Which pre-built pc will play COD Black Ops/Crysis on 24" screen?

colinchen70 · 25 Dec 2010 at 18:03

Hi all...

Hope you are having a jolly day with the relatives today!!

My current PC rig is starting to really struggle with the latest games e.g. COD Black Ops (Xmas pressy from the Mrs!) and it doesn't really play Crysis too well either. I am only a casual gamer, but I want the latest games to run smoothly on the large 24" Dell monitor I have.

Can anyone advise me which OC pre-built PC base unit I should upgrade to? My budget is around £750 for the hardware. This can exclude Windows 7.

I have one Velociraptor hard disc in my current rig and a third hard disc with music on it. I would like to have a solid state disc for the operating system and possibly re-use the velociraptor disc for general data, then install the music hard disc too.

Any ideas?

P.S I take it that the current rig is not upgradeable much anymore? I have already upgraded it quite a bit...for some reason it refused 1 extra gig of ram in the motherboard. Any mileage in replacing the graphics card? If so which one?
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Current spec:

Windows Vista Home Premium, AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+, 3GB Ram, Nvidia Geforce 8800 GTS 640 MB, Asus A8n-SLI socket 939 motherboard, 24" Dell Monitor

hybrid572 · 25 Dec 2010 at 18:23

If you're looking for a prebuilt, the Cataclysm Hellscream is an absolute cracker of a deal. The Titan Exodus (with a GTX 460) is also a very good deal, but I'm not convinced the H50 cooler is worth the extra money. Either of which you could add an SSD to, but it'd push you over budget a little.

Of course, if you're reasonably confident (you've managed to upgrade your current system, after all), then I'd build one yourself and use the money spare to get a good SSD.

With your current system, I'd recommend just going for a new rig. Sorry to say it, but apart from the monitor (and the case if you fancy it), it's not going to do much for you.

AlexTrickle · 25 Dec 2010 at 21:27

hybrid572 said:
If you're looking for a prebuilt, the Cataclysm Hellscream is an absolute cracker of a deal. The Titan Exodus (with a GTX 460) is also a very good deal, but I'm not convinced the H50 cooler is worth the extra money. Either of which you could add an SSD to, but it'd push you over budget a little.

Of course, if you're reasonably confident (you've managed to upgrade your current system, after all), then I'd build one yourself and use the money spare to get a good SSD.

With your current system, I'd recommend just going for a new rig. Sorry to say it, but apart from the monitor (and the case if you fancy it), it's not going to do much for you.

I can vouch for the H50 which I have (with a 2 fan push/pull setup) and its the best cooling solution I've ever had. Easily matches the highest air coolers and personally I never feel easy having a one ton metal mammoth hanging on my motherboard when I drive my PC around...

colinchen70 · 25 Dec 2010 at 23:29

Hi,

Thanks for the responses guys. Is there much difference between i5 and i7 processors? Would it be a mistake not to get an i7 now? Or could I always upgrade later on?

I think i'd rather let the experts at OC build me a PC...if nothing else for the warranty.

I think I'll be ordering a new PC in early Jan.

Cheers!

AlexTrickle · 25 Dec 2010 at 23:41

You really don't need an i7 especially if all the PC is used for it casual gaming.

Hence I really would wait until "Sandy Bridge" is released which (according to pre release media) should be exactly what you're looking for. However its not going to be released until January and unfortunately will run on a different socket (hence uncompatible with current 1156 CPUs/mobos) making it invalid as a potential later upgrade (short of a whole new core setup).

I'm sure when it is released that OCUK will produce Sandy Bridge systems so I really recommend hanging fire till then.

colinchen70 · 26 Dec 2010 at 19:10

@hybrid572 ...thanks for the tips on the PCs. It's amazing how fast PCs go out of date, from a gaming perspective. It's really frustrating that the shelf life is so short. The problem is always..what to do with the old PC, which is perfectly fine for browsing and games over 1.5 yrs old!

colinchen70 · 3 Jan 2011 at 13:41

Today's the day I'll be ordering..any last tips for me? I just need to be able to play the latest games, outputting to 24" monitor...
Old PC will be used for less demanding internet/email tasks afterwards...

ashatron · 3 Jan 2011 at 15:30

The best tip would be to wait until the 9th of jan when the update to the i5 and i7 chips are released.

These are called sandy bridge chips and are roughly 15% faster than the current i5 / i7 and they should be about the same price as they are intended to replace them.