Need advice on new PC

[Mount Suribachi]

Well, the current one is slowly dying (P4 3.0GHz, Radeon X700 Pro, 1.0GB RAM) so its time to get a new one before it packs in altogether.

My requirements are

1) Must have Windows XP (wife works from home, and compatability issues with software her work uses with Vista)

2) Budget of approx £500

Am looking for either

a) A desktop capable of running ETW (if I ever get the time to play it ). I only want the box, already got the monitor.

b) A laptop capable of running RTW/MTW2


I've had a look myself, but I am so far out of the loop regarding PCs I have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER about the current specs. I look at graphics cards, processors etc and its just a meaningless jumble of numbers and letters. I'm getting old


All advice gratefully received

[Lemur]

I don't know much about U.K. retailers, so I can't give you any specific recommendations. However: At your proposed budget, and with your goals, a desktop is the only way to go. It will probably need to be an AMD boxen.

"Gaming" and "laptop" are uncomfortable words to put together even when you've got a budget of thousands. On the cheap? No sir. Not a good idea. At least with a desktop you can replace the videocard with ease after a year or so if you want to give yourself a boost. A laptop is a frozen config for the most part.

Now I'll bow and shuffle away and wait for someone who knows more about U.K. sales and prices ....

[Furunculus]

LN19302
4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £27.64 £31.79

LN23277
512MB Sapphire HD 4870, PCI-E 2.0, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £124.89 £143.62

LN25874
640Gb Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B, 3.5", SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, HDD £41.64 £47.89

LN26372
Samsung TS-H653F 22x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM £13.49 £15.51

LN26422
AMD Phenom II X3 710, Sok AM3, 2.6GHz, 6MB Total Cache, 95W, Retail £90.58 £104.17

LN26602
Sapphire 52026-00-40R, AMD 790GX, AM2+, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), DDR2 1066/800, SATA 3Gb/s, ATX, VGA £80.99 £93.14

LN26801
INWIN EA009, Black/ Silver Screwless Midi Case, Line Out/ 2x USB 2.0, ATX/ Micro ATX, 400W PSU £32.40 £37.26

Net Total
Carriage
VAT
£411.63
£9.99
£63.24
Total
£484.86

[Lemur]

LN23277
512MB Sapphire HD 4870, PCI-E 2.0, 3600MHz GDDR5, GPU 750MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £124.89

Actually, you could shave a little money here. The 4870 might be overkill for Empire; I've read many reports of people doing just fine with the 4850.

[Furunculus]

probably is, but with the £40 price drop in the 4870 it is so close in cost to a 4850 that i reckon you might as well have the performance.

and i have to obey my golden rule of always spending ~50% more on the GPU than the CPU. ;)

[Mount Suribachi]

Thanks for that Furunculus - where are you those prices from?

[Furunculus]

scan.co.uk - my favourite etailer for PC bits and pieces.

you can actually do better than that by using the today only prices, i just used the list prices above.

[Mount Suribachi]

Whilst I have in the past put together my own PCs (with a bit of help) its always been a struggle for several days to get it to work! I wouldn't mind just buying a box and going from there. So having said that, what do you think of this?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/r...c&c=home&r=RIC

I'd be plumping for the Pro version. As long as it would be good enough for ETW (and maybe Fallout3), I'm happy. Gaming time is limited these days anyway, and it would mainly be used by Mrs Suribachi for work :(

Thanks again.

[Furunculus]

that will do nicely.

[Mount Suribachi]

Finally got this up and running yesterday (despite ordering it a month ago and having it arrive next day on Standard 7 Day Delivery!) and I have to say it absolutely flies! Running MTW2 @ 1280x1074 with max detail settings for everything and it is as smooth as silk and looks gorgeous.

Looking forward to installing Far Cry2 which came with it to see what it can really do

[Furunculus]

coolo. :)

[Lemur]

So what was the final build, Suribachi-san?