questions, Windows XP Versus Win 7/8 and RAM Memory, is it worth going 4/8GB ?

Thank you for your answers

 

[The_OGS]

That is probably a Radeon HD 4870 (1GB GDDR5). Good vidcard, very powerful in its day...
Doesn't do DirectX 11 - but no big deal.
I like the i5 rig.
Those other old rigs, by the time you upgrade memory and graphics etc. you're in for practically the same money.
Actually I can buy all new stuff (and build from scratch) for not a whole lot more than these prices...
The key is the OS. If you can get a modern Win7 (or Win8?) OS included, ideally including a disk, that's a good thing and an advantageous reason to pick up an older rig.
Otherwise if you gather up $500 bucks worth of hardware, you'll still need to factor another $100 bucks to buy the OS!
Personally I'm not into Win8 - Win7 Home Premium or WinXP runs on all my rigs.
I don't like Win8. But apparently they made it better for the latest Win8.1...
So unless it was Win8.1 I would stick with Win7.

 

[JonnyDough]

Windows 7 system. End of discussion. The OS makes all the difference unless you're putting Linux on an old cheap box.

Newer is more energy efficient and more reliable in general - not to mention that the parts are more readily and easily replaceable on newer stuff.