Gaming Need advice for a new PC to replace my 7 year old relic...

[xist]

So the frustration of 512Mb of RAM and 7 years of degradation in performance has finally got to me and i need a new PC!

I've done some cursory looking but since i've never been that interested in performance and PC specs i'm pretty clueless, and don't really want to get involved with a self build either. So far i've found THIS which looks ok but having done a bit of reading i've suddenly got paranoid about low grade components like shoddy PSU's or the like. However any time you modify these pre-builts using their customisation options you end up paying for more than you'd like!

Anyone have any opinions on that PC or decent alternatives for me?

 

[Urza]

What is your intended usage?

 

[xist]

I want to throw everything at it....plus future proofing. It really has to last....

I've never really been one for PC gaming but i've never had the opportunity before. I figure if i get a decent PC now i won't have to wait 4 minutes for Photoshop to start, won't need to close every single non essential process down to compress things and will be able to try my hand at everything.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Acer Predator is the kind of computer you'd want to go for, I guess. Also, it looks quite sexy.

 

[xist]

The Predator looks a tad expensive. Cheapest i can find is £850 (which is probably around £120 too expensive) and is trumped by the DELL XPS 7100. Now if only that included a monitor and i'd stretch to it...

 

[rayben]

Id suggest eBay. Got mine for less than $600 US and it plays everything out right now.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

The Predator looks a tad expensive. Cheapest i can find is £850 (which is probably around £120 too expensive) and is trumped by the DELL XPS 7100. Now if only that included a monitor and i'd stretch to it...

Oh, well, that sucks. Don't you have a spare monitor left? (I know it's not the best you can get but at least it's something to keep you entertained)

 

[xist]

Need a UK retailer =(

 

[Originality]

Core i5 will be good for another year (probably another 4 years depending on how Sandy Bridge is... I'm not holding my breath). The HD5770 will also be able to handle any game on the market (at least when using a normal sized monitor) but isn't really future proofing (it's roughly as powerful as my HD4870, which is a generation older). Considering how long you've waited for an upgrade though, I think it'll serve you well for another 5 or so years (as will mine, at least until I find a game it can't handle).

For £750, it sounds like a fairly good system. Personally though I think 500GB is too small, but 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HDDs are under £60 at Scan.co.uk (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ss1TB-Samsung-HD103SJ-Spinpoint-F3-SATA-3Gb-s-7200rpm-32MB-Cache-89-ms-NCQ-OEM). SATA III 1TB drives are just over £80 though... I've yet to see the golden reviews for them though.

On the other hand, going into a Core i7 system will make it significantly more powerful for maybe £100 more, possibly less. I'm too lazy to copy up the Custom PC mid-range build from the magazine again.

 

[BlackDave]

Things these days don't last as long as they did before

Be careful on what brand you buy and how durable it is

 

[Cermage]

i've heard good things about awd-it when it comes to buying prebuilt/you select the parts, the build it for you. from memory, they'll even overclock it for you if asked. though they seem to be a bit pricey.
http://www.awd-it.co.uk/Scripts/default.asp

 

[GundamXXX]

I dont know a good UK retailer but the following should be your main concern

Get a motherboard that either supports AM3 for AMD or Intel P55... that way upgrading your CPU is a breeze

Further more depending on budget get a gfxcard ATi HD4000 series like the HD4850 and in the end of the year when teh new gfxcard are out upgrade to a HD5000 series

RAM, get 1033 slabs 4GB.. maybe GeiL or Kingston

Power atLEAST 650 watts minimum!

the rest up to you but thats just my advice

WHy ATi btw? cheaper and on par with Nvidia imo.. but im a ati fanboy

EDIT: http://www.alternate.eu/html/index.html?shop=gb bought my PC through them, they custombuild in Belgium dont know bout the UK

 

[Originality]

I don't really know of a UK vendor similar to newegg, but for getting individual parts, Scan.co.uk is one of the best. LambdaTek, Overclockers, Novatech and Dabs are also good sources, each with their own specialities. You can try getting a complete system from YoYoTech which is based close to me in central London, but they tend to be a bit more pricey (even if they do offer better parts).

