So I'm getting a new PC

[Pastorius]

And I have £600-700 to spend.

What can I get for that?

[Rats]

case, cpu, mobo, ram, video card, hdd, sound card, nic, cd drive/cupholder, mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers/headphones. did i miss anything?

[forthepeopleofthesun]

I just bought a new PC.

3.2 Ghz Pentium4
160 GB HDrive (+ 120gb drive I already own)
1 GB RAM
Audigy 2
256 ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
DVD-ROM
DVD-RW
XP Professional
19" LCD

and yes, it's a Dell XPS.

I did the math, and to build the same machine myself would've cost more than just having it put together for me by Dell. The video card alone would've cost about $750. Plus the Pentium Processor has the 64-bit extensions like an AMD chip, so it'll be able to game like a beast.

[Chanandler Bong]

I sure could use a new pc. Mine is old.

[Benzum]

Depends where you go
Im saving up for a PC, Its going to take a loooong time :lol:

[Let's Chop Cats!]

You can probably buy a computer for that much.

[Pastorius]

You can probably buy a computer for that much.

Uuuuuh, I was planning on doing that?

[Pastorius]

I can't see how my friends manage to get good PC's for so little.

[Chanandler Bong]

I'd like to get an Alienware Gaming pc but I can't affford it.

[Pastorius]

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/matrix_1_4.htm

That doesn't look too bad.

Or I could stretch to http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/xtreme_1.htm#

The second one looks quite good for the price. Does having 2 graphics cards make a siginificant difference?

[Let's Chop Cats!]

If you know anything about computers you can customize one for a lot cheaper.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ I'm sure there are more site which do the same thing.

[wearer of socks]

I plan on building one soon, but i have no idea what im doing.

[cheesepuff]

I'd like to get an Alienware Gaming pc but I can't affford it.

Don't. They charge you an obscene amount of money.

Pastorius: Yes and no, from what I've heard, you'd be better off spending the money you would for two cards to get one good one.

[ThePatient]

If you know anything about computers you can customize one for a lot cheaper.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ I'm sure there are more site which do the same thing.
That site made all of my graduation money want to jump out of my pocket.

I think I'll pass though and go to the next Computer Show with my dad's friend and have him put one together for me. He's gone there and put together top of the line caliber computers with an LCD monitor for about $1,000.

[Lionheart1827]

Uuuuuh, I was planning on doing that?

He probably thought you were asking about buying individual parts to build a computer, like from Newegg.com.

Its not uncommon, quite a few people have built pcs from scratch on these forums. I believe DBJ and Ramsey have, so have I.

It's not a very daunting task, in fact, selecting the parts you want is harder than putting it all together imo. :thumb:

It's a good idea and saves ton of money:

1)you get all the parts you want, and no extra garbage you dont
2)you get warranties on each individual part
3)many prebuilt companies(like dell) require you to upgrade only dell specified parts, especially ram, when you build your own, you can upgrade whenever you want
4)you can spend 900 dollars and buy an OK prebuilt PC from Dell, OR you can build a much better PC for the same amount

it all depends on if you want to learn. :thumb:

I plan on building one soon, but i have no idea what im doing.
Make sure your learn and be careful what you buy. My friend made a mistake in buying a CPU that wasn't compatible with the motherboard that he bought. He ended up trying to force the CPU down onto the motherboard, messing breaking off some of the pins on the CPU and nearly cracking the motherboard. Luckily for warranty, he was able to get his money back and select a compatible motherboard and get a new CPU. :thumb:

[Amit]

He probably thought you were asking about buying individual parts to build a computer, like from Newegg.com.

Its not uncommon, quite a few people have built pcs from scratch on these forums. I believe DBJ and Ramsey have, so have I.

It's not a very daunting task, in fact, selecting the parts you want is harder than putting it all together imo. :thumb:

It's a good idea and saves ton of money:

1)you get all the parts you want, and no extra garbage you dont
2)you get warranties on each individual part
3)many prebuilt companies(like dell) require you to upgrade only dell specified parts, especially ram, when you build your own, you can upgrade whenever you want
4)you can spend 900 dollars and buy an OK prebuilt PC from Dell, OR you can build a much better PC for the same amount

it all depends on if you want to learn. :thumb:

123!

