help me choose a new, fast, PC :)

[kingalibenarbia]

Hi,
I was wondering if you could help me choose a new pc - one that will last me 3 or 4 years before I have to upgrade! I was thinking something like this -

Dell dimension 8300
2.8Ghz P4 Processor, 800Mhz FSB, Hyper Threading Technology
512MB DDR RAM
128MB ATI Radeon Pro graphics
Soundblaster Audigy soundcard
4.1 speaker system
CDRW and DVD ROM
18inch flat panel digital monitor
windows xp

for under ?1500.

What do u think? I want it for playing and downloading music, playing counterstrike, c and c generals, CM4, half life 2, hidden and dangerous 2, etc plus some old games on full detail like Falcon 4.

Is this a good deal or can I do better?

thanx

[nips]

Hi,
I was wondering if you could help me choose a new pc - one that will last me 3 or 4 years before I have to upgrade!

AH HA HA HA HA

If you want to play the newest games at the highest fps with all the extras you'll be upgrading every six months ft:

Don't get a flat panel screen, they can only display a low resolution, and a low frame rate. Go for a large CRT. It'll probably be cheaper.

This: "128MB ATI Radeon Pro graphics" is a little broad. If you are going all out, and don't want to upgrade for a few years, I suggest you get the 9700 Pro.

Make sure that the motherboard supports 8x AGP and that you have some spare IDE slots for extras like LAN cards etc...

This is very simliar to what you were asking for. And is very much cheaper than what you were suggesting.

You'll save loads of money by making it yourself, and you probably won't end up with a crap motherboard like the one above probably has.

(By the way, this'll probably get moved to 'Questions and Advice' very soon!)

[eghamninja]

Hi,
I was wondering if you could help me choose a new pc - one that will last me 3 or 4 years before I have to upgrade!

AH HA HA HA HA

If you want to play the newest games at the highest fps with all the extras you'll be upgrading every six months ft:

Don't get a flat panel screen, they can only display a low resolution, and a low frame rate. Go for a large CRT. It'll probably be cheaper.

This: "128MB ATI Radeon Pro graphics" is a little broad. If you are going all out, and don't want to upgrade for a few years, I suggest you get the 9700 Pro.

Make sure that the motherboard supports 8x AGP and that you have some spare IDE slots for extras like LAN cards etc...

This is very simliar to what you were asking for. And is very much cheaper than what you were suggesting.

You'll save loads of money by making it yourself, and you probably won't end up with a crap motherboard like the one above probably has.

(By the way, this'll probably get moved to 'Questions and Advice' very soon!)

I'd recomend Dell as their build quality is absolutly bullet proof.

Ignore the comment about the Dell's motherboard being crap. Dell use top end components in their higher end machines, with the boards being built by companies such as AsusTek.

As the machine is listed as Having a 800Mhz FSB Hyper threading CPU, this would mean that it uses the latest Intel 875/865 chipset, which has a blinding feature set supporting all the latest features (AGP 8x, Serial ATA etc..).

I would check on the Graphics card though as that is one area where they tend to skimp.

[C']

I got a machine from Dell last week (very, very similar to those specs) and the video card I got is an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

[Fire]

I wouldn't buy a machine like this when just a general name is given for components, you want the exact product name and model number so you can read up on what you're getting. 90% of the time you'll get some cheap low-end version of the product that can also be described in the same basic terms as a decent component. If you're building a games machine and not a general machine to last you really need to make sure you're getting the absolute best of every part which you can afford.

First of all, no motherboard name? This is the most important component and a cheap or bad motherboard will cripple every part of your system - never mind if you throw in a few big name 'intel' or 'nvidia' components. A lot of the high street PC builders throw the latest buzzword intel 'best ever' processer into some worthless motherboard that isnt even designed for it. PC world sold a friend of mine a P4 based system which doesn't even supprt DDR RAM, laughable. I think the likes of DELL are a level above PC World and co. though so you would get a reasonably balanced system. Still, it'd be much cheaper and safer to build your own.

2.8Ghz P4 Processor, 800Mhz FSB, Hyper Threading Technology
-Great, decent processor here

512MB DDR RAM
-What? this could be any RAM from cheap unbranded low speed DDR to low latency high bandwidth branded RAM that a 800mhz P4 system needs to operate to it's full potential.

128MB ATI Radeon Pro graphics
-Again ,totally vague. This could be anything from a super low range budget video card with 128mb of slow DDR RAM tacked on for video editing right up to a cutting edge 9800pro or 9700pro worth 300quid odd a piece.

Soundblaster Audigy soundcard
-Good, nice to see a decent sound card used. Worrying as most decent motherboards will have good onboard audio in the first place however

4.1 speaker system
-Yay

CDRW and DVD ROM
-What speed CDRW? Is it last years 16x excess stock or the latest 52x plextor drive?

