Dell XPS 430 or overclockers deal for gaming? (Champions Online)

ThorpedoUK

ThorpedoUK

ThorpedoUK

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Hi all

First I'm new here so go easy on me, thanks!

I was hoping to get an honest opinion from you pros out there on what budget gaming system will run Crysis (high/1280x1024), Age Of Conan (max) and Champions Online (Max)

I am looking at the following (I have a max of about £400 I know not a huge amount but money is tight)

Primo Oren (£289)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-187-OK&tool=5

along with:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-205-SP&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=939

>>OR<<

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-180-OK

>>OR a Dell system buy it now pay later<<

DELL XPS 430 with Q9550 Intel Core 2 Quad 2.83Ghz and ATI Radeon 4850 512MB.

The Q9550 is awesome for overclocking (but I believe you cant overclock the XPS 430, is that correct??) but this system is about twice the cost of the others!

I'm really hoping for around £400 (or cost of the first system and gfx card max).

Thanks all
 
If you build it yourself then you could get something like this:

419x2.png


Its a touch over budget, but will be rather rapid.
 
The performance of the graphics card will be marginally better and it will be cooler and quieter. However, I don't think its £64 better than the one I chose.

However, the rest of the system will be a bit worse due to the inferior motherboard. If you really want the graphics card you specified then get it but use the rest of my specification (its only £10 more when shipping and gpu are removed). However, you should consider waiting till the end of the month as a new generation of ATI graphics cards will be released then - they will be very fast and bring the prices of current cards down.
 
cmndr_andi said:
The performance of the graphics card will be marginally better and it will be cooler and quieter. However, I don't think its £64 better than the one I chose.

However, the rest of the system will be a bit worse due to the inferior motherboard. If you really want the graphics card you specified then get it but use the rest of my specification (its only £10 more when shipping and gpu are removed). However, you should consider waiting till the end of the month as a new generation of ATI graphics cards will be released then - they will be very fast and bring the prices of current cards down.
Click to expand...

Wise advice mate, thanks for your info!

Ok I'm gonna hold off until the end of the month its only a couple of weeks, give me chance to get some more cash together, for £190 is that card the best for that price or would you recommend something else?

Also will that motherboard you have chosen take quad core (AM3 is tri core right? so no quad core? but it would take something like this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM) if I choose to upgrade later and overclock well with an additional cooler?

Thanks again
 
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My pleasure, m8.

The card you picked is probably the best for £190 or less, but if you stretch an extra tenner then this one is a good chunk better. But to be honest, its a moot point as a much faster card (the 5850) is going to occupy that price point in a few weeks, so it's not really worth it.

The motherboard I chose is AM3 785 chipset, so will take any of the current AMD quad cores without any trouble.
 
cmndr_andi said:
The e5300 and e5400 are what you will be looking for - here is a comparison review. This board is roughly equivalent, but i'd go for a P45 if you plan on overclocking.
Click to expand...

Cheers. Was looking at this combo.

E7500 or Q8200 and GA-EP41-UD3L as no need for on-board graphics.

Which CPU would provide best performance in games. It will be coupled with a Radeon 4890. I read something about higher clock speed being more noticeable?
 
If you are thinking of spending that kind of money I suggest you go for the AMD X3 720BE or even the new X4 + the motherboard and RAM I chose in my first post. At this price point AMD holds all the cards.

This combination will cost about the same but run faster in games, especially if they are multithreaded. As for the Q8200, at only 2.33GHz its pretty bad for playing games.

As for GPU, wait for the DX11 ATI cards to be released on the 23rd. The 4890 looks pretty good now, but there is likely to be something better for the same price in a few weeks.
 
cmndr_andi said:
My pleasure, m8.

The card you picked is probably the best for £190 or less, but if you stretch an extra tenner then this one is a good chunk better. But to be honest, its a moot point as a much faster card (the 5850) is going to occupy that price point in a few weeks, so it's not really worth it.