Building your computer is great :)

[Wykydtron XI]

I just bought a new PC.

3.2 Ghz Pentium4
160 GB HDrive (+ 120gb drive I already own)
1 GB RAM
Audigy 2
256 ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
DVD-ROM
DVD-RW
XP Professional
19" LCD

and yes, it's a Dell XPS.



Mind if I ask how much that cost?

[The Half Pint]

I just bought a new PC.

3.2 Ghz Pentium4
160 GB HDrive (+ 120gb drive I already own)
1 GB RAM
Audigy 2
256 ATI Radeon X850 XT PE
DVD-ROM
DVD-RW
XP Professional
19" LCD

and yes, it's a Dell XPS.

I did the math, and to build the same machine myself would've cost more than just having it put together for me by Dell. The video card alone would've cost about $750. Plus the Pentium Processor has the 64-bit extensions like an AMD chip, so it'll be able to game like a beast.
You got one of those nerdy computers...

[Amit]

All the uber benchmark power whores make me laugh/sad.

Oh well.

[Pastorius]

Yeah I was considering building my own, but most sites that sell individual parts to the UK are just as expensive as getting a normal one.

[JACK!]

Check the Ad Trader. There's lots of companies around South Wales that will build one to your specifaccations and they're always much cheaper. I think there's one in Bedwas Industrial Estate.

[Phalanx]

people who build computers are geeks

[Chanandler Bong]

Don't. They charge you an obscene amount of money.

Yeah, I noticed. Its rediculous.

[CarnageFairy]

The second one looks quite good for the price. Does having 2 graphics cards make a siginificant difference?

No.

Having two graphics cards (What's known as SLI) is more or less a waste of money at this point.

Not all games support it, and the performance jump it gives you doesn't justify the price at all in my opinion.

I think the first link you gave (the 800 dollar one) is a pretty good deal.

[Let's Chop Cats!]

.....
The games don't have to support it, it doesn't work on a game by game bases. Justify the price for preformance is all opinion.

The point of having two graphics cards is really to buy one now, and then later on down the line when they newer cards come out you buy the same one again and have two running the same things that the 1 new card can. It can save you money in the long run, if your that kind of person.

[Amit]

.....
The games don't have to support it, it doesn't work on a game by game bases. Justify the price for preformance is all opinion.

The point of having two graphics cards is really to buy one now, and then later on down the line when they newer cards come out you buy the same one again and have two running the same things that the 1 new card can. It can save you money in the long run, if your that kind of person.

Of course, by the time one card becomes obsolescent, then two cards will do barely anything because it's all architecture differences, not lack of power.

You can have all the DirectX 9 power in the world, but it won't help at all with DirectX 12 or whatever down the line.

[CarnageFairy]

.....
The games don't have to support it, it doesn't work on a game by game bases. Justify the price for preformance is all opinion.


The currently supported applications are as follows:

Aquamark3
Battlefield 1942 Desert Combat Mod
battlefield Vietnam
City of Heroes
Code Creatures Pro
Colin McRae Rally 4 Demo
Command and Conquer: Generals
Doom3
FarCry
Ground Control 2
Half-Life 2
Halo
Painkiller
Sims 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness
Tron 2
Unreal Engine 3
Warhammer: Dawn of War
3DMark2003 Gold
3DMark2005 Gold

The point of having two graphics cards is really to buy one now, and then later on down the line when they newer cards come out you buy the same one again and have two running the same things that the 1 new card can. It can save you money in the long run, if your that kind of person.

Yes, this is the theory behind sli, but the fact that the next generation of graphics cards will be here soon anyway kinda makes SLI seem like it should have stayed buried (To me, at least.).

[Original-Kris]

people who build computers are geeks

Lol tell us soemthing we dont know

[Let's Chop Cats!]

