Affordable (gaming) PC

Agent Dan · 01-09-2004, 09:04

I have read, every week, on this site people suggesting they can get PC's at stupidly low prices - £200 etc...

I cannot find any, anywhere at this price which are not Celeron processors.

Please help! I don't want to spend more than £400 but need everything (except XP)...

Cyclone · 01-09-2004, 09:09

you can get a budget pc, not a gaming machine. And that price probably doesn't include a monitor.
Try ebay it should be easy enough to find a barebones system based around a duron processor for around 200.

neeeeeeeeeek · 01-09-2004, 11:27

you can cobble one together for next to nothing that will be very powerful but you still need to spend £100 minimum on a video card. OK, you can get away with £50 and run most stuff in low quality but I would still say £100+ is what you want to be looking at.
check out ebuyer for some bargain bits, motherboards for £20 etc..

Cyclone · 01-09-2004, 12:02

if you buy budget parts, you get a budget pc.

If you want a pc to play games on you're better of saving and getting a decent one, otherwise you'll just start to find in a short time that it's not really doing what you expected and in a few months that it struggles to run the new games as they come out.
I'd expect to spend a minimum of 1k on a games machine, and probably 1.5k to be more realistic. And that's still not top end, just reasonable. A top of the range graphics card along can cost 400...

alchresearch · 01-09-2004, 12:03

I usually compile my pricelists at www.microdirect.co.uk and can build a half decent system for around £200.

If you want to save money, an Athlon processor is probably the way to go.

Agent Dan · 01-09-2004, 13:17

Thanks guys! That's given me plenty to work with... keep those suggestions coming!

Markoos · 01-09-2004, 14:38

If you're going to use it purely for games, why not buy a games console?

I had reasonable computer at uni on which I did my work and played games. Now I have a laptop for work and an XBOX for games. It means no more fiddling around with a pc trying to get games to work. I just put the game in the xbox and voila, it works! and they're sooo cheap now.

Also if you've got broadband you can plug it into that. Again, no faff just start the game it always works. Much less hassle.

Also it means you've got a good excuse to go out and buy a massive telly and surround sound system (if you've not got one already of course!)

Abdul · 01-09-2004, 16:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Markoos
If you're going to use it purely for games, why not buy a games console?

Agreed. You can pick up a brand new Xbox or PS2 with a selection of games for around £100.

ToryCynic · 01-09-2004, 17:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Cyclone
if you buy budget parts, you get a budget pc.

If you want a pc to play games on you're better of saving and getting a decent one, otherwise you'll just start to find in a short time that it's not really doing what you expected and in a few months that it struggles to run the new games as they come out.
I'd expect to spend a minimum of 1k on a games machine, and probably 1.5k to be more realistic. And that's still not top end, just reasonable. A top of the range graphics card along can cost 400...

For games , buy something like a Alien-Ware- meant to be very good, and joe public brands like PB, eMachines, Advent, Patriot (the c**p PC World stocks) and the better Joe-Public stuff - (which PC World also stock) Compaq/HP, Sony - aren't usually as good as Alienware, or a home-built jobby, then you can customise what you want.

PC World were selling an eMachines all in for £455, cheap, but a load of rubbish.

In short:
Build your own or get something that is designed for gaming!

Alex

slh73 · 01-09-2004, 17:41

For around the £300 quid mark, you can build a reasonable PC. If you want to play games on it, however, you need to spend a fair bit more. Id estimate that you could build something that would be capable of playing most of the games on the market today, at medium to high quality, at around £500, without a monitor. If you want something that will play everything at ultra-high quality that wont need upgrading for a while, then youre talking nearer to a grand. DONT buy a pre-built, build your own instead, Its cheaper, and you know exactly whats going into it. Id also steer clear of Alienware. Their cases may look fancy, and they might sell well specced machines, but theyre overpriced and their customer service is crap (speaking from first-hand experience). If you want any more info on specs etc, PM me.

slh73 · 01-09-2004, 17:43

And, as suggested, Xboxs are only £99 at Gamestation on the Moor. Easily modded to take a larger hard drive and run things like MAME and various other emulators.

Cyclone · 01-09-2004, 22:08

xbox is about 4 generations behind the pc in terms of graphics and power, i'd not recommend it against a modern pc.
I'd also avoid alienware, you pay for the brand.

neeeeeeeeeek · 01-09-2004, 22:18

I, and I am sure many others on here could build you a semi decent pc working within your budget. just ask! don't go buy one from a shop though, bad idea.

Cyclone · 01-09-2004, 22:21

he wasn't after just a budget pc though (my point all along), he wanted a pc capable of gaming.

Agent Dan · 15-09-2004, 07:42

I already own an Xbox! PCs have different games on them - there are some things you just can't do on a console that you can do on a PC. I also want the PC for broadband (as I only have the I/net at work at the moment) and for sound software so i can start writing tunes again.

You've given me some great ideas, but I'm not after a top-spec gaming PC - just something that will cope with online play. I used to have an AMD k6/2 500 until about a year ago, and it couldn't cope with games written after 2000!!!

Looks like I'll have to build my own...

Martin_s · 15-09-2004, 09:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Agent Dan
You've given me some great ideas, but I'm not after a top-spec gaming PC - just something that will cope with online play. I used to have an AMD k6/2 500 until about a year ago, and it couldn't cope with games written after 2000!!!

Looks like I'll have to build my own...

For that kind of money the answer is yep.. build your own..

You can forgo a lot of the extra's like burner, SATA, RAID, etc... but the key parts will be RAM, CPU and video card...

Right now a reasonable XP machine would cost you about £300 (without the OS) but the video card could add another £100 depending on what you opt for... and you have to bear in mind that it wouldn't be upgradeable beyond a 3200 XP processor in a year or so's time..

So there are some trade offs to consider... but to be honest for most stuff you'd have a valid games machine for about 2 years give or take.