As the title explains, I am needing a new PC, a gaming PC to be specific. PC hardware, however, is something I understand nothing about. For £579, I can get a PC with the following specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 820 Processor
4GB Memory
500GB Hard Drive
No monitor
ATI Radeom HD 5450 Graphics Card
Intergrated HDA 7.1 Audio
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Int Gigabit NIC
I am wondering how good this PC is, gaming-wise. Any notable games it should be able to make pretty? I'm not necessarily expecting to be able to play Crysis on full (although that would certainly be nice), but more S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Dawn Of War II, Company Of Heroes, Metro 2033 etc.
Also, would my best bet this PC, an Alienware one for over 3 time more, or building my own (probably the PC Gamer rig, seems simple enough) for about double this one? Thanks.
Wow, you almost made a usable PC. No way I would pay 600 pounds for that.
Radeon 5450 is, if I'm not mistaken, the weakest of the 5xxx series. Get a bit smaller HDD, get a better GPU. Or just buy a good 4xxx or a GeForce 285/295. Seriously.
Oh, and don't EVER buy Alienware. Half of the price is for the brand. The rest is wasted on a sub-par equipment.
Also, I would get a bit weaker CPU if the price is too tight. Oh, and you'll need a good enough power supply.
Personally I wouldn't recommend going less than the 5650 and the 5770 seems to be a good compromise on price V performance if you can't afford a 58xx card.
Still, I agree, the GPU is the weak link in this speccing.
Personally I wouldn't recommend going less than the 5650 and the 5770 seems to be a good compromise on price V performance if you can't afford a 58xx card.
Still, I agree, the GPU is the weak link in this speccing.
Well, if 5350 is the GeForce 9300 of the cards, then 5450 is the equivalent of GF 9400.
Still, 5650 costs almost as much as 4850 or 4950, and the only thing good about it is DirectX 11. And the only game worth it right now is Battlefield BC 2. But as with every other DX, version higher means worse performance.
Go with a 4xxx series if you can't afford at least 5750 or higher. 58xx would be, however, the best.
OR TRIPLE CROSSFIRE!! Wait, you can triple crossfire, right? If not, then GeForce 490 and triple SLI it.
Also, would my best bet this PC, an Alienware one for over 3 time more, or building my own (probably the PC Gamer rig, seems simple enough) for about double this one? Thanks.
Avoid Alienware, for the money you can get much better even from off the peg builders.
For off the peg I recommend http://www.meshcomputers.com/ or YoyoTech (google them), budget wise I'd suggest aiming somewhere in the middle of those two prices. For pure gaming £500 will leave you some poor quality parts or a shady builder, neither of which you want. For a couple of hundred more you can get good quality and better performance even if the numbers on the spec sheets don't go up much.
Also, deals and builds that look too good to be true usually are.
If you build it yourself other people will be more help than me, but budget extra in for a good power supply. As a rule of thumb try to put a little less than 20% of your budget into the power supply. Yes, that's a lot of money, but it's better than having a cheap one that either doesn't give the right voltages, doesn't give them consistently or or outright fails and damages othe parts of your machine.
As long as you're willing to build yourself, you can save a good deal of cash compared to prebuilt PCs. I'm not sure of the specs of the PC Gamer build, but for slightly more than the PC you listed:
Motherboard: ASUS AMD 870 [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-M4A87TD-USB3-AMD-870-S-AM3-PCI-E-20-(x16)-DDR3-2000(OC)-SATA-6Gb-s-SATA-RAID-ATX]
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 440 [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/AMD-Athlon-II-X3-440-Rana-Triple-Core-S-AM3-30GHz-15MB-Cache-HT-4000MHz-95W-Retail] (triple core 3.1 GHz)
Memory: 4 GB Corsair DDR3-1600 [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-(2x2GB)-Corsair-XMS3-DDR3-PC3-12800-(1600)-Non-ECC-Unbuffered-CAS-9-9-9-24-XMP-165V]
GPU: XFX Radeon 5770 [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-XFX-HD5770-PCI-E-20(x16)-4800MHz-GDDR5-GPU-850MHz-Cores-800-2x-DL-DVI-I-HDMI]
PSU: Corsair 550w [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-Corsair-CMPSU-550VXUK-ATX-PS-2-5-year-Warranty]
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ss1TB-Samsung-HD103SJ-Spinpoint-F3-SATA-3Gb-s-7200rpm-32MB-Cache-89-ms-NCQ-OEM]
Case: Antec 200 [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Antec-Two-Hundred-Value-Gaming-Case-HOT-SWAP-SATA-HDD-BAY-included-10-drive-bays-140mmplus120mm-fans]
Optical: Samsung SATA DVD-RW [http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Samsung-SH-S223C-BEBE-22x-DVDR-12x-DVDR-DVDplusRW-x8-RW-x6-SATA-Black-OEM]
=~£570
(You'll need to shell out for an OS, monitor, and peripherals if you don't have them already)
Sense dell bought alienware, their price skyrocketed (i have an old alienware that still stands strong that i got for about $1.5k), if you want to custom build it, but dont want to actually build it, go through cyberpower, they do a good job (but dont try to contact their customer support).
