First post, by jforrest1980
I've been toying with the idea of setting up a dedicated LAN gaming station in my basement. This would be a "you only need to bring the beer" setup. I have a few friends into PC stuff, and even more that are strictly console and arcade collectors. I want to have them over, and introduce them to the world of vintage PC games, without the need for them to have a PC setup.
I'm looking to play old XP stuff like Diablo 2, Counter Strike, Starcraft, Unreal Tournament 2004, Warcraft III, Titan's Quest, Halo 2 if possible. Just some fun games to play with a group.
I am hoping to eventually get an 8 man setup.
Here's the problem.
I'm not sure if I have the power to hookup 8 PC's in my basement, plus all the gear, monitors, etc...
So I was wondering if there is cheap low power build either XP or Win 7 related, or even better a cheap laptop I could buy in bulk and just get monitors for from my local goodwill.
I would be open to old gaming laptops, or laptops that would just do the job, or even new laptops that are pretty crappy with basic intel HD graphics capable of running these games on high settings.
Are there any cheap laptops out there I could buy in bulk? I would prefer to keep the cost of each laptop under $200.00. The lower the better obviously.
If laptops are not a good option, please point me in the direction of a solid old desktop that eBay is littered with that I could throw a cheap graphics card in. If worse comes to worse, I can run a few extension cables from outlets throughout my home to make sure I get the power I need.
Thanks in advance.
Oh! Feel free to offer me great LAN game suggestions! RPG's, Shooties, Strategy, Racing especially, anything goes really.