I have no idea about hardware

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Wildwill002
Posts: 3162
Joined: 15 Dec 2010, 12:42
Location: Blackpool

I have no idea about hardware

Post by Wildwill002 » 13 Jul 2012, 13:13

As many of you will know, I've been stuck on my laptop since october last year because of my computer bluescreening itself to death. As such I need a new PC but seeing as I'm as skilled with electronics as a banana is playing ping pong I don't really want to make one myself.

I've found 2 PC's I like but seeing as I've no idea what the specs actually mean, I have no idea whether I should actually get them. My parents have also agreed to pay half the money

First PC.
http://www.chillblast.com/Fusion-Yogsblast-Lite.html £583.32 ex VAT (£699.98 inc VAT)
Spoiler! :
Basic Specification:
Fractal Design Define R3 Case
Intel Core i5 3450 "Ivy Bridge" Processor
Akasa Nero 3 Cooler
Asus P8H61-M LE Motherboard
8GB PC3-10666 DDR3 Memory
Chillblast GeForce GTX 550Ti 1GB Graphics Card
500GB SATA III 7200rpm Hard Disk
500GB SATA III 7200rpm Hard Disk
Sony 24x DVD-RW Drive
Corsair Ultra Low Noise 600watt PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OEM
2 year collect and return UK Warranty

7 x USB 2.0 ports
2 x USB 3.0 ports
1 x PS/2 for keyboard
Audio outputs
1 x 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet for network
1 x DVI output
1 x HDMI output

* May vary if configuration is altered!

Ports on case:
2 x USB 2.0 ports
FP audio
Second PC.
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-x51/ ... enware-x51 Prices from £649
Includes VAT & Shipping
Spoiler! :
Processor
Intel® Core™ i3-2120 Processor (3.30GHz, 3MB L3 Cache, 2C)
Operating System
English Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Monitor
Display Not Included
Memory4
4GB4 Dual Channel at 1333MHz
Hard Drive
1TB Serial ATA (7,200 rpm)
Video Card
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545
Optical Drive
DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
Keyboard
Alienware Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Wireless
Integrated 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Wireless LAN
Security Software
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
Services and Support
1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware Support
If anyone knows better than me (which almost everyone will) could you recommend a good gaming PC that lets me play most games without lag. I also trying to get it as cheap as possible...
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Spoiler! :

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              _.-;(_);-._
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                |  _  |
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               /III III\
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User avatar
vallorn
Posts: 8839
Joined: 13 Nov 2010, 10:45

Re: I have no idea about hardware

Post by vallorn » 13 Jul 2012, 13:54

I would stay away from the Alienware brand you pay a premium on thierbranding and the colourfull lights on the cases.

Heres the kind of things you should be looking at in a decent gaming PC:
Processor; With Intel either an i5 or i7 processor with speeds at about 3.5 Ghz
RAM; 8-10 Gigabytes (preferably ddr3 memory)
1Tb hard drive (or multiple smaller equivalents)
You want to do your own research on Graphics cards.

All in all I think the first PC gives far better value for money. The case should be big enough that you can upgrade it later if needs be.
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smeelo
Posts: 34
Joined: 31 Mar 2011, 17:27

Re: I have no idea about hardware

Post by smeelo » 14 Jul 2012, 16:53

vallorn wrote:I would stay away from the Alienware brand you pay a premium on thierbranding and the colourfull lights on the cases.
.
Also shit power supplies heh.

I'm generally an AMD fanboy. Cheaper and gets the job done.

If you don't care about maxing out Battlefield 3 || Arma II || Max Payne 3 at 1920x1080, you can save a lot on getting a more mid-end video card in a pre-built computer.

Specs I recommend for a decent cheap gamer:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 - 980, or the FX-4170. <--- All decent quad cores
RAM: Any cheap ddr3 1333mhz-1600mhz. G.Skill ripjaws is cheap and works well, although a pre-built computer probably won't say what kind of ram it has. Just how much and how fast.
Video card: This varies a lot. An nVidia video card will run Minecraft a lot better because of the native OpenGL support. (AMD (Formerly ATI) vcards use DirectX).

if the PC has an nVidia card go for anything along the lines of gtx(number 4-6 here)40 and above. (IE: gtx560 or gtx 560ti)

If the PC has an AMD/Ati card go with a 5xxx to 7xxx series card when ending numbers 50 or above. (IE: Radeon HD 5850, 5870, 6850, 6770, 6870, 6950, 7750, or 7770. (I left out a lot, those are just the more common cards)

HDD/SSD: The hard drive doesn't matter a whole lot. I'd say 500gb or above if you have a good bit of games. Look for a SSD (Solid State Drive) if you want games/your OS to load a lot faster. The solid state drives are a lot more expensive though.

Also, if you want to compare parts check these links out:

CPU Chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... 106-5.html

Video card Chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gam ... 107-7.html
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User avatar
Wildwill002
Posts: 3162
Joined: 15 Dec 2010, 12:42
Location: Blackpool

Re: I have no idea about hardware

Post by Wildwill002 » 15 Jul 2012, 15:42

Thanks for the help guys. After a lot of thought (and finding out my dads built several pcs in the past) I've decided to attempt to make my own. I've been looking online for helpful resources and found that PCGamingWiki has a pretty good help page when it comes to this sort of thing. Wish me luck.
Last edited by Wildwill002 on 16 Jul 2012, 08:47, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Spoiler! :

Code: Select all

            ,             ,
           / '.         .' \
          /    '.     .'    \
           '-._  '. .'  _.-'
               '-. ; .-'
              _.-;(_);-._
          _.-'   .'_'.   '-._
          \    .'/[+]\'.    /
           \_.' /     \ '._/
                |  _  |
                | [_] |
               /III III\
               `"""""""`

User avatar
Sti_Jo_Lew
Posts: 3251
Joined: 19 Dec 2010, 12:46
Location: Nevada

Re: I have no idea about hardware

Post by Sti_Jo_Lew » 16 Jul 2012, 02:04

Good look!
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