Need help choosing a computer for gaming

emma12345

Hi,

It's my son's birthday soon and he would like a new computer as he says his is too slow for World of Warcraft (he has a laptop with 1gb RAM).

He would prefer a desktop rather than another laptop as he says they are faster for gaming. I only have about £500 to spend. This is for sale at Currys for £499, I have no idea what any of it means but the graphics bit sounds good. Is it suitable do you think?

Acer Aspire X3200 / 9650 - Quad-Core PC with 4GB memory, NVIDIA graphics and 18.5" display

Or would this be better as the graphics seem to be better?

Packard Bell iMedia A5518uk - Quad-Core PC with 4GB memory, 512MB graphics and 18.5" display

That one is slightly more at £599 but would it be worth the extra money if it's better for gaming?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me,

Em

timbim_2

We really need more information. Nvidia graphics could be anything from a fairly good dedicated card to a very poor chipset. You could just get another 2gb ram for the laptop, WOW is really pretty resource light, compared to other games.

kippen_noedel

the type of grahics card is very important

PCI-E is best but depends on the mother board

unlikely you'd be offered one with AGP but just in case for AGP easily the best is Radeon HD 3850 512 MB

for ratings and reviews look at this list
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-graphics-card,2118.html

[Deleted User]

timbim wrote: »

WOW is really pretty resource light, compared to other games.

That's not true.

The latest expansion and subsequent graphical updates have really started to make it a graphically demanding game, especially when you have multiple graphically intensive things happening concurrently. Framerates can be all over the place even on high end systems, mine fluctuates from a solid 60fps to 35-40 in places, and even down to single figures in one particular area.

If the computer is primarily for WoW then you want a faster dual core than a slower quad core. WoW is only optimised to use two cores, and the second is only for the sound processing. Save money on that and make sure you get a decent GPU, 4GB RAM and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

totalsolutions

Won't get gaming for £500 try looking at >£1500
Alienware ect.
edit just looked starting at £2699 for decent gear.

ps suggest that you research the alien site on components and terms used and look else where for a deal. Or get a PS3 ??

timbim_2

Fair enough. When I last looked at it, it was running fine on a pretty low end 1.66GHz celeron dual, chipset based laptop. I guess it's pushed on since, as core2's become more mainstream.

Strider590

Any new lower to mid range system will run WoW with ease.

A dedicated gaming rig won't see much change from £1500 (just for the tower) and it'll be the same spec as a low end cheap PC in less than 5 years time.
My last 2 gaming rigs cost between £1400 and £1600, self built.

emma12345

Thanks for your help, it's appreciated.

The graphics are 512MB NVIDIA® GeForce G100 graphics on the Packard Bell pc. Is this any good?

Also the cache varies in the machines from 1MB to 4MB, is this likely to make any difference in World of Warcraft?

Or can anyone recommend a budget (around £500) pc and monitor I could buy that would be suitable?

Thanks again,
Em

-TangleFoot-

emma12345 wrote: »

Is this any good?

In a word, no. This is the sort of thing I'd be looking for were I in your position, but you may need to compromise a little to get such a system with a monitor for under £500.

almillar

I'd avoid PC World and other biggies if I can and go to and independant. They'll have far more customisable options and hopefully better prices. For gaming, as above, you really want to move money over to the graphics card from the computer. I think you can have a decent gaming PC for £500 no problem. Assign £450 to the computer and allow £50 for a graphics card.
Look for dual core AMD or Intel (I don't think Quad core would be an advantage?)
2GB RAM
and probably a 1TB hard drive, though 500 would still be fine...

Percy1983

totalsolutions wrote: »

Won't get gaming for £500 try looking at >£1500
Alienware ect.
edit just looked starting at £2699 for decent gear.

ps suggest that you research the alien site on components and terms used and look else where for a deal. Or get a PS3 ??

I really have to say that is complete mis-information.

I recently built a gaming PC for a friend and did it for £600 and that plays everything at 1080p very nicely. Yes spending more money will be 'better' but do you really need to run games at 250fps?