Before buying PC please ask our advice first!

Original post by Wrighty116

I was looking at buying a decent, fast desktop, I want something to be able to run a few programmes at a time, iTunes, a few internet tabs and games at once. Probably not games that are too demanding on the system.

I've been looking around and this is what I've found so far; http://www.palicomp.co.uk/pc-systems/core-i3-i5-blast/core-i5-blast-760oc4-24/prod_296.html
I have a feeling this is most likely overkill and possibly the slightly cheaper option is better.

Any advice will be brilliant.

Two things:

Yes, it's maHOOOsive overkill for what you say you want it for.

I'd be very nervous about buying from that site - go with a reputable retailer like scan.co.uk or overclockers.co.uk

Reply 4825

JChoudhry

14

Original post by alexsheppard11

i would ditch the hitachi hard drive and get a seagate, WD or samsung.
also, i would change the motherboard from mATX to ATX, allows for more expandability.

Does it make a difference though since I don't plan to upgrade this? And I'll look into the hard disk, is it because they're less likely to fail or soemthing?

Original post by KissMyArtichoke

seems ok, but you won't be able to game at all without a graphics card. If this is just for general use then it's a nice build.
ATX and a samsung spinpoint F3 is a good idea though, assuming that case holds ATX.

I'm on a budget :p:

And no gaming whatsoever? Or will it be able to play some really really simple games?

Reply 4826

KissMyArtichoke

11

Original post by JChoudhry

Does it make a difference though since I don't plan to upgrade this? And I'll look into the hard disk, is it because they're less likely to fail or soemthing?

I'm on a budget :p:

And no gaming whatsoever? Or will it be able to play some really really simple games?

Flash games, and the likes of minecraft should be fine. You might have issues watching HD movies though, I don't know how good the on-board graphics are.

Reply 4827

I'm considering buying a Lenovo IdeaCentre B310 for £590 (all-in-one, touch screen - comes with bluetooth keyboard and mouse).

This is the spec:

i3 550 processor (3.2gHz)
4GB Ram
1TB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 Graphics Card

It's worth mentioning that I much prefer the all-in-oneness to a separate monitor. I'll use it for gaming. I'm going half-and-half with my Mum cos she likes the touch-screen gimmick, so it's costing me £295.
What do you reckon?

(http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=FD6DB49790C7411D933567FC361231FB&current-category-id=29CAD1048A2347B9BEFEC009C8E99546&menu-id=products)

Reply 4828

somebody else

6

Original post by Blutarsky

I'm considering buying a Lenovo IdeaCentre B310 for £590 (all-in-one, touch screen - comes with bluetooth keyboard and mouse).

This is the spec:

i3 550 processor (3.2gHz)
4GB Ram
1TB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 Graphics Card

It's worth mentioning that I much prefer the all-in-oneness to a separate monitor. I'll use it for gaming. I'm going half-and-half with my Mum cos she likes the touch-screen gimmick, so it's costing me £295.
What do you reckon?

(http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=FD6DB49790C7411D933567FC361231FB&current-category-id=29CAD1048A2347B9BEFEC009C8E99546&menu-id=products)

When you say gaming, what do you mean? It'll handle bejewled and farmville, but if you want to play 'proper' games the 5450 really isn't up to scratch.

Reply 4829

Original post by Blutarsky

i3 550 processor (3.2gHz)
4GB Ram
1TB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5450 Graphics Card

It's worth mentioning that I much prefer the all-in-oneness to a separate monitor. I'll use it for gaming.

In short:
No.

In long:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

If you want a laptop to play games, get a laptop designed for playing games.
Personally, I'd recommend importing - try www.hidevolution.com

Anything south of an alienware M11x in graphics terms (about £720 all told once you've imported it and fobbed off george osborne with some token amount of VAT) will really struggle with gaming. Even my almighty Asus G73W-A1 doesn't really match a decent desktop.

