Double edged sword

quad_red

Hi all,
I need a new computer in the next while and I've been mulling over my options.

I want a decently specced pc that will be able to handle crysis. Now, Ankermann have some nice deals. Or I could build myself. And for the spec and quality it really is far better value than Dell can offer.

But the problem comes with the software. The cost of the OS and in particular the office suite (I gotta have MS office. I've been burned seriously twice with OpenOffice now so I need the real) pushes the price up hugely. To the point where it's the same price as the Dell (I have a decent monitor already but I could easily get a nice big LCD off dell for little more).

How do people here reconcile this?

Cheers
Quad

AlmightyCushion

Did you try getting an oem copy of office?

quad_red

AlmightyCushion wrote:

Did you try getting an oem copy of office?

Yeah, I suppose that does knock the price down a good bit

Then Office is €221
http://www.dabs.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4DGD&fb=310&InMerch=1

and Vista Prem for €98
http://www.dabs.ie/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4DF7&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=windows+vista+oem&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0

€320 for OS and Office isn't bad.

I've no chance of building a decent pc that will be able to handle crysis for a grand, do I? (excl monitor)

L31mr0d

i'd seriously wait until crysis comes out before buying a rig as nobody knows what it will run on yet. I'm wary as to how good it will even run on my sig rig. I have a 2nd 8800GTX in my HTPC on standby should I need to go SLI in my main rig.

The main justification of building your own PC is, and I think most pc builders will agree, that they enjoy it. If you where to weigh up costs in the long run of buying parts frequently over say buying a DELL and letting it sit there for 3 years the DELL would certainly be more cost effective.

But by building it yourself and by trial and error and advice you'll end up with a much more stable machine that outperforms any DELL in its price range. Plus if you're a builder, you will eventually dabble in overclocking. Something that will help you eek out those extra few Mhz to give you a more fluid FPS, and it will be something which you will eventually enjoy as much if not more so than the gaming itself.

What you need to do now is give us your budget "and your bank account details saaah" (fonejacker ftw!)

Then we can propose a pc build and factor in the cost of the OS (Vista 32bit?) and Office.

EDIT: Crap you replied before I posted... ok, hmm, yeah you won't be able to build a Crysis rig for under a grand. Can you salvage anything from your old rig? what about selling your old pc to bump up your budget?

BenjAii

ebay.co.uk has got cheap prices for ms office, worth a look.

quad_red

L31mr0d wrote:

i'd seriously wait until crysis comes out before buying a rig as nobody knows what it will run on yet. I'm wary as to how good it will even run on my sig rig. I have a 2nd 8800GTX in my HTPC on standby should I need to go SLI in my main rig.

Holy Crap! :eek:

L31mr0d wrote:

The main justification of building your own PC is, and I think most pc builders will agree, that they enjoy it.

Y'see, I'd like to give it a whirl allright. Have upgraded and gutted pcs before but never built one from the feet up

L31mr0d wrote:

What you need to do now is give us your budget "and your bank account details saaah" (fonejacker ftw!)

Then we can propose a pc build and factor in the cost of the OS (Vista 32bit?) and Office.

The big fat bottom line. I suppose, I'd be looking at around a grand. Is that realistic? I'm not sure I could justify more than that at the moment (if it ain't up to Crysis, then so be it. I'll get a wack at all the pc games I've missed for the last few years).

L31mr0d

BenjAii wrote:

ebay.co.uk has got cheap prices for ms office, worth a look.

... and you don't get those horrible disks with the hard to read holograms on the front of it, you get the ones that read in black marker "Office 2003: Crack and Keygen included" only joking there probably is a legit copy of Office on ebay, lol, somewhere...

TerrorFirmer

I think Crysis is going to be reasonably hardware friendly, didn't one of the team publicly state that even a 7800GTX will run the game on fairly high settings? That kind of hardware can be gotten second hand for in and around 100 euro. Not that I'd recommend getting a 7800GTX for crysis, but you know what I mean....I'd say with any 8800 card you'd be fine, the game is designed to be extremely scalable as well as hardware friendly. Look at Half Life 2 - that proved what efficient coding can do, Crysis will hopefully be another.

L31mr0d

quad_red wrote:

Holy Crap! :eek: ...

The big fat bottom line. I suppose, I'd be looking at around a grand. Is that realistic? I'm not sure I could justify more than that at the moment (if it ain't up to Crysis, then so be it. I'll get a wack at all the pc games I've missed for the last few years).

Well the rumour mill is rife with stories of how Crytek are releasing Crysis with features that even current gen HW can't handle, and as the HW improves the features will become available to enable (kinda like the way certain settings in GRAW could only be enabled if your graphics card had over 512MB's of video RAM)

But Crysis isn't the only big release coming out. In the next month Stranglehold and Bioshock are getting released, then theres Starcraft II and Project Offset.

Also that budget of 1000, is that including or excluding software?

TerrorFirmer

Now that you mention it, even thought I have an 8800GTS I still can't select 'High' textures, it keeps telling me something about 'not optimal'....although that's a bit of a joke because the game doesn't even look that good to warrant such outrageous requirements.

Anyway with mid range parts so cheap now, you'd build a good performance budget machine for 700, but nothing that you'd be bragging about. Good board, 2gb ram, low end core 2 duo and overclock, X1950Pro (Sapphire only 132 euro on Komplett). Again while it's mid range stuff, it'd run any game right now on high settings and probably easily play Crysis at reasonable settings. Or you could go the route of crappy board, cheap case, medicore power supply and fit an 8800 card into that budget but really you'll just end up regretting that. I'd really stretch that extra hundred or two, no point limiting yourself when buying a new PC just for games and specifically games that aren't even out yet, again, you'll only regret it later.

This might sound surprising but check local stores like PC World for offers, I actually got a 580w hyper-r power supply for 50 euro in PC World recently, unopened but marked as clearance stock. I always get some seriously good bargins in there as long as I look around often enough.

quad_red

HavoK wrote:

Now that you mention it, even thought I have an 8800GTS I still can't select 'High' textures, it keeps telling me something about 'not optimal'....although that's a bit of a joke because the game doesn't even look that good to warrant such outrageous requirements.

That's crazy.

HavoK wrote:

Anyway with mid range parts so cheap now, you'd build a good performance budget machine for 700, but nothing that you'd be bragging about. Good board, 2gb ram, low end core 2 duo and overclock, X1950Pro (Sapphire only 132 euro on Komplett). Again while it's mid range stuff, it'd run any game right now on high settings and probably easily play Crysis at reasonable settings.

To be honest, that sounds about what I'm in the market for really. Are you saying something like this? (ripped from Ankermann)

System: INTEL Core 2 Duo Model E6600
2.40GHz Conroe 4MB
Equipment:

- ASUS P5N-E SLI -nForce650i (GBL/SATA-II/DDRII-800): € 58.90
- PCI-e 512MB NVidia GeForce 8600-GT TV-out- DVI: € 60.00
- 250GB Maxtor SATA-II 7200rpm
- 2gb DDR-II RAM PC667 CORSAIR ValueSelect Memory
- LG H44 18x Multiformat Dual Layer DVD-RW
- LC 907 MidiTower
- K Arctic Alpine 7 So.775 CPU cooler
- Super Low Noise 500W Power
- 8 channel 7.1 audio
- 10/100/1000 Ethernet GB-LAN 1 689,80 € 689,80

Edit:

Or should I wait to see what happens when AMD release their next big guns? That's happening soon isn't it?