Almost all those games came out before SLI was even introduced, how is it that they were made to work for SLI. Games are specifically made to work with SLI is what i was trying to say.

Nvidia's next card is the 7800 series. When that comes out a 6800 will drop in price. So instead of buying a 7800 for 500 you can buy a 2nd 6800 for like 250 and have the same proformance.

[Amit]

Did you read this?

Of course, by the time one card becomes obsolescent, then two cards will do barely anything because it's all architecture differences, not lack of power.

You can have all the DirectX 9 power in the world, but it won't help at all with DirectX 12 or whatever down the line.

It's like saying ah, 10 ATI Rage 128's = 1 ATI Radeon X850 Pro

[CarnageFairy]

When that comes out a 6800 will drop in price. So instead of buying a 7800 for 500 you can buy a 2nd 6800 for like 250 and have the same proformance.

While you won't get the same amount of performance as the new GPUs (2 x 6600 GT = $360, SLI supported mobo = $175, whereas one 6800ultra can range from about $450 - $850) this is a good idea for people who can afford it, seeing as you're still going to have 2 6800's. :D

The thing is, I don't foresee threadstarter doing that, so I must recommend that he NOT go with SLI.

[CarnageFairy]

It's like saying ah, 10 ATI Rage 128's = 1 ATI Radeon X850 Pro


:lol:
I wish. I have about 15 Pentium 1's laying around my house.
Oh, and one AMD K-6! SCORE!

[Pastorius]

Dammit, I still don't have a clue what to get.

Oh, and Carnage Fairy, it's £800, not $800.

[Amit]

A couple of hints:

Get a big hard drive(s).

Get 1 gig of RAM. Do not settle for 512. Even if it means downgrading your video card. The fastest video card in the world won't help when a memory leak in PlanetSide eats up all 512 megs of RAM and starts using virtual memory, basically shutting down your system.

Do not skimp on a monitor. Make sure you get a nice monitor as it is one component that you will probably never need to replace.

Videocards. I would never spend more than $200-250 on one. Anything more and you're just being silly. "Wow, you get 100 frames in Doom 3 with your $500 card. I get 70 with my $200 one. And neither of us can tell the difference." I'd save the money for something nice later.

[Pastorius]

Here's what I was thinking. Tell me if anything can be downgraded without a noticeable drop in performance.

AMD Athlon 64 3500+
250GB HD
256Mb nVidia 6800
1024Mb RAM 400MHz

That will cost me about £1150

[Amit]

128 mb nvidia 6800 or 6600. The extra 128mb VRAM does nothing for you.

And truthfully, you wouldn't notice a big difference if you went down a couple levels with the processor.

[Pastorius]

Well that makes it £110 cheaper at least. Any huge difference between the 6800 and the 6600?

EDIT: And DVD Roms can play CD's too right?

[Amit]

Yes. DVD-ROM drives will play CDs.

What's the price difference between the 6800 and 6600? The 6600 is above the mid range video ranking if I recall correctly while the 6800 is the uber card. I'd take the 6600GT.

[bassplayer18]

And I have £600-700 to spend.

What can I get for that?
that is enough to buy yourself a decent PC. if you want a PC that is good for playing games then you will another $1000

[Phalanx]

bless them, they love computers

[Amit]

bless them, they love computers

For some reason I thought of this:

<Firefly> Time for my prayers:
<Firefly> Our Father, who 0wnz heaven, j00 r0ck!
<Firefly> May all 0ur base someday be belong to you!
<Firefly> May j00 0wn earth just like j00 0wn heaven.
<Firefly> Give us this day our warez, mp3z, and pr0n through a phat pipe.
<Firefly> And cut us some slack when we act like n00b lamerz, just as we teach n00bz when they act lame on us.
<Firefly> Please don't give us root access on some poor d00d'z box when we're too pissed off to think about what's right and wrong, and if you could keep the fbi off our backs, we'd appreciate it.
<Firefly> For j00 0wn r00t on all our b0x3s 4ever and ever, 4m3n.

http://www.bash.org/?128114

[Katana]

If you know anything about computers you can customize one for a lot cheaper.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ I'm sure there are more site which do the same thing.

