Evaluate my pc

TheDoc

Well I'd been humming and haughin for months about upgrading my pc. When I came here to get advice on one part, it seemed another with it had to be done and so it spiralled.

My pc is about 5-6 years old and has had some gradual upgrades down the years.

I recently sold my xbox so my pc is going to be my main machine and I think its time it got some loving. Although I play mostly world of warcraft, I would love to play more Arma 2 and Battlefield 2, but unfortunately the pc won't handle it nicely. So now I have a dilemma.

I'm starting new work in Sept, although recent contractual stuff has me in a bit of cash, along with some other stuff inc. I'm weary of blowing big bucks, but I would with reason. But first I want to shift this current pc, as one build, in a hope it can generate some cash towards a new pc fund.

So firstly lets look at what my pc actually is.


CPU
Intel E5200 @ 2.5ghz
2.50 gigahertz Intel Pentium Dual-Core
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
2048 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Not hyper-threaded

Motherboard
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD MS-7392 1.0
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. V2.0 07/03/2008

Ram
2gb x2

Optical Drives
DVD Drive
CD/DVD writer combo

Hard Drive
Maxtor 200gb HD

Graphics Card
Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 320mb

PSU
Generic 400w

Case
Generic brand

OS
Windows 7 ultimate

What you think I ould fetch for something like that?

I'm in two minds as to what to go with in terms of a new pc.

The options are prebuilt or custom built.

I know the pros and cons of each, been building pcs along time now, but I'm just a bit out of touch with current ahrdware specs and i believe pricing on custom rigs has gone up due to a lul in prices on hardware, making prebuilt systems more attractive.

I was looking at something along the lines of an Alienware, expensive brand name yes, but decent support, no messing about and what looks to be some powerful specs. And if I get a decent price for the above rig, the hit on my wallet wont feel so bad.

Thoughts and comments please, thanks in advance

EDIT **

I play on a 32" 720p telly

TheDoc

Mucking about on Alienware something like this would look beefy and a bit step up from my machine

Included in your system:
CHASSIS COLOUR
Alienware Aurora Standard Cosmic Black Chassis

PROCESSOR
Intel? Core? i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English

SERVICES AND SUPPORT
1 year of coverage included with your PC

GRAPHICS CARD
Dual 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5670 graphics card
(Can go sli 5700 for another €100)

MEMORY
6GB 1333MHz (3x2GB) Tri Channel Memory

HARD DRIVE
500GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive

OPTICAL DRIVE
24X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)

SOUND CARD
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

€1288

I can cut it down to about €1050 if I don't choose an I7

I'm welcome to hear some custom build advice, if its a substantial saving with similar performance i might be itnerested, then again the pc above might be overkill, but for too long ive made things on the button, id rather have some overkill at this stage haha

TiNcAn

Not a bad setup, looks like a very powerful machine that will definetly do what your asking of it.

I am always glad to recommend i7 processor as they can produce some amazing performance from their basic 920 model, unfortunately the price in the past week or two as gone seriosuly high for the 930 (around €300) and the 920 is phased out at this stage.

There are some parts which I would suggest to upgrade as the ram and hard drive but as it stands that build is expensive enough as it is.

This is why I am going to suggest going AMD with a hexacore as it will be cheaper and produce the same amount of performance.

Next big question I am going to as you is will you build it yourself, it is very easy so difficulty i not and excuse. People on boards are always gald to help. Just post a few pictures and describe the problem your having while building and it will be sorted out quite soon.

So now I will put you on the right track for an AMD machine.



I havnt included the ram here as it is quite expensive from pixmania, but you would want to go for DDR3 PC12800 at least so it will do 1600MHZ+. I have included the same cooler I have which means your going to be seriously overlock your machine to get ~50% perofmance boost if you want to at some point.

There is also the possibility of going crossfire 5770 in the future if you want to go that route.

Anyway it is a good start to a powerful machine which I would recommend to anyone with the cash.

duffman85

Do you really need an i7, you'd get better bang/buck if you went for an i5. i7s really only show their worth in heavy duty video processing/editing/encoding, are more expensive and need RAM installed in 3s, so you need 6GB RAM which is pretty expensive these days.

