View Full Version : Newb looking to buy decent desktop
Hi, I have about £1000 to spend give or take , Im looking for a decent desktop that will be able to play blu-ray films without freezing and also must be good enough for gaming (fps...etc)..any advice will be appreciated...
Also:
Is there a big difference between AMD and Intel?
And this may be a stupid question but would this computer have a HDMI socket? or how would I go about connecting it to my HD TV.
Thanks All. Baxter
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 945 (3.00GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£59)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Xtreme Audio (£38)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
3rd Monitor
NONE
4th Monitor
NONE
DVI Cable
1 x 2 Metre DVI Cable (£5)
GeForce 3D Vision
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)
Mouse
NONE
Speakers
LOGITECH Z323 2.1 Stereo speakers with Rich bass and 360-degree sound (£39)
Webcam
NONE
Headsets (VOIP)
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Printer
NONE
External Hard Drive
NONE
Home Installation
NONE
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Price (excluding VAT)
£880.00
I would say Intel would give better performance than AMD. Consider the following;
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£59)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£76)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1
Price: £1,037.00 including VAT and delivery.
HDMI - yes, it will be on teh graphics card, which, in this case, is a GTX 460, nice card, and comes with an HDMI. As you can see here:
http://www.palit.biz/main/vgapro.php?id=1354
I'd consider upgrading the HDD to teh 1TB WD10EARS 64mb cached drive, especially if you want to do gaming, dpeenidng on how large your games are and if drawback distance is a big deal, but, a larger cache will help for much more than just that, loading Windows and programs on startup should be faster if the HDD has quadruple teh cache (faster access time than the HDD itself) to work with.
In general, AMD is better bang for buck, Intel, you pay a little more but you get better performance out of each generation :) You coudl quite happily use the £19 CPU cooler instead of liquid cooling if you intend not to overclock the system.
Also, for £5 more you can get silver warranty which includes a whole year collect and return incase your system has any hiccups that require an RMA :)
Hope all that helps.
EDIT: Meds post just appeared infront of me after looking back at this, lol, odd, so, yes, that Intel spec Meeds put together looks nice :)
Thanks for the quick and helfpul responses both..will consider buying one of these in the next few days.
I'v just been looking through the spec more and wanted to ask about:
Network Facilities
Whats the difference between ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT and WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI
Am I right in thinking if I didnt get the Wireless option I would need a USB wireless device (dongle??) to get the desktop connected to a wireless network?And if i were to choose the wireless option would there still be a LAN PORT anywhere??
Thanks all
Yes you would need a dongle if you dont use the wireless PCI or PCIe card. yes there would be an ethernet socket on the back I/O panel still :)
EDIT: 1000th post!!
woop woop now u need to contact gorman about that prize
Thanks alot, and grats on 1k posts!!
woop woop now u need to contact gorman about that prize
I know what it is :p If you read the thread entitled my name, I said Pcs will probably charge me for learning too much off everyone here. Therefore my prize is the bill in the post :p
Btw loving the hdd comment in your sig lol.
Thanks bax :) Hope that helps, this pc is really taking shape now :D
One more question, sorry guys!
Regarding the: Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost, I see that there is a Intel® Core™ i7 Processor option... is the a big difference in performance between the two? So if I opted for the i5 would I be missing out a lot?
Thanks Bax
Core i7 performs faster than Core i5, but it depends which two processors you're comparing as the the exact performance gain.
Ok I'v just run through another spec with minor changes to the spec that meds made.
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE (£59)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55D-E: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (4 x 2GB KIT) vs 8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB) These are similarly priced which is better?
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX460 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£36)
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EXTREME DIRECT TOUCH COPPER CPU COOLER (£39)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI EXPRESS CARD (£19)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
£1094 inc VAT and Delivery
To be honest, you probably wont notice the difference in performance between the Samsung & Kingston. The Kingston will however be better should you decide to OC you PC at any point.
The spec looks great however I can't say I agree with the PSU downgrade, I really would recommend a 600W PSU or Corsair TX650. Not only will it cover any future upgrades, but PSUs lose output over the years so your 450W PSU may begin to struggle within 3 years or so.
"but PSUs lose output" - not sure if its the right way of putting it but somebody will no doubt word it better than I.
To be honest, you probably wont notice the difference in performance between the Samsung & Kingston. The Kingston will however be better should you decide to OC you PC at any point.
The spec looks great however I can't say I agree with the PSU downgrade, I really would recommend a 600W PSU or Corsair TX650. Not only will it cover any future upgrades, but PSUs lose output over the years so your 450W PSU may begin to struggle within 3 years or so.
"but PSUs lose output" - not sure if its the right way of putting it but somebody will no doubt word it better than I.
Yeah I dont know how to phrase it either but basically 'they dont get any younger' :P
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