Buying a new PC

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Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Guys,

Some advice please.

I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
onboard sound.

I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
machine.

Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?

I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
card requirements of us online gamers!

Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers

Mike
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Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41f2b113.4691095@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> Some advice please.
>
> I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
> games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
> onboard sound.
>
> I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
> machine.
>
> Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?
>
> I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
> are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
> card requirements of us online gamers!
>
> Any advice gratefully received.
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike

What are you looking to spend?

Also, if you are a gamer, look to computer vendors that specialize in that
market. Their systems are optimized for our needs.

I have been impressed with these guys, as they seem to cram a lot of value
into their systems:

http://www.abspc.com/gamezone/index.html

If I bought pre-made, they would probably get the first crack at it.

The other option is to build your own. Not really that hard. Or, you can
acquire the components and get a computer-savvy freing to do he assembly.

I prefer to build my own, as I get exactly what I want when it is done. For
guidance on components, use the specs and components choices list from a
good gaming rig from Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon Northwest, or ABS.

My thought is that one should spend money on the guts of the system and
avoid spending on frills like fancy cases or lighting. Cool lights and side
windows don'tt make it go faster!

If given a choice between a case with fancy die-cut logos or a bigger power
supply, for instance, get the power supply.

One option for a performance vs. price trade-off is to not get the absolute
fastest CPU and put the price difference into a beefier video card. If you
are a player who loves the eye-candy and high-res settings, then the better
video card will pay off for you. If you have bucks to spend on only one
"bleeding edge" component, make it the video card if you are a serious
gamer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
> Try HealthChecK.
> Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free
> copy.
> http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41f2b113.4691095@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> Some advice please.
>
> I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
> games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
> onboard sound.
>
> I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
> machine.
>
> Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?
>
> I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
> are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
> card requirements of us online gamers!
>
> Any advice gratefully received.

Depends on how much you want to spend? I either build my own or buy alienware
www.alienware.co.uk for games but that works out expensive. If you want a fair
ish price and high spec then dell's xps is designed for games and looks quite
nice too.

If you can build your own then do, it's cheaper and you get exactly what you
want and the individual warranties on the components are usually longer than the
standard warranty on a fully built PC

As for spec, as always bigger is better but right now I wouldn't go for anything
other than an athlon 64 based machine with at least 1GB of the fastest RAM you
can get and the best graphics card you can afford.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Going Dell is a great option pricewise, but if you want something which will
handle gaming (particularly CS:S, HL2, etc) you will need to go with
something better than the bottom of the barrel stuff they churn out for the
masses. I speak from experience- I have a Dell Dimension 2400 w/ a Celeron
2.4 ghz. To get CS:S and HL2 to play with any degree of excellence, I had to
drop in a high end video card ($150-$200) and increase the base RAM to max,
1 GIG, also $200-$300. In all, I've spent more on upgrades than the base
model.

You're probably best to have something custom built.


"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41f2b113.4691095@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> Some advice please.
>
> I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
> games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
> onboard sound.
>
> I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
> machine.
>
> Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?
>
> I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
> are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
> card requirements of us online gamers!
>
> Any advice gratefully received.
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
> Try HealthChecK.
> Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free
copy.
> http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Mike Seddon wrote:
>
> Guys,
>
> Some advice please.
>
> I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
> games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
> onboard sound.
>
> I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
> machine.
>
> Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?
>
> I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
> are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
> card requirements of us online gamers!
>
> Any advice gratefully received.
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
> Try HealthChecK.
> Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
> http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp


dont be a fool, Dell HP etc etc branded machines are not for gamers.
These boxes have proprietary components that you will not be able to
upgrade or interchange with off the shelf components.

Branded pc's are for little old ladys who want a nicely packaged all in
one solution.

Gamers machines are clones, usually built with hand picked components,
according to your budget.

I suggest you decide on your budget and research your components, then,
either build it yourself or have a shop build it for you.

Start with an Athlon64 platform.

Gordon
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Gordon,

I always appreciate advice - but I would kindly suggest you read my
post before hitting me the attitude.

I did say that in my original posting that I thought Dell was really
for office based machines and not for gamers. So I don;t think that
quite makes me the fool you seem to feel compelled to call me.

In the business community they make tremendous economic sense. I'm
sure most Corporates would find your reference to them being little
old ladies who like nice boxes enlightening. You may of course want to
take along hard look at the leasing deals coupled with the finance
needs to cater for machine depreciation costs before you finally fix
your opinions. Just a thought.

Cheers,

Mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41f7c982.1274853@news.btinternet.com...
> Gordon,
>
> I always appreciate advice - but I would kindly suggest you read my
> post before hitting me the attitude.
>
> I did say that in my original posting that I thought Dell was really
> for office based machines and not for gamers. So I don;t think that
> quite makes me the fool you seem to feel compelled to call me.
>
> In the business community they make tremendous economic sense. I'm
> sure most Corporates would find your reference to them being little
> old ladies who like nice boxes enlightening. You may of course want to
> take along hard look at the leasing deals coupled with the finance
> needs to cater for machine depreciation costs before you finally fix
> your opinions. Just a thought.

Also the XPS series is built for games with no proprietary parts and high specs
at a fair price.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Guys,

Thanks for the advice on buying a new PC. I am going to go for a
clone.

Looking at a barebone system from these guys www.autdirect.co.uk.
Looking at the Athlon 64 3000 clone.

Any advice on video cards and sound cards would be good. I'm looking
for good game capatibility as a first and outstanding performance a
close second.

Cheers,

Mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41f9525f.1599389@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> Thanks for the advice on buying a new PC. I am going to go for a
> clone.
>
> Looking at a barebone system from these guys www.autdirect.co.uk.
> Looking at the Athlon 64 3000 clone.

That machine only has a 300W PSU so geforce 6800 cards are out of the question

> Any advice on video cards and sound cards would be good. I'm looking
> for good game capatibility as a first and outstanding performance a
> close second.

Stick with the onboard sound unless you are intending to use it as a media
centre, just get good speakers.

As for graphics cards you can't have a geforce 6800 series as the recommended
minimum is a 350W PSU and with no PCI Express on that board you are limited to
AGP so if you want cheap then a radeon 9800 pro if you want mid range an X800
pro or if you don't care about price an X800XT

There is no point getting anything without full directX 9 support.

Personally if someone forced that PC on me I would replace the PSU with at least
a 450W then get a geforce 6800GT and overclock it to Ultra clock speeds.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Thanks - excellent advice as usual from your goodself.

So did you see a clone on the site that you did like which I should
consider instead of the one I went for?

Cheers,

Mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41fa9bb0.1555857@news.btinternet.com...
> Thanks - excellent advice as usual from your goodself.
>
> So did you see a clone on the site that you did like which I should
> consider instead of the one I went for?
>

No, all the part built barebones system I've ever seen look good until you see
the one or two things that make them not worth bothering with. The only
exception being the small form factor PC's from shuttle and Aopen.

Personally, I think you would be better building one, it's very straightforward.

Head on over to www.ebuyer.com and use these quickfind codes

072999
061307
059993
058431
046420

these will give you a sexy looking case, a 500W PSU a very nice asus motherboard
a 3000+ athlon64 and 512MB of crucial DDR400 memory for 260 quid, delivered.
Everything about these is better than the one you saw and you can plug any
graphics card you like into that PSU along with half a dozen hard drives and
some flashy lights if you like without risk of overloading it.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Thanks again.

I've been reviewing the video cards sites etc to make comparisons and
get a feel for which one would suit my needs and budget.

However NONE seemed to tell me what the minimum requirements were for
running their card (eg: the PSU, processor speed or even RAM).

How did you get your information. Is there a site somewhere or a I
just being stupid (always possible!)

Thanks again.

Cheers,

Mike


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> wrote in message
news:41fc9d81.1637364@news.btinternet.com...
> Thanks again.
>
> I've been reviewing the video cards sites etc to make comparisons and
> get a feel for which one would suit my needs and budget.
>
> However NONE seemed to tell me what the minimum requirements were for
> running their card (eg: the PSU, processor speed or even RAM).
>
> How did you get your information. Is there a site somewhere or a I
> just being stupid (always possible!)

