Anyone here care to help me pick a PC?... :)

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Merlin

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Alright, as wicked as Macs are, they're waaay out of my price range...

I'm looking at buying a new PC in the near future...my current one is hand-me-down from my knuckle-dragging ancestors...

I'll be using it as the entertainment centre, ie: TV/DVD / Radio card, 'net access, and gaming...

I want to be able to play something like NFS:MW at a decent level.

Obviously I need a good gfx card, and a nice sound card in it.

I'm holding off on all the accesories, and a monitor due to the lean state of my wallet at the moment.

I will be adding a gaming device to the order though, like you get with a PS. Not sure what they're called. ;)

I don't need any fancy cases with blinking lights, etc.

I will in all likeliness be hacking up my old case to make a new 'project' which will hold all these nice new bits 'nd pieces.

I want atleast 512 RAM, and atleast an AMD 3.0 Ghz on the clock.

Please bear in Mind, cost is more-or-less an issue, and I don't want to have to go and upgrade next month. :/

...so, enlighten me - who in Jo'burg should get the order, and what should I be asking for?

Thanks; appreciate it, N.
 
Well I've been out of the PC arena for some time so I'm not sure what a decent system would cost...

I saw an ad for a a nice gaming box for 5.5k the other day, byt my mate tells me I can get a system to do all I want for 3k.

What's the recommendation?
 
Good starting point I'd say:

Athlon 64 3000+ (socket 939) minimum
1Gb RAM, or more depending on budget
6600GT / X1600Xt graphics card minimum (MUST be PCI-e not AGP)
If you can stretch your budget a bit try to get the 6800GS, it's the best bang for your buck.

I'm not one for SLi. I'd say get something decent now, by the time you feel the need to upgrade there'll be something more powerful at the same price, and you can sell your old one.

Hard drives to your preference - If you want big, go big. If you want fast, get a board that'll support RAID 0 with two 3yr warranty drives.
 
Check out the site www.dotcomputers.co.za or send me a PM and i'll help you put a Pc together at your price range. I'll soon be posting some full pcs on the site so you can see those sometime before Friday.
 
Thanks Doobi,

I'll check that out.

*thinks of current PC...*

*compares it to the above...*

*ponders crying or laughing...*

It all depends on wether or not I buy a certain something else this week, but I've got your details Person and will drop you a line in the near future. Tks.
 
id say value for money even if you got alot go for:

AMD dual core 4200+ (i think there a 4200+) (alot of software now is taking advantage of dual core, and dont go intel if you want to game)
2 gig DDR memory (memory have become cheap, so 2gig shoud be more than enough ... for now)
HDD, pretty much down to taste, 80Gig is more than enough for me dont download too much porn movies
7800GT ... the 7800GTX and SLI is not worth the extra money (trust me i know this from experience)
Sound Card - get an X-Fi fatality simply beacuse it is creative and the EAX 4/5 which games will use later and the onboard ram
Speakers - Z5500, i love em, they perfect ... have more expensive sound in my car and at home, but this just sounds better
Screen- BenQ LCD look great and at a good price too

and yeah Person's prices are very very good, check them out, better then the wholesalers
 
EchoDown said:
Man,adam...thats more like a dream system than a budget system.
Click to expand...

i tried to give a machine that can play evrything with all the bells and whistles on and not spend R30 000 on it ...
ok saw the guy looking at a budget of R5000 ... oops
6600GT, 1gig ram, 3000+
 
Yeh,look at his budget,was kinda wondering what kind of smack you smoking,plus he would need a mbo etc etc....kind of weird of him to not post his current specs.
 
Apparently you should of whored yourself a bit less,you bought value ram and went for 2 GTX's........
You should of went for Good hardcore ram and One GTX,I mean is 5 fps and and extra 4 AA really worth it?
No offence.
 
EchoDown said:
Apparently you should of whored yourself a bit less,you bought value ram and went for 2 GTX's........
You should of went for Good hardcore ram and One GTX,I mean is 5 fps and and extra 4 AA really worth it?
No offence.
Click to expand...

honestly with the expensive RAM i did not notice a difference (tried my friends ram in it), with SLI you really see the performance at high resoltuions ... but yes its not worht it. btw the other GTX i won, rather my GF won it
 
Can I win it from you?
hehe
Well with "expensive" ram you could push the memory freq to say 250 without even breaking a sweat,best believe that is a difference of note(night and day)....and do nice timings at that.....
Anyways back to the topic.
 
EchoDown said:
Can I win it from you?
hehe
Well with "expensive" ram you could push the memory freq to say 250 without even breaking a sweat,best believe that is a difference of note(night and day)....and do nice timings at that.....
Anyways back to the topic.
Click to expand...

i uped my fsb to 225, as opposed to 400, and its all cool ... but yeah R5000 pc, 6600gt is a great GPU card, ASUS mobo, 3000+ cpu which you can overclock (is the 3200 more overclockable or the 3000?). value ram (corsair or kingston) and stick with onboard sound, nad get a nice crt monitor, lcd's with good response time are expenive, cause youd want 12ms or better
 
Honestly I think 5 k is kinda ambitious for a "good" machine.....
That being said,it is do-able,around about....
Probably something like:
939 mobo
CPU 3200 + 939(Doubt he wants to mess with the hardware after buying it)
1 gig value
6600 gt or something

He said he doesnt want a screen right now.....
Few extra peripherals,needs a Standard ATX Case,atleast 350watt PSU etc etc etc too hot for this,Cape Town boiling.
 
adamr said:
and yeah Person's prices are very very good, check them out, better then the wholesalers
Click to expand...

Ahh thx... *Gives Adamr unmarked white envelop under the table*
 
...

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Someone stated that I did not post my current specs - I didn't because, well, they are laughable. :)

Adam's specs sound wicked, but that's probably more than the last car I bought! *lol*

I'll take up the other specs with a dealer in the near future.

Thanks, N.
 
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