Advice needed for buying a new desktop.

xEmmax_3

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a new desktop for uni but I have no idea where to start. I've been looking at HUKD recently to see if anything crops up but I've been baffled by all the tech talk in the comments, I have no idea what's good and what's not!
I've set a budget of £400 for the base machine but I'm not sure if that's a realistic budget really, I'm not sure where to start!
My current desktop has 500GB HD, 2GB RAM and a NVidia GEforce 7300 LE graphics card. It's okay but I like to play the Sims 3 and lately it's just shut down whenever I'm playing the Sims, as though it's overloaded. I make sure to shut down all unnecessary processes before I play on the Sims 3 so I don't know why it overloads. It does the same sometimes when watching youtube or movies, just cuts off. Is there a reason it does this? Can I change anything so it doesn't?

When buying a new desktop, what features should I be looking out for?

Can anybody point me in the right direction for a good value desktop capable of playing the Sims 3 and for editing images and videos? I'm hoping for spec at least the same as this one (500GB HD/2GB expandable RAM). I've looked on ebuyer and they all seem to have integrated graphics cards which I've heard is a bad thing.

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

santer_2

Try here

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

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

Also, try their live chat option to ask about suitable spec

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/pc/home/

Or use the build your own option

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/pcs/

With pcspecialist, maybe see what novatech say, and what the replies on here are before using build your own, though you can e-mail them as well

Email:[EMAIL="enquiries@pcspecialist.co.uk"]enquiries@pcspecialist.co.uk[/EMAIL]
Have used both companies, pcspecialist can take a while but no problems with build quality

xEmmax_3

Thank you very much for your reply.
I had a look at the links and the novatech ones seem to have integrated graphics, are they alright for games? Or would it be recommended to buy a separate graphics card, assuming an external one can be added?

Would machines like these; http://www.ebuyer.com/271600-extra-value-desktop-7873-1043 or http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-extra-value-desktop-7873-1036 be worth buying and upgrading the graphics card? Or are those processors no good for video editing and running games?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm a computer newbie

John_Gray

xEmmax wrote: »

I like to play the Sims 3 and lately it's just shut down whenever I'm playing the Sims, as though it's overloaded.

Power off the system unit, remove the power lead from the back of it, and remove the side of the case. Check whether the fans (and the rest of the insides!) have any dust or fluff, and try to clean it off with a hair paint-brush and perhaps (but very carefully) a vacuum cleaner. Alternatively, if you have a can of compressed air, take the system unit outside, in the dry, and blast the insides with the compressed air to remove the dust.
This might enable you to play games without it overheating (if that's what the problem is/was).

There's a program called CoreTemp which might tell you if Stuff is getting too hot.

stilltheone

Seems a big step to buy a new PC before looking at simply upgrading your Graphics Card.

First of all, you should take the side off your current PC and clean out any dust that may be blocking the vents, leading to overheating and cutting out.

Then there is the possibility of increasing RAM and upgrading the graphics card.

Does your PC have a make and model number?

John_Gray

stilltheone wrote: »

[...]

We can't keep on giving similar replies to posts, two minutes apart!

xEmmax_3

Thank you again for your advice, I will try cleaning the fans and see if that helps. It's my dad's PC so I will need to buy one of my own for university but I was hoping to get one with similar spec or whatever I can get for the money, I'm not sure where to start really though. I don't know the model number of the PC, would it be on the tower somewhere?

xEmmax_3

Sorry to bump this but does anyone know if this desktop is worth getting? : http://www.ebuyer.com/251310-extra-value-desktop-7873-1036 ? It seems to have everything but it's cheap, I can't see anything wrong with it with my untrained eyes! If someone could point me in the right direction I'd be really grateful.

spakkker

That system has no os - operating system ie Windows , this costs from £38 as a student , I think??

This has w7 -£220 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-Pentium-2-5Ghz-Windows-Premium/dp/B001Q9EV54/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1313691109&sr=8-6

£180 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-Intel-Celeron-2-4ghz-Premium/dp/B002MRRKQG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1313691109&sr=8-4

Onboard graphics so need to add a graphics card £30 ++ - ????? They will take pci-e cards.

Odunican

Overclockers and CConline are great sites they sell pre-builds and also motherboard bundles which include CPU, Motherboard and RAM. If you can build one yourself I recommend doing that as to buy the parts yourself is much cheaper. Plus generally on this two websites most parts have 3+ warranty.

Funny enough I am building a desktop myself at the moment to run Sims3 on ultra settings. Look on the Sims 3 website for the system specs. I recommend at least a dual-core CPU but if your editing then maybe a quad core would be better.

As I am a newbie I can't post links but go on cclonline.com and then under systems choice the gaming systems and then there is a system for 409 (But this is without windows) Maybe your friend has a windows disc or something. Anyway this will be fine for the sims3.

Bare in mind for your budget your not going to be able to play on ultra settings but it will be fine on low/med settings. I am spending like £600 on a new desktop but I totally understand that you might not have the finance.


What you have to understand and I didn't know about this till I was told, is that everything needs to work together. If you get a certain graphics card you might need a power supply with a higher watt. Like I am buying a NVIDIA 560ti and I only have a 450 power supply and you need 550w for the 560ti. So I have to buy a new power supply. And its not just the graphics that makes the game look better/run smoother but also the CPU (Yanno that thing that says like Intel core duo 2.3 or blah blah) and if you get a new CPU then you probs need a new motherboard that matches and then that would need RAM that also matched.

If you do some reasearch and ask questions then you will reap the rewards and have a system that runs the sims 3 smoothly and will last you a good few years.

And yeah pcspecialist is a good site I got mine built there.