10-09-2011, 08:56 AM
Hmm, well that makes things nice and easy, I think pretty much any modern system that can run Windows 7 should have no trouble running Portal, provided it has an independent graphics card. (I remember playing it on a system that was made up of spare parts)
From the sounds of it you want a pretty standard balance going on, if you're going to buy a pre-built system, I'd suggest going bare bones.
A bare bones system is kind of like a base to build on, usually just a case, CD drive, mobo and psu, they're nice because you get the motherboard and processor pre-installed (which is the most nerve-jangling part of a build), they also normally come with a basic amount of RAM and a small HDD.
Then you can pretty much upgrade it as you need, add your own RAM, graphics card, drives and PCI cards, along with an OS of your choice.
I also prefer them because they're mostly sold by independents, rather than low budget mass-production companies like Dell or E-Machines.
Ultimately though, so long as you get a system with a half decent graphics card, and focus on your processor and RAM (tip: faster RAM is always better than just more RAM), you should be fine, with the current pricing on hardware you can probably get something much better than you imagine too.
From the sounds of it you want a pretty standard balance going on, if you're going to buy a pre-built system, I'd suggest going bare bones.
A bare bones system is kind of like a base to build on, usually just a case, CD drive, mobo and psu, they're nice because you get the motherboard and processor pre-installed (which is the most nerve-jangling part of a build), they also normally come with a basic amount of RAM and a small HDD.
Then you can pretty much upgrade it as you need, add your own RAM, graphics card, drives and PCI cards, along with an OS of your choice.
I also prefer them because they're mostly sold by independents, rather than low budget mass-production companies like Dell or E-Machines.
Ultimately though, so long as you get a system with a half decent graphics card, and focus on your processor and RAM (tip: faster RAM is always better than just more RAM), you should be fine, with the current pricing on hardware you can probably get something much better than you imagine too.