Need PC'S experts advice for a nooby :)

2Mad2BeMad

http://www.littlewoodsireland.ie/hp-23-b190ea-intelreg-coretrade-i5-processor-6gb-ram-2tb-hard-drive-23-inch-aio-desktop-pc-with-dedicated-graphics/1206835661.prd?browseToken=%2fb%2f4877

computer above
what do you guys think of it within regards to gaming, i wont be buying it off littlewoods as i found it 100e cheaper on another site

but on this site they give better info on the specs of it
so basicly is it worth it for 829e? can it play games from this gen like bf3 skyrim on high max settings? thanks lads

Overheal

Im confused why they would even go to the trouble of putting a 610 in there. Unless its to support external monitors or something. The 610 is basically a desktop management card, not a gaming card by any means. For performance, the i5's integrated HD 4000 iGPU actually supersedes it. Its essentially a rebranded 520 card.

BloodBath

The graphics card is awful. You could build a far better gaming pc for the same money.

Have a look at my post here for an example of what you can get for that money.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057010965

Torqay

2Mad2BeMad wrote: »

but on this site they give better info on the specs of it
so basicly is it worth it for 829e? can it play games from this gen like bf3 skyrim on high max settings? thanks lads

I see €929

Anyway, it isn't worth it. The GT 610M (M = mobile, laptop) is for the birds. The integrated Intel HD 4000 performs better in most benchmarks. But either graphics isn't good enough to play BF3 or Skyrim.

If you want a gaming PC, stay clear of those All-in-One computers. Build your own or order a gaming computer configured to your likings (HWVS or PC Specialist) and save a lot of money.

Overheal

your first warning sign should be nothing in the product page mentions a game. tv tuner yes. videos yes. games, nowhere.

As Torq says the AiO is not for gaming. If you want the touch you're more cost effective buying a gaming rig and a $500 touchscreen 23" monitor than you are trying to find an AiO with the same or even similar gaming specs.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

If you want the touch you're more cost effective buying a gaming rig and a $500 touchscreen 23" monitor than you are trying to find an AiO with the same or even similar gaming specs.

This HP AIO doesn't even have a touch screen.

2Mad2BeMad

like i said im a nooby with pc and tech
and its 829 on a different site but this site shows more info on it

Overheal

I know it doesn't say so but that chassis only has ever had touch. Non-touch are easy to spot from HP because they use a rounded-off bezel, not the glassy smooth one seen here

ScumLord

Torqay wrote: »

If you want a gaming PC, stay clear of those All-in-One computers. Build your own or order a gaming computer configured to your likings (HWVS or PC Specialist) and save a lot of money.

This is all you need to know. That thing looks like a bulky laptop.

Building isn't nearly as hard as it would seem as once you do it once you'll never go back.

uncle_sam_ie

€929 for that. :eek: Good thing you came here and asked about it. It would've sucked for you if you hadn't.

PropJoe10

Heard a few dodgy things about their customer service but this site is very good for value: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/. To answer your question, 829 for the machine you've listed there is far too much. If you want something for Skyrim or Battlefield you might be as well getting a PC - better value and better graphics capabilities in general.

BillG

2Mad2BeMad wrote: »

........
but on this site they give better info on the specs of it
so basicly is it worth it for 829e? can it play games from this gen like bf3 skyrim on high max settings? thanks lads

Skyrim is a very resource intensive game so be careful

A true gaming rig is quite a specialised item. One that can run Skyrim with everything cranked up and still reached acceptable frame rates is quite a beastie. Rather than recommend a device I will give some guidance on what to look for.

1) are you sure that you want a laptop? A desktop often makes a better gaming platform for a number of reasons but primarily the extra space helps keep things cool and you can fit bigger display panels to it!

2) Graphics, most laptops have an onboard graphics card that shares main memory. You really need a separate graphics card that has its own onboard memory. Graphic card memory above 512MB is not normally required unless you are running really large screens (2560x1600 pixels for instance) but most graphic cards for gaming should be greater than 256MB. This is especially true if your game can use the graphics card to perform physics engine calculations. That said the price difference between 512MB and 1GB is usually not worth the saving. The leading graphic card manufacturers are ATI and NVidia. As to whose best, you pays your money and takes your choice :-) but beaware that the motherboard may be brand specific if you want a multi-gpu system (see below)

Try to get a single GPU card as you are less likely to experience artifacts in the video rendering. Nowadays single GPU cards are so powerful that there is little benefit in multi-gpu deployments such as SLI or crossfire.

