Looking for New PC

[FelixofMars]

I am looking for a new PC to play various games including Halflife 2.

I am kinda looking for a hardcore PC, I also want it to look decent and not just the boring same as... I kinda like those cheiftech cases. anyone got any useful links that might help me out.

*edit

I am willing to spend around ?1,000 (cant really get away from that if I want a top range PC.)

I do want a new monitor but not really bothered about a LCD screen as they dont sound good for gaming.

I don't really need a keyboard, mouse or extras.

I have been told Intel are better at the moment but really its neither here nor there... AMD are cheaper... intel are slightly faster... I can go either way.

[Super Stu]

Jim,

PC Forum

Fancy building the PC yourself? Try OCuk

cba? Try Alienware

[FelixofMars]

Doh! how could I miss this forum

[choddo]

I've put up a draft (until I add some photos I'm not linking to it on me home page ) guide to building one yourself which might give you some ideas. I haven't spent much time on case discussion though tbh.

[replicant]

nice guide there bud. Should definately help out some people new to building their own pc.

[Ciaran]

How much you willing to spend?

You need everything incl. monitor, keyboard, etc.?

Intel or AMD?

ATI or Nvidia?


The following 3 links I've used several times and had no probs with any of them.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk

https://www.komplett.co.uk

https://www.dabs.com

[bungle]

I would have agreed about building your own pc a couple of years back, but at the moment buying a prebuilt one would probably work out cheaper and in some ways more reliable (a few companies refused to take back broken components). Lots of bargains going out there at the moment.

[PH]

How much you willing to spend?

You need everything incl. monitor, keyboard, etc.?

Intel or AMD?

ATI or Nvidia?

Hmm... I'm in the market for a new PC. Looking to upgrade sometime in the next month - mainly for Half-Life 2.

Currently got a XP2100, 512MB, GeForce 4200. I take it that will not be powerful enough to get the game running in its full glory.

So, i will need a CPU, MB, Memory and Video Card. No budget, but i would prefer not to buy just released components that cost an arm and a leg.

As above: Intel or AMD? ATI or Nvidia? Is Branded Memory THAT much better than Generic? Any advice?

[Super Stu]

Any advice?

Yeah.

Don't bother building a PC for a specific game until just before it's launched, or shortly thereafter. Otherwise, you pay a premium for something which is a fair bit out of date (witness all the pillocks who built their machines already in anticipation of Doom3).

Best PC Advice Ever(tm)

[FelixofMars]

Its alright I was going to do that anyway

[mid]

Ouch.

Went looking at building a small pc for the living room to record telly and laserdisc to hard-drive and DVD, figuring that the standalone boxes that cost ?1000 are too much.

Started with the Shuttle XPCSN45G case, and the MSI Personal Cinema (based around the GeForce FX 5200 with video in/out). Ended up at 766.51 before monitor, due to a rapid "Barton 2500+ here, wireless keyboard/mouse there" escalation. And thats with cables for the local network, rather than the more expensive but cleaner wireless option.

The thing is, its just about impossible to build a box that will do the work, but not end up being the main machine in the house, as I've currently only got an Athlon 900 with a small hard drive.

[PH]

Super Stu - yep, your probably right.

Knowing my luck i'd fork out 700 quid and then hear the "HL2 delayed to Q2 2004" news.

[choddo]

Ouch.

Went looking at building a small pc for the living room to record telly and laserdisc to hard-drive and DVD, figuring that the standalone boxes that cost ?1000 are too much.

Started with the Shuttle XPCSN45G case, and the MSI Personal Cinema (based around the GeForce FX 5200 with video in/out). Ended up at 766.51 before monitor, due to a rapid "Barton 2500+ here, wireless keyboard/mouse there" escalation. And thats with cables for the local network, rather than the more expensive but cleaner wireless option.

The thing is, its just about impossible to build a box that will do the work, but not end up being the main machine in the house, as I've currently only got an Athlon 900 with a small hard drive.

I don't know if that GF 5200FX is any good at video out mate, but I'd be cautious cos the built in GF4MX in the Shuttle certainly isn't. I'd be looking at a Radeon 9200 for that if I were you, and if you want 3D, a 9600.

[mid]

I know that a basic FX 5200 is considered crap, but its the special video version I was really looking at. I'm now looking at the Hauppage PVR 350 instead, though, as its got hardware MPEG2 encoding on it; couple that with the perfectly good GeForce 2 I currently have and everything should be fine.

[Ciaran]

I advise against buy any of Nvidias newer cards as they are out performed by eqivilant ATI cards.

There is also a huge performance drop with running games with Pixel Shader 2.0 (which alot of new DX9 games will use, incl HL2) on Nvidia's cards!