good spec gaming pc - Page 3

Alan · 20th May 2007, 00:12

Mike, mid range graphics cards are really all you need to play modern games at reasonable frame rates and reasonable resolution. Example, the ATI Radeon X1950 is about £115. SLI graphics cards are for hard core enthusiasts who want the fastest possible frame rates and - basically - bragging rights. That's fair enough if you are an enthusiast but if all you want is a decent machine to run modern games well, ignore them.
Again, super fast RAM is the same but three times the price.
A nice dual core Pentium which runs pretty cool, with 1Gb RAM (2Gb if you run Vista) a 250Gb SATA drive, (no more than £50) a X1950 on an Asus P5B motherboard (only £75) will run Half Life and Doom 3 and Toca 3 and all the others - maybe not at top resolution and detail but I defy you to see the difference as one that would bother anyone.
A nice 8ms response 19" wide screen TFT panel and we're good to go.

MGOracle · 20th May 2007, 13:47

WHAT? You can spend FAR less than £900 on a computer soley for games. IMO I'd hang on for a few more months as Quad Cores are about to become very cheap and with the onset of GDDR4 memory in GFX cards you could have a system capabale of playing all the latest games for £700 including a 19" TFT

Stay away from Physics cards, marketing hype gone mad and they offer no realy advantage over a decent X1950 or similar.

EDIT, I would also highly advise staying away from overclockers, Their prices are steep, their delivery even more so. I can usually cut £50 off anything spec'd at Overclockers by going to eBuyer instead.

nairda · 22nd May 2007, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by MGOracle

WHAT? You can spend FAR less than £900 on a computer soley for games. IMO I'd hang on for a few more months as Quad Cores are about to become very cheap and with the onset of GDDR4 memory in GFX cards you could have a system capabale of playing all the latest games for £700 including a 19" TFT

Stay away from Physics cards, marketing hype gone mad and they offer no realy advantage over a decent X1950 or similar.

EDIT, I would also highly advise staying away from overclockers, Their prices are steep, their delivery even more so. I can usually cut £50 off anything spec'd at Overclockers by going to eBuyer instead.

Wot

With the caveat that a colleague of mine has returned quite a bit of kit as DOA to eBuyer....maybe he was unlucky, maybe not...

I spec'd and built a very quiet, very fast machine for SWMBO for less than £700 but that was less a monitor, keyboard & mouse. Not what I'd call an out and out gaming rig, but a Core 2 Duo with 2GB of Corsair RAM, it's certainly no slouch. Vista compliant too.

smoothound63 · 25th May 2007, 21:14

Hi Mike i do a lot of gaming the pc that i have and is a real good performer is a off the shelf h p media centre pc. It runs top spec games with out any trouble including the latest microsoft flight sim which is what i got it for most pc s seem to struggle with it. When i bought it december last year it had xp on it with a free up grade to vista which i have now installed. Vista seems ok but only new games will run on it. I set mine up with a duel boot so i still have xp.I dont know what you budget is but mine was about a grand. But as the old addage goes you only get what you pay for.If you would like more info on my system let me know

JohnDotCom · 25th May 2007, 23:24

I believe Mike at present is delaying his upgrade to a Later date,
but good to hear the different comments from users on their "Gaming" Machines.

20th May 2007, 13:47	#22
MGOracle Banned MG ZT CDTi 135+ Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Cardiff Posts: 1 Thanks: 0 Thanked 5 Times in 2 Posts	WHAT? You can spend FAR less than £900 on a computer soley for games. IMO I'd hang on for a few more months as Quad Cores are about to become very cheap and with the onset of GDDR4 memory in GFX cards you could have a system capabale of playing all the latest games for £700 including a 19" TFT Stay away from Physics cards, marketing hype gone mad and they offer no realy advantage over a decent X1950 or similar. EDIT, I would also highly advise staying away from overclockers, Their prices are steep, their delivery even more so. I can usually cut £50 off anything spec'd at Overclockers by going to eBuyer instead. Last edited by MGOracle; 20th May 2007 at 13:51..

20th May 2007, 00:12	#21
Alan Avid contributor Other Make Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Near Glasgow Posts: 169 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Mike, mid range graphics cards are really all you need to play modern games at reasonable frame rates and reasonable resolution. Example, the ATI Radeon X1950 is about £115. SLI graphics cards are for hard core enthusiasts who want the fastest possible frame rates and - basically - bragging rights. That's fair enough if you are an enthusiast but if all you want is a decent machine to run modern games well, ignore them. Again, super fast RAM is the same but three times the price. A nice dual core Pentium which runs pretty cool, with 1Gb RAM (2Gb if you run Vista) a 250Gb SATA drive, (no more than £50) a X1950 on an Asus P5B motherboard (only £75) will run Half Life and Doom 3 and Toca 3 and all the others - maybe not at top resolution and detail but I defy you to see the difference as one that would bother anyone. A nice 8ms response 19" wide screen TFT panel and we're good to go.

25th May 2007, 21:14	#24
smoothound63 Newbie ZT 190+ 2003 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Rochester Kent Posts: 16 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Hi Mike i do a lot of gaming the pc that i have and is a real good performer is a off the shelf h p media centre pc. It runs top spec games with out any trouble including the latest microsoft flight sim which is what i got it for most pc s seem to struggle with it. When i bought it december last year it had xp on it with a free up grade to vista which i have now installed. Vista seems ok but only new games will run on it. I set mine up with a duel boot so i still have xp.I dont know what you budget is but mine was about a grand. But as the old addage goes you only get what you pay for.If you would like more info on my system let me know

25th May 2007, 23:24	#25
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	I believe Mike at present is delaying his upgrade to a Later date, but good to hear the different comments from users on their "Gaming" Machines.