Cheap computer to run VX ace?

[Personguy]

I want a cheap computer to run RPGMaker VX Ace, but I'm terrible at finding computers. I will post a link to its minimum requirements at the bottom. My optimal price range is $100-$200 but it can go under and a little over if need be. If anyone has any suggestions that would be great, thank you.

 

[Andar]

If that computer is primary for RM, then you don't need any 3D-Functions on the graphic card. Look for computers that have on-board graphics and shared-memory-graphics. Usually those two points are negative for gaming PCs, but they are not needed for RM and those computers are usually cheaper.

Make sure that the CPU has at least two cores, no single-core or Atom processor, those are too slow and RM uses more CPU power because it does not use 3D-graphics.

 

[Personguy]

Thank you for the incite, do you know of any specific pcs that would work?

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

AMD's offering may be good, though if you raise the range a little bit, Intel Core i3 is a better choice.

I'd also advice to neither choose Pentium nor Celeron nor Athlon, as they are a lot more tailored to general pc's not for developers.

 

[Personguy]

What amd processor would you recommend?

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

AMD A6-7400K looks like a decent enough processor. Here in Greece costs from 68 euros.

Note that you'll also need a motherboard if you want to build your own pc.

Also, make sure that you have enough RAM. 4GB RAM should be good enough.

 

[Personguy]

I know you said stay away from pentium but this ones processor seems to be okay and it's kind of in the price range.

http://www.blinq.com/detail/computers-office/pc-laptops-netbooks/toshiba-satellite-l755-s5244-laptop-15-6-2-0ghz-4gb-640gb-windows-7/61791?condition=used-very-good&adpos=1o5&creative=77885683687&device=t&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CI-0m-6VuMUCFdQXHwodcGkA5A

EDIT: Upon further inspection it doesn't seem so great, I'll keep looking.

 

[Personguy]

Could this ( http://www.walmart.com/ip/Toshiba-Satin-Gold-11.6-Satellite-Radius-11-2-in-1-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Celeron-N2840-Processor-2GB-Memory-Touchscreen-32GB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows/39150762 ) run it?

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

After taking a quick glance, both can run them fine. 

 

[markjacks]

Just make sure that you have a lot of video RAM since it will need a lot of those. If it fits your budget, try to go with i7. 

 

[Aleks]

Here you go, this will run your RPG Makers just fine and allow you to upgrade in the future should you fine the need to (like say gaming, or you end up wanting to do some harder game creation or video editing):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($64.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($81.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 4GB (1 x 4G DDR3-1600 Memory  ($26.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Raidmax ATX-249B (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 430W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($36.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $240.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-05-15 00:43 EDT-0400

Please do not buy AMD CPUs unless you absolutely have to. More cores do not = better performance if the cores are weak. Do you already have an OS? Monitor? Keyboard? Case? If you need all of that, you will not find a prebuilt with it for around 200$ or under, and going manual will save you dough but that budget will not help if you don't have anything from a previous build to use. If you could tell me what you currently have I could be of more assitance.

*If you have some DD3 RAM, a case, monitor, keyboard-mouse then the price can be cut from the above build and used elsewhere. Like an OS if you need it (RM works fine on Ubuntu if you are tight on cash though).

edit

That Toshiba from Walmart could run the RM series just fine! But the build I gave is far more powerful, more ram and has the possibility to upgrade if you ever need it.

@markjacks

He does not have the budget for a system with an i7 nor would his needs warrant getting one. Unless he does photo editing, high power CGI game design or the like and if he does, then his budget is just way too small.

 

[markjacks]

I think i5 will be a good minimum to be set but the PC needs to have at least !GB of video card in it too. 

 

[AceOfAces_Mod]

Intel Core series dynamically use the system's RAM as a video memory for their Intergrated GPU. 

 

[headdie]

You can get away with some really low spec stuff for RM, for example the computer I was using when I was introduced to the system was a 2003 era AMD Athlon 64 3200+ which was the first generation 64 bit processor the thing was single core and ran at 2.2ghz, on top of that the computer was running 1gb memory.  the problem with lower spec system is when you run into games using a large number of scripts or events which are constantly evaluating which builds up your processor load.

I think i5 will be a good minimum to be set but the PC needs to have at least !GB of video card in it too. 

The above computer had a 256mb Geforce 6600 GT.

as Andar says to run RM takes very little as the interface is all 2D and under the hood the engine is very low demand by modern standards

Any reasonably recent AMD or Intel chip with 2+ gb of ram and a integrated graphics will run 90% of RM games without breaking a sweat, the exception would be the ones which script the hell out of the engine to make it do things it wasnt designed for in the first place or games which are badly optimised

 

[Aleks]

I think i5 will be a good minimum to be set but the PC needs to have at least !GB of video card in it too. 

The latest Intel Intergrated Graphics runs the software amazingly on any iGPU memory setting (accesible via the BIOS), so not necessarily. It isn't very demanding graphically.