pc purchase

[firefighter]

I wish to buy a pc for my son. It will be used for his gaming and education (he has already bought crysis) and editing of family video.
I would like a general description of a good spec pc.
Current thinking intel or amd? Dual or quad? Nvidia graphics card? Vista or xp, its all greek to me! Already have 20 inch monitor. Budget £700 ish.
Have read forum and will avoid mesh, any suggestions as to reliable supplier.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Are you capable of building your own from parts or are you after a tailor-made machine?

And welcome to the Forum by the way

 

[firefighter]

Hello and thankyou. A tailor-made machine, I don't have the knowledge or skills to build one. Currently reading magazines and surfing to improve understanding of this new language, hertz, bytes ... all sounds very painful. Plan a visit to shops today to look only.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Some ideas, this one from Novatech:

Intel Quad Core

No Monitor or speakers £679.00 with no OS.

For gaming you'd be better off asking them to change the quad core to a dual core and upgrading the graphics card to an 8800 series. That should work out about the same money if Novatech are prepared to change their spec.

I also favour Logitech Keyboard & Mouse for Gaming rather than the Microsoft ones supplied with this system.

And This is a good choice for your budget, customisable as well. £710.00 plus postage.

I also looked at Misco but they only do Office machines, mostly HP.

 

[firefighter]

still hunting

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated. Looked at PB Ixtreme 2712 in pc world quad core,3 gb memory 256 nvidia geforce 8600. £630. enquired about graphics upgrade and informed would have to buy original spec and pay for upgrade also!!

Do not understand reason for reducing processor and upgrading graphics for gaming, is this to keep within budget or some techy reason?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Do not understand reason for reducing processor and upgrading graphics for gaming, is this to keep within budget or some techy reason?

Purely to keep within budget.

An Nvidia 8800GTS or GT would be really beneficial to gaming whereas a quad core CPU would have very little advantage at all for anything unless you regularly multi-tasked (having four programs open at once, let's say for instance: Photoshop; Nero; Powerpoint and WS_FTP with transfers happening).

The average user will only ever need a dual core CPU.

The average gamer will always need the best video card they can afford.

 

[Adywebb]

Flops makes a good point about dual-core, and it will save you a bit to buy a better keyboard/mouse and maybe a decent soundcard as well within your budget.

Cube247 sell well built PC's with excellent customer service - THIS one comes out at £618 inc VAT if you upgrade the graphics card to a 8800GT which will allow you a few £'s for some peripherals.

Personally I would avoid Packard Bell PC's

 

[firefighter]

Floopy and Ady thanks for your help will look at your suggestions. My son likes the cat pic!! Will continue to probe your knowledge!!

 

[neurotrash1982]

I am also looking to buy a new pc, for about the same budget, but I live in Belgium (1000 euro = about 750 pound). Does the same advice apply to me? do these companies just ship the same computers to Belgium also?
also, what does the dual and quad stand for?? I hope this thread is still being looked at

 

[FSman]

I am also looking to buy a new pc, for about the same budget, but I live in Belgium (1000 euro = about 750 pound). Does the same advice apply to me? do these companies just ship the same computers to Belgium also?
also, what does the dual and quad stand for?? I hope this thread is still being looked at

Just looked at your other thread, looks like that Cube247 PC would do everyhting you need and more, im not sure about shipping to Belguim though or if they dont of any companies based there. I noticed you said you dont expect to play any demanding games if thats the case then you would get away with not upgrading the graphics card and just keeping the one that comes as standard with that system, the reason its been sugested to the other guy is probably because he has already purchased Crysis and thats one of the most demanding games on a PC there is at the minute if you run it with all the settings turned up.

To Firefighter id second that cube247 PC and stick a better card in it like one of the 8800 series it will run well pretty much any game your son wants to throw at it and looks a very good buy.

Cheers Lee.

 

[firefighter]

Spoke to cube and advised that quad would ensure future proofing for longer. However, after adding card reader, sound card,keyboard,network card, the price jumps massively. Looked at the ST 3 which already has the upgraded graphics card. If purse will allow is this the way to go and tick all boxes in one hit? Comparing with Novatech noticed that one described as 2 quad and other as 4 quad, is this important? Thanks for continued advice. Nigel

 

[FSman]

Got confused for a second as there are 2 ST3s obvious now that you mean this one http://www.cube247.co.uk/?customise=29
Yep looks like an excellent system to me in fact i would have looked at that myself if i had seen that before i got my new PC. That will do everything you need and more and in my opinion its a great price too.

Cheers Lee.