Twilit....I looked at the system above...and its seems like a good deal, but then I found this.....

Can anyone tell me if this is better?

I think the graphics card is pretty weak in the Gateway. Any time you're using a video card with shared memory, you're not going to be running games well. That said, you could get this box, and see how the software you want to use actually runs. If it isn't good enough, add a better graphics card later.

Great....I'm ordering it tonight...THANKS!

Would like to know of the results of your decision to order the PC that same night. Am curious.

From my point of view, as a father of a 9 year old and a 5 year old who won't leave my wife's or my laptops alone, I can see how you are looking into getting a new PC. My wife's laptop is just slightly slower than mine, I bought mine specifically for gaming, games that need lots of power, so I spent a pretty penny on it. My 9 year old likes the games I play so building a PC that can not play them would be out of the question. The purchase would be pointless.

As many have said correctly said, the system depends on what your child will play or what you allow him to play (lol). My child's taste in games equals mine so, as I said, the PC would not fall in that $400 budget. Which is why I have not bought or built one for him yet. But if yours on plays lite weight games, then that Gateway (though I personally would never refer Gateway) will be fine, except maybe for the graphics card. I mean if you gonna get a graphics card, make it at least a decent one. I have an nVidia 8600 GS for my laptop. Just enough power to play my Call of Duty 4 game.

Please give us details of how your adventure with the Gateway PC goes.

There are only a handful of games that require Vista (as in, won't work on XP) and most of those didn't get great reviews. Most games still run on XP, with only th highest settings requiring Vista.

As for a gaming rig, if you can build one from the ground up, you can get some great deals on newegg.com to keep the cost down, and if you've already got a monitor, that will knock the price down as well.

However, a lot games out there (Including most from a little company called Stardock) are fairly hardware friendly. As long as he's not playing bleeding edge games, you can be a little behind. My rig is now about two years old and still runs everything just fine. It all depends on how "future proof" you want to be.

Yeah, my son's is about 3 years old and it works fine, so I figure ANYTHING newer will be at least as good right?



My husband ordered the Gateway and says we will upgrade the graphics card if he needs it...but since he only really plays WOW on it, and uses it to surf and do homework, I don't think we'll need to upgrade the card....we'll see.

We got it for just over $400 with shipping....good enough for now...it should arrive at the end of the week.

Once that's up and running we'll see if he needs the new card.

Ok, it works great.

Hubby picked up something that makes the graphics card 8500...I don't have any idea what that means, but my son assures me its rockin.

Thanks to everyone again.

HUGS all round.

Dang, you can get a 8000 series a graphic card that cheap? Dang... things are getting cheap.

The PC I use is an awesome rig that cost $1100 dollars, has 3 gigs of ram, and 8800 GT (Crysis! Yay!), and quad core Phenom at 2.3 gigahertz. Its the Gateway FX 7020, and it rocks. If any of you need a new gaming computer, check this puppy out. If you want to overclock, though, you'll need to upgrade the power supply. The stock power supply is only 400 MW.


Etrius

I don't know...we bought the graphics card thing separate. It was marked down from $125 to $70...

My husband think we will eventually have to get a new power supply as this one is just 300 or whatever.

I'm just glad its over. It "should" be the last one we buy for him. He will be old enough to have a job by the time this one poops out if it lasts about 3 years...woot!

hmmm, 300? I would say you may wanna get one very soon. At least 400. Would recommend more but am not sure how much power you gonna put this PC thru. I'm impressed you got such a video card for such a deal. Good for you. And good for your son. He's got power to spare. lol