buying extreme gaming machine - need advice please

[dipsdude]

hello

i am buying a cpu for gaming and looking for the latest so that it will handle all games of 2008 and 2009 if possible. I looked at dell 720 h2c and alienware alx aurora, falcon northwest and some private companies who specilizes in making gaming computers like beastcomputers and silverback pc, but donno which is the best because in some sites alienware is unreliable and machine gets broken easily and some say dell 720 has plastic case and PhysX - why is it bad? I am looking to buy within £3500 and just want a reliable machine. b4 i heard AMD and nvidia was best for games now i donno if AMD or Intel and nvidia or ati. SO PLEASE ENLIGHTEN AND ADVICE ME ON WHICH MIGHT BE THE CHOSEN ONE DESKTOP?

THANK U

 

[emp]

This may sound too technical, but CPUs are processors, not the whole system, something you should keep in mind for the future. To be honest, those OEMs are not good at making gaming systems at least not for rational prices that is, you can probably get a Dell 720H2C for $7000 (Which is about as much as you're willing to spend), but you'll be ripped off beyond your wildest dreams. You can build a setup as powerful as that Dell for about $3000-4000 (With big screen included) and save half of your budget from being stolen by dell.

However, if you rather not build, then I suggest you just close your eyes and choose any of them, because all will rip you off, but for that price they'll probably give you quality components and a useless warranty.

Regarding your question, Intel is king for performance CPUs now and nVidia has the best performing cards on the market at the moment.

 

[g-paw]

Agree with emp, you'd be way ahead building. Suggest you look at the manual for an ASUS, MSI, or Gigabyte P35 motherboard and see if you're comfortable with the instructions. All installation instructions are pretty much the same so it really doesn't matter which company you chose. If you want to buy off the shelf, read reviews of the computers you're interested in at sites like this, extremetech.com, pcmag, pcworld, and anandtech. There are a lot more sites out their but find sites with professional not use reviews. If you decide you want to build, ask for suggestion for the parts. Set a reasonable budget like emp said, about $3000 to $4000 as well as what that convert to in pounds.

 

[dipsdude]

thank u for advices mate, well i have never build computer and am not very sure in building one, because u need many parts and dont know which one is better than which, also it needs cooling so.
Yesterday i found http://www.arbico.co.uk which has cheap computers but nice ones. i dont connect computer to tv or anthing like that so will that be cheaper than which can connect to tv.

i am thinking of buying this one
http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-CD-8800XL-Custom-Built-Gaming-PC-p-17402.html

or

this one
http://www.arbico.co.uk/Arbico-8800-SLI-custom-built-gaming-computer-p-17358.html

Please suggest which is better and if u think there are other better ones which can handle up coming games of 2008, like crysis , please leave your thoughts. thanx.

 

[g-paw]

Tough question and why it's tough to buy off the shelf. Both of these are very powerful machines. The 1800 pound (1800) is running dual video cards and 4GB of RAM while the 1000 pound (1000) is running a quad core CPU that can be upgraded to 6850 quad core for 85 pounds but only comes with 2GB of RAM and doesn't look like you have the option of upgrading to 4GB, which seems strange given most higher end mobo allow for 4GB of RAM. Would be nice to know the mfg/model of each mobo. Here is a recent review of the 6850 quad core
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/08/extreme_fsb_2/page12.html

I'm not a gamer and not sure that running 2 video cards really makes that much difference given the cost difference. My impression from reading various reviews is that it doesn't given the increase in price. Regardless of which one you would get I would go with XP rather than Vista given the issues with drivers with Vista but again this doesn't appear to be an option with the 1000.

If it were me, I would go with the 1000 and upgrade the CPU to the 6850 if I could add another 2GB of RAM either now or in the future, still would be less expensive than the 1800. I would call them and see about adding the RAM as well as if you can get XP. If you're overclocking, I'd go with the PC5300 RAM.

 

[emp]

BTW, crysis WILL run better on quad cores than on dual cores so it won't be much of an upgrade to go E6850. Im going to try and encourage you to build your own system, to be really honest you don't even have to know all that much, here we have another forum where people post their needs and we advice them on what items to buy for their PCs.

And even if you don't know how to assemble your own and are too scared to learn (it's like more expensive lego btw...), you can always get someone that will assemble it for like $50 for you.

EDIT: That 1060 euro machine is really not all that good for what you're paying to be honest. And neither is the other one.

 

[sharp910sh]

build your own man, i made my own computer 2 weeks ago. works like a beauty and saved 200 pounds compared to if i got it of sh.itty dell. they are evil. very simple to build your own computer all you need to do is be able to read and your sorted man.

hope you make the right choice.

 

[dipsdude]

well after all your suggestions mates, i might as well build my own gaming beast ,is there any site which gives detail of what items/parts important and instructions for a newbie builder? cheers

 

[emp]

Instructions... well I don't think you need much more than a few tips + the instructions that come with the parts. And as I said, we have another forum in Tom's where we guide people on which parts to get to suit their needs.

 

[sharp910sh]

we can advice you, just go to the homebuild section, give a budget and what you will be doing. we will sort that out for you.

 

[lostandwandering]

^What he said. That is really in your best interest. You will get an awesome system configured for (no work on your part) and for the most part people always give money saving ideas (benefits your wallet).

 

[spuddyt]

with the budget you were going giving it you will probably save a grand or 2 and get a MONSTER of a machine

 

[talley4201]

The guys on here helped me build this one I don't know how much this costs in pounds, or if it is big enough for what you need but I compared this to buying one pre-built with the same stuff, and could not find one for near this cheap.


