Another PC spec advice thread

[AlexB]

Aksing for advice from the PC gurus here - looking at buying a new PC, basically looking for a upper mid level system that will be used mainly for internet and games: FM, Madden, Civ, etc, with enough storage for my 60Gb iPod plus the above.

I don;t play arcadey type games, basically sports & strategy, but my 4 year old laptop doesn't let me play anything with even average graphical demands that was released in the last 2-3 years, but is pretty much OK for most of the rest of what I want to do

So basically I want something that will upgrade me on the gaming side, and have hopefully 3-4 years of life (maybe changing graphics card somewhere down the line:

Base Intel® Pentium® D 930 Dual Core Processor (3.00GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2x2MB cache)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
Memory 1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2x512) Memory
Keyboard Dell Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Monitor Dell E196FP 19" Midnight Grey (TCO99) Flat Panel Monitor
Video Card 256MB ATI Radeon® X600 HyperMemory graphics card
Hard Drive 250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
Floppy Drives Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
Mouse Mouse Included in Wireless Keyboard and Mouse option
Modem Dell v92 Data/Fax modem
CD/DVD Drives 16x max. DVD+/-RW Drive
Sound Cards Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music card,PCI w/Dolby Digital,7.1 speaker surround and THX certification

Does this look like it should meet my requirements to you guys?

[Edward64]

The specs look good to me for a 3-4 yr life span. The graphic card is middle-of-the-road but with desktops you have the ability to upgrade halfway through to keep up with the games. Not sure what this Dell model is or how much $, but I would do some additional research and

(1) Check Dell forums about customer satisfaction with model (ex. noise, heat etc, my SATA drive is awfully noisy)
(2) Check www.techbargains.com or www.slickdeals.net for Dell coupons ($x off $x price)
(3) Consider getting a 19 inch CRT (at your local mega store) instead of LCD to reduce cost ... issue of deskspace/weight vs cost and ability to change resolution w/o worrying about fuzziness as in the LCD.
(4) Possilby consider downgrading your model to a non-dual core and save some $. That chip is probably overkill for what you want.

[AlexB]

I can downgrade to a 2.8GHz chip which will save about £100 which I am toying with - still dual core, but am a little concerned about the future effect of a drop in processing speed.

The other standard option for the graphics card, which would pretty much keep the price the same if I dropped to the chip above, is a 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 (DVI/VGA/TV-out). I could afford to keep the 3.0GHz chip and add the GeForce card, but can't afford to go to the GeForce 7800...

Thanks for the input Edward - any additional advice appreciated.

[Noble_Platypus]

I have almost the exact system you describe. I bought it about a month ago and its great. I have the2.8 GHz, not the 3, but everything else you describe is what I bought, right down to the graphics (ATI X600) and sound cards. I think it will accomplish what you are looking for.

[Edward64]

Jari. If you are anticipating purchasing another graphics card 2 years down the road, then I would stay with 3.0 and not downgrade to 2.8 just to upgrade the graphics card.

Otherwise, I would get the best graphics card possible now and downgrade to 2.8, anticipating that this config will last me until the 4.0 triple core :) comes out in 2010.

(The latter would be my choice).

In my experience with chip speed and Mhz, the theorectical 10% boost in speed is not really apparent in real world ... hard disk speed, RAM memory, graphics card, wireless card connectivity, monitor etc are much more relevant to a pleasant user experience than chip speed. I just don't think the $100 premium (do you have the pounds symbol above the '4'?) for 2.8 to 3.0 is worth spending.

[gstelmack]

Get the 6800 instead of the X600. 6800 supports Shader Model 3.0, while the X600 doesn't. Your 6800 will be more future-proof for the next round of games.

[ISiddiqui]

If you want to upgrade to a good graphics card in like 2 years and want a Dell, look into getting the XPS 600. I believe that's the only system that supports SLI from Dell at the moment.

[Ryan S]

(do you have the pounds symbol above the '4'?)
Totally off topic, but since you asked....

£ symbol is above 3
$ symbol is above 4
€ symbol is next to 4 (Alt Gr + 4)
The @ and # keys are down near the enter key,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KB_United_Kingdom.svg

[AlexB]

Totally off topic, but since you asked....

£ symbol is above 3
$ symbol is above 4
€ symbol is next to 4 (Alt Gr + 4)
The @ and # keys are down near the enter key,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:KB_United_Kingdom.svg

Just to be different, I actually have a # above the 3, but it comes out as £: I get the # by pressing the forward slash key. I don't know where the forward slash is...

I bought my laptop in Thailand when I was over there, and when I first got it had to press random keys to find some symbols! Still don't know where the other direction slash to / is after 3.5 years: I have to copy and paste it from something every time :D

[Bee]

I'm no expert, but I'd consider pumping up the memory to 2GB. When I upgraded to 2GB, I noticed a pretty nice pickup in sim speed with FM and also a difference in Civ IV turn processing.