If you buy the graphics card separate from your base unit please ensure before you buy that the base unit can actaully host the graphics card. Cards often have addtional power requirements that some desktop PCs cannot provide.

3) To make you computer run faster as a rule of thumb spend money on memory not CPU. If you can afford it get a Core i7, quad core and anything up to 8GB memory. but if you have to make a choice to fit your budget go for a cheaper CPU. (This is true for non-gaming as well though you wouldn't necessarily need an i7 CPU for non-gaming applications.)

4) Sound is not normally an issue as most motherboards have relatively decent sound cards built in nowadays. So ignore it.

Torqay

BillG wrote: »

are you sure that you want a laptop?

Where did you see a laptop?

(However, AIOs are usually equipped with mobile graphics chips which can't hold a candle to their desktop equivalents."

BillG wrote: »

If you can afford it get a Core i7, quad core and anything up to 8GB memory. but if you have to make a choice to fit your budget go for a cheaper CPU. (This is true for non-gaming as well though you wouldn't necessarily need an i7 CPU for non-gaming applications.)

A Core i5 desktop CPU can handle pretty much any game you throw at it.

But you are right, if you want to play Skyrim and the likes with all the bells 'n' whistles, the GPU is indeed the biggie and it will take the biggest chunk out of the budget.

maki

BillG wrote: »

2) Graphics, most laptops have an onboard graphics card that shares main memory. You really need a separate graphics card that has its own onboard memory. Graphic card memory above 512MB is not normally required unless you are running really large screens (2560x1600 pixels for instance) but most graphic cards for gaming should be greater than 256MB. This is especially true if your game can use the graphics card to perform physics engine calculations. That said the price difference between 512MB and 1GB is usually not worth the saving. The leading graphic card manufacturers are ATI and NVidia. As to whose best, you pays your money and takes your choice :-) but beaware that the motherboard may be brand specific if you want a multi-gpu system (see below)

You're going to want considerably more than 512MB if you want to play any modern games at a reasonable quality and framerate.
512MB is the absolute minimum amount of VRAM required to run both BF3 and Skyrim at their lowest settings. Once BF3 gets cranked up to ultra @ 1080p it uses well over 1GB VRAM.
Looking forward, if you want to play games released a few years from now, you really shouldn't be looking at anything less than 2GB if you want your games running on high.

BillG

Torqay wrote: »

Where did you see a laptop?

(However, AIOs are usually equipped with mobile graphics chips which can't hold a candle to their desktop equivalents."

Crikey you're right, it's an all-in-one, I must need more coffee and quick :eek:

Even so, the desktop format for a gaming PC is still better than an all-in-one IMHO and for much the same reason.

A Core i5 desktop CPU can handle pretty much any game you throw at it.

But you are right, if you want to play Skyrim and the likes with all the bells 'n' whistles, the GPU is indeed the biggie and it will take the biggest chunk out of the budget.

Core i5, this is true but I am all for over-speccing at the start and keeping the PC a bit longer. So I tend to buy to increase the longevity and factor in a HDD change after 3 years or so.

Having said that I do build my own main PC and I do tend to overspend on it and, if I am honest, I do tend to replace my main PC after four years anyway because I am a hopeless case. I have recently fitted an SSD to my present main machine just because I get a kick out of having a PC that is instantly available. My rule of thumb is usually to buy the second best of everything at the time I build my PC, that tends to mean getting a reasonable bang for buck while still resulting in a good PC. However, it does mean that the kit tends to be more expensive than most.

My old PC tends to be reused and my last "main" PC is now at least six or seven years old, still going strong and is indeed capable of running Skyrim though not perhaps with all the bells and whistles enabled.

BillG

maki wrote: »

You're going to want considerably more than 512MB if you want to play any modern games at a reasonable quality and framerate.
512MB is the absolute minimum amount of VRAM required to run both BF3 and Skyrim at their lowest settings. Once BF3 gets cranked up to ultra @ 1080p it uses well over 1GB VRAM.
Looking forward, if you want to play games released a few years from now, you really shouldn't be looking at anything less than 2GB if you want your games running on high.

I cannot say about BF3 as I do not have it but for Skyrim I have run comparative testing on a graphics card with 512MB and one with 2GB (My main PC atm has 2GB) and on a 22" monitor that had 1920x1080 pixels.

If I am honest with myself the difference between 512MB and 2GB in that scenario was not worth the extra money (and I am hopelessly addicted to playing with kit). However, if you played the same game on a panel with 2560x1600 pixels then the money makes more sense particularly when you factor in physics calculations. Anyway, as I mentioned it is pretty much a mute point as the price differential between 512MB and 1GB (or even 2GB if you're not short of cash) is hardly worth the quibbling.

