Is this processor and graphics card up to the job?
Discussion
If you're comfortable building your own system you will always get a lot more for your money. And if you're not comfortable, it's worth taking the time to give it a go - if you can manage Ikea flat pack furniture you can handle PC building. The part I used to struggle with was working what CPU goes with what motherboard etc etc.
pc.iow said:
How about this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
A lot of money for what it is. Personally, I'd look to lose 4GB ram and upgrade the GPU to either a 5770, or a low end 5830 if budget allows.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
It's a good spec, just not v balanced, in my opinion.
GregE240 said:
pc.iow said:
How about this?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
A lot of money for what it is. Personally, I'd look to lose 4GB ram and upgrade the GPU to either a 5770, or a low end 5830 if budget allows.http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&am...
It's a good spec, just not v balanced, in my opinion.
Edited by pc.iow on Wednesday 15th December 13:31
PC - even worse - in my opinion.
Why? It doesn't have a discreet graphics card, just an "ATI onboard" graphics card using the dreaded "shared memory". This means that the graphics is integrated in to the motherboard and uses actual system RAM (in this case, some out of your 8GB) to provide graphics memory. All well and good, but if you want to use the PC for gaming, nowhere near where you need to be aiming.
My other issue with this advert is that it actually doesn't *name* the components - you get an AMD based motherboard with a 6-core CPU which either runs at 2.1 or 3GHz - seems they can't decide. What CPU is fitted? What onboard graphics chipset is fitted? What brand of memory will be used? What manufacturer is the HDD? What is the max resolution of the onboard graphics? It suggests it can do 1920x1080 - can it go higher?
Too vague for me, sorry.
Why? It doesn't have a discreet graphics card, just an "ATI onboard" graphics card using the dreaded "shared memory". This means that the graphics is integrated in to the motherboard and uses actual system RAM (in this case, some out of your 8GB) to provide graphics memory. All well and good, but if you want to use the PC for gaming, nowhere near where you need to be aiming.
My other issue with this advert is that it actually doesn't *name* the components - you get an AMD based motherboard with a 6-core CPU which either runs at 2.1 or 3GHz - seems they can't decide. What CPU is fitted? What onboard graphics chipset is fitted? What brand of memory will be used? What manufacturer is the HDD? What is the max resolution of the onboard graphics? It suggests it can do 1920x1080 - can it go higher?
Too vague for me, sorry.
GregE240 said:
PC - even worse - in my opinion.
Why? It doesn't have a discreet graphics card, just an "ATI onboard" graphics card using the dreaded "shared memory". This means that the graphics is integrated in to the motherboard and uses actual system RAM (in this case, some out of your 8GB) to provide graphics memory. All well and good, but if you want to use the PC for gaming, nowhere near where you need to be aiming.
My other issue with this advert is that it actually doesn't *name* the components - you get an AMD based motherboard with a 6-core CPU which either runs at 2.1 or 3GHz - seems they can't decide. What CPU is fitted? What onboard graphics chipset is fitted? What brand of memory will be used? What manufacturer is the HDD? What is the max resolution of the onboard graphics? It suggests it can do 1920x1080 - can it go higher?
Too vague for me, sorry.
Thank you once again Greg.Why? It doesn't have a discreet graphics card, just an "ATI onboard" graphics card using the dreaded "shared memory". This means that the graphics is integrated in to the motherboard and uses actual system RAM (in this case, some out of your 8GB) to provide graphics memory. All well and good, but if you want to use the PC for gaming, nowhere near where you need to be aiming.
My other issue with this advert is that it actually doesn't *name* the components - you get an AMD based motherboard with a 6-core CPU which either runs at 2.1 or 3GHz - seems they can't decide. What CPU is fitted? What onboard graphics chipset is fitted? What brand of memory will be used? What manufacturer is the HDD? What is the max resolution of the onboard graphics? It suggests it can do 1920x1080 - can it go higher?
Too vague for me, sorry.
I am not up to it when it comes to computers. A friend and myself have been round the houses looking at these. He has been in contact with the companies with questions, but like you say, their all a bit vague with the information.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Okay PC, two questions:
- what's your budget?
- what will you use it for?
We can squeeze the budget and make sure we buy something nice and modern / future proof as much as we can.
