Help! Desktop PC - Need to buy in 3hrs!

beach86

Hey,

I'm looking at purchasing a desktop PC for my brother. I'm looking for something fairly decent which would be suitable for occasional gaming. I am currently looking at a PC with the following specs:

Processor Type: Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM Memory: 3072 MB
Hard Disk Capacity : 250 Gb (small but not an issue as i have a 500Gb external HD)
Drives Fitted: DVDRW Dual Layer
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8400 Graphics
Operating system: Vista Premium

I believe this is quite a good system, with a price tag of 629.99 with a 20" AOC Widescreen TFT.

The one component i have an issue with is the graphics card, would this is suitable for occasional gaming? It is fairly decent?

Any other recommendations for PC's around £600 would be greatfully received!

Cheers and thanks for your help!
Beach86

Shambler

The graphics card is a weak link, OK for casual gaming though and he could always upgrade to a 8800GT ( about £180 ) at a later stage.

You could always have a look at www.novatech.co.uk but the system you describe above is good power for the money.

Blacksheep1979

graphics card is pants and tbh nothing you're likely to use will use the quad core cpu - downgrade the cpu and upgrade the gpu and it should end up about the same price. Also get rid of vista and/or have matching ram which I doubt the 3gb will be - is it 2x1gb + 2x512mb or 3x1gb?

beach86

I think it was 3x1gb. And i think your right about downgrading the CPU and upping the graphics. Only the site its on doesnt allow you to customise (PC World), i am now looking into other sites.

Anyone used meshcomputers.com?

What i dont understand is how this graphics card is being used in gaming computers: http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=232135

Any ideas?

Blacksheep1979

mesh is ok - still wouldn't go for the quad core cpu and they call it a gaming computer but nobody serious about gaming would buy a pc from pc world

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=244733&APPS=234442

that one's probably better as it has an ok gfx card - you may find you get a better deal from dell though

beach86

I have had a look at Dell, slighty out of my price range...what you do think of this:

Isys Elite Pro - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2048mb DDR2 667Mhz 320GB SATAII nVidia 8600GT 512MB PCI-E Grahpics DVDRW Vista Premium

£477 - excluding Moniter from http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?PC-1109

Really appreciating your help Blacksheep!

Blacksheep1979

That's not bad - now if you can get them to do it with XP instead of vista...

beach86

Yeah they can do, slighty more expensive but do able. I havent really looked into Vista before and dont really know much about it. Whats so bad about it? Isnt there a service pack expected soon which will really improve it?

Also isnt DX10 only supported by Vista?

BillScarab

Nothing wrong with Vista on a new machine although I wouldn't recommend upgrading an older one. Don't worry about DX10too much as there are no exclusively DX10 games yet. If you can't find something at Dell try www.pcspecialist.co.uk they have a good reputation and you can configure a lot of the components yourself. Personally I woudl go for a Core 2 Duo processor and a decent graphics card, basically anything with 8800 in the name but preferably the 8800GT or possibly the ATI Radeon 3850/3870 range which is not quite as good but cheaper.