Recommend Me a Computer

[MardyB]

Hi I'm looking to buy a new computer.
What spec's will I need to run new PC games like Splinter Cell series, Unreal Tournament 2007 smoothly and to a high graphics.

I'm looking at a budget of around 600£ and I can salvage some stuff out of my present computer

1.5 GB RAM
150GB Hard Drive
RADEON 9200 series card
Some removable firewire/usb ports.

So basically which computer would be the best deal for me and my needs at the best price (avoiding dells) making sure it can run the games smoothly.

Also can anyone recommend me a monitor. I'm looking at an 19" at the price of about 150£ give or take. I've been looking at qa few on Ebuyer, do you think this is the best place to go?

Any response would be very grateful.

 

[oscaryu1]

If you really want to BUY an computer.. check your local shops and stores. I would recommend you build it yourself though, customize it to your needs and save some cash for something else.

 

[paratwa]

Unreal tournament will need a DX10 card to run at full graphics. It will be released around November or October. I am a Unreal fanatic. And I belong to a clan. One of my clan mates works for Gearbox software and has already played a pre release copy of Unreal 2007.

Unreal will run on a dx9 card very well, you just will not be able to turn all the settings up to full.

So you will need an nvida 8600 card or better to run at full. Since your new system will probably have vista loaded on it, you will need at least 2 gigs of ram. Vista is very ram hungry. I would not try running it with less than 2 gigs if you want it to run smoothly. 3 gigs would be a very good choice for vista.

Also, Unreal will support Dual core CPU's, so you will want one of those. Quad core would be a waste for gaming for the next couple of years or so. But make sure your motherboard will support a Quad core so that you can upgrade in the future.

I am in the US, so I don't know what the conversion would be for your price limit. I am guessing around $1200? You can build a very nice system for that amount, a much better system than you can buy from some place like Dell, HP and such.

If you must buy an already built system, I would do like the previous poster said, I would look at some of the local computer shops for the best deals.

 

[daisymtc]

Do you mean you need to Buy a computer or build it yourself?
Anyway, just give you some idea how a self built PC with £600-700 look like.

Intel E6550 £105
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R £88
Inno 3D 8800GTS 320MB £180
Seagate ST3250620AS 250GB SATAII 300 7200RPM 16MB Cache OEM £43
NEC Optiarc AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/DL/RAM Serial ATA Black £17
OCZ (OCZ2P800LP2GK) 2Gb PC2-6400 DDR2-800 4-4-4-15 DFI Certified Platinum £65
OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU £68
Coolermaster Black Centurion 534 £38
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD £63

Total £667 inc VAT from ebuyer.
If you have old PC, you could probably use back the old case. Also if you have had OS, you don't need the vista.

 

[MardyB]

Unreal tournament will need a DX10 card to run at full graphics. It will be released around November or October. I am a Unreal fanatic. And I belong to a clan. One of my clan mates works for Gearbox software and has already played a pre release copy of Unreal 2007.

Hi Thanks for the reply.

I wouldn't want to run it on full everything I'd just want it to play smoothly.
And maybe play game released in 2008 in a good quality. If I make sure the motherboard allows for Quad core then I'm sure if I'll ever need to update it then I'll have convenient space.

Intel E6550 £105
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R £88
Inno 3D 8800GTS 320MB £180
Seagate ST3250620AS 250GB SATAII 300 7200RPM 16MB Cache OEM £43
NEC Optiarc AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/DL/RAM Serial ATA Black £17
OCZ (OCZ2P800LP2GK) 2Gb PC2-6400 DDR2-800 4-4-4-15 DFI Certified Platinum £65
OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU £68
Coolermaster Black Centurion 534 £38
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD £63

So all of the above at £667 run UT3 nicely and future games..Also whats Platinum? I've never built a p.c before but there's a really good thread on here which I've found very useful reading so it shouldn't be too hard. Is Vista definitely the best platform? Like messing about with compatibility is a bit frustrating but I won't be buying one till like Sep/Oct.

Thanks for your answers, much appreciated.