Need help choosing a computer for gaming

Knub

Percy1983 wrote: »

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?

Confirmed.

Totalsolutions is talking utter horse ****. Gaming rigs are not £1500-3000 and if you have a rig from alienware - you are a mug - pure and simple. With Alienware all you pay for is branding and a customised case. Thats IT.

I have friends who have built systems FAR superior to Alienware alternatives in the past months. They spend around £1100, self built.

Baring in mind, these are guys who are devleopers and IT Professionals who rely on fast systems. We are also talking latest CPU technology in the form of i7 and DDR3 RAM, Nvidia 295's SLI, etc.

Tanglefoot is pretty much spot on with what you need for your budget:

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/mega_sales_I/

Essentially, the important bits:

Intel G31 Motherboard.
4GB DDR2 Ram
Core 2 Duo CPU (Dual Core )
ATI Radeon HD 4770 PCI-E 16X 512MB Video Card
500GB Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home

I'd say go with this. It will run WoW no problems and generally be an ok gaming machine for a few years yet. The only problem is a monitor.

I think you can pick up reasonable 2nd hand 17/19" screens from around £50-100. It might be just SLIGHTLY over budget, but the deal is still good.

Good choice and good value for money.

emma12345

The one from Cyberpowersystem looks good. I took a look at Dell to see if they had anything similar and the Inspiron 545 is reduced to £599 ATM, has a similar graphics card to the one from Cyberpowersystem and comes with a 22" monitor (link:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/desktops_great_deals?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1 - 4th offer along)

I not overly keen on Dell having owned a Dell laptop where the hard disk broke 1 year 1 week after I bought it (one week out of warrenty) but desktops are presumably tougher so I might risk it.

Does this look a good buy to you?

Many thanks for all your help.

Em

Rich44_2

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 ??

Garbage.

Ok you won't get a system capable of the latest games at 1600x1200 with FSAA etc etc for £500 but to suggest you won't get a gaming system for that is just blatantly untrue.

Why are going on about Alienware etc when the OP says they have £500 to spend and that will buy a quite sufficiently powerful system for what they want.

Rich44_2

Personally I would not buy from Dell as they use non-standard motherboards, cases and PSU's generally so if one breaks out of warranty its often impossible to find parts, however if you're getting a 3 year warranty then it doesn't matter so much.

I would go have a look in your local paper and find a good local shop near to you who will probably do you a really good deal and you have a local shop to return to with any problems and no call centres

totalsolutions

THE OP wants a Gaming PC

Gaming is a specialist machine and gamers will pay those prices.
Please don't blame me about that, I 'm just saying you don't get gaming PC's <£500
DELLs own site:
XPS 625
Gaming for All! This XPS 625 gaming powerhouse rewrites the rules on performance

FROM £779

The one emma is looking at now is an "entertainment" system not the same!

Knub

totalsolutions wrote: »

THE OP wants a Gaming PC

Gaming is a specialist machine and gamers will pay those prices.
Please don't blame me about that, I 'm just saying you don't get gaming PC's <£500
DELLs own site:
XPS 625
Gaming for All! This XPS 625 gaming powerhouse rewrites the rules on performance

FROM £779

The one emma is looking at now is an "entertainment" system not the same!

Facepalm!

Gaming PC's aren't "specialist" they just have sufficient hardware to cope with the game softwares requirements without any performance issues. You can buy them prebuilt (From other places other than Alienware ripoff merchants).

Saying you can't get a "gaming" PC for less than £1500 is utter bull. As Tanglefoot has found a good deal at £430. That spec I have mentioned above, will run most games out without any problems. Warcraft, Source Engine, UT3 Engine, Even Crysis but not max, max settings. This about covers 90% of decent PC games on the market at the moment.

I've been a PC gamer over 10 years. I've built my own systems for at least 8 years.

Given that you are quoting gaming PC's from DELL...just...no.

Given that the OP didn't say "I need one hell of a Rig, it needs to Run Crysis Warhead on 1900*1600, FSAA 16*, Super High Textures and needs specialist watercooling". They need it to run wow and other such games.

Even if the OP DID say the above, you can still do it for less than £1000.

You're saying you don't get gaming PC's for less than £500...links on this very thread to a computer for £430, prove you're wrong.


You're best bet so far Emma is definatley still what TangleFoot recommended, just need a monitor, 17/19" will be enough. Any more and your graphics card won't support larger resolutions so there isn't that much point beyond say 22" at very most.

hethmar

Well, all Im saying is dont buy off a computer firm that advertises gaming machines on ebay. Son got his at Xmas, hasnt had a week without a problem, in fact he has ended up paying out for a new motherboard now because the machine has been back and forwards like a yo yo.

-TangleFoot-

emma12345 wrote: »

Does this look a good buy to you?

My previous answer stands. Choosing from among the different marques of graphics card can be confusing at times, but a good rule of thumb I use is to look for something identified with a second digit higher than 6 and perhaps a couple of seemingly motoring-related letters tacked on the end.

At present, that means either a Radeon HD 4670 or a GeForce 9600 GT at minimum. Simples!

hethmar

And apparently you need 64 bit graphics? (So son had anyway?) He is currently talking about spending nearly £500 on a new graphics card ???

joe_pesci

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 ??

What a idiot you are. People like you should be banned. I built a custom made gaming pc with Cougar extreme 2 years back for just under £1000 nd played all latest games and looked amazing.

You can easily get a decent spec gaming system for £800+

The fact you advertise Alienware shows how stupid you are, you are paying for the look with them, for the prices they charge you could get the best gaming rig around for that much.

You either work for Alienware or are just totally stupid and ignorant.