PC Spec

[Marko77]

My dad is looking to get a new PC for Christmas and there used to be a time I could help with this but I no longer know the spec to look for.

Is anyone here up on what PCs should have in the box to make it a good gaming machine (games like Call of Duty and the likes). Processor/graphics card, etc suggestions welcome plus if anyone can recommend a deal they've seen?

My mum has seen one:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
2.33GHz, 4MB Cache
Windows Vista Home Premium
4GB memory
500GB hard drive
Integrated graphics (Intel GMA 3100)
DVD rewriter
6x USB ports

available with usual peripherals for £339.97 - does that seem a good deal? Thanks in advance...

 

[madandra]

Just go for the one with the biggest gas bottle.

 

[CliveW]

I had to replace my PC a few weeks ago and went to a high street shop rather than the large stores. The selection was not as large as the big stores, but the advice and price was better. I was however warned to avoid Windows Vista and had Windows XP installed instead.

 

[Imurg]

We had to get a new one as well - hard drive had a total existence failure!
Fragger sorted us a spec - doesn't seem to dissimilar to the one above - and we got one from Curry's on the cheap with a windows 7 upgrade that should be here any day. Works wel sdlhlvwhvwhv

Except the keyboard is f;lK;kjn

 

[brendy]

Mark, the spec would make for a decent gaming PC if you can factor in another £70-100 for a good graphics card. The intel onboard gma graphics really are bad so a pci express addition would make a real difference. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/gaming-graphics-cards-charts-2009-high-quality/F.E.A.R.-2,1517.html will give you an idea of most modern graphics cards pace.
For what's worth, I would rather have 2 hard drives, one with windows and the other solely for games to be installed onto.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

As a PC Engineer I agree with Brendy
General spec is fine but let down by the onboard graphics

Be careful when you choose a graphics card as some of them are absolutely massive and may not fit in the case.

Good luck and feel free to PM me if you need any more help

Cheers Fragger

 

[RGDave]

I'm no expert, but I tend to buy a PC with a solid "base" spec and then add the extras to suit my needs.
The spec mentioned on the O.P. is fine, but without a graphics card, not particularly good for games, I expect.

I bought an ATI Radeon for my desktop which was higher spec'd than my Nvidia and never quite got it to work, so I pulled it out and chucked it in another PC.

If you buy a desktop, make sure you know what you are buying.
I'd imagine most desktops now come with PCI-express slots for graphics/video/sound cards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

If I wanted to buy a desktop tomorrow, I'd need one that had the old PCI slots (I'm guessing they are not compatible) as I have professional sound and video cards that are PCI.

So, in short, buy a desktop with good spec, and if it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, buy one.....

If the desktop has PCI-E slots, get a nice 1GB PCI-E card (of any make) either ATI or Nvidia.

 

[Marko77]

Thanks for the input guys.

He bought an Asus EN9500GT Magic graphics card earlier this year

NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT GPU

Would that be good enough to transfer across or should we continue looking for a suitable upgrade to the graphics.

I'm going to recommend going with the Orig spec but upgrading the graphics.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

Thanks for the input guys.

He bought an Asus EN9500GT Magic graphics card earlier this year

NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT GPU

Would that be good enough to transfer across or should we continue looking for a suitable upgrade to the graphics.

I'm going to recommend going with the Orig spec but upgrading the graphics.

That Asus card should be fine to run those games

It may be useful to check that the Pc box you are buying has a PCI Express slot on the motherboard
if it doesnt have one, you wont be able to expand the graphics

Certain naughty manufacturers to cut costs dont put one on thus limiting your upgrade options

 

[RGDave]

Thanks for the input guys.

He bought an Asus EN9500GT Magic graphics card earlier this year

NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT GPU

Would that be good enough to transfer across or should we continue looking for a suitable upgrade to the graphics.

I'm going to recommend going with the Orig spec but upgrading the graphics.

That Asus card should be fine to run those games

It may be useful to check that the Pc box you are buying has a PCI Express slot on the motherboard
if it doesnt have one, you wont be able to expand the graphics

Certain naughty manufacturers to cut costs dont put one on thus limiting your upgrade options

If it's the ASUS Nvidia 9500GT with 1gb memory, I'd say that was a stonking spec card. Like I said, graphics cards are not really my thing, but on a new desktop with PCI-E, I'd imagine something like this would be close enough to top end for almost anything!!!

If I wanted to game seriously, I'd certainly spend the extra on a better card. A basic one can be had for pocket money £25-40 whereas there are some beasts on the market around the £80 mark. £80 seems quite cheap until you realise you can get a whole console for £200.