new PC £550-600 what Spec should I be looking for?
Discussion
Chalky White said:
Mainly net, games, light Office use.
Realistically other than games pretty much any machine you can buy will be suitable.Games is where it gets demanding but of course that depends if you mean 3D stuff or just simple 2D or kids learning type games.
I'm of the opinion that you should get as much RAM as possible as it's cheap, and the best monitor possible as it's the thing you spend all your time looking at.
Agree with above.
As for the games part of it - get a decent spec 8600 graphics card with 512MB of video ram in it - not too little and not too much. Do not try to play games on anything with "turbocache" or UMA or the like - where the graphics card uses main memory for it's buffers rather than having dedicated high speed ram.
Unless your running at uber resolutions (above 1280x1024) this will do fine for most games today or in the near future.
2GB of RAM is plenty.
Dual core is pretty much standard at that price point.
If you have a digital videocam and fancy playing with that nice big HDD (or 2 medium (200gb) size ones will be better) makes sense. digital stills are not big enough to worry about unless your shutter happy.
Oh and unless you have one already I'd invest in a USB HDD to backup your data to.
Simes
As for the games part of it - get a decent spec 8600 graphics card with 512MB of video ram in it - not too little and not too much. Do not try to play games on anything with "turbocache" or UMA or the like - where the graphics card uses main memory for it's buffers rather than having dedicated high speed ram.
Unless your running at uber resolutions (above 1280x1024) this will do fine for most games today or in the near future.
2GB of RAM is plenty.
Dual core is pretty much standard at that price point.
If you have a digital videocam and fancy playing with that nice big HDD (or 2 medium (200gb) size ones will be better) makes sense. digital stills are not big enough to worry about unless your shutter happy.
Oh and unless you have one already I'd invest in a USB HDD to backup your data to.
Simes
51mes make some good points. However, I think his estimation of an 8600's grunt is a little short. If a Go 7900 GS can make BioShock run in 1600x1200 with lots o' goodies; I think an 8000 series should be at least equal if not superior to that.
But £550 - £600 puts you pretty much in the midrange area. Take a look at Dell's Factory outlet store (it's where they flog off cancelled orders and such), as well as places like Novatech for whatever deals they are offering.
But £550 - £600 puts you pretty much in the midrange area. Take a look at Dell's Factory outlet store (it's where they flog off cancelled orders and such), as well as places like Novatech for whatever deals they are offering.
TheLearner said:
51mes make some good points. However, I think his estimation of an 8600's grunt is a little short. If a Go 7900 GS can make BioShock run in 1600x1200 with lots o' goodies; I think an 8000 series should be at least equal if not superior to that.
But £550 - £600 puts you pretty much in the midrange area. Take a look at Dell's Factory outlet store (it's where they flog off cancelled orders and such), as well as places like Novatech for whatever deals they are offering.
According to the graphics guys at work, an 8600 is a bit of a step down from a good 7900. The 8800 series is the only way to go from a 7900...But £550 - £600 puts you pretty much in the midrange area. Take a look at Dell's Factory outlet store (it's where they flog off cancelled orders and such), as well as places like Novatech for whatever deals they are offering.
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