Dell 5100 - 19"TFT - 2048mb ram

bambixxx

hope you dont mind me asking here, but im looking to upgrade my son into the present day but cant afford a package , so looking for a tower with a P4 processor and the best graphics card i can get ( maybe G force?) anyone no where i can start searching???

biglugs

It really depends on what your son is going to do. If he wants to play games a lot then the AMD 64 processors are supposed to be better than the P4s, if you want to do lots of video and photo editing then the P4s are better than the AMDs.
I have a P4 3.0GHz (Dell Dimension 5100) and it's great. But I did rip out the X300SE supplied video card and put in an Nvidia 6600GT card to allow me to play more modern games (one of these will cost about £100 for a 128GB PCI-Express or AGP version).
If you're looking for a new PC I would say a decent spec to be looking at would be:
Pentium 630 (3.0 GHz) or better
512MB memory absolute minimum
160GB Hard disc drive
16x DVD/RW drive
128MB 6600GT graphics card
17" TFT monitor 16ms response time or quicker
Windows XP Home Service Pack 2
For a machine like this expect to pay around £600-£650 all in

i.e. the same as I paid for our first Apple Mac LCII 4/80 back in 1992 (4/80 meaning 4MB of memory and 80MB hard disk - that's MEGA not GIGA bytes!).

BEST place to start is probably with a copy of Computer Shopper or PC Buyer magazine - give you an idea of who is selling machines and the sorts of money to expect to pay. The November edition of Computer Shopper has a lab test of nine £680 supersystems.

cheesesarnie

hello big lugs....we've just got the 5100 with no graphics card & 19" tft with dvi....I reckon we need a graphics card...do you recommend the 6600GT on PCI express for 5100?...do you think this works well with the pc?...can you play most games with graphics turned up?

cheers

Taramitz

My husband loves to play games on our pc but it keeps getting more expensive upgrading all the time. The games that come out demand more from the machines and we keep upgrading the memory and the graphics card every couple of years. I have asked him to get an xbox but he likes to use the keyboard and mouse for playing his games. Anyone any idea where I could (if possible) buy an xbox package that will be able to use a keyboard and mouse? Or how does the xbox compare to the ps2?

cheesesarnie

i'd say...wait for the PS3 or see what the XBOX 360 is like after price has come down