Desktop PC recommendations

craig86

Hi, I'm looking to get a new desktop PC, price £300-500. I need it to play games and for general use.

I've seen these, can anyone tell me if they're any good? Can I get anything better for this price?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-p6300uk-04204050-pdt.html
http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/616265/HP-PAVILION-P6313/tab/specification

I don't want to have to upgrade it for a few years so are there any features I should be looking for (e.g. quad-core)?

Thanks in advance!

BillScarab

What games do you want to play ? If you want ot play proper games you'll need a proper graphics card and neither of those have a decent card.

Something like this would be a better bet but the price deosn't include and OS or a monitor.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/realm.html

Even then it's a fairly ordinary graphics card.

flossy_splodge

I was looking a while back for replacement Desktops for a small business that had been burgled.
Those specs you've shown do not seem very good for the money.
The least I personally would go for now to future proof would be either a quad core and personally i like the Phenom or I'd research a bit more about the new 'i' series of chips; at least the i5 and the i7 if you can get one at a good price.
Have seen i5 machines at around your budget.
I'm sure someone who has looked more recently will be able to be specific for you but I have a gut feeling against the pavilion and can't even begin to justify it!
Probably as my employer ended up buying some and they are just simply not good enough but I don't think she knew enough about future proofing to make the best decision.
Sorry not to be more help, just sharing.:rotfl:

turbobob

How about one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488 - £238 for PC with 4gb, E6300 dual core processor etc. You will need an operating system as it does not come with one. You'll need a 64bit OS to make use of all of the memory.

For any sort of gaming capability you are going to have to fit it with a graphics card. Something like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189621 which is an OK midrange card and I guess should work with whatever cheap power supply they use in the PC above. For anything significantly more powerful it would be wise to use a decent branded power supply of sufficient rating.

craig86

BillScarab wrote: »

What games do you want to play ? If you want ot play proper games you'll need a proper graphics card and neither of those have a decent card.

Something like this would be a better bet but the price deosn't include and OS or a monitor.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/range/realm.html

Even then it's a fairly ordinary graphics card.

Thanks Bill. It depends what you class as 'proper' games. I'm not looking for anything too hardcore - just something that will be able to play new PC games for the next few years.

spud17

turbobob wrote: »

How about one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488 - £238 for PC with 4gb, E6300 dual core processor etc. You will need an operating system as it does not come with one. You'll need a 64bit OS to make use of all of the memory.

I put together an E6300 + 4Gb 1066MHz RAM with Asus mobo, just before Christmas.

Arrived at the spec with help from this forum, put on Win7 64bit, cannot comment on games performance, but for everyday general use it is pretty quick, especially after a 5% overclock through the BIOS.

Hardware came to about £175, but I already had DVD rewriter, case and PSU.

So £238 would be about the mark.

craig86

turbobob wrote: »

How about one of these:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488 - £238 for PC with 4gb, E6300 dual core processor etc. You will need an operating system as it does not come with one. You'll need a 64bit OS to make use of all of the memory.

For any sort of gaming capability you are going to have to fit it with a graphics card. Something like http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189621 which is an OK midrange card and I guess should work with whatever cheap power supply they use in the PC above. For anything significantly more powerful it would be wise to use a decent branded power supply of sufficient rating.

OK thanks. I hadn't really thought about getting graphics card, OS, monitor, etc. separately. Is it better to do it that way? I thought it would be cheaper to buy everything as a package?

spud17

craig86 wrote: »

OK thanks. I hadn't really thought about getting graphics card, OS, monitor, etc. separately. Is it better to do it that way? I thought it would be cheaper to buy everything as a package?

Possibly, but with help here on choosing a suitable graphics card, perhaps giving an example of games you want to play, you can get a better machine.

You have to weigh up, a package, which may mean a bit of a compromise, against investing a bit of time and effort, and getting exactly what you're after.

There'll be plenty of suggestions on here, and also assuming you can use a screwdriver.

Also the smug factor, on building YOUR pc cannot be discounted.

turbobob

craig86 wrote: »

OK thanks. I hadn't really thought about getting graphics card, OS, monitor, etc. separately. Is it better to do it that way? I thought it would be cheaper to buy everything as a package?

Maybe, maybe not. But neither of the PC's you've linked to are going to be any good at all for running games on, except for very dated ones maybe. With a graphics card fitted to them they should be acceptable. But I would think you can get a better deal through somewhere like Ebuyer compared to PC World or Comet.

craig86

spud17 wrote: »

Possibly, but with help here on choosing a suitable graphics card, perhaps giving an example of games you want to play, you can get a better machine.

You have to weigh up, a package, which may mean a bit of a compromise, against investing a bit of time and effort, and getting exactly what you're after.

There'll be plenty of suggestions on here, and also assuming you can use a screwdriver.

Also the smug factor, on building YOUR pc cannot be discounted.

I mainly play strategy games like Command & Conquer, Civilization, Age of Empires, Total War, etc. So I just want to be able to play new versions of these series (and similar games) that are released over the next few years. I wouldn't have thought that they would need anything special in terms of graphics.

I would prefer to get everything as a package but I don't mind building my own PC if that means I'll get a better machine/better value for money, as long as it's fairly easy to do. I can use a screwdriver but that's about the limit of my DIY ability!

Please let me know your recommendations.

spud17

craig86 wrote: »

I mainly play strategy games like Command & Conquer, Civilization, Age of Empires, Total War, etc. So I just want to be able to play new versions of these series (and similar games) that are released over the next few years. I wouldn't have thought that they would need anything special in terms of graphics.

I would prefer to get everything as a package but I don't mind building my own PC if that means I'll get a better machine/better value for money, as long as it's fairly easy to do. I can use a screwdriver but that's about the limit of my DIY ability!

Please let me know your recommendations.

Sorry, should have put that I know nothing about games.

But the ability to use a screwdriver, and bit of patience, should see you through.