computer spec advice

[bad boy]

im thinking of getting a new pc, after all the trouble i have had with mine, but not sure about value for money, how does this sound? p4 3ghz, 512mb ram, 160 gb hard drive for £760 its a packard bell reduced fron £960 at pc world, is it good vfm? and its got an ati radoen 9200 graphics card is this any good? in particular for gpl?
thanks in advance

[chris watton]

You will need at least an ATI Radeon 9600 (Pro preferable) if you want to play the latest games, the 9200 will find it hard to cope with todays games, and you have to have all the settings quite low for the graphics.
The 3GHz CPU (assuming its the newer 800MHz fsb and HT model)and 512 MB of RAM is good, but make sure it is DDR 3200 RAM, as this runs at the same speed as the CPU (800MHz fsb)
I would also advise looking on Evesham's and Mesh's websites, as they seem to have some pretty decent spec PC's, but,, remember, get at least a Radeon 9600 card, a lot of manufactures of ready built PCs seem to rely on the customer not knowing much about specs, especially graphic card specs.

Oh yes,, that 9200 card only costs no more than about £40, in graphics card prices,, you get what you pay for.

Chris

>> Edited by chris watton on Thursday 1st January 14:35

[AJLintern]

Anything you buy these days will be fine for GPL - it was introduced in 1998 remember! Depends on your budget really - if you want to play the latest games then just buy the highest spec you can afford. Best value for money is usually the second or third fastest processor which will still be plenty quick enough. I got a Dell magazine review system several months ago which was much cheaper than specing the same system on their website.

[bad boy]

thanks for the replys can anyone reccommend an actual computer? i have £7-800 to spend and i dont need moniter, printers etc, any good deals about?

[Roadrage]

bad boy said:

thanks for the replys can anyone reccommend an actual computer? i have £7-800 to spend and i dont need moniter, printers etc, any good deals about?

build your own

[vteclimey]

avoid the budget brands like packard bell, tiny, time.

[dern]

bad boy said:

thanks for the replys can anyone reccommend an actual computer? i have £7-800 to spend and i dont need moniter, printers etc, any good deals about?

Do you have any mates who can build you one? I built this pc for a couple of hundred quid but it isn't particularly high spec but a quicker one wouldn't be that much more unless you go for something leading edge. The important thing for games is a quick graphics card rather than a quick processor imo.

If I was going to buy a ready made one then it would be a dell (if you phone them I'm sure they'll supply a pc without a monitor).

Mark

[arcturus]

You have mail!!

Dave