Here's an intel build i threw together.

Intel Core i5 750 2.66GHz Socket LGA1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor 	£159.98

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM 	 £48.20

HIS HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card 		£134.00

Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3R P55 Socket 1156 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard 		£130.98

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 			 £75.03 

Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black				 £14.99

Corsair 450W VX Series PSU - ATX12V v2.2 					 £58.26

Antec 900 Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU 		 £69.98 

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 						 £78.86

    					Cart total inc vat: £770.28(about €940)

You could reduce the price a bit if you went with a cheaper motherboard. The one above has usb 3.0 ports and 2 SATA 600 connections.
The processor is a quad core.

You might get better value out of AM3 processor/mobo configuration.

Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 32MB Cache - OEM 	 £48.20

HIS HD 5770 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port Out PCI-E Graphics Card 		£134.00

Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz Memory Kit Unbuffered CL9 			 £75.03 

Samsung SH-S223 22X DVD±RW DL & RAM SATA - OEM Black				 £14.99

Corsair 450W VX Series PSU - ATX12V v2.2 					 £58.26

Antec 900 Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU 		 £69.98 

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 						 £78.86

AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHz Socket AM3 6MB L3 Cache Retail Box Processor 	£117.63 

ASUS M4A88TD-M EVO/USB3 880G Socket AM3 HDMI DVI VGA Out 8 Channel Audio MATX Motherboard £85.77

Cart total inc vat: £682.72 (about €832)

The Phenom X4 945 is a quad core, the mobo has Sata 600 and usb 3 connections. Everything else is the same as the intel build above.

Some of the more experienced people in here might be able to give you a better idea/build than me.

Overheal

The Intel's from what I understand on another thread are due for a pricing slash in the next quarter or so: the reasons I can gather being AMD's Hexacore as competition (its great power per pence) and Intel is supposedly launching a new Socket next year.

In the meantime, AMD is going to look very lucrative.

Venom

TheDoc wrote: »

Mucking about on Alienware something like this would look beefy and a bit step up from my machine

Included in your system:
CHASSIS COLOUR
Alienware Aurora Standard Cosmic Black Chassis

PROCESSOR
Intel? Core? i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English

SERVICES AND SUPPORT
1 year of coverage included with your PC

GRAPHICS CARD
Dual 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5670 graphics card
(Can go sli 5700 for another €100)

MEMORY
6GB 1333MHz (3x2GB) Tri Channel Memory

HARD DRIVE
500GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive

OPTICAL DRIVE
24X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)

SOUND CARD
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

€1288

I can cut it down to about €1050 if I don't choose an I7

I'm welcome to hear some custom build advice, if its a substantial saving with similar performance i might be itnerested, then again the pc above might be overkill, but for too long ive made things on the button, id rather have some overkill at this stage haha

OP the only thing on the list being overkill is i7 920 (awesome chip and overclocks like a dream btw) with the rest being very meh and the pricing being a total rip off.

Alienware is the rip off top teir brand of Dell who are rip off merchants themselves imho. If you can build your own system or know someone who can, you could easily build the listed spec for alot less or a serious beast for €1288.

Jonny7

The pc I would've recommended over a year ago is STILL the pc I am recommending now.. my god.. not good

Anyway, the new AMD hexacore chips are great value but not the best for gaming really

So, for sub 1000 euros..

Intel i5 750 (or new 760) processor - still great
4 gigs ram
1 tb Samsung F3 harddrive
PSU, motherboard, case

Whatever is left over - spend on graphics card
ATI 5770 - good - 140ish euros
ATI 5830 - a bit better - sub 200ish euros
Nez Nvidia 460 - recommended - just over 200 euros
ATI 5850 - best - 250 to 300 euros

Sorry if I am not exactly up on prices.. but that machine will offer a significant increase in FPS in games than your current machine..

If you are lazy let ze Germans build it for you.. use the PC configurator on www.hardwareversand.de, they haven't failed me yet.

And last piece of (good) advice.. keep your current machine... you'll rue the day you sold it to some bargain hawk for 150 euros

TheDoc

Thanks for the words guys.

I could built a custom rig with no problems but it just doesnt seem attractive anymore.

