That Time of Year - Updating the Gaming Rig

[Vampiric Puppet]

Cool Thanks a lot guys I really appreciate it.

Although if anyone knows of any places in the UK that buys Laptops then I'd love to know, eBay and I aren't the best of friends and I'd rather to sell to a store kind of thing.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Definatly need to wait for Eggo to chime in on this, he always has the answers.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

Does he have his own Bat Symbol or something I can flash? Or should I just prod him?

 

[TsunamiWombat]

We could use an Eggo symbol, yes. Odd he hasn't quipped in yet. Ahh well lets just be patient, not like your buying it today are you?

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

My time was when Bioshock came out. I'm good to go till the generation is done or my processor kills itself.

 

[Bowstring]

My computer just about runs Civlization III smoothly, and for that I am proud.

I'm rocking a 1GHz AMD Athlon processor here gents. Fear it.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Does he have his own Bat Symbol or something I can flash? Or should I just prod him?

Lol I could make a bargin machine that can run crysis on its highest levels probably.(And it being only around 1000$ if your going for a real good set-up and 800$ if your going barebones.)

(but you would have to build the system from the ground up but it would be amazingly cheaper then buying an AW.)

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

My computer just about runs Civlization III smoothly, and for that I am proud.

I'm rocking a 1GHz AMD Athlon processor here gents. Fear it.

I am rocking an 2.66GHz Pentium D processor from about 3-4 years ago from a bargin dell machine.

Also if you were to build your own system I would say this.(Linking you to an american shop but you will get the idea of what to buy.)

(This I do not think is the right one but.) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129113

This card can do just as much as the GX2 can do but it will run slower. The GX2 is basicly 2 cards welded together and yeah.

Intel processor Duo Core - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

Those are the two important gaming parts and those would be the best.(Wolfdale 3.16ghz whatever, Radeon 4870 and now all you need is a mobo that works and the rest you don't really need professional help.)

Pointers, Get a 700w power supply or if you want to save some money at the worst a 600w.(Also power supplies are really easy to put in thank god.)

Get a dvd drive of some sort(Blu-ray if you never want to upgrade lol.)

Then theres the case which is so varying that I do not think I could give good advice on. So something with some fans atleast, 2-3 is what your looking for so you can keep from melting your CPU and GPU.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Radeon X300.

*****.

 

[crazy-j]

It's that time of year for me again and I need to update my gaming rig (in case the title didn't warn you) and I want your guy's opinions on the ones I'm looking at. Also if you know any other sites I can get help from please tell me so I don't have to keep bugging you!





Alienware Aurora
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad Core (2.2GHz, 4 x 512Kb Cache)
Vista
4Gb Memory Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 x 1024Mb)
250Gb Hard Drive 7200 Rpm
Graphics Card 1Gb nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2
AMD 790FX Motherboard

Total - £1,212.60

ya go with that one

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

It's that time of year for me again and I need to update my gaming rig (in case the title didn't warn you) and I want your guy's opinions on the ones I'm looking at. Also if you know any other sites I can get help from please tell me so I don't have to keep bugging you!





Alienware Aurora
AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad Core (2.2GHz, 4 x 512Kb Cache)
Vista
4Gb Memory Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 x 1024Mb)
250Gb Hard Drive 7200 Rpm
Graphics Card 1Gb nVidia GeForce 9800 GX2
AMD 790FX Motherboard

Total - £1,212.60

ya go with that one

Expect he would have to be moderately talented in overclocking to ever use it for gaming.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

First question:

Why aren't you building your own system? I was so excited to post in this thread until I realized you aren't actually "upgrading the gaming rig."

How about a big E to call for you man? Or something that projects s'Ecellent

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

Sorry Eggo I don't really have the time to build my own system, work is doubling in size during the run up to Christmas and I just don't have the time (not to mention lack of technical knowledge).

Don't get me wrong I could install more RAM or a better Video Card but that only takes about 15 minutes, also I wouldn't want to spend so much cash on a mchine only to have me make an annoying but critical mistake.

I'm still not totally decided on which one to go for and I need to sell the laptops before I can buy this new system. I mean I could buy a cheaper system and then upgrade some of it but certainly not parts like the Mobo.

Why would I need to overclock the AW machine? Isn't it fine the way it is?

Oh and thanks for coming Eggo, I was about to fashion a big light for the sky

 

[Sketchy]

I'm also upgrading relatively soon. I currently have a nVidia GeForce 6200, 768 MB RAM, and an Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz proccessor.

It was a very good machine...Four years ago.

