Buying a gamer-PC

[Cronocious]

Just borrowing this thread briefly as people that know about computers are in it

I've got a Gink'esqe gaming PC, which I can run any game going atm fine on (crysis on max graphics etc), but in wow i get like 15-30 fps when i know it should be a lot higher, nothing much in the way of addons running. Specs are: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS, Gigabyte P35-DS3R motherboard, Vista 32, rest I really can't remember but could probably find out. Wondering if anyone can give me a hint as to what, if anything, might be causing that (planning a total reinstall of windows when my exams are finished to see if that helps)

 

[Zermo]

overclockers.co.uk has nice prices and everythings

 

[Johras]

Only the 1TB and 1.5TB have problems. And they are indeed serious enough to avoid them for the moment. The 500GB has no trouble at all.

Sort of offtopic but afaik it's not only the 1TB and 1.5TB drives. I'd still spend 2 euro more and get a different drive to be sure.

http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16246

(and the "fix" seemed to cause more trouble for a number of drives )

 

[Croga]

I've got a Gink'esqe gaming PC, which I can run any game going atm fine on (crysis on max graphics etc), but in wow i get like 15-30 fps when i know it should be a lot higher, nothing much in the way of addons running. Specs are: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS, Gigabyte P35-DS3R motherboard, Vista 32, rest I really can't remember but could probably find out. Wondering if anyone can give me a hint as to what, if anything, might be causing that (planning a total reinstall of windows when my exams are finished to see if that helps)

If you read the Blizzard Tech forums there's a huge lot of FPS problems with the nVidia 8800 graphics cards. No one knows what's causing it but apparently there's some older drivers that have less trouble with it. You might wanna check out the forums for which version of the drivers you'll need.

 

[Gink]

Shipped today wooooooohoooooooooo

 

[Braque]

Valve released the spec for the PCs they currently use for development:

* EVGA 780i SLI FTW Intel Motherboard
* Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz Quad-Core Processor
* 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 1066MHz ram
(Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam)
* 1 x NVidia GTX280 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card
* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD
(Seagate, Western Digital)
* 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD
(Seagate, Western Digital)
* Antec Sonata III desktop case
* Zalman CPU Cooler
* 850W Antec power supply
* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors
* Windows XP 32bit

And the new generation of machines the company is "currently transitioning to":

* EVGA X58 3X SLI Intel Motherboard
* Intel Corei7 940 2.93GHz Quad-Core Processor
* 12GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz ram
(Crucial Ballistix, Kingston ValueRam)
* 1 x NVidia GTX285 1GB - OR - ATI 4870 1GB graphics card
* 1 x 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD
* (Seagate, Western Digital) 1 x 500GB 7200RPM SATA HD
* (Seagate, Western Digital) Lian Li P60-F Case
* Intel CPU Cooler
* 850W Antec power supply
* 1 x Dell 3008FPW-HC 30" LCD - OR - 2 x Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD monitors
* Windows Vista 64bit

Nerf.

 

[Lebuff]

Damn you Gabe Newell !!

 

[Tbone]

how much did this cost you btw Gink?

im considering buyin a PC but i'd use it for my iTunes n writing essays n shit, n obviously coz im still a uni student im broke as fuck, so cant exactly afford anything over like £600

any ideas?

 

[Joy]

On a budget I'd strongly recommend buying a 2nd hand PC, Warcraft runs perfectly fine on a PC 1-2 years old, and 2nd hand PC's are muuuuuuch cheaper than new.

 

[Croga]

I would never recommend buying second hand..... You can get a PC that'll run WoW for under 300 euros so if you got 600 to spend then by all means that'll be more then enough (600 for just the PC right? no screen in that budget I hope....)

Example:
ElCheapo case including ElCheapo PSU: €35
Asrock K10N750SLI-WiFi: €35
AMD Phenom X3 8450: €80
2GB DDR2 RAM: €20
160GB Harddisk: €30
ATi Radeon HD4650: €50
DVD Drive: €15

Total: €265 (add some transport cost and you should still keep under €300) More then enough room to upgrade the component of choice (€50 more for a real good graphics card, €20 more for a slightly more decent motherboard, €50 more for a decent PSU, money to spare all over the place).

Really no reason to take the risk of buying a second hand system. Especially here in NL they are usually way overpriced (one can make a very decent living off buying the parts retail then selling the PC on Ebay; 20-30% markup isn't all that strange)

 

[Ayu]

Is that brand seriously called ElCheapo? Oo

 

[Tbone]

nah i can grab another monitor from my aunts house, i gave her both when i sold her my old pc

can't anyone jus get me a list of stuff to buy, give me the links so i can literally jus click n pay for, im lazy as fuck D:

 

[Joy]

Nonsense, around where I live you can buy cheap PC's way under new prices. Who on earth buys on Ebay in Holland Oo

300 euro isn't cheap for someone that's broke Oo

 

[Tbone]

well by broke i mean i have to wait until April til i get my next installment of my student loan - which'll be about £1500, and until that I have £1700 to live on....

and those are considered hard times for me atm

on the other hand however, if i can make it to April n still have about £1000 left before the next installment, I can probably afford to spend pretty much as much as i want to make a machine good enough to pass my law degree for me....

 

[Croga]

Nonsense, around where I live you can buy cheap PC's way under new prices. Who on earth buys on Ebay in Holland Oo

It's not just Ebay.... Even on the Tweakers.net second hand site people are selling P4 PCs for over €100 and C2D PCs for over €600.... I don't know what other sites you go to but in general second hand PC prices are ridiculous. And I'm betting it isn't much different in the UK.

300 euro isn't cheap for someone that's broke Oo

It is for someone that says his budget is GBP 600 Broke is such a relative term..... (I sure can't remember the last time I spend €600 on computerstuff and I'm a geeky nerd )