I don't know if they deliver to UK.

For your budget;

-nforce 4 motherboard, I suggest the DFI Lanparty one, socket 939. If you can't get that one, get most any that aren't Gigabyte and you should be good.

-A64 3000+; Often times people will try to put a beefy processor in what they'd call a "gaming rig" and they skimp out on the video card. It's better to reverse that, because you really don't need anything more than 3000+ or equiv. The socket 939 cpu's really overclock great, too.

-a gig of ram. PC3200 or faster. Good brands are OCZ, PQI (great value), Corsair, Kingmax, and others I forget

-Nvidia 6600GT or 6800GT. 6800's more expensive, but it's faster. You pay what you get for. 6600GT's the best value on the market. MSI makes good cards.

-just about any S-ATA hard drive. They're fast and help your computer load things quicker. Regular ATA is the past.

-the case, cd drives, etc, are less difficult to pick. And I don't know much about power sources. Just don't get a cheap power supply. A crappy one can fizz out and take your whole computer with it. Enermax makes good ones. Same with Ultra. Thermaltake, too.

Well that makes it £110 cheaper at least. Any huge difference between the 6800 and the 6600?

EDIT: And DVD Roms can play CD's too right?

It's better in proportion to its increased price. If you can afford it, go for it.

Yes, they can.

that is enough to buy yourself a decent PC. if you want a PC that is good for playing games then you will another $1000

Yeah, for $1500 one could go SLI, and that extra $500 can buy 6800's. Yum.

[CarnageFairy]

Dammit, I still don't have a clue what to get.

Oh, and Carnage Fairy, it's £800, not $800.

So that's, what, like $900?
Sorry, I don't really know the exchange rates.

Well, what parts do you have from your old computer that you can use?
Case, CD/DVD drives, HDDs, anything?

[CarnageFairy]

Yes. DVD-ROM drives will play CDs.

What's the price difference between the 6800 and 6600? The 6600 is above the mid range video ranking if I recall correctly while the 6800 is the uber card. I'd take the 6600GT.

The 6600GT's run about 150-180.

6800GT's will set you back at least $300.

I would go with the 6800 (not GT/LE/Ultra, just regular 6800) because the 6600's are getting older, and you can always overclock the 6800 to perform almost as well as the GT.

[Katana]

1.8 dollars to one pound.

[Rats]

yeah, 800 pounds is a lot. In the USA you'd probably be able to get top of the line everything with that kind of money.

[Katana]

No, not really. You'd need $3000-4000 for that.

[rasher_b2]

He probably thought you were asking about buying individual parts to build a computer, like from Newegg.com.

Its not uncommon, quite a few people have built pcs from scratch on these forums. I believe DBJ and Ramsey have, so have I.

It's not a very daunting task, in fact, selecting the parts you want is harder than putting it all together imo. :thumb:

It's a good idea and saves ton of money:

1)you get all the parts you want, and no extra garbage you dont
2)you get warranties on each individual part
3)many prebuilt companies(like dell) require you to upgrade only dell specified parts, especially ram, when you build your own, you can upgrade whenever you want
4)you can spend 900 dollars and buy an OK prebuilt PC from Dell, OR you can build a much better PC for the same amount

it all depends on if you want to learn. :thumb:


Make sure your learn and be careful what you buy. My friend made a mistake in buying a CPU that wasn't compatible with the motherboard that he bought. He ended up trying to force the CPU down onto the motherboard, messing breaking off some of the pins on the CPU and nearly cracking the motherboard. Luckily for warranty, he was able to get his money back and select a compatible motherboard and get a new CPU. :thumb:


12 and 3.

I built my pc from last august and it's still cheaper than buying the same specs from the likes of Dell 9 months on! Also, all the parts in my were chosen by me(obviously) so they're all quality parts. There's no crappy parts holding it's potential back.

