New desktop PC - advice on processors and graphics cards

rabbit8587

Hi all,

I'm looking for a new desktop and monitor, willing to pay up to about £500, £600 at a push.

I've been looking on pc world website and don't understand alot of the jargon. Basically the PC will be used to surf the web, store photos and music and play games such as Sims 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon, that kinda thing.

Now I am not a huge gamer so may be wrong here but I think games such as the Sims use quite a lot of memory and you need a decent graphics card?


Currently I've found the Acer Aspire X3200/9650 for £500, spec as follows:
- AMD Phenom X4 9650 (2.30GHz, 2MB cache)
- Vista Home Premium
- 4GB DDR2 Memory
- 640GB hard drive (7200rpm)
- 256MB NVIDIA GeForce G100 graphics
- Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
- Media Card Reader
- 10/100 Network LAN port

Do you think this is sufficient to meet my needs? I only previously have experience of Intel Pentium Dual Core processors - is the AMD superior or inferior to Intel?

Will this graphics card be compatible with the games I wish to play?

Also, I don't understand the 2.30GHz associated with the processor - another Acer pc has 2.66GHz which is a higher number but only an Intel Dual Core, not quad core, so presumably it is less, not more, powerful?

Any help gratefully received!

Bowling_4_Gold

The PC is very well specked for playing out games- The graphics card isn't the best, but will do the job. I mean, I was looking at a 256mb graphics card about 2/3 years ago, which shows how it isn't really the most up to date 'size', but nevertheless, unless you are planning on playing uber-graphical games, it should do the job ok.

tomsutton529

you dont need that much processing power and you dont need that much RAM. a dual core and half the RAM will do the job. but for the specs that not a bad price, shop around and see what you can find, ive been seeing alot of decent spec computer in the local newspaper recently so have mooch through there.

rabbit8587

tomsutton529 wrote: »

you dont need that much processing power and you dont need that much RAM. a dual core and half the RAM will do the job. but for the specs that not a bad price, shop around and see what you can find, ive been seeing alot of decent spec computer in the local newspaper recently so have mooch through there.

Thanks, I just didn't know what to benchmark against. I played Sims 2 on my laptop which is now dying, that was an intel dual core processor with 2GB RAM and 120GB hard drive but after installing a few sims expansion packs it started to struggle, taking so long to load it was hardly worth playing etc, that's why I thought I should look for higher this time round.

tomsutton529

rabbit8587 wrote: »

Thanks, I just didn't know what to benchmark against. I played Sims 2 on my laptop which is now dying, that was an intel dual core processor with 2GB RAM and 120GB hard drive but after installing a few sims expansion packs it started to struggle, taking so long to load it was hardly worth playing etc, that's why I thought I should look for higher this time round.

your thinking along the right sort of lines, but adding game expansion packs to a dying laptop isnt going to do either any good. if you had installed the expansion packs when you first got the laptop i bet you wouldnt have had any trouble.

one way to go would be to get the top spec machine you found and do something with it, have it as a media server or something.

also what is dying about your laptop.. a good clean and maybe some new parts could have it like new... my laptop is over 5 years old and is faster than my GF's dual core laptop....

althas

True you dont NEED that much RAM, but honestly, the more RAM the better, especially if you are dealing with photographs. The more RAM you have, the faster things are done

I have never used an AMD myself, but I understand they are (or used to be) a better performing processer than an Intel, but Intel is the industry standard so things are written to that standard

Just check if the graphics card is a dedicated one or shared/on board one. If its onboard/shared, it means it will take RAM for itself, always go for a dedicated one

rabbit8587

It seems to be overheating and I'm not sure how to cure it, now even the slightest thing is making it whir really loudly and it has started closing itself down at least once a day, this is just when surfing the net, it is near impossible to play games on it now, it can't cope.

Also the button that releases the screen, no longer pushes in to release it so I have to make sure I don't close it (which means I can't easily transport it) as I wouldn't get it open again.

It's only a few weeks past its 2 year guarantee...