Most of the machines there are costing in and around the 900 mark.

For 100-200 more with alienware I get.

Liquid cooling
Fantastic internal setup
Absolute ease on expanding
Warranty and accountability.

I've built alot of rigs in my time, some great, some have been poo. This one was nice and kept me ticking over nicely. But its just at its death.

There is alot of cons for me custom building, mostly the building. Getting all various parts to work together, building a future proof machine.

I'm at the stage in my pc building where i dont mind forking money to have some annoying labour done for me, have some warranty and some nice little features.

Cant say so far I'm being convinced not going alienware

Also wondering what parts are "meh" in the build.

The processor is tremendous.
The mobo and psu are enough to give me a lifetime of expansions and upgrades
The machine itself both in its tidyness and internals and the parts used, are easily upgraded( this is a big issue for me, having something I can easily upgrade is a good thing for me, especially if its done for me)
5770's, 1gb each, in crossfire, sounds tremendously win.
The HD is lovely ( remember I have a 500gb here I'm sticking into her)

I appreciate the advice and I bow to the more current knowledge. But I have to admit as you will too there is a lot of this " alien ware" are rip off merchants, and I don't see where/how. The pcs you have quoted here, (my friends have done some build suggestion for me too) are still cranking at the 900-1000 mark and for me, dont seem that much better. Plus the lack of liquid cooling, warranty among other things. And a few mates who have alineware are in the place im going now, they built custom for years, but just wanted to avoid the hassle and get something going out of the box easily upgraded, and they cant say enough praise about them.

This AMD talk sounds interesting but I sold myself to Intel alongtime ago experiencing just a much better time with it gaming, remember this is an all out gaming rig hopefully.

I'd love to see the builds keep rolling in.

Venom

Water cooling - why do you need it? WC in my eyes is for the folks who are serious about overclocking and benchmarks and this is custom build territory and not something factory built.

Fantastic internal setup - most of the case's released in the last year and a bit from the likes of Coolermaster, Corsair and Thermaltake have really hit the next level in case design with amazing interior layouts.

Absolute ease on expanding - this applies to every custom built PC man and its mainly with the factory builds where you are going to run into problems when adding new parts.

Warranty and accountability - spend that money on your house insurance and you got a better protection deal

If you know half as much as you claim you do its gonna be plain sailing building your own rig and with the likes of Win 7 there is pretty much zero issues with drivers. Post your build up and you will get lots of help and youtube has a gazillion videos on how to do this, that or the other.

While alot of the specs may cost 900-1000 they will contain top tier components unlike the generic crap you end up with from the factory builds.

TheDoc

Well running some more alienware pricing it seems ots coming to 300-500 more then custom built machines.

So I'm all ears for epic suggested builds.

Once it plays games, perfect, high fps, looking good, I'd be happy.

By the way still looking to see some advice on how much my current build would be worth if selling

This build is timelined for about a september start

Monotype

Most good components will have lengthy warranties. The lower end PSUs have 3 years while higher end range up to 7. 7 years! I don't think I've seen any pre-built computers with the likes of that. However, I do agree that dell offer good service with their warranties, if you go for their better options (next day on site), where they come out to your house and fix the problem.
But when you've built your own, you know you have good quality in each individual component and you know exactly what's in there. There's plenty of help here to help you choose the latest best choices.

By the way, you could salvage your old card and reuse as a phyx card.

PogMoThoin

Build Your own, everything in an Alienwarwe will have a 1yr limited warranty (unless they convince You to let them rip You off further), if You build each part will have am individual warranty anything upto 5 or 10 years depending on the part. I just returned a 4 year old hd to western digital and got a replacement, if I bought it in a Dell/Alienware I'd not get anything after the 1st yr

Alienware isn't ever value for money, they're overpriced and have a limited upgrade path

Hornd

Just threw this quickly together on hardwareversand to get a general idea of the prices vs your alienare. Add another 100 quid for the OS on top too. If you really want to watercool the cpu the corsair seld contained unit would add another 50 quid on. Seems expensive but I think the lack of sleep is affecting my judgement atm:o

If you were to go with the alienware its only another 70 for one 5870 which would be a better choice rather than a 5670/5770 xfire option imo.