APEVIA X-Navigator ATXA9NW-AL/500 Black/ Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply

GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel

XFX PVT80GGHE4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported HDCP Video Card

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600

(2) mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s

(2) CHIMEI CMV 221D-NBC Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD

LITE-ON LightScribe Black 20X DVD±R Burner with 12X DVD-RAM write

Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker


Total: $1796 all from newegg

 

[colwynstein]

the prices of components and especially RAM and CPU's (Iwho would have thought you could buy a quad core beauty for under £170 a few years ago) there are plenty of forums and websites with detailed system building demo's. But if you go to custom PC's website they have an issue about a self build computer v's a Dell which had a budget of £1000, now since you can get a quad core for not much more than they paid for a dual core it's a sound investement. I would recommend buying the issue and soaking up the info and using it for a basis, its all common sense stuff. Well hope all that helps, have fun with it and don't get stressed.

 

[dragonsprayer]

hello

i am buying a cpu for gaming and looking for the latest so that it will handle all games of 2008 and 2009 if possible. I looked at dell 720 h2c and alienware alx aurora, falcon northwest and some private companies who specilizes in making gaming computers like beastcomputers and silverback pc, but donno which is the best because in some sites alienware is unreliable and machine gets broken easily and some say dell 720 has plastic case and PhysX - why is it bad? I am looking to buy within £3500 and just want a reliable machine. b4 i heard AMD and nvidia was best for games now i donno if AMD or Intel and nvidia or ati. SO PLEASE ENLIGHTEN AND ADVICE ME ON WHICH MIGHT BE THE CHOSEN ONE DESKTOP?

THANK U

you need minimum of 3 hard drives, a quad core and good cooling

here is some ideas:

gaming and htpc (home theater) computers - water cooled, portable and plain gaming - gaming and htpc (home theater) computers - water cooled, portable and plain gaming http://www.warpedsystems.net/contactus.html

htpc programing raid before installation:
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400032.jpg
installed
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400049.jpg
finished
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=100_0128.jpg
testing 4 cores

htpc: http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400063.jpg

air cooled version - same system 4 cores, raid 10
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=8594_3.jpg

portable system - much more powerful then any lap top and can cool raid and quad core systems:
this is very intesting since i could be moved around and 3 hard drives fit - comes without windows and lights (i have 2 systems like this myself i bring one for you to test)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400619.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400624.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400618.jpg

super fast hard drive system - water cooling - this would be a server application, this unit has 12 hard drives in dual raid - raid the hard drives are binded 4 drvies in raid10 (2 drives alternate and 2 drives are back up or mirrors) and 8 drives in raid 5 (if a drive fails a new drive is in stalled in the array and it repairs it self parity is written across all drives - parity is the back up info)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0118.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0123.jpg

inside - water cooling for quiet operation and directed heat flow enclosed locations - massive storage and speed - 3.5ghz quad core with 4TB storage and 4 raptors for os drives (raid10)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400648.jpg

typical large gaming computer - quad core 3.4ghz, gaming test 13,500 3dmark06 with 1 gpu (ask your techie)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0333-1.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0107.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0168.jpg

running 4 stability tests simultaneously - the system is large for cooling and expansion
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=gogog.jpg
cooling fans and hard drive on top - this is really just for show
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0326.jpg

average systems (i bring one of these it will be done next week it will have the programs to track hard drive, memory, gpu and cpu ), again this system is designed for cooling - 20cm fan on top and 2 x 12cm fans blow in
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400480-1.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400503.jpg


htpc programing raid before installation:
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400032.jpg
installed
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400049.jpg
finished
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=100_0128.jpg
testing 4 cores

htpc: http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400063.jpg

air cooled version - same system 4 cores, raid 10
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=8594_3.jpg

portable system - much more powerful then any lap top and can cool raid and quad core systems:
this is very intesting since i could be moved around and 3 hard drives fit - comes without windows and lights (i have 2 systems like this myself i bring one for you to test)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400619.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400624.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400618.jpg

super fast hard drive system - water cooling - this would be a server application, this unit has 12 hard drives in dual raid - raid the hard drives are binded 4 drvies in raid10 (2 drives alternate and 2 drives are back up or mirrors) and 8 drives in raid 5 (if a drive fails a new drive is in stalled in the array and it repairs it self parity is written across all drives - parity is the back up info)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0118.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0123.jpg

inside - water cooling for quiet operation and directed heat flow enclosed locations - massive storage and speed - 3.5ghz quad core with 4TB storage and 4 raptors for os drives (raid10)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400648.jpg

typical large gaming computer - quad core 3.4ghz, gaming test 13,500 3dmark06 with 1 gpu (ask your techie)
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0333-1.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0107.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0168.jpg

running 4 stability tests simultaneously - the system is large for cooling and expansion
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=gogog.jpg
cooling fans and hard drive on top - this is really just for show
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DSC_0326.jpg

average systems (i bring one of these it will be done next week it will have the programs to track hard drive, memory, gpu and cpu ), again this system is designed for cooling - 20cm fan on top and 2 x 12cm fans blow in
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400480-1.jpg
http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h138/4rothrocks/?action=view&current=DC400503.jpg


i am not sure if i can post this here so if its not in the right spot - email me - looks ok i see other things for sale!


note: this is part of letter to a customer - give you some idea of extreme gaming machines!

 

[jonisginger]

Yoyoyoyo

Try this:

Wait a bit, 45nm Intel's should be out soon, and they go to 4ghz on air alone. (X9650) and so will AMDs Quad cores, which should push prices down

nVidia 9800s and ATI 3800s should be out soon so we will see what performance will like be then

Perhaps invest in a DDR3 mobo, and some good 1600mhz RAM for OCing, or stick with fast DDR2? up to you

Grab a 2 500gb HDs and a raptor or two

a big case, with maybe some water cooling in it, 2 DVD RAM drives

but I think just wait a bit

What do you all think about my suggestions?