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okay, first to ask for help....

Hi, great site btw...very useful. I am looking to buy a new PC, mainly for gaming (warcraft at present) but not real high end stuff but something that will handle most things I throw at it and last me a few years. I have found a good site (after looking around yours and many others) and wanted to know what you thought of the spec if possible. Anything you'd swap out or upgrade/downgrade? I don't want to pay anymore than this. I don't want to build it myself so this was also a consideration. Build is included in the price here.

here it is:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Quad Q8200 (4 X 2.33GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5Q: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 3 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition + SP1, CD (£59)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
320GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm) (not RAIDED)

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
512MB RADEON HD 4850 PCI Express + DVI

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Case
Stylish Black Aluminium Trigon Case + 2 Front/Side USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
450W Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£22)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£15)

Monitor
LG W2452T 24 inch Wide: HDCP/DVI/D-Sub/5MS/1920 x 1200 (£229)

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE


Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

£817.87 ex VAT.

£961 inc VAT and Delivery.


with a 24" Lg monitor this is a pretty good price you think?

Or the other thing I am weighting up is getting a laptop, as I might work abroad in the next year or so, can anything around the 800.00 mark compare to this on performance for what I need?


Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you

Tony

Hi Tony, and welcome to the forum

I think your build is looking very good, the only thing i would think about is weather you need a quad core processor.

Currently you will see more performance in games from a faster dual core than a slower quad core, so if your main use is gaming, you would be better off going for an E8400 and saving a few quid. If your going to over clock then get a Q6600, and in either case you can use the money saved to get an HD4870 instead. If/when games start to catch up you can always upgrade the processor to a quad core, but that wont be for a while yet.

You also need to make sure you're getting enough power, 450W is probably too low, id go for at least 550W (especially if you get the 4870) to give yourself room and so that the PSU isn't working very hard all the time.

If you want to calculate how many watts you need use this PSU calculator.

For a comparison of price, looks like an identical spec would cost you about 830 if you bought all the parts separately from Dabs, so its not a massive difference, but you would get to choose each components brand, particularly the PSU which would be good.

As far as a laptop goes, you'd be looking at double the price for anything remotely close to that performance, and it wouldn't have a 24" monitor Plus you cant upgrade a laptops GFX card so before long it will become obsolete.

Hope all that helps, if you have any more questions just ask away

hey mate, also just came across this 24" monitor for £160, so you might want to save some money and get the monitor separately:

http://www.saverstore.com/productinfo/pr...10&tid=185

I think dabs also have a 24" for under 200 so you might want to shop around, usually these very cheap screens use the same panels as slightly more expensive versions they are just re-branded.

Hey Aram, thanks for the advice I will consider going for the lesser processor instead. It knocked about 15quid off the total, but if it should work better then its worth doing anyway. I will get a larger power supply also.

I can easily get the monitor excluded from the package so could go for a cheaper option. are they really exactly the same other than brand and styling thats quite surprising to hear?

Once these things are sorted I will go ahead and order it I think, just needed someone like yourself to look it over and make sure it all would work well together which now it sounds like it just might.

Thanks, its really handy to know there is someone to ask about this stuff, who knows what they're talking about and is unbiased.

cheers buddy.

No probs mate, any time

Not all monitors are equal, but each price band with have far fewer panels than there are monitors available, as many of them will be using the same panels. LGPhillips make LCD panels which they will sell themselves under their names and then also license out the design to other lesser known companies who will put them in a cheaper casing and sell them for less.

Check the specs, if panels in the same price bracket have the same specs then there's every chance it's the same panel and on the whole even if they are not, the difference in quality will not be huge.

having looked at dabs, I think this panel is the same one I got a little while ago, it's a very good screen and I have no complaints and for 185 (I paid 230) it's a bargain! At the time I read that it used the same panel as the low end Dell 24s selling for 300+ but that may not be true.

It's a shame that processor didn't take the price down further as when bought separately the price difference is about 35. But yea for now it's going to give you better performance for gaming, and if/when games catch up and benefit from quad core you can easily upgrade using the videos on PCitYourself

Hope that helps!

Aram

Hey Aram,

Just wanted to let you know, I ordered my pc at the weekend. Thanks for taking the time to look over the spec and give your thoughts. Following your advice I went for a better duel processor and higher power supply, but stuck with the LG monitor as im a sucker for brand names and kinda wanted the monitor to look nice too ...

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8500 (2 X 3.16GHz) 1333MHz FSB/6MB

Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x2GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® P5Q: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 3 PCI, 2 x PCI-e x1

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64-bit Edition + SP1, CD (£59)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
320GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive
20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM

Graphics Card
512MB RADEON HD 4850 PCI Express + DVI

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Case
Stylish Black Aluminium Trigon Case + 2 Front/Side USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£15)

Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)

Monitor
LG W2452T 24 inch Wide: HDCP/DVI/D-Sub/5MS/1920 x 1200 (£229)

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Price (excluding VAT)
£880.85

Price
£1035.00


thanks dude.
Tony

hehe cool mate, looks like a very nice machine, I'm sure you will be enjoying it for quite a while!

If you have any more questions you know where to come

Hi all,

Hey this prize is i think perfect, but y shoulg go with laptop instead of Pc, as per my choice laptop is the best for u