 

[CyberAkuma]

... is it just me that is shocked at the pricetag of the two computers that he listed?

Is it just me that reacts to the fact that this guy is going to buy a pre-assembled PC and going to get completely ripped off by the manufacturer for that?

For crying out loud, you can buy the equal parts, build your own system and save 40% of that price.

First of all, Quad Core is a waste, because no game really uses Quad Core. (Not even Crysis [http://blogs.pcworld.com/gameon/archives/005860.html]) You'd get more moneys worth if you go for a higher clocked Dual Core Processor (like the E8400 for instance) than any of the Quad Cores.
You'll be paying extra money for a processor that cannot use the 3rd and 4th core on the games you run, so it's really a complete waste of time.

Also, the 4GB of RAM is a complete waste unless you're running a 64-bit OS. If you're running Windows XP 32-bit or VISTA 32-bit then they cannot possibly use the 4GB of RAM that's in those, and as far as I know, gaming on 64-bit is just asking for trouble and problems.

From an experienced hardware builders point of view: DELL will cut corners on those rigs. They will cheap out on you either by putting a crap PSU or crappy RAM in those PCs. You'll get better parts, lower prices and better durability if you build this rig yourself. It's really not that hard. DEpending on the budget and depending if you ant to go AMD or Intel/ATi or nVidia you can easily build a very powerful system for an affordable price compared to the complete rip-off Alienware and DELL is.

 

[Piemaster]

Even if you can't build it yourself you could probably find someone to build it for you and still save money.

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

I'm so glad I posted on this site you guys are helpful!

I've left those two original ones behind and am looking at less high spec versions (so Dual Core, 2GB RAM etc) but I still need to cut the money down a bit more to preferably under £1000. The main thing I need to come with it is a good Mobo, Fans and preferably a Hard Drive. I've got 2GB RAM from the Crucial site (2x 1GB i think) in an old computer I can use.

I know how to intall Graphics Card, HDs, RAM and stuff like that but extra fans, mobos and giant watercooling system I can't do.

So I think that I'm going to go for a cheaper system and then put some of it in myself, but aren't the Raw parts expensive as well? And where is a good place to get them? does New Egg ship internationally?

 

[CyberAkuma]

New Egg does sadly not ship internationally, but that doesn't mean that you can find means to get around that.
I live in Sweden and I got a friend in the US to order the parts for me and then he shipped it to me. Trust me. Electronics like these in are 40-50% cheaper overseas (which is fucking ludicrous) and there's a valid strong reason why you should maybe go to great lengths in getting your stuff off NewEgg.

Other options would be trustable computer houses in your area that sell seperate comptuer hardware parts. Tell them what you want to do and if it's any self-respecing buisness, they'll be more than willing to help you. Tell them you know which parts you want and ask them to do a claculation estimate how much it's going to cost you. It's really not that hard.

The raw parts aren't really that much expensive - and fact is you have very broad variety of parts you can chose that fits your bill perfectly - one of the many advantages of building your own system.

When you say install extra fans, what do you really refer to? Do you want to strip out old fans form a PC case and replace them with better fans? In that case it's really easy because fans are cheap, they have a pretty international standard on the sizes of those.
Water cooling in my opinion is a complete waste of money unless you're doing some serious overclocking. They are many, many great aftermarket CPU fans/heatsinks out there that can lower your CPU temperature and have a significant silencing effect that cost a fraction of the price of watercooling. Not to even mention the rediculous prices of waterblocks on GPUs and CPUs that cost almost $100 each.

EDIT: Can't you order parts from Amazon.co.uk?

 

[Vampiric Puppet]

I took your advice and chatted to a mate of mine who makes and sells desktops, he wasn't keen to sell me one (which i can understand) but said he would help me with the building if I ever needed it and said it was easy.

I've got a Dell Dimension 5000 sat next to me not even plugged in so I can use that for the base system so to speak, or can I? I have to admit I didn't know it would be that much cheaper and that is so much better, if I can get it down to like £500 or even £800 that would be brilliant!

When I say installing extra fans I'm concerned that cooling the system will be a problem and I would need to add extra fans and water cooling which I very much DON'T want to do.

EDIT: Can't you order parts from Amazon.co.uk?

Cheers mate this totally didn't occur to me! I'll have a look in a minute at the kinds of things they have.

If it's very much cheaper it looks like building a PC would be better even if it would take longer! Come Back Eggo! Don't leave yet!

Would I need like a special area and stuff to ground me to make sure I didn't get an electric shock? Later I'll post the Specs of the Dimension next to me and see if it's a good place to start from.