Curse

Nikki Moonlight · Feb 03, 2008, 10:38 PM // 22:38

okay, I'm in need of a new PC, I only have a budget of like £400 pounds max...

i was looking at the middle left one here: http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&id=inspndt_530s &l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

but its not actually designed for gaming and whatever, and I could do with... UK based suggestions on a good, cheap PC (yeah, I don't have amazing expectations, but a guy can hope).

tijo · Feb 03, 2008, 11:53 PM // 23:53

Overall the computer is fine for GW just be prepared for something around 15 fps. It would be better if you could get one with an ATI or nVidia video card.

gremlin · Feb 04, 2008, 01:33 AM // 01:33

Will you be able to live with the drives the way they are ?
Looks like the dvd drive is mounted vertically that would drive me nuts.

My personal view
I would be looking for a machine with a decent processor, the one you picked is a core duo so it should be fine.
The rest of the pc is easily upgradable over time so you could fit a better graphics card at a later date as finances permit.

Recently upgraded my pc
I was looking at dell waiting for the price/performance options to come together "dell prices change weekly"
Then I saw a great deal at Tesco online it was over my budget of £500 by £79 but it was so good I scraped around for the extra.
Maybe you will find a bargain there yourself.

Good luck

btw do you need a monitor or do you have one thats usable ?
You could see if dell would drop the monitor and add a better graphics card.

Tachyon · Feb 04, 2008, 05:53 AM // 05:53

To be completely honest, you will not get a half decent gaming rig for £400!

iridescentfyre · Feb 04, 2008, 05:05 PM // 17:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nikki Moonlight

okay, I'm in need of a new PC, I only have a budget of like £400 pounds max...

i was looking at the middle left one here: http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&id=inspndt_530s &l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

but its not actually designed for gaming and whatever, and I could do with... UK based suggestions on a good, cheap PC (yeah, I don't have amazing expectations, but a guy can hope).

In my opinion, do not waste the time and money to invest in something with on-board Intel graphics. I realize your budget is tight, but if you want to play games (even older ones like Guild Wars), you will be much happier if you save up a bit more for something with a real graphics card and some upgrade options for the future. Even those two upper-end Inspirons are only a bit more expensive, but will easily achieve midrange performance in Guild Wars due to having a solid (albeit lower-end) ATI graphics card. Intel graphics offer poor performance at best, and instability and crashes at worst.

SeraphimSkye · Feb 04, 2008, 09:26 PM // 21:26

Well I ordered my PC off this site on Saturday, My brother and my friend both bought PCs off it. The latter spent over 1 grand on it, so they are kinda trustworthy

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

I recommend for your budget an AMD processor, maybe a 2x5200, because Intel is gonna cost you a lot more, Dont get the latest Graphics card, that will eat up your money, don't bother with fancy cases and there is nothing wrong with a good 2 GB of RAM. The 4 GB is just a way of schmoozing money off you; you don't need it (you might in the future though). It would also be handy if you already have a copy of some kind of Windows. £59 is the cheapest I think for the standard XP or Vista.

Also it would be handy if you specified what Operating System you intend to use.

Free insured delivery is standard, 8-10 working days to build and deliver, I think they are based in Yorkshire, at least it is in the UK, also it is nice and cheap.

If you could save up some more money, then you could probably prolong the dreaded upgrade most people have to go through, you could get some cooling or a slightly better Graphics Card.

And my final piece of advice is that you can't expect anything at this budget to run something like Crysis, if you tried it would be a slide show, but it will run Guild Wars just fine.

SeraphimSkye · Feb 04, 2008, 09:30 PM // 21:30

I also hear that Dell are very unhelpful once they have their money, they have a reputation for using places like India and China for their tech support. Would not go with Dell if I were you.