Curse

tidusjar · Jul 09, 2009, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Hey i'm new to this site, ive had a look around and you guys seem to know your stuff lol,
I was wondering about this PC, can you give me some advise on it?

1. AMD 64X2 7850 DUAL CORE PROCESSOR, 2 CORES @ 2.8GHZ, 1MB L2 CACHE, 2MB L3 CACHE.
2. 1TB QUALITY HARD DRIVE, TOP QUALITY SATA II 7200RPM HARD DRIVE
3. NVIDIA GEFORCE 9500GT 1GB GDDR2 GRAPHICS, DVI, VGA AND HD-TV OUTPUTS . SUPPORTS DIRECT X-10 AND OPEN GL 2.0
4. 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 2X 2GB 800MHZ BRANDED PC MEMORY.
5. FRONT AND REAR USB PORTS 4X REAR, 2 X FRONT PLUS OPTION TO ADD FURTHER USB PORTS EITHER VIA THE MOTHERBOARDS USB HEADER OR VIA PCI USB CARD.
6. FRONT AUDIO HEADPHONE AND MIC JACK
7. HIGH DEFINTION AUDIO, SURROUND SOUND. 8 CHANNELS FOR SUPERB AUDIO QUALITY FOR GAMING AND DVD/CD PLAYBACK
8. DVD RE-WRITER, FAST AND RELIABLE. DUAL LAYER!!!! RECORD AND PLAY DVD'S AND CD'S ALL FROM THE SAME DRIVE
9. NETWORK SOCKET/PORT. CONNECT TO YOUR BROADBAND THROUGH A WIRED CONNECTION
10. WIRELESS ( WI-FI ) CARD INSTALLED, CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM ANYWHERE IN YOUR HOME..
11. ALL SYSTEM COME COMPLETE WITH A 1 YEAR RTB WARRANTY FOR COMPLETE PEACE OF MIND!!
12. CAN INSTALL XP OR VISTA, PLEASE SEE OUR LISTINGS LISTED UNDER "OPERATING SYSTEMS"

moriz · Jul 10, 2009, 12:03 AM // 00:03

where is this from, and how much are you paying for it?

it's... kinda meh specs wise.

Elder III · Jul 10, 2009, 12:04 AM // 00:04

What's the cost of the computer? What do you want to do with it? The Video Card is not a very good one, and you won't be able to play current generation games very well with it, in fact graphics intensive games will likely be unplayable at decent settings and resolution. Other than that it would be ok for gaming and general useage, although anytime they just say "quality" or "branded" in reference to parts it makes me nervous.

Brett Kuntz · Jul 10, 2009, 02:23 AM // 02:23

That CPU appears to be extremely old. And the GPU too. I hope you aren't paying more than $100 for this.

tidusjar · Jul 10, 2009, 08:07 PM // 20:07

The price is £350, so what would you suggest then, low budget would be nice and im from the UK.

Quaker · Jul 10, 2009, 09:24 PM // 21:24

I`d say it`s OK except for the video card. You could try to get the card upgraded to an nVidia 9800 or an ATI 4850 or whatever.

As far as `quality`hard drive and `branded`memory goes - that indicates that it is a very small builder, maybe even just one guy. He probably gets the parts only as he needs them, so he sometimes has to substitute parts, depending upon what is in stock in the distributer.
The builder should be perfectly willing to tell you what parts are in the final build.

Snograt · Jul 10, 2009, 10:33 PM // 22:33

Don't buy from the high street, tidusjar. For one thing, places like Currys and Comet are "box-shifters" whose staff know very little about the stuff they are selling (and will try to sell you "discounted" end-of-the-range stuff that's next to useless) and secondly, they are all over-priced.

Look online, particularly www.novatech.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk - the former of which is PC e-tailer of the year, yet again and the latter who are very competetive.

tidusjar · Jul 11, 2009, 12:14 PM // 12:14

Thanks for the help guys, snograt its not from the high street its from a small business made to design gaming pc's, i just wanted to know whats good and bad about this stuff because i have little knoledge of hardware, i'm more of a software person. So it's a good pc except the graphics card so i'll ask him to put a nVidia 9800GX2 or 9800GT?? whats a better card than this and why is it so bad?
And when i get more money i could always upgrade.
I just want a better PC than i got now then i can play Guildwars/2, Crysis, and anyother new games.

moriz · Jul 11, 2009, 02:14 PM // 14:14

the current card just doesn't have the performance you need. graphic card models are like car models: you're not going to use a honda fit in a drag race. similarly, while the geforce 9500 GT is a good card, it is a low end performer and will absolutely choke in any modern game.

tidusjar · Jul 11, 2009, 03:32 PM // 15:32

I guessed that but what other card is better and is what i'm looking for then?