[Pastorius]

I'm getting a whole new computer, I can't salvage any parts from this computer.

Aaaargh it's looking like costing about £1000!

[Benzum]

I want a new PC :angry:

[Pastorius]

What about:

AMD 64 3000+
nForce4 sLi motherboard
1 GB DDr RAM
200GB S-ATA HD
DVD-Rom
128Mb GeForce 6600GT
17" TFT 16ms monitor
Creative Audigy2 ZS 7.1

for £944.72

EDIT: May as well add a 52 x CD-rewriter for a pound extra.

[Let's Chop Cats!]

I don't how much that is american, but 'tis a good setup.

[Paul]

What about:

AMD 64 3000+
nForce4 sLi motherboard
1 GB DDr RAM
200GB S-ATA HD
DVD-Rom
128Mb GeForce 6600GT
17" TFT 16ms monitor
Creative Audigy2 ZS 7.1

for £944.72

EDIT: May as well add a 52 x CD-rewriter for a pound extra.
do you really need a monitor? do you really need the creative audigy? do you really need an sLi motherboard?

I think you should maybe rethink those and perhaps get a better gfx card and more ram

[rasher_b2]

do you really need a monitor? do you really need the creative audigy? do you really need an sLi motherboard?

I think you should maybe rethink those and perhaps get a better gfx card and more ram

Ah, you'd want a decent sound card and motherboard but i agree with the monitor. CRTs are SO much cheaper than flatpanel monitors and are just as good. I got a 17" Sony flatscreen CRT monitor off E-bay for 50 sterling.

[Paul]

well it's just that I'm thinking that sLi board isn't a must have if he doesn't plan on putting two gfx cards in it

[forthepeopleofthesun]

But LCDs save so much space. Especially when you live in a 10'x10'X10' box during the school year. But it's all a matter of what you can afford.

If your going AMD, stick with the Venice processor you chose, or even get a faster one. From what I've read, they better than most other AMD models.

[Pastorius]

Yes, I'm going to be in Uni, so I'll be living in a single room, with my amp and basses in it so would like to save space where I can.

[Amit]

If you want to get a gaming PC, then you definitely do not want to get an LCD.

[Pastorius]

Why not? I don't really want to be using up my entire desk width with a big chunky cathode ray.

[Mr. Ron]

Get the parts and build it yourself. It's much cheaper and the customization is endless.

[Pastorius]

Get the parts and build it yourself. It's much cheaper and the customization is endless.

That's the problem, it's not that much cheaper in the UK.

[Amit]

Why not? I don't really want to be using up my entire desk width with a big chunky cathode ray.

Unless you want to pay a LOT of money for a high quality LCD, they just aren't as good for gaming. Google it.

[Pastorius]

All I can find is that CRT monitors offer a brighter spectrum of colours, and can't suffer from dead pixels. Otherwise most sites say LCD are better.

And the refresh rate needs to be low for an LCD monitor. Generally 16ms- is fine I gather.

[Pastorius]

ASUS A8NE-FM Mainboard - DDR400, LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA, PCIEX16

Is that motherboard fine? Does it matter a lot what motherboard I get?

Also, is it worth the £30 extra ($70, i guess) for the 6800 LE instead of the 6600GT?

[brensten32]

My low ranged PC
Athlon XP 3200+ 2.2 Ghz
200 GB HDrive
512mb PC2700 RAM
Nvidia intergrated soundcard
128 Nvidia GeForce 5500 Overclocked edition
CD-ROM
DVD-RW
XP Home Edition
15" LCD

But, I am hoping to upgrade to
Athlon 64 3200+ 2.2 Ghz
200 GB HDrive
1024mb PC2700 RAM
Nvidia intergrated soundcard
128mb Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT Overclocked edition
CD-ROM
DVD-RW
XP Home Edition
17" LCD

[Pastorius]

OK will I notice a 25ms response time THAT much?

Because I found a PC I like for £900, but the monitor with is has a 25ms response time.