Computer - Is it worth it?

[Larsmo]

3000+ AMD Sempron
128 Bit Mirage 2 3D/2D Graphics
80GB IDE UDMA
5.1 Surround sound outputs
DUAL LAYER Multiformat DVD Writer +/-
17" Stylish TFT Flat Panel Monitor

For �489.99, is this worth it?

[Tritan]

I am not so sure it is... sounds very good, but i opted for a Dell computer. I bought a fully loaded Dell Dimention 4800 series with very similar spec to yours for only �350. I cannot see it worth buying many other PC's unless they are Dell, the dealls are too good :-)

Check them out here:

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&id=dimen&l=en&s=dhs

[wideboy]

Tritan, Dimension 3000 series (through your link) soons gets up to �521 for a similar specification even without 'good' graphics.

Larsmo - not a bad system but the graphics are quite old (I think) and I wouldn't settle for anything less than 16Gb hard drive nowadays (in fact two hard drives are best).

[OBonio]

>> unless they are Dell

You've not used their support service yet then I see.....

[Larsmo]

Tritan - I am not worried about the money, so long as it's under �600.

Wideboy - I'll probaly buy an extra HD anyway. And the graphics are fairly decent. I'm not looking for anything too fancy. Just an OK Gaming PC.

-Larsmo

[wideboy]

Larsmo, what do you mean the graphics are 'fairly decent', have you 'Googled' the 128 BIT Mirage 2 graphics? Probably integrated, old and maybe only 8Mb?

Look at the following:

As you can see, the integrated graphics of SiS 760GX is not a great performer, beaten by all entry-level video cards we had available here in our lab. That was not a surprise, since on-board video tends to achieve a very low performance. Our 64-bit GeForce FX 5200 was 158.72% faster, our 128-bit GeForce MX 4000 was 274.68% faster, our 128-bit GeForce FX 5200 was 280.44% faster and our 128-bit GeForce 4 MX 460 was 286.70% faster than the integrated graphics from the motherboard being reviewed.

In this software our 128-bit GeForce 4 MX 460 achieved a score 110.94% higher, our 128-bit GeForce MX 4000 achieved a score 122.40% higher, our 64-bit GeForce FX 5200 achieved a score 464.05% higher and our 128-bit GeForce FX 5200 achieved a score 688.02% higher than the integrated graphics from the motherboard being reviewed.

With 85 frames per second, Quake III is �playable� on this motherboard, but don�t expect that newer games will have a great performance on this motherboard

On a motherboard with integrated Mirage2 graphics.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/printpage/159

 

[Mattk]

if u buy a pc for gaming,graphics are paramount nowadays as games are built to suit high end performance now more than ever before.i have a geforce 4 128 mb graphics card that is only 2 yrs old and it only plays new games release demos on minimum settings.if u buy a pc with a poor graphics card it will probably never play the games u may want to play !

a decent graphics card on its own will cost �180 and will last for 2 yrs or so before starting to show its age.

the monitor,cpu,hdd & dvdr sound good but the latter 3 are getting cheaper by the second !

[wideboy]

When I said 16Gb my finger slipped and I (of course) meant 160Gb.!!!!

[Larsmo]

Wideboy - Answer 1. Yeah.. I'll buy a thingy card :S

Answer 2. I kind of guessed that anyway =)

[MTIH1992]

no its not. AMD aint good news. intel celeron, pentium 4, Zeon. atleast 256 Ram. 80 GB hard drive is good. You need 128MB Graphics card at least.

matt

[fo3nix]

all specs are good for a certain usage.

if this is a general gaming PC, it wont stand up to what you throw at it.

go for an AMD 64-bit 3000+ CPU
80GB at least hard drive
you dont mention RAM there.. make sure it has 512MB.

you'll find some better offers out there. keep looking!
http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/110_255521.html

that's a pretty decent model (no monitor). but a good monitor can be found for less than 150, coming under your 600 limit. the only let down of that PC is the graphics card, but it'll probably match up to what you want anyway.

[MTIH1992]

you only need 256 Ram if you dont have a brill graphics card because you wont need the 512 RAM because you wont be useing High Graphics

[Mobius1]

256MB of RAM isn't enough for any kind of "gaming" PC nowadays, irrespective of what the video card in it is like. Most games now require at least that much just to even run properly, and when you consider that that's about how much RAM WindowsXP uses when you've just booted the PC up, it simply isn't enough.

Many games soon to be released, such as promising fps games like F.E.A.R and Prey require a minimum of 512MB of system RAM even if you're only playing them on the lowest graphical settings. Battlefield 2 requires this also, and at least a 128MB video card.

So maybe if you're only interested in playing games that are a few years old perhaps, but not if you're even the slightest bit interested in playing modern or upcoming games is that enough RAM.

[Larsmo]

Thanks for all the answers.. The games I play normally is CS (CounterStrike) and SWG (Star Wars Galaxies)

Maybe I'll start playing WoW