Cheapest but best place to buy custom computers?

gonzo127

my god if a ATI 5450 is a upgrade i hate to think what you was running as the 5450 is a very low end graphics card more suited to a HTPC than a gaming system and you will probably not be able to play Crysis running on it well

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5450,2549-8.html

shows that even on low settings you will still have places in the game that will turn into a slide show (lowest FPS is 18.7).

if you are planning on gaming on this system properly you will need to get a better GPU sooner rather than later

ddoris

I7, 12GB ram , 5450.... makes you laugh! Would like to know current pc specs.
This £35 card is better http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/XFX+ATI+Radeon+HD+4650+1024MB+DDR2+PCI-Express+Graphics+Card+?productId=34725&source=googleps
.. but still nowhere adequate for your stated needs

vyle

gonzo127 wrote: »

my god if a ATI 5450 is a upgrade i hate to think what you was running as the 5450 is a very low end graphics card more suited to a HTPC than a gaming system and you will probably not be able to play Crysis running on it well

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5450,2549-8.html

shows that even on low settings you will still have places in the game that will turn into a slide show (lowest FPS is 18.7).

if you are planning on gaming on this system properly you will need to get a better GPU sooner rather than later

Eh? It wasn't an upgrade. That's what came in the tower. I know it isn't amazing, but compared to my 3 year old nvidia card, it's better.

I7, 12GB ram , 5450.... makes you laugh! Would like to know current pc specs.

Do you mean my old pc specs? 2GB ram, 2ghz pentium 4. Can't remember my old graphics cards' number though.

Like I said, this tower is cheap enough that I can upgrade it with a monster graphics card and more ram if I need to and still sit under my budget with a custom build. I didn't specifically choose this graphics card.

vyle

Just bought an ATI Radeon 5850.

bengalknights

vyle wrote: »

Good idea. I got the Dell Studio XPS tower from work. 6gb RAM, 1tb hdd, 8 or 9 USB ports, i7 processor and an ATI 5450 1gb card. I may upgrade the card in a bit, but at the moment it's a novelty getting games running at a decent frame rate. Going to give it a real test with crysis though....when it downloads.

if your serious about gaming then the 5870 is the bare min you need

Lil306

Aldi , £400 PC

BTW, Novatech IS overpriced, but their customer service is second to none imo, it's why I spend the extra there.

You could also try dell direct, but chances are you won't get much of a saving, personally I'm a fan of DIY, if you don't / can't do that, then I agree with the others, go with your own local IT shop.

Sometimes it pays to pay more, when you have a local shop, they're small and friendly will always welcome your business and are on your doorstep. YOu may not get the biggest discounts, but usually they can give you something.

vyle

bengalknights wrote: »

if your serious about gaming then the 5870 is the bare min you need

I spent some time looking at benchmarking and reviews and the 5850 came out really good. Also, many people are of the opinion that the 5850 is a more sensible buy than the 5870 because the price difference doesn't really add all that much performance. The 5850 will max out most games at 1080p, and so I'm happy with that. Got to draw the line somewhere.

fozmcfc

One thing to definately watch if you do get a top end card is that the power supply is powerful enough and the base unit has ample space and fans/cooling.

It reminds me of the days, when I got an ATI 9700 pro and I had to leave the side of my case slight open, otherwise my PC would just reset itself every 15 mins or so.

I personally don't believe that the absolute top end card represents good value, such as a 5890 or GTX480. Quite often it is £100 more than the second best by the same company and the benefits do not warrant spending an extra £100 on it.

PC gaming sadly is a dying a slow death, mainly due to the console now having online capabilities.

Many games are now not being converted to PC and more and more we are just seeing lazy ports of Xbox 360 or PS3 games. Some software studios can't even be bothered sometime to change menu item commands from showing Xbox 360 button configurations. Or laughable in the case of Split Second, even when plugging in an Xbox 360 controller, it shows keyboard commands for menu items.

Only games this year I'm now looking forward to are M.A.F.I.A II (can't believe the M word was censored) and Test Drive Unlimited 2, but particularly with TDU2, I can see Xbox 360 port all over it. Gone are the days of a dozen or so games being worth buying, it's now down to 3 or 4 at the most a year for me.

gonzo127

the 5850 is a good card, i is probably what i would have gone for (well that or the 5870) so you should be in a good to game

i personally disagree with the idea that PC gaming is dieing, yes there are lots of lazy console ports and yes there are a lot of games dumbed down for console players, but there are still a lot of gem's out there and on PC's you do get some nice surprises such as Value releasing Alien Swarm the other day for free (nice little game as well) and all the free development packs etc

vyle

fozmcfc wrote: »

One thing to definately watch if you do get a top end card is that the power supply is powerful enough and the base unit has ample space and fans/cooling.

It reminds me of the days, when I got an ATI 9700 pro and I had to leave the side of my case slight open, otherwise my PC would just reset itself every 15 mins or so.

I personally don't believe that the absolute top end card represents good value, such as a 5890 or GTX480. Quite often it is £100 more than the second best by the same company and the benefits do not warrant spending an extra £100 on it.

PC gaming sadly is a dying a slow death, mainly due to the console now having online capabilities.

Many games are now not being converted to PC and more and more we are just seeing lazy ports of Xbox 360 or PS3 games. Some software studios can't even be bothered sometime to change menu item commands from showing Xbox 360 button configurations. Or laughable in the case of Split Second, even when plugging in an Xbox 360 controller, it shows keyboard commands for menu items.

Only games this year I'm now looking forward to are M.A.F.I.A II (can't believe the M word was censored) and Test Drive Unlimited 2, but particularly with TDU2, I can see Xbox 360 port all over it. Gone are the days of a dozen or so games being worth buying, it's now down to 3 or 4 at the most a year for me.

There may be less games coming out than there used to be, but on the plus side, at least I'll now be able to play the ones that ARE out which I haven't been able to play before. On my old PC, The Witcher ran embarrasingly slowly.

There's loads of stuff on Steam that I want, Dragon Age 2 will be better on PC than on console. And while there are a lot of lazy ports about, the super low cost of most PC games in shops (if you can find them) and the fun provided by the modding community makes up for it.