If you want metro 2033 on full, ull need a GTX 470 or one of the dx 11 radeon cards (i heard the MSI R5770 is good and cheap)
powersupplys are not that bad, u can usually find a sale on a big one at 1/2 price pretty easily
(i got a new Rosewill 950W for 80$)
4 GB of memory is fine, should be ddr3 (make sure the motherboard is also DDR3 and supports the ram's frequency, ex. 1600, 1333, ...)
good pick on AMD Phenom 2 for your processor, you will probably be happier with the 965, but that is ur choice (i often get annoyed with my processor maxing, and if you want to play strategy games, a faster processor will help)
make sure you get a case with enough cooling and size, thermal paste for ur processor, may want to get something better then a heatsink for your processor
make sure your motherboard supports all this
(PCI 2.0, proper processor socket, (believe both your original and the 965 use the AMD 3 socket but can work on the 2+)
if your using steam a 500GB should be fine
(i) dont care about the card reader
integrated audio is fine, but getting an audio card can help relieve stress on your processor (purely optional though)
never had an issue with integrated nic, but same argument as the integrated audio
no CD/DVD/(and/or Blueray) drive?
1920x1200 monitors are nice, 1920x1080(aka 1080i/1080p) are not bad anything less, you may want to consider an upgrade
keyboard, mouse
this setup will give you a solid pc for quite a while
though abedeus's build wont hurt if you are strapped for cash more then im expecting (i doubt considering you actually considered the alienware) but it might start struggling quickly
my build is as follows and plays most current games at max settings (even gives crysis a run for its money) though it is not a DX11 machine
case -Azza Solano 1000 (full tower)
motherboard-MSI NF980-G65
processor -AMD Phenom II x4 955 (with ASETEK 120MM WATERCOOLER)
video card -MSI GTX260
power -Rosewill Xtreme Series RX950-D-B
CD/DVD drive (with cd and DVD-R burner)
monitor -Acer H233H
keyboard -Logitech G15 (the display helps keep tabs on my comp temperature)
thats about it for the important stuff (i have 500gb hdd, speakers, headset, mouse, but nothing special there)
total rig was about $1100 (estimate) which i believe is about 765 pounds
switching out the MSI GTX260 for the MSI R5770 Hawk would save u $10 and get u DX11, but thats your choice, both cards have solid cooling systems
The azza solano 1000 is a full tower, so it is a bit big, but it has excellent cooling and wire management, the azza helios 910 is a mid tower of similar configuration, be a bit harder to fit together due to the smaller size, but it still has good cooling and the modular front.
so far, my build works wonders with Windows 7 64 bit professional
It's pretty good, overall, though it looks like Steelseries and OCZ advertise with the magazine
You could do a little better for a similar price by spending less on peripherals and using the cash to fund upgrades to more essential components. Specifically:
-Instead of the gaming-specific keyboard and mouse, grab a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 1.1 and basic keyboard.
-Swap the Radeon 5830 for a 5850, which is noticeably faster. Or, save some cash by finding a 4890, which has similar performance to the 5830.
-Instead of the Ecogreen F2 hard drive, get the newer, faster Spinpoint F3.
-Consider an 870-series motherboard for the newer chipset which includes USB3 and SATA6Gbps support (faster data ports).
As the title explains, I am needing a new PC, a gaming PC to be specific. PC hardware, however, is something I understand nothing about. For £579, I can get a PC with the following specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 820 Processor
4GB Memory
500GB Hard Drive
No monitor
ATI Radeom HD 5450 Graphics Card
Intergrated HDA 7.1 Audio
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Int Gigabit NIC
I am wondering how good this PC is, gaming-wise. Any notable games it should be able to make pretty? I'm not necessarily expecting to be able to play Crysis on full (although that would certainly be nice), but more S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Dawn Of War II, Company Of Heroes, Metro 2033 etc.
Also, would my best bet this PC, an Alienware one for over 3 time more, or building my own (probably the PC Gamer rig, seems simple enough) for about double this one? Thanks.
its a decent system other than the gpu. i would go for building your own. go for a really powerful dual core or a quad core, most games dont take more than 2 cores anyway, so its really up to you. for a gpu go for a ATI: 4870 or up, or a 5750 or up or for nVIDIA: 260 gtx or up. Alienware desktops arent cost effective, avoid them.
