What should we get?

rsynnott

My mum wants to get a computer. The major criteria are that she doesn't want something too expensive, and my little brother has to be able to play new games. What sort of specification should we be looking at?

petes

What sort of new games? What else does it need to do? How "not expensive" ?

Ankermann seem to be decent systems.

subway

the main thing that makes comsumer pcs expensive is the need to play games.
have a think about your budget and itll be easier to help.

500 gets you feck all
1000 an average machine that wont be great for games
1500 wont get you a beast but should cover you for most new releases.

the above info is general and not the be all and end all of pc prices....

is_that_so

If the young brother can be nudged towards a gaming console then you could be looking at the €500 range or so. For most consumers what Dell sell will do, assuming of course that you're not after super tech support. Check out PC World and Harvey Norman as well.

Gurgle

subway wrote:

500 gets you feck all
1000 an average machine that wont be great for games
1500 wont get you a beast but should cover you for most new releases.

You're including delivery to Mars?
For residents of earth:

500 will get you an average machine that won't be great for recent games
1000 won't get you a beast but should cover you for all current games including new releases
1500 will leave you 500 poorer than you need to be

Ruu_Old

You could probably get a machine from Dell, which would be decent enough for around 500, check the main Dell website or the Dell Outlet.

subway

Gurgle wrote:

You're including delivery to Mars?
For residents of earth:

500 will get you an average machine that won't be great for recent games
1000 won't get you a beast but should cover you for all current games including new releases
1500 will leave you 500 poorer than you need to be

well i was going on vista requirements rather than xp....
and a grand wont get you a gaming machine from what i understand of gaming machines

Rollo Tamasi

Is a self build an option Rob?
Dell are probably your best bet tbh.

Gurgle

subway wrote:

well i was going on vista requirements rather than xp....
and a grand wont get you a gaming machine from what i understand of gaming machines

Oh yeah, theres 'gaming machines' and theres machines that can play the games.

'Gaming machines' can play absolutely everything on max resolution (often 10 times the resolution the monitor can display) and 7.1 surround sound (played on stereo speakers).

I'm assuming from the first post that what they want is a machine that can play games.

This would do nicely for anything thats out now or coming out soon.

Rollo Tamasi

Gurgle wrote:

This would do nicely for anything thats out now or coming out soon.

looks good...except for..."50GB Hard Disk Drive"
For 769euro you'd expect at least 120GB anyway.

rsynnott

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

Is a self build an option Rob?
Dell are probably your best bet tbh.

No, no, self build is not an option. I don't have the time.

What sort of graphics card would be reasonable?

challengemaster

well to be honest, lately released games eg, oblivion - you'd want a decent enough gfx card to play that on even low/mid settings to even get a playable fps rate. i know my 6700XL struggles with low settings. you're talking atleast a 7600GT - 7800GT to get decent frame rates and have it look ok for newer games. 7600GT is around 180euro on komplett

a core2duo e6400 should do nicely as a processor for you. 233.01€

1gb of corsair value ram ~130€

motherboard ~ 120€

320gb hdd ~100€

case ~70€

psu - ~100€

dvd+rw drive ~40€

keyboard ~25€

mouse ~30€

windows xp 80-120€ depending on home/pro

total cost is ~1150 euro.

dubmick

would 2gb of ram not be an idea for Vista?

challengemaster

vista is only being released, and like all things are, full of bugs at the start. to be honest, stick with xp until its fully secure imo

rsynnott

Actually, let's make this simpler. Which Dell would suit our purposes?

(Sorry for my cluelessness on this; I don't play games (or use Windows) myself, so I'm a little out of touch with this stuff)

Gurgle

rsynnott wrote:

Which Dell would suit our purposes?

*sigh*
Budget XPS comes in just under a grand and would do just fine.

Gurgle

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

looks good...except for..."50GB Hard Disk Drive"
For 769euro you'd expect at least 120GB anyway.

Ahem:
250GB

TerrorFirmer

Gurgle wrote:

*sigh*
Budget XPS comes in just under a grand and would do just fine.

You don't need to get an XPS. You can kit out the standard desktops with decent cards too, but a good option would be to buy a cheap base machine from Dell, and then ensure it has a vacant pci-e slot and buy your own card. Good way to save money, they'll fleece you otherwise for the upgrade.

that machine someone linked to isn't great, unless your brother doesn't mind playing games on low to medium settings, but I'm sure he'll want something that'll at least play current games at high res.

K.O.Kiki

The FS from PCWorld looks alright.
You can always sell the x1550 & buy something better anyway; and up the RAM to 2Gb sometime yourself.
All it really needs is a set of speakers & maybe a PCI soundcard; then it's good to go.

(of course, I'd personally buy a Mac, but whatever...)

TerrorFirmer

Personally I wouldn't bother getting a Pentium D though, especially not one of the slower ones....

the_syco

Get a console, and a €500 PC, cos if you plan to play games on the PC, you should plan to upgrade it in about 6 months time, spending half what you paid for the initial system, just so that the kid can play his games. Also, no doubt they'll go online, so it'll get riddled with virii, so you'll be fixing that a good bit.

TerrorFirmer

I saw a surprising good deal in PC World today.

E6400, 2Gb Ram, X1600, 19" widescreen monitor, for 1049 euro.

Not bad at all, considering it IS pc world...

subway

HavoK wrote:

I saw a surprising good deal in PC World today.

E6400, 2Gb Ram, X1600, 19" widescreen monitor, for 1049 euro.

Not bad at all, considering it IS pc world...

was the pc included with poster?