Solitaire

You posted the thumbnail

Hornd

^^NEED SLEEP SOLITAIRE :P

TheDoc

Dont need os or software

Liquid cooling isnt essential, thought it was nice though coming with the alienware.

And I cant see that pic, its just tiny

marco_polo

Seriously though why all the talk of crossfired 5770 and 5850/5870s for a 720p TV?

TheDoc

CHASSIS COLOUR Alienware Aurora Standard Cosmic Black Chassis edit
PROCESSOR Intel? Core? i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE No Security/Anti-Virus Protection edit
SERVICES AND SUPPORT 1 year of coverage included with your PC edit
GRAPHICS CARD Dual 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5670 graphics card edit
MEMORY 3GB 1333MHz (3x1GB) Tri Channel Memory edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB (7200RPM) SATA Hard Drive edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 24X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write) edit
MONITOR Display Not Included edit
KEYBOARD No Keyboard edit
SOUND CARD Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

Thats an alienware package I cut price down on. Its basically the standard package, figured if needed over time can replace parts for upgrades if required.


Custom is sound more and more tempting pricewise as i look round though....

tazzzZ

only alienware product i'd ever even consider is the m11x laptop tbh. think u really should listen to the lads in terms of a custom build.

I spent 1500 nearly 2 years ago and i still have a top of the range pc.

i7 920 @3.4ghz
asus p6t deluxe
6gb ram
2x500gb wd blue drives raid 0
5870 (upgraded recently from a 285)
xfi titanium.

Again i'd really recommend building and then sort out the house ins for piece of mind if it gets damaged.

TheDoc

After long chats today with mates and testing out various pcs I think ive settled for building yet another machine.

The builds been put up here in this and various other threads is also very convincing.

So I'm not planning on purchasing until September, probably best of reviving this thread closer to then if there is a price shift?

Probably the same goes for the value of my pc, on that note how much would my pc grab in the second hand market? If the price is right and the builds are priced right, I could probably grab the thing whenever

Requirements
Gaming rig

Want something that will play my games very well and smooth, high fps.

Budget is an odd one, I'd say between 800-900 euro, depending on me selling my current rig. I think I'll cap it off at 1000.

Went hunting last night on the various sights and I am completely out of touch with hardware these days. So I'll be realying heavily on you lovely gentleman.

Fully intend on blogging the build from scratch to finish with pics etc, for the added boards reading experience ;D

TheDoc

So lads whats the verdict between AMD and Intel? Hearing alot of conflicting stuff.

Also very much interested in your thoughts on how much my current rig ( outlined in first post) would fetch price wise.

If the price is right and the finalised build is good for pricing, could probably purchase it asap and get myself building ;D

Monotype

TheDoc wrote: »

So lads whats the verdict between AMD and Intel? Hearing alot of conflicting stuff.

Also very much interested in your thoughts on how much my current rig ( outlined in first post) would fetch price wise.

If the price is right and the finalised build is good for pricing, could probably purchase it asap and get myself building ;D

I'm guessing maybe €250-€300. No more than €400 anyway. The OS is probably the most valuable part. The best way to check is to see what each individual component goes for on adverts or ebay.

Intel = The best
AMD = The best value

TheDoc

Monotype wrote: »

I'm guessing maybe €250-€300. No more than €400 anyway. The OS is probably the most valuable part. The best way to check is to see what each individual component goes for on adverts or ebay.

Intel = The best
AMD = The best value

Dont know what the plan is with OS, had planned to completely wipe the thing clean, dont want to to hand out my os installations.

I'll guess ill price the parts and see. For the performance I get from it €300 seems a bit low, but sure ill price things as said and see whats what.

Now to start getting my head around modern hardware and decide on a build

Monotype

I know it sounds harsh, but the price of graphics cards fall fast and there are better ones from that era like the 8800GTS 512MB. The S775 dual core isn't bad, but people wanting to upgrade are more likely to go for the quad cores that are floating around and 2GB of DDR2 is less than €50 new. PSU, dvd writer, case and hard drive would probably get you only a couple of euro each, depending on the quality.

You'd probably be best off reusing as much as you can - DVD writer, as long it's a good speed; the case if it's in good condition and not an eyesore; you could keep the graphics card as a phyx card as I mentioned earlier.

