Hi Guys,
I've recently been looking into buying a new PC (Probably from MESH) but I wanted some advise on a few things.
Basically I am not sure whether to go for an £800 model or a £1300 model because I'm not sure whether the upgrades will make all that much difference for my needs.
Here are the 3 systems I am looking at:
System 1 XGS PII 945 Price: £836.99
AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 Quad Core Processor AM3 (3.0GHz, 8MB Cache)
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 550W PSU
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 11.07]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5750 Graphics Accelerator
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
System 2: XGS PII 965BE Price: £ 1093.96
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Black Edition Processor - (2.8-3.3GHz,6xTurbo Core,9MB Cache) [upg £ 25.53]
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU [upg £ 12.76]
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 21.27]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 119.15]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
System 3 XGS i7 930 Price: £1241.97
Intel® Core™ i7 930 Quad Core Processor (2.80GHz,8MB Cache) - LGA1336
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU
ASUS P6T SE Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 & i7 Extreme Edition - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 17.02]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 136.17]
Multi-Format Memory Card Reader -(52-in-1 Internal) [upg £ 8.51]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 10x USB 2.0 Ports (6x back panel, 4x mid-board) - P6T SE
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
Network Ready PCIe Gigabit LAN
ASUS PCE-N13 Internal 802.11N WiFi Adapter - 300Mbps [upg £ 41.70]
2 Year Return to Base Hardware Warranty - inc 2 Years Free Collect & Return [upg £ 67.23]
As you can see the base model is quite a lot less than the highest but I was wondering whether the difference would be worth it in your guys opinion. I would basically be buying this PC for gaming and a small amount of music production so they would be my needs, anything else is useless to me really.
I've read the reveiws on the Graphics cards and it seems the HD5850 is much better than the HD5750 but is the up grade worth it? I have seen that the FPS is much better on the HD5850 does a lot better but as this would be my first high spec computer I am not sure how much of a difference it would make when you get to the knitty gritty.
In regards to the processer I have no idea, I have read that the i7 is not worth the money at the moment however I have also read that it is the best processor? I was also a little confused as the lowest price system has 3.0GHz and the middle proccessor has 6 cores (Not sure whether that makes too much difference)?
I would be grateful for all your experience as you can tell I am out of my depth!
Thanks in advance
By the way I wasn't sure what area to put this as it wasn't really tweaking but couldn't find anywhere better!
I've recently been looking into buying a new PC (Probably from MESH) but I wanted some advise on a few things.
Basically I am not sure whether to go for an £800 model or a £1300 model because I'm not sure whether the upgrades will make all that much difference for my needs.
Here are the 3 systems I am looking at:
System 1 XGS PII 945 Price: £836.99
AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 Quad Core Processor AM3 (3.0GHz, 8MB Cache)
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 550W PSU
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 11.07]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5750 Graphics Accelerator
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
System 2: XGS PII 965BE Price: £ 1093.96
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Black Edition Processor - (2.8-3.3GHz,6xTurbo Core,9MB Cache) [upg £ 25.53]
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU [upg £ 12.76]
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 21.27]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 119.15]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
System 3 XGS i7 930 Price: £1241.97
Intel® Core™ i7 930 Quad Core Processor (2.80GHz,8MB Cache) - LGA1336
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU
ASUS P6T SE Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 & i7 Extreme Edition - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 17.02]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 136.17]
Multi-Format Memory Card Reader -(52-in-1 Internal) [upg £ 8.51]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 10x USB 2.0 Ports (6x back panel, 4x mid-board) - P6T SE
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
Network Ready PCIe Gigabit LAN
ASUS PCE-N13 Internal 802.11N WiFi Adapter - 300Mbps [upg £ 41.70]
2 Year Return to Base Hardware Warranty - inc 2 Years Free Collect & Return [upg £ 67.23]
As you can see the base model is quite a lot less than the highest but I was wondering whether the difference would be worth it in your guys opinion. I would basically be buying this PC for gaming and a small amount of music production so they would be my needs, anything else is useless to me really.
I've read the reveiws on the Graphics cards and it seems the HD5850 is much better than the HD5750 but is the up grade worth it? I have seen that the FPS is much better on the HD5850 does a lot better but as this would be my first high spec computer I am not sure how much of a difference it would make when you get to the knitty gritty.
In regards to the processer I have no idea, I have read that the i7 is not worth the money at the moment however I have also read that it is the best processor? I was also a little confused as the lowest price system has 3.0GHz and the middle proccessor has 6 cores (Not sure whether that makes too much difference)?
I would be grateful for all your experience as you can tell I am out of my depth!
Thanks in advance
By the way I wasn't sure what area to put this as it wasn't really tweaking but couldn't find anywhere better!