Torqay

Any decent gaming graphics card has 2 GB RAM or more these days.

BillG

Torqay wrote: »

Any decent gaming graphics card has 2 GB RAM or more these days.

True, and my rig currently has a GTX680 2GB card. as its primary adapter. Also most cards come with at least 1GB of memory anyway. In fact, if you spend more than EU70 you are going to be hard pressed to buy a card with less than 1GB! If you spend around EU180, which if you are making a gaming rig you would sort of have to, you will almost certainly have a 2GB card, so, as I said, it really is a mute point.

BillG

BillG wrote: »

I cannot say about BF3 as I do not have it but for Skyrim I have run comparative testing on a graphics card with 512MB and one with 2GB (My main PC atm has 2GB) and on a 22" monitor that had 1920x1080 pixels.

If I am honest with myself the difference between 512MB and 2GB in that scenario was not worth the extra money (and I am hopelessly addicted to playing with kit). However, if you played the same game on a panel with 2560x1600 pixels then the money makes more sense particularly when you factor in physics calculations. Anyway, as I mentioned it is pretty much a mute point as the price differential between 512MB and 1GB (or even 2GB if you're not short of cash) is hardly worth the quibbling.

Actually, I tell a lie because when I did my testing I had two Gtx 285 nvidia cards in SLI each with 1GB so it wasn't comparing 512MB with 2Gb, Sorry.

Overheal

Torqay wrote: »

Any decent gaming graphics card has 2 GB RAM or more these days.

Not that memory is the killer GPU spec. I've seen so many monkeys make that mistake @ work. "Well this GTX 560 only has 1GB of ram [GDDR5] OH WOW LOOK HONEY THIS ONE HAS 2 JIGABITS [GT 210 DDR3]"

BloodBath

If you can afford it get a Core i7, quad core and anything up to 8GB memory. but if you have to make a choice to fit your budget go for a cheaper CPU. (This is true for non-gaming as well though you wouldn't necessarily need an i7 CPU for non-gaming applications.)
A Core i5 desktop CPU can handle pretty much any game you throw at it.

An i7 will make 0 difference in the performance of 99.9% of games at the moment. Most game's are only starting to use 4 cores. There are still new releases using only 2. They will most likely increase to 6 cores soon but a good 4 core/thread cpu will still be fine.

But you are right, if you want to play Skyrim and the likes with all the bells 'n' whistles, the GPU is indeed the biggie and it will take the biggest chunk out of the budget.

Not really. Skyrim is severely cpu limited as it only uses 2 cpu cores. Any half decent 2gb mid range card like a 660 gtx or 7870 combined with a good cpu would be more than enough. Even for all the mods.

I cannot say about BF3 as I do not have it but for Skyrim I have run comparative testing on a graphics card with 512MB and one with 2GB (My main PC atm has 2GB) and on a 22" monitor that had 1920x1080 pixels.

If I am honest with myself the difference between 512MB and 2GB in that scenario was not worth the extra money (and I am hopelessly addicted to playing with kit). However, if you played the same game on a panel with 2560x1600 pixels then the money makes more sense particularly when you factor in physics calculations. Anyway, as I mentioned it is pretty much a mute point as the price differential between 512MB and 1GB (or even 2GB if you're not short of cash) is hardly worth the quibbling.

A lot of games will automatically reduce the quality of textures if there is not enough vram. 1gb is the bare minimum you should be using for 1080p. 2gb is what anyone should be getting for a new pc. The likes of skyrim with textures mods will easily use nearly 2gb of graphics memory. Next gen games will be using higher res textures as standard.

Of course the gpu power has to be balanced with the memory. There is no point getting the likes of a 2gb 7770.

syklops

2Mad2BeMad wrote: »

http://www.littlewoodsireland.ie/hp-23-b190ea-intelreg-coretrade-i5-processor-6gb-ram-2tb-hard-drive-23-inch-aio-desktop-pc-with-dedicated-graphics/1206835661.prd?browseToken=%2fb%2f4877

computer above
what do you guys think of it within regards to gaming, i wont be buying it off littlewoods as i found it 100e cheaper on another site

but on this site they give better info on the specs of it
so basicly is it worth it for 829e? can it play games from this gen like bf3 skyrim on high max settings? thanks lads

Not a gaming PC expert, but you could build your own for about half the price of that. To be honest, if you are doing serious gaming then you should build your own so that you know what hardware you are using. It comes in useful, when an update breaks a game and its down to a specific version of driver. Which happens. Quite a lot in my experience.