Use is important. My lad (16) uses his machine for gaming mainly, coupled with surfing. So when I specced his machine, I made sure we bought the very best graphics card we could afford. This way, the system will last longest. Right now, he can play anything on the market at full res (1920 x1080). Hopefully he still will in a year or two as well.
Happy to help with specs. Also, for prebuilt check out Mesh, or DinoPC.
- what's your budget?
- what will you use it for?
We can squeeze the budget and make sure we buy something nice and modern / future proof as much as we can.
Use is important. My lad (16) uses his machine for gaming mainly, coupled with surfing. So when I specced his machine, I made sure we bought the very best graphics card we could afford. This way, the system will last longest. Right now, he can play anything on the market at full res (1920 x1080). Hopefully he still will in a year or two as well.
Happy to help with specs. Also, for prebuilt check out Mesh, or DinoPC.
Was that really the 15th of December ! Time fly’s.
Not really sure to tell the truth. I suppose i am looking to be as ‘future proof’ as possible for under a grand
Both of those sites have some good looking machines but i then start to customise them with the next best of nearly everything.
Would the best rout be 6 core, or i7? From what i have read, it seems that the 6 core is a poor man’s i7. Not sure why though.
Sorry to hijack the thread(again)
Not really sure to tell the truth. I suppose i am looking to be as ‘future proof’ as possible for under a grand
Both of those sites have some good looking machines but i then start to customise them with the next best of nearly everything.
Would the best rout be 6 core, or i7? From what i have read, it seems that the 6 core is a poor man’s i7. Not sure why though.
Sorry to hijack the thread(again)
annodomini2 said:
From Ebuyer
Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Box Processor £84.09
Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 Socket 1156 VGA Out 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard £56.29
2 * Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory Module Unbuffered £40.89
Casecom Shiny Piano Black Mid Tower Case with Red LED 120mm Front Fan and Side Window £18.99
Inno3D GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card £114.56
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM £39.99
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black £11.99
Antec Basiq Power 500W PSU - 20+4pin 2x SATA 1x PCI-E 5x Molex £42.99
Cart total inc vat: £409.79
There's a review somewhere of the Gigabyte GA-H55M-UD2H tested with the Core i3 540 and it safely overclocks it to 4.6GHz, that makes it a pretty good bang for your buck - I'd imagine the H55M-S2 can do the same.Intel Core i3 540 3.06GHz Socket 1156 4MB L3 Cache Retail Box Processor £84.09
Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2 Socket 1156 VGA Out 7.1 channel audio mATX Motherboard £56.29
2 * Corsair 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory Module Unbuffered £40.89
Casecom Shiny Piano Black Mid Tower Case with Red LED 120mm Front Fan and Side Window £18.99
Inno3D GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI Out PCI-E Graphics Card £114.56
Hitachi Deskstar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM £39.99
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA Optical Drive - OEM Black £11.99
Antec Basiq Power 500W PSU - 20+4pin 2x SATA 1x PCI-E 5x Molex £42.99
Cart total inc vat: £409.79
pc.iow said:
Was that really the 15th of December ! Time fly’s.
Not really sure to tell the truth. I suppose i am looking to be as ‘future proof’ as possible for under a grand
Both of those sites have some good looking machines but i then start to customise them with the next best of nearly everything.
Would the best rout be 6 core, or i7? From what i have read, it seems that the 6 core is a poor man’s i7. Not sure why though.
Sorry to hijack the thread(again)
A friend of mine has a brand new tricore AMD. On single core benchmarks, it's not even keeping up with my overclocked E6600, and there's a LOT in it.Not really sure to tell the truth. I suppose i am looking to be as ‘future proof’ as possible for under a grand
Both of those sites have some good looking machines but i then start to customise them with the next best of nearly everything.
Would the best rout be 6 core, or i7? From what i have read, it seems that the 6 core is a poor man’s i7. Not sure why though.
Sorry to hijack the thread(again)
At present, I'd go with something intel and something quad. To be honest, the 6 core things are a bit of a waste as very little is multithreaded to the extent it can use 4 cores, let alone 6.
The biggest point for futureproofing imo is a decent motherboard that can hold a really high overclock. Most of the Intel processors at the moment seem to be capable of a 30-40% overclock with a decent mobo, and that's gonna make the processor last longer than it would otherwise.
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