Well... if you have an ATX power supply and case, you can put together a decent system for about $250 - $300, assuming you use as much as possible from your old one.
Wire found the same/better hardware that I was looking at cheaper than I had (I'm linking his finds), but what I'm looking at for just under $200 is this:
Motherboard, about $50: http://www.newegg.com/Pro...spx?Item=N82E16813128357
CPU, about $125: http://www.newegg.com/Pro...spx?Item=N82E16819115206
You can find 2 1-gig sticks of PC6400 RAM for about $50 via Amazon (only place I checked, might be cheaper elsewhere), and at that point it's just a matter of slotting a decent graphics card. I already have one, so not a problem for me, but if you need to get one I'm running an NVidia 9500GT, and it's pretty awesome. You can get passive-cooled versions (no extra strain on your power supply) for $60 these days... or less.
That configuration gets you into dual-core territory with decent upgrade paths open. It'd be an upgrade for me, too, and at this point I need it (system died), but bear in mind I've been playing CoX on a single-core P4 for a long while now, acceptably. So this would -smoke- either of our current systems.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
Wire found the same/better hardware that I was looking at cheaper than I had (I'm linking his finds), but what I'm looking at for just under $200 is this:
Motherboard, about $50: http://www.newegg.com/Pro...spx?Item=N82E16813128357
CPU, about $125: http://www.newegg.com/Pro...spx?Item=N82E16819115206
You can find 2 1-gig sticks of PC6400 RAM for about $50 via Amazon (only place I checked, might be cheaper elsewhere), and at that point it's just a matter of slotting a decent graphics card. I already have one, so not a problem for me, but if you need to get one I'm running an NVidia 9500GT, and it's pretty awesome. You can get passive-cooled versions (no extra strain on your power supply) for $60 these days... or less.
That configuration gets you into dual-core territory with decent upgrade paths open. It'd be an upgrade for me, too, and at this point I need it (system died), but bear in mind I've been playing CoX on a single-core P4 for a long while now, acceptably. So this would -smoke- either of our current systems.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs