It's been awhile for me.

[Jeeba Jabba]

Buying anything PC related, that is.

I've been running a PC with 512 megs of ram, a Pentium 4, and a Radeon 9600 XT for about 4 years now. And this year's batch of games are really showing its age.

I'm currently looking at a Gateway model that BestBuy carries.

This is it here: Gateway Desktop with AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 X2 Processor 6000+

It isn't mentioned in this ad, but at my local store it also comes with a 19" HD LCD monitor, with no addition to the listed price. Any opinions? Anyone have any knowledge on this "GeForce 6150 SE"? I'm assuming (and quite sure) it's a PCI Express card. So that's a plus. Anyway... Comments?

[neoak]

Geforce 6150 SE = Downclocked 6150, which is an IGP.

[MKE]

the graphics in that computer will probably be a little bit of a downgrade for you.

Vista runs fricken' smooth on 2+gb's of ram, so i wouldn't worry about that. 400gb of hdd space is a decent amount.

I wouldn't get that expecting to game on it immediately. defiantly expect to spend ~100+ on a card for it to be a noticeable improvement. (i'm really liking my x1950pro. Plays dirt on the high settings and bioshock with everything maxed. check sig for specs of my setup. And you can get the card for around 80-100$ on ebay w/ ati's lifetime warranty)

[melancholy]

It isn't mentioned in this ad, but at my local store it also comes with a 19" HD LCD monitor, with no addition to the listed price.

Actually, unless the store you are referring to has a special price on it, it shouldn't come with a monitor. If I remember correctly, as of Sunday the package price for it is $789, or somewhere close to that. But the individual store might have a different deal set up.

Anyone have any knowledge on this "GeForce 6150 SE"? I'm assuming (and quite sure) it's a PCI Express card. So that's a plus. Anyway... Comments?

It isn't. It is integrated. And it is a pretty crappy video card too. I just bought the Gateway 5426, which is a similar computer, only with an AMD 5200+ in it for $400. I tried to use the integrated video, but even with basic use the picture was blurry and washed out on my LCD. The board comes with one PCIx16 slot, so I highly recommend getting a better card along with it. Nothing too powerful, though, because the power supply is only 300W.

So yeah, if it comes with the monitor, then it would be a good price. But if it doesn't, you could probably build a computer for about that much and have a better video card to boot.

[Code-Red]

I'd say that is a decent price. I would even go as far to say as drop the CPU speed a little bit, and spend that dividend on a good PCI-E video card.

Oh, and if I were you I'd get an SLI board, for futures sake.