Is this system worth buying?

[kjartan the dane]

hi.
i have been thinking about buying this system from dell for a few months, but i would like to know if it is worth the money. The pc costs $749.
the pc specs are:

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1045T

Graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB

OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English

Memory: 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS

Hard drive: 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache

Optical drive: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

Sound card: THX® TruStudio PC™

Network card: Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet


and just another thing, if i buy this system, can i play games like starcraft II, MW 2 and Crysis? and if i can; at roughly what settings?

 

[55Range]

Yeah, its fine overall , except for the 5450, will struggle for games.
try something higher, and anyway what abt the psu ?

 

[Herr_Koos]

Agreed, the GPU is not powerful enough for playing modern games.

The money might be better spent by buying the components separately and getting someone to put the PC together for you.

 

[Sinsation Station]

Hi there, I´ve checked Dell´s website and i think that the Computer you´re refering its the Studio XPS 7100, if thats the case You should know that this Computer comes with an 460watts PSU and the chassis is somewhat small, so this could pose limitations for future upgrades, like not been able to install a very large Video Card.


I completely agree with 55range and Herr_Koos about the Radeon 5450, this model its not gonna fulfill your gaming needs, here's Tom´s review of the card:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5450,2549-13.html


I´ve also checked Dell´s upgrades list, not surprisingly they´re limited, so for 50$ you get an ATI Radeon 5670
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-5670,2533.html (I really suggest You to read this article and skip this card), or for an additional $130 You get a ATI Radeon 5770 (a much better Video Card).


The AMD Phenom X6 1045T its good for multitasking and for applications like 3D Modelling and Renders, but unfortunatelly most games arent made to take advantage of this quantity of cores, so an processor with 2 or 3 cores and a higher speed should deliever better frame rate while gaming and with the benefit of costing less than this six cores beast.

There are plenty options on this days so its somewhat confussing to choose to build your own Computer or buy something from a company, so best of luck with your decission and I´ll check back later.

 

[55Range]

As Sinsation station mentioned, if you really want to go with this system, it will be wise to go for the 5770.
Herr koos, is right, its very logical, buying the things you need, which we will help you upon, then make someone build the pc for you, Will cost you cheaper and with better specs.

 

[jerreece]

That system would rock with a better GPU (graphics card). The ATI 5450 isn't suitable for things like Crysis especially. As others have suggested, an upgrade to something like the ATI 5770 is definitely in order.

As Sinsation Station has stated, buying a pre-built from someone like Dell binds you to a fairly limited selection of options. If you do upgrade to the ATI 5770 (which I'd suggest) don't play games any higher than 1680x1050 monitor resolution and you should be good to go.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been moved from the section Video Games to section Systems by Mousemonkey

 

[kjartan the dane]

Sinsation Station is right i forgot to say that the pc was dells XPS 7100.
so building my own pc is probably the best.
so you two says that using a intel I3 or I5 processor is better or is AMD good for gaming?

to be honest i once upgraded a video card from an existing pc, it all went pretty well. except then i have to do some BIOS stuff and mannaged to mess up the OS and everything.

oh and thanks for all the quick replies.

 

[jitpublisher]

Is this PC worth the cost? Yes it is. That is a decent PC at a decent price.

Is this PC a good machine for gaming, or buying with thoughts of doing some upgrades so you can game. No and no.

 

[kjartan the dane]

Best answer selected by kjartan the dane.

 

[Sinsation Station]

Hi, I want to let You know that I apreciate that your thoughts about my comment, but at the same time I´ve feel bad cause i didn´t reply to Your query about the CPU´s.

The Intel I3 CPU´s are pretty good and the I5 processors are even better, and also AMD's Athlon and Phenom are pretty good for gaming and other applications.

Good old Tom´s have an excellent CPU´s article that comes most handy : http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-overclock,2772-2.html

On my first post I did mention that You could upgrade Dell´s Studio XPS with an ATI Radeon 5770, but just in case that You decide to built your own system I would instead like to suggest You to look out for superior Cards like an Nvidia 460 GTX, an Radeon 5850, Radeon 6850 or an Radeon 6870. (Hey, or maybe the big Cards like an GeForce 480 GTX, an Radeon 5870 or even an Radeon 5970!).

Well thats all for now, and please let us know about your future Comp.

 

[Sinsation Station]

Sorry about double posting, but I just notice that there´s a very similar thread to this one by a new member of the forums called foreverahippy:


So here´s the link to his thread: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/297991-31-4gigs-5870-1045t-6gigs-5770-gaming#t2208420