New pc help please

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lotusmark2

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Hi all
Well following on from my SLOW shutdown thread and having wasted 12 hours of my life I am considering a new PC (I hate PC's with pre-installed OS and no OS system disc!!!)

Current machine has an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ with 2 gb Ram and an ATI radeon 9550 graphics card. Performance is ok but not great

Main use for the machine is games and web.

What would you recommend to improve on this spec in a new machine (could build it my self but to be honest dont have the time at the moment so would be PC world or the like)

Cheers
M
 
Something with a Intel Dual core processor;) , lots of memory and a good graphics card. AND----------------wait for Windows7? :cool:
Listened to a program on the world service last night where Bill Gates (GOD- your sitting in my chair! ) freely admitted that Vista had a lot of problems. The programme's take on the situation was that well into its development Vista was SUBSTANTIALLY rewritten to address the many security threats which had suddenly surfaced during its development phase. This had a deleterious effect on its functionality which is present even now. Windows 7 is rumoured to be what Vista might have been before the rewrite plus Vistas enhanced security.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7
 
It depends on your price range but I can recommend overclockers, I bought one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-005-OC for gaming and it runs anything you throw at it :)

When I looked at the costs of building it myself and then going through the tedious overclocking process (which you don't really have too) I decided it wasn't worth my while doing it and bought it prebuilt.

Only thing I've done is add a better graphics card cooler as it was a bit loud.

One thing I will add though is nothing I run takes advantage of the quad core at the moment so you might want to look at a core 2duo as grober said which would be cheaper
 
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Main recommendation as stated above is to go for Intel as AMD have lost the plot in the last 12 months.
 
Have a look at the HP Pavillion HDX 20" It's not quite a desk top and not quite a lap top. Big spec, but big price!
 
Mark,

As you can see everyone is suggesting something else :)

Go with Dell - I'm serious!

Cheers
Chris
 
And don't forget upgradability

how many free ram slots
SLI (Nvidia - Works) not (Crossfire ATI - Dosent Work so well) for cheap Graphics upgrade in 6 months when same cards come down
Sata Connections
CPU Compatibility
and of course WARRANTY

etc...
 
It depends on your price range but I can recommend overclockers, I bought one of these: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-005-OC for gaming and it runs anything you throw at it :)

When I looked at the costs of building it myself and then going through the tedious overclocking process (which you don't really have too) I decided it wasn't worth my while doing it and bought it prebuilt.

Only thing I've done is add a better graphics card cooler as it was a bit loud.

One thing I will add though is nothing I run takes advantage of the quad core at the moment so you might want to look at a core 2duo as grober said which would be cheaper

Overclockers owe me over £50 pounds, they abused consumer law when I was refunded for a defective product to withhold a portion of the value of the item for the enjoyment I had in the time (less than six months) I used it. I cannot recommend them.

Locally, I can recommend Scan in Bolton, Aria as Gollum mentioned, or MicroDirect. They all have special offers on a daily basis so you can get some good buys if you shop around.

At the moment there is nothing else to recommend other than a Dual Core or Quad Core Pentium Core2 processor. They are cheap and can be safely overclocked to ridiculous speeds with a simple cooling upgrade (my £140.00-ish Q6600 is running at 3.8Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz). DDR2 ram is now dirt-cheap and still has plenty of mileage in it despite DDR3 being out for nearly a year. An Intel P35 based motherboard will be cheap and flexible. Graphics cards are also good buys at the moment, the Nvidia 8800GT being a particularly good card for little money.

Just remember not to skimp on your PSU. It is better to spend more on a well known brand than a no-name PSU for around £20. also, Vista is a better OS now that SP1 has been released, but I still prefer Windows XP for the time being.

If you want to, PM me your planned budget and I'll see what I can come up with to suit you.
 
I am going to giv my machine one last go at a clean install but if its not doing what I want, I quite like the look of this spec from Aria,
Specifications

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz Processor
Asus Silent Knight II Solid Copper Cooler
OCZ 4GB PC2-8000 1000MHz DDR2 Memory
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 'XXX Edition' 512MB Graphics
320GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive
nForce 750i SLi Motherboard
High Definition 8 Channel 7.1 Audio
1000Mbps LAN
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Chassis
OCZ 900W ModXStream Modular Power Supply

Anything a miss with this spec?
 
I am going to giv my machine one last go at a clean install but if its not doing what I want, I quite like the look of this spec from Aria,
Specifications

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz Processor
Asus Silent Knight II Solid Copper Cooler
OCZ 4GB PC2-8000 1000MHz DDR2 Memory
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 9600GT 'XXX Edition' 512MB Graphics
320GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive
nForce 750i SLi Motherboard
High Definition 8 Channel 7.1 Audio
1000Mbps LAN
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Chassis
OCZ 900W ModXStream Modular Power Supply

Anything a miss with this spec?

Is this a ready made machine or are you buying these bits seperatly and building it yourself also cost ?
 
Case is a little OTT for my taste but each to their own.
The power supply is probably a little overspec'd but will no doubt be useful for upgrades given how power hungry components are becoming.
Not a bad spec. Not sure about the price as I've not been keeping up with prices lately. The CPU can be easily overclocked though, so I I would recommend it.
 
That's a nice system, the graphics card is the same as what I was recommending but with a newer name (8800GT = 9600GT)

You will need to use Vista on that to make full use of the 4GB of ram. Just a pity they aren't using an Intel based motherboard, though the Nvidia mobo should be SLi capable.

Unless its the 64bit edition of either XP or Vista you wont be able to take advantage of the 4gig and a lot of games dont work well with 32bit and 4gig (random crashing) ,,but apart from that I agree good spec..
 
Unless its the 64bit edition of either XP or Vista you wont be able to take advantage of the 4gig and a lot of games dont work well with 32bit and 4gig (random crashing) ,,but apart from that I agree good spec..

Yep 64bit, that's what I meant and I missed that bit out! :eek:
 
I'm currently having problems with Aria.
Bought components for a new PC. Checked with Aria before buying that my spec was complete and that all bits were compatible. Aria confirmed this & then order placed.
When building, found on cable missing from PSU (cant get power to hard disc) and TV card not compatible with 64 bit windows.
Back to Aria salesman - does't want to know, directs me to customer services.
Customer services don't reply to 2 e-mails. Took time off work to phone them and they don't believe their salesman could have possibly advised me incorrectly. Asked me to send copies of his e-mails - Done this, but guess what - still no reply from customer services.
 

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