Hello everyone im no to this site and this is my first post. Im looking into buying a new pc as my current one is not up 2 much. Im not to clued up on what to look for when buying a pc. I was wondering if anyone on the site would be able to recomend a particular one or tell me what to look for, im looking to spend around 600 pounds. Thanks
For £600 you can get a pretty good PC for gaming. For a CPU, I'd suggest one with an Athlon 64 3000 or higher spec, which should be easy to find in a PC that price. For graphics something based on a ATi Radeon 9800Pro, 9800XT, nVidia Geforce FX 5900 or 5900 Ultra or higher. You should be going for at least 120GB hard disk, with 512Mb minimum of RAM and probably a DVD writer or other drives of your choice.
CPU: Athlon 64 (Winchester core) 3000+ ---Get the retail box unless you find the OEM (meaning the CPU only) version for UK equivalent of $20USD cheaper or better. Motherboard: Something with the nForce 4 Ultra chipset. Something like the Chaintech VNF4 Ultra runs right around the $100 mark here in the US. The DFI NF4 Ultra/SLI boards are also very good, but they might be a little tricky if you're not used to the sheer amount of settings. These are popular and from what I can tell, very solid (review of NF4 Ultra-D coming soon ). RAM: 512MB minimum. PC3200 or faster speeds. Go with Patriot, GeiL or G.Skill for low-cost RAM that doesn't suck. Video card: Look at the GeForce 6600GT in PCIe (PCI Express) format. This will work with the nForce 4 and should be easily had for under $200USD (probably under 150 pounds or so) Hard drive: 120GB is about the sweet spot for price vs space. Optical drive: Whatever seems to fit your needs, but I'd highly suggest at least a CD-RW drive for backups. Power supply: Okay, this may not seem important, but it is. You want a 400-500W Power supply from Enermax, OCZ, Thermaltake, and possibly Antec. Do NOT get some $30 PSU sporting 600W. Thermaltake PSU's are pretty solid and relatively inexpensive. The other three are a bit pricier, but they're generally considered to be some of the best you can buy. I have been hearing some complaints about Antec's units as of late. If you really have money to burn, PC Power & Cooling is excellent too, but these are very expensive (over $200 USD). I'm not as familiar with UK sites, but feel free to run your system ideas past us. I've browsed Dabs and Komplett, but I know there are others as well.
Do you need a new monitor?, if not this can be even more cost effective but I find this site has some pretty decent computers, and Kelkoo offers some nice components if you feel inclined to upgrade.