The motherboard I chose is AM3 785 chipset, so will take any of the current AMD quad cores without any trouble.
Click to expand...

Thanks fella - I'll wait and see how much the 5850 comes in at then :D
 
halifax credit card buy now interest free for 9 months plus get cashback from quidco £20 when you sign up then get the ocuk bundle

the dell deal will charge you a settlement fee at the end of 12months plus you have to pay it on the dot month before its something like £100 month after your stuck in the contract terms and charged interest from day dot
 
cmndr_andi said:
If you build it yourself then you could get something like this:

419x2.png


Its a touch over budget, but will be rather rapid.
Click to expand...

Hi mate - the above was really useful to me but I didnt realise OCUK offer a buy now pay in 12 months option, so I'm going to use this and then just pay off the balance later in full.

So with this in mind I could probably go to between £500-£750, is there any chance you could re-spec me a system with the 4890 2GB Sapphire card (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-212-SP) as a base with best CPU I can afford, motherboard (fairly futureproof and Crossfire Capable), memory (4gb), adequate cooling/case/HDD (320gb-500gb can always upgrade later) and PSU (I guess I'm looking at 600w+ for that card with 4x75w 6pin PCI-Express - might run 2 of these cards long term)

See: http://activextream.com.my/2009/07/29/sapphire-vaporx-hd-4890-2gb-gddr5-pcie-oc/

If I could spend less than 750 more in the 600 range that would be better, but if you think for example between 650-750 is a massive jump in performance then cool if its marginal then I'd prefer to stay in the 5-650 range.

Is that ok mate? I'd really appreciate it if you didnt mind and would owe you several beers!
 
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Here is a spec at the top end of your price range:

752x4.png


The X4 955 is an excellent gaming processor and overclocks very well. As for the graphics card, I included it as a place holder because it is not a good card to get. Tommorrow the new ATI cards should be announced and the performance of the new 5850 looks like it will outstrip the GTX285, never mind that Saphire 4890 2GB. It is definitely worth waiting for these cards to be released.

As for the budget, this is definately at the top end of what you are willing to pay. I'll be happy to put together a new spec tommorrow for the sub £650 range. I suspect it will be using an AMD Phenom 2 Tri Core.
 
I would agree with what cmndr_andi says about the graphics cards, and perhaps waiting a day or 2 to see how the new ones look.

But before you rush off and buy anything, allow me to preasent an alternative spec list in the same sort of price range as cmndr_andi did.

list01.jpg


You'll probably find andi's PII build and my I5 build very similar at stock speeds, but the I5 should have more overclocking potential and when overclocked it will outgun the Phenom II. Also, it will use less power when under load and when at idle, which might be worth considering. It's also the 'new' tech ...and it costs less :o ...hard to argue with that eh :D ...also the build I have proposed has a superior power supply.
 
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Looks good, Moeks - the i5 sure is a nice chip. I agree that the i5 is better to overclock (phenom 2 955s seem to top out at 3.8GHz while i5 750s get to 4GHz and keep going), but the limilting factor for both will be cooling. Your spec certainly has room for improvement of the cooling within the budget, personally I chose the Titan Fenrir because I know it can take the 955 up to 3.8GHz. I'm not sure that corasir is any better than the PSU I specced, the Be Quiets get very good write ups and the captive cable ones even more so. But either way, if the OP chose either of these specs he would get a fantastic PC.

As promised, here is my cheaper spec:

616x3.png


I kept the same GPU as before again as a place holder for a 5850 (they should arrive at around this price). I have seen some of the info released by AMD and they appear to be rather rapid. As for the CPU, X3 is a fantastic gaming chip and a very good overclocker (expect to again hit 3.8GHz with that cooler). Also, to keep the price down I had to switch to the microATX board and DDR2 RAM. This saves a good chunk of money and will not degrade the performance much, though it will limit future expandability (there is only 1 PCIE 2.0 x16, 1 PCIE 2.0 x1, and 2 PCI slots, so crossfire is not possible).
 
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