18inch flat panel digital monitor
-You have to pay mega bucks for a decent TFT screen, never mind an 18" one. Looking at ?500+ worth for a decent 18" TFT which I doubt this will be. Get a high quality 19" Iiyama or Mitsubishi 19" CRT for half the price.

windows xp
-I'd rather not pay extra for this at the expense of the rest of the system most likely the home version anyway

The PCWorld system suggested earlier is a similar vague-name job with the only brand name component mentioned being the "128Mb Geforce MX440SE graphics" which is an immensley poor gfx card for such a system and will barely run this generations games properly, never mind the next.

Here's a tip: don't go for the big name PC companies like PC World, TIME, TINY etc that advertise on TV. They build poor, unbalanced systems designed to let granny betty surf the interweb and send emails to the kids, not play games.

[eghamninja]

I just had a look at the Dell website and the only ATI card available with the 8300 is the 9800 or 9800pro so no problems there.

The RAM is DDR 400Mhz. No idea who makes it but the Dell workstations we had in the office at work recently used Crucial memory.

The motherboard is based on the Intel 875 chipset (Currently top of the range). As with all Dell's this will be a custom design but is usually built by a top of the line company.

Having a seperate Audigy soundcard is a good thing as it will be vastly superior to ANY built in sound.

The slowest CD-RW drive on offer is a 48x model, so once again no problems there.

The Dell 18" LCD panel is bloody good, I should know I have one on my desk at work. It has a native resolution of 1280 x 1024 and a 20ms response time.

[Geezer]

Why don't you make it yourself? it's an absolute peice of piss to do annd you can tailor your system to suit your needs perfectly and it should be cheaper. I'd advise against getting a 2.8 or 3 GHz p4. Get a 2.4 800MHzfsb one and overclock it to 3GHz on a 1GHz fsb, it'll outperform a normal p4 3GHz at 800MHz fsb and be under half the price I think
You could get a 2.6 and try to get it to 3.2ish
I'd get a gig of ram as well btw.
I cba right now but I'm sure I could price up a system thats ?100/?200 less and is at least as good as the Dell

[TommyG]

Yup build it yourself i'm doing it...

I started a similar thread asking the same questions, loads of helpful and useful replys

check it out..

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/viewtopic.php?t=5954

[kingalibenarbia]

yeah sorry about the vaugeness - the vid card is the ATI 9800 128MB Pro

[eghamninja]

I cba right now but I'm sure I could price up a system thats ?100/?200 less and is at least as good as the Dell

No you couldn't build a machine with the same spec as the Dell for less money.

Building your own PC is good if you know what you are doing and wish to taylor you PC to exactly what you want, but you will never be able to make a machine the same spec as something from Dell/Compaq for cheaper without having to resort to overclocking or buying lower quality components.

All I can suggest to kingalibenarbia is that if you know what you are doing build it yourself, if not then buy the Dell.

Personally I build my own PC's then overclock them to within an inch of their life, but not everybody is capable/comfortable with doing that.

[The Boatman]

Does anybody know anything about www.alienware.co.uk - are they any good?

[Kirby]

I dont understand why people keep on perpetuating the myth that to keep up with PC games you need to upgrade every 6 months. It's really rather annoying. My main PC is: PIII933, 768Mb SDRAM, Radeon 8500 64Mb, SB Audigy, SCSI Seagate HD and it plays ALL new games fine. They may not run at 1600x1200 with 4XFSAA at 2000FPS but they all play fine. Even games like Unreal II i can run at 1024x768x32 with 16x Aniso (love ATi's 'free' anisotropic filtering performance ) and medium game details and still keep a decent framerate.

As for the topic at hand, that Dell PC looks fine. If you dont want to tackle a PC build yourself then Dell aren't a bad choice. You could also try out Mesh. I know a few people who've used them and they have been decent machines with quality parts like ASUS motherboards, Crucial ram and high spec power supplies. Just make sure you dont get given a crappy graphics card with loads of ram.

[Valken]

Dell are terrible when it comes to providing decent videocards and memory and their upgrade prices are very bad but they *do* make nice, reliable computers overall and their cases are great for upgrades etc (unless you want to change the mobo in which case you're ****ed)

[eghamninja]

Dell are terrible when it comes to providing decent videocards and memory and their upgrade prices are very bad but they *do* make nice, reliable computers overall and their cases are great for upgrades etc (unless you want to change the mobo in which case you're ****ed)

Only on the low-end stuff, move aboue the ?1k mark and they use some very good components.

I agree with the comments about the cases, they are a work of genius, as you can take the machine apart with out even needing a screwdriver.

[nips]

I dont understand why people keep on perpetuating the myth that to keep up with PC games you need to upgrade every 6 months. It's really rather annoying....

...Even games like Unreal II i can run at 1024x768x32 with 16x Aniso (love ATi's 'free' anisotropic filtering performance ) and medium game details and still keep a decent framerate.

So when I said "If you want to play the newest games at the highest fps with all the extras you'll be upgrading every six months." I was right then. Becuase you don't have all the extras on and you have a; 'decent framerate.'

I've got a PC similar to yours, and trying to play UT2003 with all the extras, and I mean: Trilinier Filtering, dynamic lighting, highest texture detail, physics detail and 1280x1024x32 is like a slideshow. I had to upgrade recently to keep a very good framerate even in the upclose fire-fights.

You've failed to refute my claim.