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Wag
 
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Last Login: Today @ 4:46 PM
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dabs.com looks better than scan.co.uk at the moment.
Marios
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Initiate
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Last Login: Monday, April 30, 2007 4:05 PM
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| Dells pcs are not to bad, I use an old Dimension 2400 for playing mmorpgs and have few issues though I have had to upgrade a few bits ( More RAM...anda graphics card). The one problem with Dell is that they tend to give you the minimum requriements for a system and do use cheap parts, hence why you often find that the powerpacks are rubbish. Id not use the requirements for WoW to base a PC around though, that game is old and renowned for being primitive and undemanding on its computers. This means that many new MMOs will have issues working on a pc that might thrive with WoW. (example City of heroes is similar in specs but because its a much more graphicaly superior game it tends to eat up wow optimised pcs). Lots of RAM is allways good, you dont want to touch anything with less than 1GB these days, not when you consider that even standing still some PCs can use up 200MB (or 250MB if its a Dell with all their bloatware lurking around). A good graphics card is allways good too, again aim for something with at least 250MB of RAM on board. Dont get lured in by extra cost "silent cooling systems" unless you really are bothered by the PC humming to itself.
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Heroic Knight
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Last Login: Monday, August 18, 2008 4:45 PM
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The other problem with Dell is that you end up with nothing but Dell components, where you're not always getting good value.
When I was in a similar position (wanting two new PCs but having the level knowledge that comes from reading a couple of Computer Shoppers and an intricate understanding of the P75 I owned ten years ago...) I looked into various options.
Easy option A is to buy a specialist computer magazine like Computer Shopper and go through until you find a review section and read up on what they say is good for games. Get in touch with that company and check with them whether the machine is up to the specs on the box of a recently released game (eg: Oblivion) that has fairly high specs and your boyfriend might play.
Harder option B I went for knowing that I'd probably want some measure of IT support locally and no doubt will want to upgrade bits of them. Go through Yellow Pages and call up some of the computer support companies local to you and ask them whether they sell or build computers. I found a great one up in Coventry called Computer Basement -they're great. You need to read up in Computer Shopper a bit and check the games specs again, so you can email the company some idea of the machine performance you want. The gaming machines I bought came to about £400 each for just the box (no monitors, speakers, etc) and have a high power graphics card (the main thing), lots of hard drive space, a good speed CD/DVD drive, four USB ports, and decent processing power, plus LOTS of RAM. (Don't recall the exact specs, but those were the things I was particular about).
I'd consider getting things like monitors and keyboards from somewhere like PC world, or a mail order company from Computer Shopper -just buy flat screens, and go for something fairly cheap, I reckon (no more than £180 for a monitor). Perhaps a slightly better keyboard and an optical mouse, because they're pretty cheap anyhow, and you'll notice the difference. Speakers, I'd start with the cheapest you can find and then let your boyfriend upgrade later - mainly because the jump from crap speakers to good speakers is £££.
Good luck!
_____________________________
Maelstrom - Carl Whitesnake
Scavenger LRP - Organiser
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Squire
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Last Login: Thursday, July 12, 2007 4:43 PM
Posts: 27,
Visits: 328
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Something nobody has mentioned,
is http://www.alienware.co.uk
I know they are owned by dell now, but the machines are on a different scale. IF you dont mind paying a few extra pounds.
___end trans___
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