Reply 4830

Original post by somebody else

When you say gaming, what do you mean? It'll handle bejewled and farmville, but if you want to play 'proper' games the 5450 really isn't up to scratch.

I'm not what you call a hardcore gamer, but I will play a bit of COD, FM and Empire Total war on it.
I'm not bothered if I have to play on reduced quality - I just want to be able to play :p:

If by not up to scratch you mean it won't work in at all, then that is a problem. But if it just doesn't look as good as it could, I'm not overly bothered :smile:

Reply 4831

Original post by TShadow383

In short:
No.

In long:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

If you want a laptop to play games, get a laptop designed for playing games.
Personally, I'd recommend importing - try www.hidevolution.com

Anything south of an alienware M11x in graphics terms (about £720 all told once you've imported it and fobbed off george osborne with some token amount of VAT) will really struggle with gaming. Even my almighty Asus G73W-A1 doesn't really match a decent desktop.

It's an all-in-one desktop, not a laptop. The laptop I used to have had integrated graphics (aka. utter crap) struggled with The Sims 3 lol, so surely it's gotta be better than that!?

Either way, what do you mean by 'struggle' with graphics?

Reply 4832

Original post by Blutarsky

It's an all-in-one desktop, not a laptop. The laptop I used to have had integrated graphics (aka. utter crap) struggled with The Sims 3 lol, so surely it's gotta be better than that!?

Either way, what do you mean by 'struggle' with graphics?

By "struggle" I mean we're talking slideshow.
This graphics chip is literally the slowest discrete graphics system of any of the new generations of graphics chips.

Reply 4833

somebody else

6

Original post by Blutarsky

I'm not what you call a hardcore gamer, but I will play a bit of COD, FM and Empire Total war on it.
I'm not bothered if I have to play on reduced quality - I just want to be able to play :p:

If by not up to scratch you mean it won't work in at all, then that is a problem. But if it just doesn't look as good as it could, I'm not overly bothered :smile:

Most modern games will be close to unplayable, even on the lowest settings and low resolutions. Even Left 4 Dead 2 (comparatively light on hardware requirements) averages 24FPS at 1366x768, which is much too slow for a first person shooter (considering that it'll probably drop down to 10-15 at points).

Reply 4834

Original post by TShadow383

By "struggle" I mean we're talking slideshow.
This graphics chip is literally the slowest discrete graphics system of any of the new generations of graphics chips.

somebody else

x

Fair enough then :smile:

What can you reccomend I do? I'm a pc noob, not gonna lie. I've got a £600ish budget, though I don't need top of the range stuff. I'd like a 21" monitor though.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 4835

Original post by Blutarsky

Fair enough then :smile:

What can you reccomend I do? I'm a pc noob, not gonna lie. I've got a £600ish budget, though I don't need top of the range stuff. I'd like a 21" monitor though.

http://i52.tinypic.com/zltcig.png
Something like this.
(I don't usually use cheap motherboards, but I had to fix a PC with one of these in a couple of months ago and, whilst it was a very simplistic board and it was pretty well devoid of all those lovely high-end features, it was actually pretty solidly made, which is a nice change from Gigabyte's cheap boards which seem to be stuck together using spit and old newspapers)

Reply 4836

He's still going to need an operating system and an optical drive though, which is going to add ~£90-100

Reply 4837

Original post by TShadow383

http://i52.tinypic.com/zltcig.png
Something like this.
(I don't usually use cheap motherboards, but I had to fix a PC with one of these in a couple of months ago and, whilst it was a very simplistic board and it was pretty well devoid of all those lovely high-end features, it was actually pretty solidly made, which is a nice change from Gigabyte's cheap boards which seem to be stuck together using spit and old newspapers)

That's brilliant - thanks a lot! Where do you suggest I get it all from - scan.co.uk?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 4838

somebody else

6

Scan have much better service than OCUK though, and you can insure against installation damage for not much, which is a pretty good idea for someone new to building PCs.

Reply 4839