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Gaming PC

I have to agree with the DIY crowd.

I do mostly custom-builds for my non-vintage clients as they can go anywhere and get what they've got, I help them custom build their machine for what they want it to do.

Something with a good upgrade path so, as has been said, they can keep the machine for years and just upgrade the parts as necessary.
 
I've always scratch-built, The bits are so standardised now that most fit together. (used to be the case that an electric drill and a hacksaw were essential home-build items) You can then spend a few hours looking at good value motherboards, processors and graphics cards, and maybe compromise on the amount of disk space you need. try the local tip for a case & power supply (beware of rainy power supplies!) It might save you £50 or so, and you could probably get one big enough to put a 5.25" drive in too.

Dabs.com is only over in Bolton, look at their bits, and I think you can shop there too.

If you don't feel confident enough to put one together, where i worked bought gateway machines & they were pretty reliable.

Avoid anything with a riser for the cards (or a non-standard case), you're then stuck with replacing the complete machine when it gets tired.
 
I have built PCs from bits lying around, but I don't have the confidence to handle fragile, static sensitive parts worth £50+ when there's a very good chance that I'll have to spend hours troubleshooting after building it.

I'm going with windows vista over xp professional because they both cost the same on the dell site. Also it covers my back in case of vista exclusive technology (I think directx 10 is vista only). The system is a dual hard drive job so I can maybe dual install xp later if i feel so inclined.

I have a friend who buys bits and bobs from Dabs and also highly recommends them.
 
bbcmicro said:
I don't have the confidence to handle fragile, static sensitive parts worth £50+ when there's a very good chance that I'll have to spend hours troubleshooting after building it.
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Heck, trouble shooting is half the fun... and being in the PC repair business for more than 10 years now, Iv seen one single example of electrostatic discharge causing damage. I had rubber soled sneakers on walking across a thick shag carpet in the middle of winfer (really dry air), basically an ESD nightmare situation... anyway I was rebuilding a machine for a client and I went to pick up thier stick of ram and ZAP, biggest damn static shock spark ever... freak thing... havent seen esd damage since.

I think directx 10 is vista only.
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It is, for now. I have a fealing that MS will port it to XP when they realise that thier estimates for conversion are going to fall flat on its arse. Other than DX10, I would have NO reason to switch to Vista. I am a gamer, big time, but since I dont have a DX10 graphics card, I don't need vista. But whatever =)
 
Hmmm...You guys all know much more about computers than me so you're right, a DIY PC would cost less and would allow me to pick and choose, but I just like the security that buying from a big name offers and that it'll work out of the box. I just don't have the confidence to build my own.

JDT, I will probably end up going with XP if i buy a PC with an nvidea 7th generation or below, but if i get an 8 series I could really use directx 10.

Thanks for all your advice, I appreciate it and it has influenced my decision. I should have enough money in a month, maybe more, maybe less.

Cheers.
 
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Sometimes a DIY could cost almost as much as a branded machine with the exact same specs, depending on which margins the manufacturer has. At least Dell and others tend to have more software bundles, like additional Microsoft Works, one year free antivirus and so on. Some individual parts come bundled with these extras too.

When it comes to riser cards, I don't think they those kinds of motherboards anymore. Don't all boards follow one of the standard dimensions? The closest to special solutions I can think of are these slim-line and barebone systems.

Did you mention what you're going to with your old PC? From the specs you posted, it seemed to still be quite a lot of high-end computer in it, but maybe not high-end enough. But who knows, some people may already consider their outdated 1.7 GHz Pentium 4:s as "vintage" computers. ;-)
 
My old PC died in june 06 from a blown motherboard. I got a dirt cheap one from somewhere (I forget) but my memory wasn't compatible. New memory would cost £80 so I thought I might as well start saving again and I did. So I have got some expensive bits floating around. I've got a 180gb sata HDD which I'm thinking of putting in a USB cradle, and a DVD RW drive. Except for that there isn't much I can put in a new PC unless it needed repairs or something. There's a GeForce PCI-E 6200SE in questionable condition. I don't know if that works anymore or not.
 
Why not simply buy a new motherboard/processor bundle from eBay? There are some pretty decent offers around at the moment. Just make sure your memory will work in it!
 
I've actually had experiences where certain applications run alot more faster & stabily under Vista. MAME running Dance Dance Revolution, for example, runs at full speed w/ no problems under Vista when it would BARELY run under XP on my Core Duo 1GB lappy.
 
Why not simply buy a new motherboard/processor bundle from eBay? There are some pretty decent offers around at the moment. Just make sure your memory will work in it!
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A while ago I would have considered this. In fact, I did buy a motherboard of eBay (As you just reminded me!) but by the time it came through and the memory was incompatible I just lost my momentum and thought; Blow this for a lark. Start again, buy all new, leave no room for error. I've got the inclination, the money (soon) and I've been saving for a year and a bit anyway. (£10 a week, if I do my jobs) and a PC that can cope with the latest vista games would be nice too.

When i get a job (hopefully before christmas) and I have a bit more money to burn, I have every intention to fix my old PC, but the will is not there right now.
 
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it's either a 3.2 or 3.6 gHz LGA pentium 4 (No pins) not sure wether it will work or not.

Can't remember what the memory is, I'll have to dig it out.
 
I have decided!

I have decided!

I'm going to try and get a PC tomorrow if my parents aren't busy. I decided on an Inspiron 530 with an intel core 2 dual 2 ghz processor, 2GB ram, 8600GT nvidia graphics card, Vista home premium, floppy drive, DVD RW, 250gb SATA HDD, for £463.31 :)
 
If you don't care about warranty, you might want to look into overclocking on Dell mobos. C2D's seem to overclock pretty easily (I don't have one so I've never tried), & I've heard you can get a 1.8 up to 3ishGHz (don't remember exact numbers)
 
bbcmicro said:
I have built PCs from bits lying around, but I don't have the confidence to handle fragile, static sensitive parts worth £50+ when there's a very good chance that I'll have to spend hours troubleshooting after building it.
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atari2600a said:
If you don't care about warranty, you might want to look into overclocking on Dell mobos.
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I believe BBC does care about warranty, as he was reluctant to assemble his own computer from parts and cause faults.
 
Yup, a warranty of some sort is preferable. I'm not going to void it by messing about, especially if I have to physically modify the PC. Personally I don't have any need for overclocking. I decide what I want and pay the price. If I want a bit more, I pay a bit more instead of messing aboot, unless it's something daft like a 486 and the only point is to better understand the machine.
 
PC Arrived today. Plays Oblivion really well, almost maxed out! Vista's nice and responsive, and In all I'm happy (Although not with the courier service :s )
 
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