Time to buy buy a new Computer

[mj04uk]

Ok, so after making do for 12 months and being frustrated with all settings at minimum and still crap FPS's - it's time to upgrade the PC.

I'm after a gaming PC base unit only, which will do the business for the next two years or so before it gets to the state of my current PC.

I really don't want to go over the £1k mark, and ideally be a fair but under (that's my answer to the missus anyway).

I've been searching the internet and it seems that Mesh are offering pretty decent systems for the money.
www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=52380
I'm looking at the X-treme SLI but not too sure where best to upgrade - Thinking 2 gig of ram and upgrading the graphics card.


Any views or other suggestions / manufacturers ?

[Shirkin]

Thats pretty much the same one I bought from Mesh, and had no probs at all so far. Great with all games. Seems pretty cheap too. Think I paid around £1200 for it about 9 months ago with 17" LCD and all the other gubbins. Go for it.

[UncleDave]

Hi, I'm same situation as you too with GTL

I would be tempted to go for 64 bit 4000+ instead of the Dual Core 4200+
As far as I am aware each core is about 2.1ghz - and I am not sure if GTL is able to make full use of dual core??

Correct me if i'm wrong??!! but the 64 4000+ is about the same price

[UncleDave]

Bloody hell.. here's a tip. Go on eBay and search for 4200, 4400 etc in the computing section, but for European Union instead of only UK.

Wow they are cheap in Germany, I think I might have to invest in one of those. Good quality components aswell, just the same as the UK. I assume all that would be different is the plug?!

[neil_cardiff]

UncleDave said:

Hi, I'm same situation as you too with GTL I would be tempted to go for 64 bit 4000+ instead of the Dual Core 4200+ As far as I am aware each core is about 2.1ghz - and I am not sure if GTL is able to make full use of dual core??

It's not able to make use of Dual Core - Indeed the GT Legends server we have, while a Dual 3.4Ghz Xeon server, it only uses one of the CPUs when running the Dedicated Server app.

I'd question buying a dualcore unless you know that you'll utilise it. More money on the GPUs would make sense.

[mr_yogi]

IMO once you have a half decent CPU (say Athlon 64 3000+ and up), GPUs are more important for playing games these days.

New motherboards are compatable with both dual and single core CPUs so if in a year or so you decide you want dual core you can just pop 1 in

Also 512Mb of memory is now becomming a limiting factor in games, with the latest games requiring over 1.5Gb to run in full detail

I'm not sure how system demanding GTL is though as i'm still waiting for it to be delivered

Ordered it from GameJam as it was £1 cheaper than Play but now cancelled my order and gone with Play as nothing had been done with my order for a couple of days and it's now Out of Stock at GameJam website

>> Edited by mr_yogi on Monday 30th January 11:38

[pentoman]

1GB of ram would seem sensible.

Try this place for v cheap base units:

www.ginger6.co.uk/

(never used them myself and can't be sure how good/quiet etc they will be)

or eurowide PC (google search) for neat Compaq/HP ones with the badges.

As for GTL - I think my processor is the limiting factor more than the GPU. I can seemingly chagne the graphics settings without impacting performance that much.

Also it runs slower when playing online, though I can't decide if in that situation the CPU is less loaded (no AI) or more loaded (network overhead).

This is on a 3200+ XP 64 and ATi X800 GTO.

Russell

[zaktoo]

I'd recommend an AMD Athlon 64, with a motherboard that is dual-core and SLI capable so you can quickly upgrade in the future. A PCIx nVidia 6600GT (the GT bit is important - there's a lesser 6600 card around) gives you wiggle room in terms of GPU ability too - when needed, you go dual-card SLI route. I'd also plump for 4 GB RAM since it's prety well priced at the moment as far as I can tell.

Also, get 2 SATA II draves and run them in RAID simply for speed, or 4 if you like and run RAID1+0 if you can. Of course, we may be getting towards the silly side of expensive here though :P Stick with 1 7200 rpm or better SATA drive then.

Ciao

Zak

[Plotloss]

Self build...

[neil_cardiff]

I'm running a P4 2.43Ghz procsessor and I get up to and over 50fps on GTL - but this is probably helped by 2Gb of RAM and a 6600GT AGP card (and this is online too!)

There is something to be said about careful choice of componentry, as much RAM as you can afford, and building your OS peorperly - don't stick shit loads of crap all over it - keep it to the basics and a couple of things you need.

>> Edited by neil_cardiff on Monday 30th January 14:17

[lockstock2sb]

If you spec a system yourself take a look at Custom PC magazine. I found it excellent for reviews on gaming systems and components.

[mj04uk]

Cheers for the info chaps - most of it goes over my head mind you

Mesh have brought out a new variation to the X-treme range and is offering an AMD Athlon 64 FX 53 Processor as standard.

www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=66267

Any thoughts on this on - will upgrade to 2 gig ram and a 7800 GTX graphics card. (oh and yes that goes over my £1k limit)

[xiphias]

I would definatly recommended 2 gigs of ram. When most pcs spec 1gig nowadays, thats 2 sticks. To upgrade to any more you'd have to upgrade both sticks! Battlefield 2 runs mighty fine on my 2gigs