That's because you have to "build" it!

Go here to this page... http://www.ecollegepc.com/

I clicked Customize on the system on the right for $1301. In the next screen is where you select the components you want. I left everything as they have it selected, but added a DVD player and the Windows 10 operating system. Maybe you'd like to add a BluRay player instead of just a plain DVD player - just click on the down arrow and select what you want. If you wanted a bigger hard drive, you could click on the little down arrow and select say a 2 TB drive if you wanted. I've always had good luck with Western Digital hard drives, so you could pick a WD drive for an extra $24. Or if you wanted more RAM, you could click next to that and select more RAM... If you wanted an even better video card, same thing. If you don't like that case, click on the down arrow and they have tons of other cases to choose from.

And contact them for any help you need - you will get an answer back very quickly. And, of course, we'll help you too!

Oldmariner, I'd forgotten you'd gotten a computer from them too! So did Greyfuss.

Thanks for the response Draclvr - I'll look into it. It's looking more and more like ecolloge is the place to go. I do wonder how the name of the site originated - not that it matters, just curious.

Robert

Someone on the Steam Community board said to use the Intel graphics instead of ATI when trying to play Syberia 3 - I guess they're referring to the AMD Radeon.

Is there any way to do that? Are they talking about uninstalling the AMD drivers?

Thanks,

Robert

There is no way your Intel graphics will work - it is integrated graphis and is lower graphics than the AMD card.

Robert, I'm also using a computer from e-College pc. So far, so good. Bought it in August 2015.

Wow... I don't remember you getting one either, oldbroad!! But then my rememberer does not work well at all any more!

I sent you the specs through a personal email and asked you to take a look for me. Mostly I wanted to make sure I had enough fans.

NOW I remember!!

Well, I hope you also remember the other computer that I emailed you about 2 months ago or so. You put a lot of time into helping me with that one. Guess what? I'm embarrassed to say I never got around to returning it. It's still in the box ready to go but way too late now, so I may be asking about that one again some day.

Drac I bought one four years ago on your recommendation a few months later my wife bought one. When my son saw mine he priced one and said you can't even buy the parts for that price through my job. He is computer systems manager for I.P. He bought one too. Then I bought another for my daughter. Every one of them are at least three years going on four years old and still going strong.

Wow, amazing! They do good work and are so good with their customer service.

oldbroad, I still have those emails and every time I see them I remind myself to ask about that computer! Not to worry, when you're ready we WILL get that one going.

I've had an ecollegepc.com computer since March 2011. Still working great. Highly recommended.

Wow, you are all coming out of the woodwork!

And out crawls another - we have two computers from ecollege!

I have one too

Draclvr,

I would think the configuration you mentioned of the eCollege system could be upgraded
at a later time if I wanted or needed to.

One other thing, you said this in an earlier post:



How can I be sure I am using the Radon 6700 series?

Robert

I don't have any idea how your laptop works. You might look in any documentation you have to see if there is anything about "switching" from the integrated Intel graphics to the AMD 6700 graphics. If you can give me the brand and model of your laptop, I can look online for you too.

If that configuration fits into your budget, it would play games for you for a long time. The motherboard is what I always look at for upgrades down the line and the motherboard in that configuration is a very good one. They also have the 6 GB GTX 1060 in it which is a step up from the 3 GB GTX 1060.

One thing I forgot to ask though... Will you be using your old monitor? If you are, you need to check to see what kind of cable it requires - VGA or DVI or perhaps even HDMI. Many monitors have multiple types of ports, but are only shipped with the older VGA type cable. The GTX 1060 video card has 3 HDMI video ports, 1 Display Port and one Dual Link DVI port. Since your old monitor is being used with quite an old desktop, I'm going to assume it is using a VGA cable. If it has ports for either HDMI or DVI, you will need to get a new cable to be able to connect to your new video card. If it doesn't, and you really want to continue using the old monitor, you will need to get an adapter to go from VGA to HDMI. This is something you should email them about at eCollegePC when you are ordering this computer.

This is a pretty decent graphic of all the different display ports - just the ones on the bottom are the ones I'm talking about.

Video Ports

I posted a link comparing the Radeon 260X and the Radeon 6700m earlier in the thread
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Radeon-HD-6700M-vs-AMD-R7-260X/m7769vs3151

The 260X is considerably faster.
Remember with a laptop you'll have the 6700m they put in laptops and not the 6700 they put in desktops.

I stopped by our local Best Buy today to see what PCs they had available - not much. They had quite a few
all-in-one systems. As far as towers they had Lenovo, Dell and a few HPs. I did notice most of the towers
have gotten quite a bit smaller than they use to be.

I asked one person about the MAC and he said they could handle most of what is currently running on my PC, for
what that's worth, but could not handle Steam - I don't know if that's true or not.

My current monitor does have an HDMI input so that shouldn't be a problem with any eCollege computer.

I really like the eCollege PC but it is a little? more than I planned on spending but, you know what, I'll probably take the plunge especially if I'm able to make changes if required down the road.

Jenny: Thanks, I did see that post.

Robert

And I'll bet you anything that those towers at Best Buy didn't have stand alone video cards or decent power supplies! Those small form factor cases are not made for decent cooling either. They are not for gamers.

You can definitely back off on a few things to bring the cost down... I put together something that backed off the processor to a Core i5 and a different case, but it was only about $200 less. I wouldn't compromise on the motherboard or the video card though.

If you've got HDMI on your monitor, then you are good to go there.

Guess it all depends on the budget.

Those small form factor PC's aren't the best for gaming. Not only is it harder to find a video card that is suitable for gaming and will also fit in the case, but the small case makes these small PC's harder to cool. Some of them even use laptop video graphics, which run cooler but are slower and not as good for games as the full size versions.


How would he know what's on your PC?
Unless you tell him you're a gamer and want to play 3D games, he'll assume you're only running desktop programs like Microsoft Word and a web browser. You'd need to print out the system requirements of the most demanding games you want to play and show him those.


Steam has a Mac client.
http://store.steampowered.com/macos
But if he's talking about Steam games that run on a Mac, Best Buy is very likely NOT selling any Macs that have enough graphics power to run the more demanding games. Macs for gaming would cost more than most people would want to pay.


You probably wouldn't have to upgrade it for quite some time.
One thing about the configuration --
If you want to play Obduction, Cyan recommends playing from an SSD. You don't need your Windows installed on the SSD, but they recommend an SSD to install the game on to speed up load times.

Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a PC from eCollege. I had to change the case because I added a blu-ray player and it would not have fit in the first case - so rather than get an external player I changed the case per the suggestion of the person at eCollege.

I'll let you know how it goes once I get the PC.

Thanks again for everybody's input and help.

Robert

A new machine !! Fantastic !! And congrats. rmelone

Excellent! What case did you get?