gaming pc on a budget?

Anselm

Hi mse, first post here so forgive if this had been done.
Basically I'm looking for a desktop or laptop.
The things I want either to do is play the total war franchise strategy games (need 4 gb RAM) and other strategy games like mn if war.
Would it be better to get a quad core or I3?
And what Gpus would be good? NVIDIA etc.
If any of you could link me to a decent desktop or laptop (don't need a monitor) then it'd be much appreciated. My budget is about 300-350

atrixblue.-MFR-.

your stretched with a £300 -50 budget. anything to play modern games on needs to be well within min specs. a gaming machine system bundle will set you back £490+ for a core i3-i5 second gen with a GTX or ATI HD graphics card, and a hard drive and decent motherboard.

a laptop might just not do the deal for you either, with £300 budget your looking at a very basic laptop.

something like this will run your games freely http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-237-OK&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat=

even the asus aspire quad core AMD laptops are out of your range http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-160-AC

Chickabiddybex

For that price you're not going to get a decent gaming laptop or PC. There is just no way.
Even if you managed to somehow find something that could JUST play them on the lowest settings... it would be out of date in no time.

I recommend getting a PS3 or an XBox. Second hand you can get an Xbox for £100. Then get a more basic laptop or PC - £250.

i3 is good and if you have 4gb RAM with it you can do stuff like play The Sims 3. However this isn't going to be enough for the Call of Duty games.

As for the Total War franchise, I'm not familiar with the latest games. I suggest visiting their official website and checking what minimum specs you need to play them and go from there.

Nividia is a good brand, yes. But likely out of your price range.

Anselm

The recommended Specs for the 2nd to latest game requires these:

OS: Windows Vista/XP/7 Processor: 2.6 GHz Dual Core CPU Memory: 2 GB RAM (XP), 4 GB RAM (Vista/Windows 7) Graphics: 512 MB DirectX 9.0c shader model 3 compatible GPU DirectX: DirectX 9.0c Hard Drive: 21 GB free space.

The Specs for the one i most want to play recommended is:
1.0 ghz pro 256mb ram, 2.8gb hdd space, 8x cd-rom 64mb directx 9.0b compatible video card 16-bit

So What kind of computer would play both of those easily? I don't mind going overbudget to £500 because i can save up, i just want to know what pc would play it

I have an xbox 360. Thanks for the replies!
out of interest, is quad core worthwhile?

Chickabiddybex

www (dot) cclonline (dot) com/product/71912/NoMfgCode/All-CCL-Systems/CCL-Elite-Hawk-Gaming-System/CCL-EL-HWK/
(sorry, as I'm new I can't post links)

AMD Bulldozer FX-4 Quad Core 4100 Black Edition 3.60Ghz (Socket AM3+) Processor
8GB RAM
500gb hard drive (sounds a lot but if you're installing a lot of games it's handy!)
Asus Radeon HD 6770 1GB Graphics Card

PLEASE NOTE If you want Windows included (and I'm assuming you do) then the price is £480

Anselm

Thanks a lot! Are there any free OS's? And does it come with a monitor because i don't really need one, thanks for your help

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Anselm wrote: »

Thanks a lot! Are there any free OS's? And does it come with a monitor because i don't really need one, thanks for your help

you wont get a free install of MS Windows period these are optional extra's.

Windows 7 ultimate 64bit will utalise all 8GB of memory, as suppose to 32bit system wich only recognise 3-4GB of memory even if 16GB was installed physically into the tower.

many games dont run on the likes of a mac operating system.

youll have to expand your budget if you want a low end gaming rig.

Anselm

Bearing in mind i don't want a state of the art rig, what would you recommend and what budget? I don't want it to play the most modern games on max settings, simply to play strategy games comfortably (And i also want to use it for college work)

Derivative

I have not really kept up with modern hardware lately, but a key point to keep in mind is that a laptop will be drastically less powerful than a desktop at the same price point. Especially at the low end of the range.

If you want a 'Gaming PC', as opposed to a PC that just about plays games at a stretch, a laptop is a bad idea. It's like bringing a people carrier to a rally.

Anselm

Ok thanks a lot, i'll stick with a desktop then! Would it be cheaper and better value for money to buy the parts individually and just build a computer?

gonzo127

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=1213 is always a reasonable starting point but of course requires a monitor adding which will bump up the price