Advise on purchasing a new PC

good old days

any help will be appreciated, thank you.

The price of this pc from Komplett is 2895 Euro - + 66 DC
My budget is - 4k tops - obviously if I can get it cheaper all the better
This pc is for games and games networking with one other pc
I want it to be fast and all games being played on games top settings
I want it to last re 3 years - my last pc lasted 3 years before I needed to up grade
is this machine fully upgradeable - esp the graphics card
Is this graphic card good enough or would any one recommend a better GC
this Monitor - is it good enough for games - again if any body recommend better


*Norman IC, 1 year license Virus Control
*PC box
*SoftThinks Installation/Recovery ONLY FOR PC SOLD WITH OS --- what dose os mean
*Gigabyte Triton, GZ-XX1CA-SNS Silver case: is this good enough if I want to upgrade my graphic card, memory or optical drive
*NorthQ 4775-500BULK, ATX 500W, 120mm power supply: will it do for upgrades
*ABIT IN9 32X-MAX WiFi, nForce-680i SLI, mainboards: again will it be ok for upgrades
*Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.67GHz processor
*Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB memory will this type of memory be around in 3 years
*Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2048MB memory
*XFX GeForce 7900GS 525M 256MB GDDR3, graphic card - is this card any use or is there better
Samsung SpinPoint T133 400GB SATA2 hard drive
*Samsung DVD±RW burner, SH-S182M, 18x, optical drive
*Creative SB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS PCI, sound card: will this work with the speakers
*Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2b operating system
*Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000, keyboard: am I right thinking this keyboard comes with a wireless mouse
*Acer 19" LCD AL1916WAs TCO99 Monitor, Monitor: will this monitor be good for games - is there better out there
*D-Link DGE-528T PCI Gigabit Ethernet Networking
Speakers not included in price creative Inspire T-7900 retail - are these speakers compatible with the sound card

Blazer

First off the video card. Definitely not good enough to last 3 years plus it won't play all games at the top settings.
There's currently only one card that will do that and it's the Nvidia 8800GTX. However in two years time it could be behind the times. ATI are bring out their next card and also Nvidia are bringing out a faster GTX version in March/April.
Secondly..You'll need a higher psu...Go for at least 680w or more. Each new generation of video card is comsuming more and more power.
Your motherboard is fine but if you don't overclock you are better off with the Intel 975/965 chipset plus you'll save money.
Memorywise 4GB is more than enough..however in 3 year's time who knows..of course you'll need a 64bit OS to use the full amount.
Monitor..suggest a 20"widescreen. They give a resolution of 1680x1050 as opposed to 1280x1024 for the 19". Widescreen's definitely the way to go. I'd recommend getting a Dell 2007WFP as it has built in USB hubs and is HDCP compliant so it can play back HD movies.
DVD-RW is fine and so is the Sound card--it's compatible with all creative speakers. Have one myself-great card.
As for keyboard/mouse combo I'd steer clear of the Microsoft 6000 and go instead for the Logitech G5/G7 laser mouse. Fantastic mouse. Any other keyboard would do for games. As long as it's uk/irish.
Hard Drive-Seagate Barracuda 10 are great hard drives and very fast.

Hope this helps.

good old days

thanks Mathew,

question - what's a 64bit OS

and thanks again

Blazer

A 64bit Os like WinXP 64bit/Linux etc allows you to address memory over 4GB. (very simply put).
However not all manufacturers release 64bit drivers so it can be a bit of a bitch to get everything going.
However with Vista coming out soon within the next year I'd say that more and more of them will starting supporting 64bit due to a lot more systems with 4GB+.

humaxf1

*SoftThinks Installation/Recovery ONLY FOR PC SOLD WITH OS --- what dose os mean

OS = Operating System...doh!!!

SeanW

Well, I'd stay away from Micrsoft input devices if you want the PC for gaming.
I bought an MS keyboard with my new rig last year, it locked up when I pressed more then 3 keys at once - useless in gaming - so I gave it away with my old Dell and went back to the €10 Trust keyboard that I had been using, and still am You can find that here: http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=318382 but you might want to contact them and ask them what's the story with the stock?

Mice: I recommend the Logitech G5 Laser. It kicks major azz. Bought mine a few months ago, and overnight went from being the guy that gets owned in an MP shootout, to being the one that owns just about everyone else Rock solid reliable and lethally accurate.

64-bit OS, by default I'd recommend that you go for a 64-bit Operating System, because not only can it handle more RAM, but 64-bit processor + 64-bit OS + 64 bit software = potentially much better processing power.
There are only 2 possibilities why you should consider not going 64-bit now:
1) You maintain 16-bit software that you want to keep running (64 bit OSes can't natively emulate 16-bit applications)
2) You have some old or unusual hardware that may not have 64-bit drivers.

If you have either of the above, you might consider buying 32-bit Windows XP now and migrating to Vista 64-bit later on.

The graphics card won't do you for 3 years either - the best of the graphics cards today are the GeForce 8 series, they are the most powerful on the market at the moment and support DirectX 10, so they'll do for you need them, but they could be toppled as "the best" very soon by the ATI offerings.

good old days

thank everyone you have all been very helpful