Spec me a system...pretty please...

valve90210

valve90210

valve90210

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2006
Posts
4,335
Hi all

My PC is getting on a bit now and I'm saving for a new one.

Current Spec:
P4 2.8ghz
AGP 7800gs OC
2GB Ram (can't remember speed)


As you see it's is rather old.

Now, the useful info. I like to game on my PC in particular FPS, so would like something that can handle recent releases as well as make older games (I'm hooked on BF2 at the mo) run really well.

I also use my comp for my own business and run Quark version 5 and Photoshop 5.5, aswell as Acrobat for pdf creation. From my experiences with the same software at work, while both Quark and Photoshop can be made to run with Vista, being old software they do have the odd strop for example the PDF creation from Quark fails everytime as Vista seems to store fonts in a different way to XP and distiller (acrobats creation software) fails to find or embed any fonts.

Now with this in mind, would it be wise to stick with XP, or do I move onto Vista or Windows 7 and keep my current comp for my work stuff?

Anyway, what sort of spec could I get for around £500 - £600? (I dont need keyboard, mouse or monitors). I'd want the system to last me for a good amount of time...like the 5 or 6 years or so my current one has done me

Any help very much appreciated

Valve
 
How do you feel about an overclocked system by the way? 5-6 lifespan should be fine so long as you're not pushing it hard. Keeping voltage close to stock and going for a mild clock would be safe.
 
I've not done any overclocking in the past but if it was simple enough I'd probably be ok with it.

Forgot to mention, Ideally I'd like to stick with Intel and Nvidia as I have always used them and am familiar with them (though if I can get substancially better performance from AMD/ATI then I'd probably consider it)

Valve
 
x3 435/555 BE - 55 - 80
mobo - 70
hdd - ¬35-50
psu - 50-60
gpu - ¬120
cooling 17-40
case - 30-80

comes at 350 - 520

No pc's last 5-6yrs nowadays as new tech is coming out every 6months or so so even if you buy the newest stuff available now for 2000quid, in a year it will be worth less than half price and be nothing more than avarage rig.

Keep whatever money you've got left for future upgrades ( ie. second 5770 for CF, ssd or watercooling, or cpu change ) and upgrade in a year/two/three if you feel like.
The beauty of am3 setup is that it will perform great in games for the next 1-2yrs and then you can slap in a newcoming six core or best up to date quad for silly money so in the long run it will not only work out cheaper than splashing cash on i7 but will give probably better performance at some point.


Looking at your current setup, I don't think you need anything top end, not in that budget anywyas it's not worth it.

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edit just read your reply:
nvidia is getting facemelted by ati atm so would be just stupid to go with them,
intel offers not much in that budget, you can get i3 but it's not much better than x3 435 / 555be in gaming and is lot more expensive and you want to spend your money elsewhere ( cooling, case, psu, gpu ). i5 is good but will be tough to fit in your budget.
 
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You'll have to forgive my complete ignorance here, AM3 setup, That's and AMD setup which is what they're gonna be using for some time to come?

If I can get better performance for my money from AMD and there is a good potential for upgrade a year or two down the line, then maybe that would be a good idea rather than going Intel, IO guess really seeing as I'm not an overclocker etc what cpu I have isn't really going to make much difference to me as long as it performs well.

Being out of the hardware scene for so long, I didn't know that ATI are doing so much better than Nvidia but if this is the case, then as you say I'd be mad to go with Nvidia.

I guess I should also mention that I use a dual monitor setup with twin 19" screens, sadly they only support analogue in, would current graphics cards be ok to use with these, ie are there convertors etc? (Think at the moment my graphics card has one VGA out and one DVI out which I'm using with a convertor - been a while since I've done anything with this comp...)
 
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