Been a while - recommendations please!

Oxford · 23 Sep 2008 at 11:11

Been out of PC gaming for a long time, mostly down to the xbox... however I do miss games like OFP, DOD etc where I much preffered the control via keyboard and mouse...

My PC is pretty old now, plays the old games like company of heros really well, cant even remember the spec of it if I am honest!

Now i'd love to upgrade, mostly for ARMA2 and OFP2 that will be released next year.

Any suggestions as to spec? the OCUK pre builds look like a good option as I just dont have the time to build one myself at the moment.

I also need the machine for work purposes too.

Budget 800ish?

Would like something pretty top end if I am honest and capable of playing modern FPSs (no periferals required)

Chimerical · 23 Sep 2008 at 11:36

ACESHIGH · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:12

Above is a very nice lot if you will build it yourself.

For a prebuilt system arround that price look at
Titan Gamer Extreme
Has 2x 4850 cards in crossfire so would be very quick, despite the dual core cpu.

or

Titan Accelerator
Still very quick as it has a 4850, but comes with a nicely overclocked quad core cpu which is good if multitasking / encoding as well as playing games.

edit to fix links.

Oxford · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:22

Thanks guys, will investigate

Whats wrong with the dual cores?

- also VISTA, never used it - which version would you recommend?

AlexTrickle · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:25

Building yourself saves a lot of money but if you're adamant you want a pre built system then i'd go for:

Titan Accelerator

Then add Vista Home Premium 64bit.

Edit: Just saw your above reply, nothing is wrong with dual cores - infact they are usually better for gaming as they are usually higher clocked. However the system linked above has an overclocked quad core so you get the best of both worlds - quad core for multitasking and a high clock speed for games.

ACESHIGH · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:25

Oxford said:
Thanks guys, will investigate

Whats wrong with the dual cores?

- also VISTA, never used it - which version would you recommend?

Nothing wrong with dual core CPU's as such, as for their cost they offer very good gaming and general performance. Quad cores however for multitasking / video encoding are generally quicker (though currently slower for games).

vista home 64 bit version is probably a good choice.

Oxford · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:30

How much money saved are we talking?

I can build myself, done it a few times before but was wanting to save some time, however for the sake of a sunday afternoon and saving 100 pounds then thats cool?

AlexTrickle · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:33

Around £50-100 on pre built ocuk systems and I've seen normal makes (Dell/Mesh etc) charge up to £300 more for an identical system that I built myself. So potentially could save a fair bit.

Oxford · 23 Sep 2008 at 12:36

So the spec above, would that be worth adding another graphics card so I would be running dual cards? - would that increase likleyhood of running games such as OFP2 next year?

Dual DVI or HDMI - much difference?

ACESHIGH · 23 Sep 2008 at 13:03

A 2nd card generally adds a lot more gaming performance (FPS) to the system. Those two were the best in your price range hence why i chose them. The Titan Accelerator is a very good gaming and all round system. The Titan Gamer Extreme is a better gaming system by virue of dual cards but the CPU is not as quick and being dual core slower for multitasking / video editing. Depends on what youre after for your money as to which is best for you. Adding a 2nd card to the quad system will definitely improve your gaming performance (thats not to say a single 4850 is slow by any means, as its a damn quick card, but two are obviously faster).

Oxford · 23 Sep 2008 at 13:39

I do a lot less video editing / multitasking than gaming, so I expect the extreme would be the better bet - esp with it having 2 cards

saguy · 23 Sep 2008 at 14:18

Oxford said:
I do a lot less video editing / multitasking than gaming, so I expect the extreme would be the better bet - esp with it having 2 cards

I also need to replace my system which is getting old. for now I would advise a faster dual core for gaming rather than a quad. I only use my PC for gaming so there is no advantage to quad cores and you have to remember how long it took for games to come out that supprted dual cores. By the time quad cores are fully supported in games they would be too slow anyway.