 

[HaniKazmi]

Are you sure you don't want to build your own? Its usually far cheaper, and quite easy to do.

 

[Infinite Zero]

Are you sure you don't want to build your own? Its usually far cheaper, and quite easy to do.

Good option but maybe he doesnt want the hassle to setup up EVERYTHING if he's not that a geek.

 

[xist]

I can't be bothered to be honest. I've never done it and could do without the stress of worrying about it.

Actually i've been looking at the Dell XPS 7100 again...

AMD Phenom II X6 1035T (2.60GHz, 512kx6)
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Dual Tone - UK/Irish
Display Not Included
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics card with Vision Black label
1.5TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
19 in 1 Media Card Reader
Dell Optical Scroll USB (2 buttons scroll) DUAL TONE Mouse
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with Roxio Easy CD and DVD Burn software
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Dell 1525 Wireless PCIe Network Card 802.11n
English Documentation with UK/IRL Power Cord
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
1 year of coverage included with your PC
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
McAfee® Security Centre 15 Month Protection

TOTAL Incl. VAT & Delivery :£865.11

But for the fact it'll come to 1k with a display i was looking at that. Any good? Dell are supplying a 460W PSU with it. Now i know that they'd be unlikely to do so if it was likely to fail but.....

Then i had a massive panic attack and am now fighting the urge to reduce my budget to around £500 to £600

 

[Originality]

The CPU will suit your every need (although it'd prolly be best to have it disable 3 of the cores to boost the other 3 cores) and the GPU is the most powerful single core GPU in the market (I won't bother talking about nVidia alternatives). 1.5TB will probably be more than you'll ever fill (unless you have a sizeable collection of music, games and videos). It also comes with WiFi-N which is always a nice bonus.

Speakers can be picked up cheaply (usually anything will do, although I prefer having a good headset for gaming). Monitor prices are mostly based on the size, with extras rarely giving much premium (not that you need USB/picture/music support anyway when you can do it all through your PC). It also comes with an anti-virus program, so that ticks all the boxes - you shouldn't need anything else.

460W PSU sounds kinda feeble, but if they're providing it then I assume it's all the computer needs. If at any point it fails in the next 3 years, you should easily be able to get Dell to replace it or even provide a better one - that's the guarantee you usually get with pre-built systems. Personally I prefer to look for a 600W PSU for high end GPUs, so the PSU doesn't take too much stress (power efficiency at max load is always much lower than 50-70% load), but it shouldn't matter much.

 

[GundamXXX]

I can't be bothered to be honest. I've never done it and could do without the stress of worrying about it.

Actually i've been looking at the Dell XPS 7100 again...

AMD Phenom II X6 1035T (2.60GHz, 512kx6)
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Dual Tone - UK/Irish
Display Not Included
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics card with Vision Black label
1.5TB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
19 in 1 Media Card Reader
Dell Optical Scroll USB (2 buttons scroll) DUAL TONE Mouse
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with Roxio Easy CD and DVD Burn software
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Dell 1525 Wireless PCIe Network Card 802.11n
English Documentation with UK/IRL Power Cord
1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
1 year of coverage included with your PC
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Word Starter, Excel Starter)
McAfee® Security Centre 15 Month Protection

TOTAL Incl. VAT & Delivery :£865.11

But for the fact it'll come to 1k with a display i was looking at that. Any good? Dell are supplying a 460W PSU with it. Now i know that they'd be unlikely to do so if it was likely to fail but.....

Then i had a massive panic attack and am now fighting the urge to reduce my budget to around £500 to £600

Remember that they advice extra coolers for anything above duo cores!
So if you take it make sure you place some extra coolers!