I got the minimum spec from the box my geforce 6800 ultra came in :)

Toms hardware is probably the best place for any kind of technical info. I found
this article relating to power requirements of the new breed of graphics card
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/buyers_guide-24.html
 
G

Guest

Guest
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Thanks.

I happened up Tom's site this morning as was working my way through
his articles. I'll certainly check this one out.

Cheers,

Mike
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
Try HealthChecK.
Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free copy.
http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
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Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Hell bay somthing like i got it plays cs whit no probs :)

AMD64 3400+ 1MB
Asus motherbord
3x 512mb ddr pc400
Creative Audigy 4 Pro
2x 160gb hdd Sata Raid0
2x 300gb hdd Sata Raid0
Asus Radeon 9800XT LE
Thermaletake 680Watt pure power you need good power if you have lots of sata
hdd :p

then you got a machine that is a bit nice and lots of hdd but 1 nice 80gb
hdd is olso ok :)


ow and by the way if some think..... damn what the hell do you do with so
many gb on hdd? whel you dont even whant to know what i olready orderd :p
2x 300gb sata hdd to be copeld to the other 2 300gb hdd to make one hdd of
1.2tb (1200gb) :p and 4x 75gb 10k hdd :)
that means i have a total of +/- 1.82tb (1820gb) just inaf for me for a
month ore 4 :)


"Mike Seddon" <mike.sd@btinternt.com> schreef in bericht
news:41f2b113.4691095@news.btinternet.com...
> Guys,
>
> Some advice please.
>
> I think it's time I bought a new PC as mine struggles now with new
> games. It's a 1Meg Athlon processor with a 32mb TNT Riva card and
> onboard sound.
>
> I could upgrade it, but I think I'd like to just pick up a new
> machine.
>
> Any advice on whats good on the market for Gamers?
>
> I get Dell's offers through the post almost weekly but I think they
> are more for office machines rather than the good graphic and sound
> card requirements of us online gamers!
>
> Any advice gratefully received.
>
> Cheers
>
> Mike
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Do you have problems with formatting your Word documents?
> Try HealthChecK.
> Full software on 25 day free trial and the chance to win your own free
copy.
> http://www.kutchka.com/products/producthealthcheck.asp
 
G

geoff

Distinguished
Mar 19, 2001
431
0
18,780
Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life.counterstrike (More info?)

Coming from an electrical engineer.... DONT do this.
Personally i am a big fan of AMD64 processors and have recently baight
one and it does work well on games..
(i have the 3400+ "Clawhammer 5ar that actually benches higher than
the 3500)

Anyhow, it will be a good pc but a coupel of notes...
AMD overrates their 939 processors which are no different from 754
except for a dual channel mem controller but amd thinks its worth
400MHZ or so.. (its not).

Secondly as much as i hate intel, last week they released the 6 series
chips at AMAZING prices... i think u can get a 3.2 with TWO M of L2
(NOT SLOW L3 LIKE THE EXTREMES) for well under $300...

IF you build a system using this, get a MB w/ a good chipset and spend
an extra $30/$40 on a cpu cooler.

Fianlly, going the pcie route....
there are two great deals out there and neither has an "8" in it!.

you can pick up a 6600gt for ~$150 for the pcie version (add $25 for
agp)

The 6600gt will play cs source at med resolution just as good as the
6800whatever.

or if you want to save even more money you can pick up an x700 pro for
less then $130 if you look hard enough. these aren't quite the 6600gt
they are marketed against but they are one hell of a value.

Seriously though if you're buying soon go witht he intel 6 series...
the pricing is just absolutely amazing for what you get.

Intel just slapped AMD over the face with a major blow and it will be
interesting to see how AMD retaliates, but until they do, buy the 6
series.



On Wed, 2 Feb 2005 10:41:34 +0000 (UTC), "Carl" <carl@wherever.com>
wrote:

>>Never mind the arguments, I'll tell you what I think is a good gaming rig:
>
>AMD 64 3500
>
>Creative Audigy2 ZS
>
>Abit AV8
>
>1GB PC3200 RAM
>
>Decent power supply eg Tagan 480watt
>
>Nvidia Geforce 6800GT with an Arctic Cooler
>
>
>> Any advice gratefully received.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Mike
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
 
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