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Potential new home system - Too good to be true? (Gaming etc.)

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Hi all,

Recently i have been looking at upgrading my system (in another thread here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/332757-13-upgrade-s...) and there has been some superb feedback from the community; but, on my travels looking at upgrade ideas/OS conflicts/changing motherboards etc. - i've come across what seems to be a bit of a bargain:

Dell Studio XPS 7100
AMD Phenom II X6 1045T Six Core processor, 6 x 2.7Ghz cores
8Gb DDR3 1333Mhz dual channel Ram installed
1Tb storage 7200 rpm SATA HDD
ATi Radeon HD 5770 1Gb
16x DVDRW
19 - in - 1 digital memory card reader
7.1 PC Sound
8 x USB 2.0, 1 x eSata, headphone port, Mic/Line-in, 10/100/1000, S/Pdif, DVI, HDMI
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

All for less that £500 (and including a 3 year warranty!!)

Now, firstly, it all looks to be several (ooooh several) times faster than my current computer (see the link above for current rig), with a significantly faster CPU, a slightly better GPU, more RAM and a hell of a lot more storage...

Now, my question to you fine people is - have i missed anything?

For me, i.e. a dedicated gamer, but not exactly *hardcore* (i.e. i'm fine playing on medium/high settings rather than ultramegahaxxorhigh graphics) it looks like a pretty decent rig that will serve me well, certainly for a few years, but i'm of the 'if it looks too good to be true...' school, so i'm wondering if i've missed anything glaringly obvious problem wise...

I know the temptation is to build from scratch (very tempted to do this... But lacking experience doing it, and the fact that this is already 'done for me' with a 3 year warranty, this is rather tempting...)

Also, if there is anything missing/needs updating/upgrading? Contemplating getting a SSD for it (for about c.£50) purely for the MMO's i play (i.e. LOTRO/SWTOR etc.) for faster loading... Do these make that much of a difference? And are they worth it?

As always, the help/support/feedback is greatly appreciated.

- Mach

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Big_Mach said:
I know the temptation is to build from scratch (very tempted to do this... But lacking experience doing it, and the fact that this is already 'done for me' with a 3 year warranty, this is rather tempting...)

All of us here, at one time or another, had a first build.

Well, it seems ok for what you intend to do with it. Your bottleneck will certainly be your graphics card, but it should be enough to run games decently on medium/high settings, depending on the resolution. A 5770 will be ok at 1680x1050 and struggle a little at 1920x1080.

You have not informed the power supply, and if its a cheap one, that might cripple your upgrade potential in the future.

Also, you have not mentioned the Monitor. If you don't have a good one, you may consider upgrading it too, to make good user of your new computer.

As for building your system yourself, its a fun thing to do if you're into it, but you are certain to run into problems. Just be sure you have the time and disposition to deal with them before you try, if you decide to.

jsc said:
All of us here, at one time or another, had a first build.


Absolutely; and while i am all in favour of joining the club as it were, but the practical part of me sees a system that appears to have everything i could want and more; as well as being already built (so no compatibility issues etc.) and, and this is the biggest thing, a THREE YEAR warranty... So there is a huge amount of piece of mind there.

Unless i am wrong? Unless components all come with individual warranties and i could build the same (or better) system from scratch for less money... But when i was constructing this on Scan.co.uk/Amazon.co.uk etc. it all looked to be pretty similar in price...

- Mach

Murissokah said:
Well, it seems ok for what you intend to do with it. Your bottleneck will certainly be your graphics card, but it should be enough to run games decently on medium/high settings, depending on the resolution. A 5770 will be ok at 1680x1050 and struggle a little at 1920x1080.

You have not informed the power supply, and if its a cheap one, that might cripple your upgrade potential in the future.

Also, you have not mentioned the Monitor. If you don't have a good one, you may consider upgrading it too, to make good user of your new computer.

As for building your system yourself, its a fun thing to do if you're into it, but you are certain to run into problems. Just be sure you have the time and disposition to deal with them before you try, if you decide to.


Hey there - thanks for the reply!

The GPU is actually better than what i have right now, on which i can get it to 'High' with DX11 running, but the CPU of my current machine is the bottle neck - will be good to let the GPU 'stretch it's legs' a bit - so the 5770 will still be an 'upgrade' for right now, as well as potentially being easier to upgrade in the future. The PSU is not listed, but by all accounts for £30(ish) i can get a relatively decent one to replace it worst case, and then i can factor that into any future upgrades.

As for building my own - If i had the time i think i would really enjoy it, right now, juggling full time work, evening classes for a degree and girlfriend/friends/RL commitments, unfortunately i don't have as much time as i would like to have a good play and get stuck into the building - potentially in the summer though :) 

As for the monitor - at the moment i have a ASUS PW191 which has served me well for a few years and still looks pretty good - resolution is 1440 x 900 if i remember correctly, so looks like this machine will be more than capable of ramping things up to *High*

Have been looking at monitors recently... Rather tempted by a couple of 24" Acer ones i've seen for sale on Savastore... But that's a month or so off yet :) 

Thanks for the feedback - looks like i may well have found myself a shiny new machine ;) 

- Mach

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