Because from the description it seems like a brilliant deal and i would be able to play modern games with high specs but thats why i wanted advice.

Ive been having a look around and what about this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...-180-OK&tool=5

I'm looking for £350 price or cheaper.

moriz · Jul 11, 2009, 03:42 PM // 15:42

from nvidia, look for geforce 9800GT and higher. from AMD, look for radeon HD4770 and higher. the best way to gain a comprehensive knowledge is to read review sites. this one should be very informative for you:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rice,2323.html

btw, never trust the description on the box. they often lie.

Improvavel · Jul 11, 2009, 03:58 PM // 15:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuntz

That CPU appears to be extremely old. And the GPU too. I hope you aren't paying more than $100 for this.

Its a Phenom I with 2 cores disabled.

I would look for an AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 myself, but the one pre built listed in OC UK is much more expensive.

The http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=1444&subcat= listed is a nice machine but once again more expensive.

tidusjar · Jul 11, 2009, 04:35 PM // 16:35

So is this computer good then and worth the money?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...-180-OK&tool=5

Improvavel · Jul 11, 2009, 06:23 PM // 18:23

For the price, yes.

What PC do you have now, by curiosity?

Elder III · Jul 11, 2009, 07:26 PM // 19:26

That is a good deal, esp from what I've seen of UK prices.

You'll still need an OS and peripheals etc... but that will give you a pretty good gaming performance at 1680x1050 res. If you want to play the most modern and more graphically intensive games at high settings and resolutions you would benefit from a higher end GPU. With that said you should be able play almost all but Crysis at high settings with acceptable FPS on a standard 20-22" LCD.

Snograt · Jul 11, 2009, 10:31 PM // 22:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by tidusjar

So is this computer good then and worth the money?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...-180-OK&tool=5

Yes, but bear in mind that the £349.99 inc. VAT does not include an operating system. You'll need to add another £58/£86, depending if you choose a dead OS or one with a free upgrade to Windows 7.

Brett Kuntz · Jul 12, 2009, 12:59 AM // 00:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Improvavel

Its a Phenom I with 2 cores disabled.

I would look for an AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 myself, but the one pre built listed in OC UK is much more expensive.

The http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...d=1444&subcat= listed is a nice machine but once again more expensive.

Ah it was listed as AMD 64x2 which is old, didn't read past that and see the 7850.

Like all AMD P2's, "bugged" BIOS's can unlock the locked cores and you could turn that dual-core into a quad-core for free. It's not a guarantee, but it's like a 90% thing.

tidusjar · Jul 12, 2009, 02:14 AM // 02:14

Cheers guys and i know about the operating system, what do you recommend? XP, Vista or Windows 7 (When its out, Not RC)

My PC is old so this is it:

Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1.80GHz
512RAM
GeForce FX 5700LE 128MB

Thats all i know :P

dilan155 · Jul 12, 2009, 03:00 AM // 03:00

i say windows 7 because xp is nearing its end and vista is well vista, where as windows 7 is vista with much less head ache. also yeah your definitely gonna want to upgrade. you can try the widows 7 RC for now, also if you buy vista now or very soon, i forgot the date then you can get windows 7 upgrade for free later. The date seems to be june 26th, maybe you can run like ubuntu till then and then buy vita, im not sure the pricing on windows 7 so idk if its cheaper to buy vista now then free upgrade or buy windows 7 directly. GL either way. another update if you pre-order windows 7 you can save a lot more than waiting.

Improvavel · Jul 12, 2009, 06:11 AM // 06:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by tidusjar

Cheers guys and i know about the operating system, what do you recommend? XP, Vista or Windows 7 (When its out, Not RC)

My PC is old so this is it:

Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1.80GHz
512RAM
GeForce FX 5700LE 128MB

Thats all i know :P

Good news is that your gaming experience will improve vastly on the new machine compared to your current system, so for that relatively low amount of money you will be quite satisfied.

I would go for windows 7 - XP is end of life and has no DX10 support and I dont think it will get DX11 either and vista as always been a bit of mess and quite a resource hogger. While I haven't tried the RC myself, all the reports seem to confirm that windows 7 is a much improved windows vista and hopefully the mode to emulate XP will solve all the problems with running old games on vista.

If you interested on legit OS, you have the option to throw £87 on that overclockers machine and get Windows Vista with an upgrade voucher for windows 7.