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Should I buy this pc (spec inc)
MercilessKiller
Posts: 7,143 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
Motherboard: [FONT="]ASUS M2N4-SLI[/FONT]
[FONT="]Processor: [/FONT][FONT="]AMD X2 64-bit Dual 5000+ Socket 940[/FONT]
[FONT="]RAM: [/FONT][FONT="]4GB DDR2 (speed unknown)[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hard Drive: [/FONT][FONT="]400GB Sata[/FONT]
[FONT="]Graphics: [/FONT][FONT="]512MB[/FONT][FONT="] 8600GT GeForce nVidia - SLI READY (might buy another one after a few months for the SLI)[/FONT]
[FONT="]DVD/Writer: 20x Dual Layer with Lightscriber[/FONT]
[FONT="]Case: Stylish Midi ATX (with slide door)[/FONT]
This is with 3 year warranty and free "technical support" which sounds fun.
Anyway, please tell me, yey or ney... for £430. Brand new.
[FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT="]Processor: [/FONT][FONT="]AMD X2 64-bit Dual 5000+ Socket 940[/FONT]
[FONT="]RAM: [/FONT][FONT="]4GB DDR2 (speed unknown)[/FONT]
[FONT="]Hard Drive: [/FONT][FONT="]400GB Sata[/FONT]
[FONT="]Graphics: [/FONT][FONT="]512MB[/FONT][FONT="] 8600GT GeForce nVidia - SLI READY (might buy another one after a few months for the SLI)[/FONT]
[FONT="]DVD/Writer: 20x Dual Layer with Lightscriber[/FONT]
[FONT="]Case: Stylish Midi ATX (with slide door)[/FONT]
This is with 3 year warranty and free "technical support" which sounds fun.
Anyway, please tell me, yey or ney... for £430. Brand new.
[FONT="][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]
0
Comments
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Depends.
How much gaming are you planning on doing ?
Give us an idea of what you want to DO with the PC. What operating system does it come with ?0 -
Sounds OK, seems like a decent price.
But personally I wouldn't buy an AMD processor, the Core 2 Duos are far better and very easily overclockable.
8600GT is OK but not fantastic, most reviewers seem to regard the 8800 GTS 320mb as being the best price/performance card but then it's a lot more cash. Do you need DX10? Would something like a X1950 pro be an option?
Also I wouldn't bother with a lightscribe drive, can you downgrade it to save a few quid?It's my problem, it's my problem
If I feel the need to hide
And it's my problem if I have no friends
And feel I want to die0 -
Its a package pc rather than customised
The Intel package has a much lesser graphics card, so though some components could be better/worse, i'm trying to see the big picture.
I'm planning on doing lots of gaming yes.. there's no OS included which isnt a prob (part of MSDNAA...), so its just the base unit with the spec above.
I also understand Core 2 Duo's are better, but gaming performance wise AMD's have a great reputation and its still upgradable in the future, as well as the graphics card (for example the SLI).
Would 2 graphics cards have to be EXACTLY the same for parallel SLI? Otherwise i could get an 8800 for the 2nd unless it would bottle[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]0 -
AFAIK they have to be the same chipset, so both would have to be 8600GT 512Mb but they could be form different manufacturers. Personally I'd try and get identical cars though to minimise the risk of problems.
I'd still be tempted by the Intel one, even with a worse card and then just put one good card in when you've got the cash. Out of interest what is the card in the Intel one?
I'm running a slightly overclocked C2D E4300 with an old 7600GS 512Mb card and it plays games fine. C&C3 and CoH both play at high graphics details (although with no AA). Currently I'm thinking of upgrading to either an X1950 pro or if they come down in a price an 8800 GTS.It's my problem, it's my problem
If I feel the need to hide
And it's my problem if I have no friends
And feel I want to die0 -
Its half the RAM and onboard X1250 Radeon for Intel Quad Core
OR
with motherboard: SKT-775 CONROE1333-DVI S/V/L M-ATX 1066FSB
and a 512mb Nvidia 7200GS[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]0 -
I would say it's not worth the money if you're planning on gaming.
Where did you see this PC offer ? Are you willing to buy online ?
You can get better.
The 8600 is an adequate card but it's simply not worth the money and the 8800 320MB is a HUGE improvement. Getting an 8600 and then running it in SLi later on is false economy. Running an 8600 with an 8800 is a bad idea, SLi isn't always the most reliable of technologies and can sometimes lower the performance in some games - having non matching cards won't help if it works at all. The 8800 isn't the same chipset as the 8600. It has way more on it - it's from the same family of chips but in practice they're not identical. At best you'll get a severe bottleneck totally negating the money you spend on the 8800.
Gimme a little time and I'll spec one up for you to give you an idea of what I'd recommend.
Can you let us know what operating system you're looking for too. If you're restricted to a budget and gaming is important avoid Vista and 4GB RAM, get XP and 2GB RAM (XP can't reference 4GB properly so don't even bother with it, it won't help).0 -
the 8600 actually isn't that bad a card it's on a par with the 7900GS really but it tends to be crippled a bit by 128 Bus speeds generally so you never get the max out of your Ram
As said before the 8800GTS are stunning cards & are usually the better options for gaming i have a few freinds running these now & they can't fault them
Which games do you intend to play ? Crysis ? Airborne ? COD4 ? or something new and just coming out or along them lines then this card will run them Ok'ish in SLI it should be fairly comfortable with these games (about £70 for another card) and a Amd5000 will cope ok too for a year or 2
All in all it's an OK system not a great one0 -
I don't need an OS at all I have my own legal OS's through MSDN Academic Alliance.
It is an online offer and yes I'm willing to buy online (and can build myself but that spec came to about £517 when I did it).
I'm not willing to pay more than £500.. that is ABSOLUTE max.. £400 was ideal.
In the future I could always upgrade to an 8800 as the mobo would support that.. still cheaper I believe then getting it seperately....
Spec me up one then quickly before I get bored and buy it
hehe! [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]0 -
MercilessKiller wrote: »Its half the RAM and onboard X1250 Radeon for Intel Quad Core
OR
with motherboard: SKT-775 CONROE1333-DVI S/V/L M-ATX 1066FSB
and a 512mb Nvidia 7200GS
That's certainly not great for games, a top end processor with poor graphics. Quad core isn't really necessary for games as a lot of games aren't multi-threaded anyway. Compared to that the first one you posted is better for gaming.It's my problem, it's my problem
If I feel the need to hide
And it's my problem if I have no friends
And feel I want to die0 -
FPS's currently out and iwthin the next year They'll do me fine. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"The internet is a great way to get on the net."
- Bob Dole, Republican presidential candidate[/FONT]0
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