Desktop PC recommendations

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.

turbobob wrote: »

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.

Ok, so would you recommend getting the PC above and fitting my own graphics card? What about buying an OS, a monitor, keyboard, etc? Where's the best place to buy them and how much should it cost?

Also, please can you explain what you mean by the power supply?

turbobob

The one I linked to was without looking into it too closely, it just seemed to have quite a good spec for the money. With a graphics card it'll do the job, but you'd really need to compare the costs if you do need to buy a monitor, OS etc. at the same time. The same suppliers can sell you all that, but you are looking at about £70 (IIRC) for a copy of Windows 7, and a 20" monitor starts at around £90. Heres an alternative with pre-installed OS, a quad core processor this time, but no monitor. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/196618 Note it would also need an upgraded graphics card to play the games.

An alternative is a custom build system. This company will build to order, as will Dell and the like. http://www.cclonline.com/systems/?h=true Of theirs I would probably go for the "Pronto Ace" and upgrade the graphics to the GT240 or HD46470 option.

If you want to look at others as a minimum spec I would go for a fast dual core processor (AMD Athlon II X2, a fast Intel Core 2 Duo or Core i3), 3gb memory (4gb better), and a mid range graphics card (for example an ATI HD5670). This should have no problems running the types of software you've mentioned for a while. I was just looking at the recommended spec for C&C 4 Tiberian Twilight and it seems to be around that level that they recommend.

As for the power supply, its an internal part of a PC which converts power from mains (240v AC) to the correct type for the PC components (12v, 5v and 3.3v DC). They vary greatly in quality, capacity and price, and it's an area where the generic box builders save money. Often they use a cheap 250w or 300w PSU. High end graphics cards (for example Nvidia Geforce GTX280 or ATI HD5870) draw a lot of power, and for that sort of card in a high power system, a quality 500w power supply would be recommended. The ATI card I mentioned above has a fairly low power draw, doesn't need any extra power connectors and should in most cases drop in without issues.

Hope this is some help.

craig86

Thanks, that's really helpful!!!

Out of the two you linked to, do you have an opinion on which is best? I like the idea of the custom build site. If I go for the Pronto Ace which features would you recommend I upgrade? In particular, should I upgrade to one of the triple core processors?

turbobob

No problem

I tend to prefer custom built but thats just me. For the Pronto Ace if you wish to go for a triple core processor I would choose the Athlon X3 435 (and not the more expensive energy efficient options). The X3 435 offers great bang for the buck. On balance, I think I would go for that processor. The Phenom II X2 550 has an edge in some applications, but the extra core of the X3 will help out in others. Here are some tests showing both processors with various games - http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/athlon-ii-x3-435_5.html#sect0

For graphics the GT240 or HD4670 should be fine, and for OS I'd go for Windows 7 64bit Home Premium.

craig86

OK, I think I'll go for the Pronto Ace. Have you used CCL before? Are they reputable?

I have 4 options to choose from:
a) Pronto Ace + Win7 + Phenom II X2 550 + HD4670 = £406.71
b) Pronto Ace + Win7 + Phenom II X2 550 + GT240 = £419.74
c) Pronto Ace + Win7 + Athlon II X3 435 + HD4670 = £421.21
d) Pronto Ace + Win7 + Athlon II X3 435 + GT240 = £434.24

Any opinions???

I've found a review of the GT240 which is quite critical, although it does seem to be better than the HD4670 - http://www.techspot.com/review/223-gainward-geforce-gt-240-review/

Looking at the link you sent me, the Athlon X3 seems slightly better, but is it worth £15 more (it's supposed to be £10 cheaper but £25 gets added because they don't have any pre-built ones...)?

Thanks for all your help!