Time for a new pc

Ive been looking around on so many sites, I need to buy/build a fairly cheap pc that can run things such as bioshock, oblivion (old i know) and such (ps 3.0 etc) I do not need a super-uber-system (tm).

Also being able to run Vista at a useable speed would be a nice bonus.

Any suggestions for places to look would be a great help.

I would have around £800 to go with..

Im not sure but something like this seems like a goodun, maybe its overpriced? ive not updated my system for many years.

http://www.computersupermarket.com/ProductDetails.php/243/668

LOL! I like how you put "running vista at a usable speed would be a nice bonus."

I can imagine;

"My system can run Bioshock 2, Spore, Elder Scrolls VI great! but vista runs like a clay turd up a hill!"

I'll be watching this thread too.

£800 will get you a quad core,2gb,8800 system

why dont you just assemble your pc yourself?
its 5-6 hours of work, i would call it fun...
also you get it for 60 % of the money you would pay for an assembled PC.

That may have been true five years ago. It's no longer cheaper to build it yourself. At the low, medium range, it's probably even more expensive, if only from paying multiple delivery charges.

delivery charges?
i bought it all online. it was 880 € (1000 USD) plus 15 € (25 USD) delivery charges!

but i had the free choose for each part of my pc. also, if you buy it all in one piece, you may get a cheap one, which has good components, but it might look ugly. and if you find a stylish one, it might be bad at performance!

hey devils child,

where the link for pc that you buy the pc?

cheers

Yes it has become more expensive to build your own system and a little bit more tricky if you like "cutting edge" technology (you may get a CPU and not realize that the new motherboard may need a BIOS update before it will even work). Hence I will only upgrade every 2-3 years, but when I do it's always cutting edge top of the line stuff (the last was about 2-3 months ago and set me back almost £2000 and that was only for the PSU,CPU,Memory,Motherboard and Graphics card) and I used ebuyer (could have saved myself some money if didn't want next day delivery).

I have found that a lot of pre-assembled units use cheap parts bought in bulk (they have to make money some how) and a friend of mine found out that the Vista computer he bought, the same model was running XP a few months earlier.

If you want to run Vista with a bit of vvroom you realy need some thing like this (note Intel/nVidia bias).

CPU --- Intel P4 3.73 Extreme (getting rare)/Core2 Quad 2.66
Memory - 2G (min) of Twin-paired (2x1GB) 667/800 for a dual channel arrangement (a must realy).
Motherboard -- Intel 955x+ chipset
VGA --- GeForce 8000 series graphics adapter
Hard drive(s) -- Serial ATA

dawlane, any excuse to show off your super computer! Only joking, I was admiring it in another thread with some jealously, lol.

I hate buying off the shelf computers. They tend to have a good component or 2 like the CPU - but cut corners on others like graphics cards and memory.

I also like to have a nice looking and quiet PC - can't stand a PC that sounds like a vaccum cleaner when I'm trying to read a website or program.

Plus the fact I'd rather swap out a motherboard than have to sell the whole computer system - keyboard, monitor etc otherwise I then have 2, 3, 4 systems because I've bought another new computer.

Well I used to be a fan of the 2-3 years then top of the line kit. But you are probably better off getting 6-12 months old kit for a fraction of the price and you can upgrade every year.

Especially as it would probably mainly be the gfx card that would increase game performance the most in that time.

Yeah Merx so did I.

I can't now and I'm not too bothered. Can't afford too and I'd have to throw away too much because my motherboard doesn't support PCI Express graphics cards. So I can't just buy another graphics card because it's not going to be faster to any significant amount - if at all.

I had to upgrade my power supply, and I'll upgrade my hard drive to a faster and bigger SATA one (IDE at present) and I'll be happy.

"Well I used to be a fan of the 2-3 years then top of the line kit. But you are probably better off getting 6-12 months old kit for a fraction of the price"

I sometimes think that myself.

The list above was just a reference for some one who would like to run Vista, with out growing old waiting for things to happen. Not my machine.

Some people say I have more money than sense, and to that I reply "I will have more sense when I have more money".(or win the lottery so I can retire)

Get a Mac ^^

They do look cool don't they?

http://www.apple.com/imac/

I'm getting myself that one http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/ but the iMacs are cool as well ^^

What a beauty:

My 24" 2.8GHz Core2 iMac is on its way (I was going for a Mac Pro, but I didn't want to upset the Vista machine as it's running just the way I like it)

Can you actually upgrade a mac? If not I actually think that is a plus - like the consoles and Amiga/ST days - you write for a particular spec.

They are very limited, in upgrade ability, the iMac more so. You can customize it when you purchase it on line or at the apple store, just don't expect any windows software to run in OS X without any VMware (or well).

You can dual boot windows and OS X with the boot camp utility.

The iMac I would say is more like a big laptop (the memory are SO-DIMMS (a friend has one), where as the Mac Pro with it's 2 XEON Quad core CPU's and 16GB Memory expansion is more like a server.

The problem with apple is that every six months or so the release a new upgraded machine.

The problem with Apple is the lack of software. But they do look cool.