Dell 5150 Dual Core 2.8GHz inc 19" LCD Monitor & Free Printer £429 (merged)

Whirly

scottgreenwood wrote:

Purchasing a card that does not require you to plug it in to the psu directly is a waste of time guys. These cards will only be able to play games at half decent detail this year, and next year probably only at lowest. In terms of depreciation, the x800 will drop furtjer in price than the £200 7900gts you can pick up just now (don't ask me where, search the web)

Hmm, I'm afraid I disagree a bit (sorry).

For most people the x800gt/6600gt/7600gs/gt are pretty much perfect as they will allow the majority of today's games to run pretty well (though not maxed out) for a reasonable price. My 4200ti can still play a lot of today's games respectibly and that's 3+ years old.

As for depreciation....this time next year the 7900gt will almost certainly be < £100. I bought my X800gt for £65 so even if it ends up worth nothing it's depreciated less. I expect it to be worth around £30-40.

Spending £200 on a PC that cost (after you remove the TFT) £200 seems excessive for everyone but the most hardened gamer - and what is a hardened gamer doing with a P4? AMD are gaming kings.

scottgreenwood wrote:

You are playing into the hands of dell if you buy a card that doesn't require plugging into the psu. It is clear that they have reduced the power from the pci-e slot to discourage upgrading (epxecting someone to plug in a card see the "no enough power box" and send the card back).

Hmm, why on earth would Dell actually do this? It would limit their options when building and their sales from people who want to use video cards they don't offer. More damning to your theory though, is the fact that those cards need to be plugged into the PSU on every motherboard - it's the spec's of the PCI-E slot that limit the power not Dell. The cards need the extra power because Nvidia/ATI do not stick to the specs when it comes to power. Their design is pretty lazy really - beat the competition by ramping up the clock speeds and who cares if they produced far more heat and need far more power so long as they get a better 3dmark score than the latest Nvidia/ATI card.

So, while your advice is good for those who want to play the latest games at the highest resolutions without any thought to price I think it was misleading to those who are looking for the best balance between price and power.

Of course, my *personal* opinion is that only an enthusiast should ever pay more than £150 on a video card. My reasons?

1. You are being charged a premium for very little actual reward.
2. The hardware is usually hot, expensive to run, and requires all sorts of extras (2 slots & power from the PSU is thr current flavour of the month)
3. Extra heat in video card = extra heat in case = more/louder fans needed = more noise = more electricity used.
4. The same looks/framerate will be available in a few months and it won't need the extra power and won't run so hot.

*shrugs* Each to his own, but to claim that "Purchasing a card that does not require you to plug it in to the psu directly is a waste of time" may be right for you but is is wrong for the majority of users.

biglugs

That's why I'll probably buy a 7600GT and stick a Zalman cooler on it - should cost about £160 in total and give me plenty of power for the time being.

The_Geek

Just to add to the video card debate, I afree with Whirly that only few people should spend >£150 on a video card.

I have 2 PC's, one I bought a GeForce 6200 for £35 and the other a Radeon 9250 (£30). Both will happily play Battlefield 2 and Counterstrike Source. Ok, they're not at top resolution but hell I'm too busy shooting people to sit there and stare at my screen going "aww, isn't that pretty!)

scottgreenwood

OK guys. Opinions excepted. Maybe there were some inaccuracies in my description but lets not make this bulletin board a "rant" about the particulars of one persons comments.

Indeed, for most people the onboard graphics should be fine. The 7900GT is not a top of the range card it is mid-range, since the x1900 that is. By forking out an extra £60 I think I have made sure my computer will be able to play games a couple of years from now.

Do not bother responding to this with some sort of hostile list of corrections, your wasting your time.

In response to the x800 plating "pretty well" - they don't. Some games such as fear and oblivion are highly demanding and will run poorly on these machines. I also had a ti4200 and was sick of selecting games on their recommended specs only one year after purchasing it, those with x800 will have to do that; the 7600gt is more furture proof but there is only a small difference in price relatvie to the saving on the entire pc. The 7900gt will never be less than £100, the demand for them is currently very high and nvidia do not plan to bring out new graphics cards until autumn of this year. They will probably lose some value but not over 50%.

The 7900gt does not require 2 slots and is not expensive to run - the power requirements or only slightly more than the 7600gt. My pc runs silently. Any grpahics card with a fan will be noisy and you may need to upgrade the fan. This is not just applicable to high end cards.

The PCs value is way more than £200, probably £500 as it stands with no screen.

Whirly, waste your time ranting about something else more worthwhile., like world peace.

wildeep

whirly wasn't ranting but providing very useful info for those who know little about such things. There is no need for this to be a personal, both of your slants on this debate are mostly accurate. I am very gald Whirly replied tho because I was thinking that'd i ahve to fork out £200 even though I'm not THAT bothered about graphics...

chomer

I'm thankful for all advice on this subject as i took the plunge and ordered this pc.
I am looking to install a better graphics card and therefore read all posts on advice of what card to get.I must admit i took a huge gulp when i thought i had tell the wife that i needed another £200 for a card,and was thinking of how to get around this without her giving me the hairdryer treatment.:eek:So thanks whirly for reassuring me i dont need a top of the range card.
As i'm hoping to use the pc for converting camcorder stuff to dvd and photoshop stuff i was wondering which card i should be looking for in thprice region of 80-100 quid?.

P.s Scott i would love nothing more than one of those cards but i cant justify paying that amount on a card,although i took your advice onboard and i thank you for the time you took out to post a comment.

jpwjpw

I bought this PC a while ago and I love it! Its very quiet and add a dual Digital TV tuner like the terratec cinegy 2400 I got and its a full tv recording machine!

James

Have a laugh at http://www.verydodgy.com

The_Geek

chomer wrote:

As i'm hoping to use the pc for converting camcorder stuff to dvd and photoshop stuff i was wondering which card i should be looking for in thprice region of 80-100 quid?.

Assuming you have a fairly modern MiniDV camcorder then you'll probably need a firewire card. You can pick these up from places like ebuyer, Scan etc. for about £10.

Graphics card is not very important for converting camcorder to DVD and photoshopping. Indeed I even used to use onboard graphics for that. If you want a card which can play some games on too, try the Radeon X300 or GeForce 6200 for £30 - £40 which will stand you in good stead for the next couple of years.

chomer

Thanks for that.I might spend the rest on a bit more memory then

bookshifter

Thanks to all who replied to my previous post re a suitable graphics card.

The only reason I didn't want to fiddle with the PSU is my lack of experience in changing things inside the computer case, I guess I better start learning about these things soon

If I can take this oppportunity to ask a further question ...... How important is a graphics card for things like watching online video streams or using webcams? Will upgrading to a £30-£50 graphics card offer any improvement over the onboard offering? I appreciate for online streaming there are other factors involved, speed of internet connection etc

Congrats to the guy who is watching freeview on his Dell 5150, unfortunately we have no loft aerial since we have NTL cable, I got an MSI freeview stick but in London I couldn't even get 1 channel with the small aerial they supplied!