New pc help

[DJ Sack]

Im looking at buying this pc

http://www.aria.co.uk/newdisplaySystem.asp?BrandID=12&ProductID=179

Its cheap, i dont want to run half life 2 at 2049X1740 at 200fps or anything like that so it seems fine. 3PCI slots isnt great but id only be needing 2 as it is (1 for tv tuner, 1 for modem) Ive already got dvd drives, geforce card etc etc. HDD im not to bothered about either for the time being.

But is everything else fine with it? Is the mobo fine? Does integrated graphics cause a problem nowadays? As i know before it used to cause lots of conflicts with seperate graphics cards. And also DDR ram, whats the difference between 2100 and 4000. As im a bit out of the loop when it comes to that.

I will be using it for light gaming, like vice city and the like and internet usage.

Thanks

[H-Man]

It depends what you want to use the pc for - if you intend to use XP/play games u'll want better RAM, and more of it.

You'd almost certainly need to buy a new gfx card if you intend to play newer games (the on board one won't be enough ). I'd check out the motherboard if I were you aswell.

[EddieG]

The site isn't giving enough information on the system. they should have a link to the motherboard specs, without that it's difficult to give good advice.

M/B specs would give the Clock speed of the FSB, which will effect the general speed of the machine, it would also provide information on the integrated peripherals, as it stands there is know way of knowing if the Graphic and Sound processors are any good, what other onboard peripherals it has, (USB isn't mentioned for instance), etc.

Sorry, the only real advice I can give here is get more information before making a decision.

As for the memory questions...
PC2100 runs at 266mhz,
PC2700 runs at 333mhz
I don't know how fast anything above that runs, as they arrived after my last upgrade.
What memory can be used is Motherboard/chipset dependant, and some a picky about makes of memory they like, but as you are buying a pre-built system, that shouldn't effect you.

If you want to get more general info, I recommend Tom's Hardware Guide
This guy has lots of guides on all things PC, and though some of his reviews won't be any use because they're american, there should still be a lot of info you can use, and a lot of the stuff makes it to the uk anyway

Eddie G.

[choddo]

****ing help Sack lad you didn't mention Vice City on rllmuk. I wouldn't call that light gaming! Not by a long chalk, don't buy that PC if you want to run that.

[FelixofMars]

I asked about sorting out a new PC about a month back (still haven't done it) but you are welcome to read the advice;

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/viewtopic.php?t=11961&highlight=

[DJ Sack]

****ing help Sack lad you didn't mention Vice City on rllmuk. I wouldn't call that light gaming! Not by a long chalk, don't buy that PC if you want to run that.

Thats funny as im able to run it with draw distance and detail on full and at 1024X768 with no slow down or low frame rate, its actually pretty fast. Ive even been able to run memory hungry kazza at the same time with no ill effects. And this is on a 900mhz duron, with 128 ram, 30 gig hdd and geforce 4 460mx.

I know the integrated graphics are crap, thats why my geforce will be going in there instead. At the pcformat forums everyone going on about how the pc im looking for wont run ANY games!!!111oneone etc. Yet my lowely 900Mhz pc can run everything i want to just fine and dandy. Im not after hi res (due to crap monitor) or trying to run anything to power hungry, i rarely buy games for the pc.

But i want it as its cheap, if i had ?700 to spend on a 3 gig machine i would, but i dont. If anyone knows where i can get a ?300 'good' pc from please tell me

[DJ Sack]

Oh and the mobo has 1 agp slot, 3pci (i only need 2 at the moment, so thats not too much of a problem), 4 usb ports, onboard sound (which is fine by me ac97) and onboard graphics (which is a crap s3 thing). I havent been able to find many reviews but what i have seen people say its good!

[Super Stu]

It isn't funny at all: GTA3's success on a PC is immensely hit and miss. The biggest of systems have been brought to their knees by the shoddy PS2 port. Shame on whoever did it.

Hint to programmers: The PC doesn't need to spool graphics off the hdd, we've got gigs of fecking ram for you to play with.

Tards

[DJ Sack]

i was reading about someone who had a similar spec pc to the one i want (but only a 2000+ athalon) and was able to run the beta halo fine at 60fps, so surely the pc i want should be able to run it just as well if not slightly better? Because if it does i fail to see any need to worry about how future games will play on it.

[Valken]

It isn't funny at all: GTA3's success on a PC is immensely hit and miss. The biggest of systems have been brought to their knees by the shoddy PS2 port. Shame on whoever did it.

Hint to programmers: The PC doesn't need to spool graphics off the hdd, we've got gigs of fecking ram for you to play with.

Tards

It cripples my 18 month old system but runs fine on my old Athlon machine so I can vouch for that!

[Super Stu]

Because if it does i fail to see any need to worry about
how future games will play on it.

Halo's engine is hardly complex.