07-16-2010, 12:26 AM | #1 | ||
Pro Starter
Join Date: May 2003
Location: heaven
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Need a New PC
Looked up the last thread and it didn't contain the information I need, so here I am.
I have a 5 year old Dell XPS which has been a great machine for me-never once had any trouble in the five years I've had it. I still play WoW on it (albeit on low settings) but I can't play any games that are built for newer machines...and I want to. What I would like to know is what to look for. I'm not a computer guy, so not into building one. I was looking at Dells but just don't have knowledge of what I should look to get in terms of:
Thanks for your help.
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07-16-2010, 01:18 AM | #2 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: In the thick of it.
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Well...lets start with your plans for the PC. What games do you want to play? How often do you play? How important are frame-rates/jaggies etc? Do you want to watch Blu-Rays on it? Just give a full run down of what you'd like this rig to be able to do.
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07-16-2010, 01:21 AM | #3 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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$1500 should get you a pretty damn good PC.
I bought a new PC a few months ago, built it myself but if you buy all the parts from the same place they'll probably put it together for you for free or for a small charge. Even a few years back when I didn't have the nerve to build a PC myself, I always bought the parts and had it assembled rather than buying a packaged PC. I spent around $1000AU ($875US) excl. the monitor, and consider it pretty top of the line - all games I've tried I've run on max graphics with no issues (Mass Effect/NBA 2K10/Dragon Age). I got the i7 970 which is pretty extreme. The i5 is a good chip too. RAM is cheap, but if you're not running x64 Windows 7, there is no point having more than 3 gigs as the OS can't use it. I've got 6 gigs right now, and that's proven more than enough. DDR3 is the RAM you want, assuming your motherboard supports it (it should these days). Video cards are probably the one component that I know next to nothing about. I spent $250AU on a card (can't recall the model off the top of my head) based on the recommendation of the guy at the store I always use, and as I said above, it works beautifully. You could spend less and still get a quality card though. Monitors come down to brands and size preference. Bigger isn't always better IMO, because of how close you sit to it. My monitor (a cheap brand, but one of the few monitors available a few years ago that was compatible with my xbox 360) is a 22" HD and I don't think I'd want to go much bigger. As for sound, depends how fussy you are. You can just use the motherboard's onboard sound with some cheap stereo speakers, or shell out cash for a soundcard and quality speaker setup. You can spend quite a bit of money here if you really want.
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07-16-2010, 03:32 AM | #4 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: May 2003
Location: heaven
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I want to be able to play WoW or AoC mmo games with high-end, beautiful graphics set to on. Also newer games like Dragon Age; maybe even FM with lots of leagues playable. Frame rates in mmo games is important but no idea what a jaggie is. I watch DVD movies on the one I have and have had no problem doing so but never had a blu-ray. Also, I don't do any editing of videos or whathaveyou, if that matters. Oh, and I play ALL the time, as in way to damn much. More than I should, especially as one of the old farts (yes, older than Bucc). Never got around to the whole 'matyrity' thing.
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07-16-2010, 06:00 AM | #5 | |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Here and There
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Quote:
I work on a product team with a huge pc lab and a bunch of geeks. Some additional things to consider: If you're concerned mainly with gaming and graphical performance: -SSD hard drive to minimize load times -You can now daisy chain video cards. Buy a card and a motherboard that supports dual+ cards, even if you only buy one today - 3D, does this matter? It's something that's probably going to be fairly prominent over the next few years. - Cooling - this impacts performance more than you think, even if you have AC - Overclocking, safe and fairly easy to get done from a smaller builder - Get a fresh install of Windows 7 without all the crapware and OEM preloads Last edited by Desnudo : 07-16-2010 at 06:02 AM. |
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07-16-2010, 07:50 AM | #6 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Big Ten Country
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Hey cool, I'm in a similar situation. We've been using a laptop for a while, but we got a new desk, so it'd be nice to get a desktop. I don't play many games on it -- although I'd like for Football Manager to run better then it does on my laptop (i.e. without slowing everything down), and I know I'll want to play the new Civ game when it comes out.
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07-16-2010, 09:39 AM | #7 |
College Starter
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Arlington, VA
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I built a new pc after my last one died 3 months ago. I used an i5 750 (2.66 GHz) and have been very pleased with the performance so far.
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07-18-2010, 08:08 AM | #8 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Big Ten Country
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Anyone have opinions about intel processors vs. AMD? I'm looking at some Dell computers, one with an AMD Athlon II x4, one with an i5.
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07-18-2010, 09:09 AM | #9 |
High School Varsity
Join Date: Sep 2006
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Since the release of v2 of Intel's dual-core procs they have handed AMD their proverbial hats each and every generation of new CPUs. Look at every benchmark and you'll find this to be true. Unless you are getting a spectacular price on an AMD machine stick with Intel.
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07-18-2010, 10:25 AM | #10 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Whittier
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Is the i3 that outdated now?
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07-19-2010, 08:16 AM | #11 | ||||
Coordinator
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Big Ten Country
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Here's a few I'm looking at on Dell's outlet site. Anyone have any experience with that?
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07-21-2010, 10:27 PM | #12 |
High School Varsity
Join Date: Sep 2006
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