Which of these 3 should I go for?

johnycat · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:08

I am looking to buy two budget pcs for my kids. They will be used mainly for gaming and internet. I am obviously trying to get the best spec for them on a budget of 550 pounds for a desktop (no monitor)

I have narrowed it down to three

One from a company called ******** here in the UK

Ricochet Pro

Processor Intel Q8200 Core 2 Quad Processor
Processor Speed 4 x 2.33GHz
Memory 4GB DDR2 800MHz Ram
500GB Serial ATA II Hard Drive (Pro version)
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E Graphics (Pro version)
22x Dual Layer +R/-R/RW DVD burner
Sound 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Motherboard NVIDIA MCP73V Chipset Motherboard
case ATX Midi Tower Case

missing info is a 350w psu and MSI P6NGM-L. motherboard

Second option is a custom job

Athlon Phenom 9950 2.6ghz (quad)
asus M3N-H HDMI (Geforce 8300, firewire)
4 gig corsair ddr2 800mhz
Nvidea 9800 GT
250 gig hard drive -sufficient for my kids needs
20x dvd s-ata lightschreibe
650w Thermalake Toughpower psu
Coolmaster Cavalier 3 gaming case

Third

iBUILD™ Intel Gaming PC All Rounder,
Premium ATX Midi Tower Case,
650 Watt Power Supply Unit,
ASUS P5Q,
Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400 Dual Core 2x3GHz 6MB cache,
Standard CPU Cooling Fan,
Samsung 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz,
320GB 7200RPM SATA II,
Samsung SH-S223 22x DVD RW Black SATA,
nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB,
Built-in audio

I was initially leaning towards the Athlon but my research has shown the e8400 to be significantly faster in most bench tests, especially games. I believe the intel will be far more energy efficient and produce way less heat than the AMD.

Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks John

danielmp007 · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:12

Third option IMO.

Probably want to remove link from the bottom of it too

95thrifles · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:12

You need to delte all that, you cant link to competitors, read the rules/FAQ's

I just did this spec for someone else and reckon it meets your needs though

lunarwolf · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:16

danielmp007 said:
Third option IMO.

Probably want to remove link from the bottom of it too

+1

+1

johnycat · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:18

Thanks guys

OOOPS sorry for name dropping. Complete newbie and understand. Sincere apologies,

Thanks for your help though much appreciated

John

reflux · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:19

If you can do a build yourself, I'd do that. Better parts, better value.

johnycat · 16 Feb 2009 at 16:22

reflux said:
If you can do a build yourself, I'd do that. Better parts, better value.

Unfortunately I cant, I can just about boot one up!

But thanks anyway your advice is much appreciated though. Which out of the three would you go for?

John

Clum · 16 Feb 2009 at 18:09

If you cant build or overclock and have to go with one of those 3 systems then i'd choose the 3rd one with the e8400 hands down.

Chong Warrior · 16 Feb 2009 at 18:19

Yeah I'd go for the 3rd one. The top one sounds dodgy with a 350w PSU... it wouldn't work for a start. Poor motherboard for that spec aswell.

johnycat · 16 Feb 2009 at 21:27

BIG THANKS

Big thanks to you all, I shall go with the third one. Great forum. I am going to keep viewing the forum and try to learn more about PCs building and overclocking so that when it comes to upgrading my own or building from scratch then I can have a go myself. It must be greatly satisfying to build your own. Hats off to you guys.
Thanks again

John

StephenLawUK · 16 Feb 2009 at 21:32

Chong Warrior said:
Yeah I'd go for the 3rd one. The top one sounds dodgy with a 350w PSU... it wouldn't work for a start. Poor motherboard for that spec aswell.

agreed looks a bit dogy running a quad and a HD4850 on an unbranded 350w PSU