If you use the information people have provided above as a starting point towards a new system, you can cut down on your work.

TheDoc

Dont know what you mean by phyx card.

The case is terrible, I really just want to offload the whole thing and just build from scratch.

The only thing worth keeping is the one 500gb HD i am keeping already, and probably the DVD drive and CD/dvd re-writer.

Other then that its pretty much all for sale.

I'm hoping to build the new machine first and have it going and then sell my machine afterwards, might get a friend or something who wants the whole shabang

Monotype

Sorry, I spelt/typed incorrectly twice! - PhysX.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhysX

Some games can use physics processing units to improve, well, the physics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSAnouAFJs
Aegia used to make them but they were acquired by nvidia who encorporated it into their newer cards (8 series and above). You can use your old card as a dedicated physx card.

It would still be a large power drain and most games don't take advantage of it, so it's only a suggestion if you're not able to sell it.

TheDoc

Cheers.

I'm thinking of getting the ball rolling on this, its a nightmare trying to build a pc so long out of the game, dont know whats what.

The things im settled on are

Intel chip (I5 most likely)
6gb Ram (dont know what brand,speed etc)
ATi Radeon card, 5770HD 1gb min
Some hard drive, between 300-500gb
The HAF case
Corsair PSU 650w
DVD Drive (keeping from current machine)
DVD/CD combo drive ( keeping from current machine)

Motherboard I'm clueless on. Something thats pretty decent

I think thats everything.

All in all, I'd like to keep it below €900.

If I can grba some bean for my pc I dont mind going a little higher, but ideally around the 900-€1000 mark.

If I get a build that makes sense and theres some consensus on, I'll get ordering next week and get building

Thanks in advance, I'm relying on you lot heavily, I'm looking on the sites not knowing what to buy or whats what anymore.

TheDoc

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

That pre built machine looks well taste :O

Radeon 5770 in it comes to €827

marco_polo

TheDoc wrote: »

Cheers.

I'm thinking of getting the ball rolling on this, its a nightmare trying to build a pc so long out of the game, dont know whats what.

The things im settled on are

Intel chip (I5 most likely)
6gb Ram (dont know what brand,speed etc)
ATi Radeon card, 5770HD 1gb min
Some hard drive, between 300-500gb
The HAF case
Corsair PSU 650w
DVD Drive (keeping from current machine)
DVD/CD combo drive ( keeping from current machine)

Motherboard I'm clueless on. Something thats pretty decent

I think thats everything.

All in all, I'd like to keep it below €900.

If I can grba some bean for my pc I dont mind going a little higher, but ideally around the 900-€1000 mark.

If I get a build that makes sense and theres some consensus on, I'll get ordering next week and get building

Thanks in advance, I'm relying on you lot heavily, I'm looking on the sites not knowing what to buy or whats what anymore.

4 GB is all the memory you will need (and the i5 platform is dual channel anyway) so that will save 50 quid, and a 500Gb Samsung F3 would be a nice buy still the fastest consumer HDD around, given the low prices of the 1TB version the 500 GB can't be any more than about 40 euro at this stage (too lazy to look ).

In fact the 1TB is so cheap now at about 60-65 it would probably more make sense just to get that.

TheDoc

TheDoc wrote: »

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-252-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=

That pre built machine looks well taste :O

Radeon 5770 in it comes to €827

That system above, expect with an AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.90GHz Quad Core comes in at €637.

I can bump the GFX card from a 5770 to a 5850 and the total comes in at €769

Significantly cheaper then the intel verison, heres a link btw

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=1713

What do the specs on those bad boys look like? Looks just about everything I need, and with the AMD spec I can just about warrant splashing the extra 100 euros on the 5850.

€60 cheaper then the I5 build, and pretty much any custom build I've been able to make up. Comes in at 836.186 EUR shipped within two days.

Thoughts?

marco_polo

Budget effort his could could be built and shipped for an additional 60 euros, coming in at about 670 euros in total. If half of it was in stock obviously

EDIT Late nght brain fart here a GT460 will not fit in this case, an antec 300 as per the OC build would be 20 euros extra.