which PC?

[johnycat]

I am looking to buy two budget pcs for my kids. They will be used mainly for gaming and internet. I am obviously trying to get the best spec for them on a budget of 550 pounds for a desktop (no monitor)

I have narrowed it down to two.

One from a company called Novatech here in the UK
Computer Supplies and PC Components from Novatech

missing info is a 350w psu and MSI P6NGM-L. motherboard.

And a custom build by Dino PC

Athlon Phenom 9950 2.6ghz
asus M3N-H HDMI (Geforce 8300, firewire)
4 gig corsair ddr2 800mhz
Nvidea 9800 GT
250 gig hard drive -sufficient for my kids needs
20x dvd s-ata lightschreibe
650w Thermalake Toughpower psu
Coolmaster Cavalier 3 gaming case

Any thoughts anyone?

Thanks John:)

 

[Ferg]

Out of those two i'd hit the dino custom mate, the psu for the other is a big no no if your planning on gaming for it. Kinda cant belive they put 330s in those systems anyway. Alot of my decision is swayed by the fact I always buy AMD /Nvidia combo and hate Intel & ATI - It really is personal preference and I know many guys on here would argue the pro's and con's of both combos till the cows come home. Personally I think intel is overpriced and ATI (even though owned by AMD) have always had really buggy driver releases.

Is the phenom an x4 or a phenom II x4? (ive read about a 20% performance difference)

 

[johnycat]

Thanks Ferg. You have just confirmed my purchase. I have never had an Athlon my self and its good to hear that some people really favour them. Unfortunately its not Phenom ii and its a quad. If I stretched another 40 pounds then i could get a 2.8ghz Phenom II. But its not for me. I am buying two, one for each of my kids so I think I will stick with the spec above. The only other thought that I have is a similar priced Intel based P45Q motherboard which is really popular with an E8400 dual core. On my research the e8400 is much faster for gaming (which is what my kids are mostly going to do). Here is the spec

iBUILD™ Intel Gaming PC All Rounder,
Premium ATX Midi Tower Case,
650 Watt Power Supply Unit,
ASUS P5Q,
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 Dual Core 2x3GHz 6MB cache,
Standard CPU Cooling Fan,
Samsung 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz,
320GB 7200RPM SATA II,
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD RW Black SATA,
nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB,
Built-in audio,

Thanks again for your advice
John:)

 

[Ferg]

I'm afraid I know little to nothing about intel as have always been an AMD man - maybe one of the other chaps here can shed light on this intel build?

PS - i think these are some lucky kids :D All i had when i was a kid was a spectrum 128k (this is when the console age had hit the sega mega drive!!)

 

[johnycat]

PS - i think these are some lucky kids

Your not kidding. They already have a 360 elite each, and I never even had an action man when i was a kid. One is 14 and the other is 12 this week, they dont know how lucky they are. Still they have to support the Boro though! Keeps them grounded!:rolleyes:

Thanks again for your help

John:)