Games machine required

Al_Mac

My lad now wants to play games, that required a video card (did an earlier thread on that).

This means me buying a new machine. The machine will be mainly for me, so nothing more stressful than minesweeper. He however needs something a little more speedy.

I've been thinking about a Dell, never having had a problem with them in the past.

Probably an Inspiron 546. Would this play Empire Total War? I think so.

"Or" Can some one suggest something "better", limit is about £700.

And no, I don't want to build one myself

Many thanks

4743hudsonj

i assume from your comment about building your after a desktop?

does your budget include getting a screen? if so what size
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1087923491.1241105221@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckadehdmkimhecflgceggdhhmdgmh.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=752419&category_oid=-32843#productInformationSection

powerfull enough?

the rest of your budget would buy a small screen then

Al_Mac

4743hudsonj wrote: »

i assume from your comment about building your after a desktop?

does your budget include getting a screen? if so what size

Yep, assume a gaming lappy, would be very expensive:eek:

4743hudsonj

Al_Mac wrote: »

Yep, assume a gaming lappy, would be very expensive:eek:

lol yes anyways what i suggested was pretty good, can get a 19" wide screen tft to max your budget

that would be plenty for your use.


would have to be a very big game of minesweeper to break a sweat on the pc!

Ivrytwr3

£700 will get you a decent enough machine!

I always buy my stuff here:

http://www.meshcomputers.com/

Not the cheapest, but decent kit, my desktop is still going strong and decent spec from 7 years ago.

My lappy is 3 years old and has survived Afghanistan and Basra detachements!

Armengar

Although you dont want to build something yourself how about adding in a single card to a system? Look for a cheap intel core 2 duo with at least 2Gb of RAM, make sure it has a PCIe x16 slot and buy an "add in" graphics card such as an ATI 4770

It will be far better than buying an off the shelf gaming machine- graphics cards are the key point in gaming machines and most off the shelf PCs have shoddy graphics cards.

or:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=pc&c=home&r=RIC

the PRO version has a very decent graphics card.

Mobeer

The Dell PC is a cheaper option - it has slower graphics and its expansion potential is limited by a 300W power supply. Even though Dell tend to under rate their power supplies I would still be cautious about such a system for gaming.

The Novatech (Pro) PC posted above looks good and would cost £585.35 with Windows Vista but excluding a monitor.

Or you could have:
http://www.chillblast.com/pconf.php?productid=18849
with some options checked:
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Paste
Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Corsair 4GB
Chillblast Geforce 9800 GT 512MB PCIe
NO Windows Vista optimisation service
This would be £574.72 (again excluding a monitor)
This PC has a better processor for gaming but a smaller hard disk and marginally slower graphics

ben500

Wonder if anyone can help me out here, looking for good machine, graphics all important minimum 512mb but preferably 1gig, fast processor, not worried about ram or hard drive size really just optimum performance in browsers. If someone could point me to the better priced suppliers I would be very gratefull, seen some half decent ones on ebay but they don't have operating systems installed.

Marty_J

"optimum performance in browsers"?

You want a 1 GB graphics card for the internet?

ben500

Marty_J wrote: »

"optimum performance in browsers"?

You want a 1 GB graphics card for the internet?

Yes, in fact this is the most important factor for me.

DatabaseError

Marty_J wrote: »

"optimum performance in browsers"?

You want a 1 GB graphics card for the internet?

Ultra high res pron surfing, viewed through an 80" plasma...yep, 1gb card required!

(I guess its another case of bigger numbers = better.....without ANY understanding of the numbers and their function)

I happily surf...and game...on a 512mb card @1680x1050 ...maybe if I bought a bigger monitor I'd have to think about a 1Gig card....one of my kids plays at 1400x900 on a 320mb 8800GT