Good Idea, anyway its no good buying in all these parts unless you know how to install eveything ( even the fiddly bastard wires etc) but the specs being thrown around will be more than enough for the games stated.
As the title explains, I am needing a new PC, a gaming PC to be specific. PC hardware, however, is something I understand nothing about. For £579, I can get a PC with the following specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 820 Processor
4GB Memory
500GB Hard Drive
No monitor
ATI Radeom HD 5450 Graphics Card
Intergrated HDA 7.1 Audio
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Int Gigabit NIC
I am wondering how good this PC is, gaming-wise. Any notable games it should be able to make pretty? I'm not necessarily expecting to be able to play Crysis on full (although that would certainly be nice), but more S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Dawn Of War II, Company Of Heroes, Metro 2033 etc.
Also, would my best bet this PC, an Alienware one for over 3 time more, or building my own (probably the PC Gamer rig, seems simple enough) for about double this one? Thanks.
Never buy a pre-built pc if you have the knowledge and resources to make your own(And since you have the internet you can practically check off the knowledge bit, and even resources if you want to buy a soldering iron and some special glue/gel). As far as the actual parts I'd stick with the usual nvidia/ati, intel, etc. Offbrand parts are nice but the support and reliability of top shelf parts just can't be beat. I'd say go to a site like newegg.com and just look around at stuff. Also since it's on my mind, unless you're going to be using multiple monitors for some reason never buy multiple video cards(buying two weaker cards and having them do the work of one is a cheaper alternative but overall a bad move).
After following bam13302's advice and checking out Cyber Power, I assembled a computer while doing a little research. I was wondering if there was anything superfluous I could remove or components I could change to cheaper alternatives without too much of a hit on performance. The rig comes to roughly £1600, but ideally, I'd like it closer to £1000. Specs below:
Case: AZZA Solano 1000 Full-Tower Advance Cooling Case w/ Dual 230mm Fan + Extra 3 Fans
Case Fan: Maximum Case Cooling Fans for your selected case, and match the colour of the fans already in the case
Noise Reduction: Cyberpower Anti-Vibration Fan Mounts and Cyberpower Power Supply Gasket
CPU: Intel Core i7 860 2.80GHZ 8MB Cache LGA1156
CD: Sony Optiarc 22X DVD+R/+RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
Cable: None
Dongles: None
Motherboard: ASUS U3S6 Storage USB 3.0 / SATA 3 Expansion X4 PCIE card, it provides extra 2 external USB 3 and 2 internal SATA 3 ports
Fan: Asetek LCLC 240 Liquid Cooling system w/ 240MM Radiator and Dual Fans
Hard Drive Cooler: Vigor iSURF II Hard Disk Drive Cooling System
Flashmedia: Internal 52in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer
Floppy Drive: None
HDD: Single Hard Drive (1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16M Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive)
IEEE Card: None
Keyboard: None
Mouse: Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical PS2/USB Mouse
Monitor: 22" TFT Active Matrix LCD Display [+94] (22" (21.6" Viewable) WIDE 5MS TFT Active Matrix LCD Display Monitor)
Motherboard: Asus P7P55 LX Intel P55 Chipset CrossFireX Support DDR3 LGA1156 ATX Mainboard w/ 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB2.0, SATA-II, RAID, 2 Gen2 PCIe, 2 PCIe X1, & 3 PCI
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) PC16000 DDR3/1800mhz Triple Channel Memory (G.SKILL Ripjaw GBRH Series w/Heat Spreader)
Network: Onboard 10/100 Network card
Overclock: S&S (Safe and stable overclock 10% to 20%)
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
Power Supply: 1300 Watts Power Supplies (Tagan 1300W TG1300-U33 SuperRock Power Supply)
Wiring: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU
Speakers: Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
UPS: Belkin 6-Socket Surge Protector
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX470 1280MB 16X PCI Express (I'm pretty sure this includes PhysX)
WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11n 300Mbps Network Interface Card
WAP: None
Looks reasonable, though I know nothing about ATI graphics cards, except that the 4870 I got was broken and then I broke it even more while trying to fix it with a BIOS flash.
I just looked up the 5450, and for that price, you won't get much except the need to upgrade fast.
I've been using an 8800GT for a long while, and that can run all the games you mentioned on medium-high settings (except Metro 2033, which is closer to medium). I hear the 9800GT is almost the same, but is cheaper (Around £75, while my 8800 cost £125 with a copy of Crysis)
Also, if you're using a 32 bit OS, you can probably remove one of those sticks of RAM (though keep it if you can afford it)
And do you really need the NIC? most motherboards have a network socket in the back (though I don't know what they usually are. What motherboard are you using?)
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