Advice on pre-built purchase

[Crazy Otter]

Hi all,

I've been out of the system building for a year or two and to be honest don't really feel like building this time around either.

Have a budget of 1450 for a complete gaming PC (I have all external components including 24" LCD).

Looking through the pre-built systems, the only two that stand out at that price range are:

"Ultima OC HD 4870 X2" Intel Core 2 Quad Xeon X3350 2.66GHz @ 3.30GHz+ Quad Core DDR2 System "Ultima OC HD 4870 X2" Intel Core 2 Quad Xeon X3350 2.66GHz @ 3.30GHz+ Quad Core DDR2 System

"Ultima Sugo" Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz @ 4.0GHz+ Dual Core DDR2 System "Ultima Sugo" Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz @ 4.0GHz+ Dual Core DDR2 System


I'm favouring the tower of course, as I can change hardware more easily in that system.
Any big pros/cons to these pre-built systems? I really don't want to build this time around, though might be tempted if comments come back that I can build a system that runs games a LOT faster than one of the above.


Oh and what OS should I go for???
I could stay with XP Pro, or move to one of the Vistas. Gaming speed and compatibility is the main issue in this box. I've read little about Vista recently due to time constraints, so I know very little about Vista versions and 32/64 bit compatibility with new and older games. For example, does Vista do anything for online gaming, be it bad or good?

Any advice is welcome...thanks.

 

[Edward01]

If it was me i'd probably go for the top one with a Lian Li PC-A70B case. Dual core is suppose to be slightly better for gaming, but, that quad-core is essentially the Xeon equivalant of a Q9450, which makes it pretty serious stuff. Oh that and I hate the Mirco-ATX case!! Pretty similair other than that

With OS if you want to use all 4gb of RAM you need a 64bit OS so make that your first priority. Regads XP or Vista, unless the latest Vista service pack has changed things then I remember XP being about 10 - 20% faster. BUT with a system like that you prob wouldn't notice the difference unless you were a pedant and needed every last frame rate for benchmarking, so i'd go with Vista

 

[Crazy Otter]

Cheers, will go with Vista 64...anyone got any links for Vista 64 tweaking (if it needs any)?

 

[shaffaaf27]

id say vista 64, and pc-A70B

with this system:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...+%20Quad%20Core%20WaterCooled%20DDR2%20System

or

for non watercooled

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...0GHz @ QX6950+ 3.00GHz+ Quad Core DDR2 System