is the ati radeon 2400 HD pro 256MB any good..............

Well I would recomend the HD 2600 Pro for around $65 over any 2400. But you can find an even better 8600 for around $80-$100 that will outperform both of those cards.

*Edit: Sorry I didn't answer your question, but I don't really know how the HD 2400 performs, but I do own and HD 2600 Pro that I bought for around $65 and it plays CoH at around 40 fps on med/high settings with my pc which has Intel Pentium D 2.8 Ghz 1MB cache, 1 GB DDR2 RAM

It's pretty good. It's not great, but it's good. I would recommend the ATi Radeon HD 2600 XT or the nVIDIA Geforce 8600 DDR3. bedram793

I 2nd that..

How restrictive of a budget do you have and what is the primary usage of the PC?

I will always recommend looking a little higher at xx600 types like Geforce 8600 and Radeon HD2600 before going that low unless the intended target is low-end, like a business machine. But if you are looking at low price, check the Radeon HD3450 series too.

But, I do believe it will be able to handle TF2 with the current low-end GPUs on medium settings. For Spore, I do not think they want to limit the PC Gaming market by having pricey minimum requirements.

How restrictive of a budget do you have and what is the primary usage of the PC?

I will always recommend looking a little higher at xx600 types like Geforce 8600 and Radeon HD2600 before going that low unless the intended target is low-end, like a business machine. But if you are looking at low price, check the Radeon HD3450 series too.

lightningbugx

650$ is my budget lol and primary usage of the PC is family stuff. will TF2 play on that PC? oh, and my processor, RAM and Hard Drive r good?

650$ is my budget lol and primary usage of the PC is family stuff. will TF2 play on that PC? oh, and my processor, RAM and Hard Drive r good?

monashieno

With a $650 budget, you should have plenty of room for a mid range. If you don't, then you are paying too much on another component.

What are the processor, RAM, and motherboard you have selected specifically? You may think a good CPU, RAM, and video card are important, but a good motherboard that is compatible with all components is too. And on motherboards, look for customer reviews. Sometimes, you will find cheap motherboards that will become expensive trouble.

Also, do not take the overclocker budget suggestions unless you know what you are doing. Typically, it is a very bad mistake to overclock a PC that is used by average users.

[QUOTE="monashieno"]

650$ is my budget lol and primary usage of the PC is family stuff. will TF2 play on that PC? oh, and my processor, RAM and Hard Drive r good?

lightningbugx

With a $650 budget, you should have plenty of room for a mid range. If you don't, then you are paying too much on another component.

What are the processor, RAM, and motherboard you have selected specifically? You may think a good CPU, RAM, and video card are important, but a good motherboard that is compatible with all components is too. And on motherboards, look for customer reviews. Sometimes, you will find cheap motherboards that will become expensive trouble.

dude, u just went over my head with the motherboard. your talking to a moron wen it comes to a PC lol.

it's a HP s3400t series. Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 duo processore, 2gb DDR2-800MHz Dual Channel SDRRAM. i think that's it.

it's a HP s3400t series. Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 duo processore, 2gb DDR2-800MHz Dual Channel SDRRAM. i think that's it.

monashieno

First of all, the $500 base price for that computer is using a dual core 64 bit Pentium 4, not a Core 2 (as I was fearing). You should pay the $50 in the customization to upgrade the CPU to a real Core 2.

For further knowledge, the motherboard is using the nForce 630i chipset and integrated Geforce 7100 graphics. It is an ITX form factor.

Also, you are strictly limited to only low profile video cards for that machine. So you may be forced to only the video card options given in customization.

Here is link:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/category/desktops/s3400t_Series/3/computer_store?

My suggestion is the E4600 processor and the Geforce 8500 in the customization options for that computer. Unfortunately to get a great computer at that price, you have to build it yourself.

[QUOTE="monashieno"]

it's a HP s3400t series. Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 duo processore, 2gb DDR2-800MHz Dual Channel SDRRAM. i think that's it.

lightningbugx

First of all, the $500 base price for that computer is using a dual core 64 bit Pentium 4, not a Core 2 (as I was fearing). You should pay the $50 in the customization to upgrade the CPU to a real Core 2.

For further knowledge, the motherboard is using the nForce 630i chipset and integrated Geforce 7100 graphics. It is an ITX form factor.

Also, you are strictly limited to only low profile video cards for that machine. So you may be forced to only the video card options given in customization.

Here is link:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/category/desktops/s3400t_Series/3/computer_store?

My suggestion is the E4600 processor and the Geforce 8500 in the customization options for that computer. Unfortunately to get a great computer at that price, you have to build it yourself.

thank u for the help