I need to know if I can get a computer that will run trains for £500
- Thread starter bradnock
- Start date
johnwhelan
Well-known member
What's you existing machine?
Does your budget include a monitor mouse and keyboard?
Thanks John
Does your budget include a monitor mouse and keyboard?
Thanks John
I sent my Acer M3400 Back to Argos kept on having problems with black screen ect and at the moment I am running my old computer with an atx case amd 3200 processor socket 939 abit mother board 2gbts of ram Unfortunately its all old school even the psu is 20 pin instead of a 24 pin and the 393 socket board you are unable to get the processors unless you take a chance and get one from Hong Kong also the memory is DDR2. I have a Monitor Key board Mouse ect.
Have you thought about looking on ebay? I just typed in "Gaming PC" and among them was this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultimate-...t=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item45ff06c6a6 which has lethal specs although of course we don't know what it will go for!
Also, I bought my second PC - a Packard Bell 6810 SLI - at PC World 6 years ago for £650, less than half price because it was ex display. It developed a fault with the Mobo 1.5 years ago and I broke it up for parts selling the parts on ebay and built my own PC with parts bought partly from ebay using the money from the old parts.
For instance I got my current Mobo (ASUS Maximus 4 Extreme Z) from ebay for £172 virtually brand new and about £100 less than list price.
Edit* I just checked the detailed specs of that one and they are virtually identical to mine - even the same SSD!
Also, I bought my second PC - a Packard Bell 6810 SLI - at PC World 6 years ago for £650, less than half price because it was ex display. It developed a fault with the Mobo 1.5 years ago and I broke it up for parts selling the parts on ebay and built my own PC with parts bought partly from ebay using the money from the old parts.
For instance I got my current Mobo (ASUS Maximus 4 Extreme Z) from ebay for £172 virtually brand new and about £100 less than list price.
Edit* I just checked the detailed specs of that one and they are virtually identical to mine - even the same SSD!
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As that's about $780USD, you should be able to get quite a good machine, minus Windows, unless prices are through the roof over there. Here's an idea of what you can get here:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1376670&CatId=332
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=500648&CatId=333
The latter can be rounded out with a ~$100 video card of your choosing. I don't know of a U.K. equivalent to Tigerdirect or Newegg, but perhaps someone else does.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1376670&CatId=332
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=500648&CatId=333
The latter can be rounded out with a ~$100 video card of your choosing. I don't know of a U.K. equivalent to Tigerdirect or Newegg, but perhaps someone else does.
johnwhelan
Well-known member
I've used www.ebuyer.com and amazon.co.uk in the past without any problems in the UK if that helps.
Both have web sites so if you find something that you think looks OK we can take a peak and express an opinion.
In the US amazon.com is 11% cheaper on average than a brick built store, so on line is probably better value for money.
Cheerio John
Both have web sites so if you find something that you think looks OK we can take a peak and express an opinion.
In the US amazon.com is 11% cheaper on average than a brick built store, so on line is probably better value for money.
Cheerio John
Try Ebuyer, Dabs, Misco, Novatech and Scan, whatever you get I would go for sooner rather than later as I suspect prices are going to rocket due to the 100 to even 200% price increase in some cases, of hard drives. Or have a look here, local supplier to me, http://www.ginger6.com
IMO ebay is best avoided for large purchases unless you know exactly what you are looking at wrt PC equipment, AND you have experience with ebay and know how to spot scammers.
There are so many people wanting to rob you of your money, or sell you junk at an overinflated price, and at this time of year everything is going to take ages to sort out if anything goes wrong with any part of the purchasing process.
There are so many people wanting to rob you of your money, or sell you junk at an overinflated price, and at this time of year everything is going to take ages to sort out if anything goes wrong with any part of the purchasing process.
LNERlover5
Average Grad
Even with the Bulldozer architecture's bad press i would still have one as it trumps my current Intel Pentium D Extreme Edition 840. With a small overclock runs Trainz 2009 with quite good FPS and combined with a HD 4670 and 2GB DDR2 its does the job very well. The graphics card is very weak however, a 5450 will barley manage any games appart from the less intensive ones. A HD 5670 would probably be the minimum these days. 
johnwhelan
Well-known member
Just a general point, Hard drives are in very short supply at the moment because the factories are flooded, so PC prices are inflated, it might be an idea to wait until January / February time frame when prices may have come down a little.
Cheerio John
Cheerio John
Agree with Nikki, avoid eBay. In addition to what she said, you usually will have no support if something breaks/arrives DOA and they often nail you on shipping. I can tell you offhand that's a very low-end videocard and Samsung DVD burners are junk.
I would like to try to assemble a computer my self its just the thought of doing something wrong when assembling it. When assembled not knowing how to set it up right How would this setup sound Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Skt AM3+
- AMD 760G + SB710 Chipset AMD FX 4100 Quad Core Processor (Skt AM3+)
- 4 cores @ 3.60GHz 500 watt psu Liteon Ihas124-19 sata cd/dvd writer
8 gb Corsair Vengance Memory Wd 500 sata Hard drive
Radeon Hd 6770 Graphics card Total From Novatech £425
I would be grateful for any opinions Les
- AMD 760G + SB710 Chipset AMD FX 4100 Quad Core Processor (Skt AM3+)
- 4 cores @ 3.60GHz 500 watt psu Liteon Ihas124-19 sata cd/dvd writer
8 gb Corsair Vengance Memory Wd 500 sata Hard drive
Radeon Hd 6770 Graphics card Total From Novatech £425
I would be grateful for any opinions Les
I've had good experiences with Novatech in the past, and they're on the list of vendors I always check when I want some PC part (more often than not I still end up going to ebuyer because of ebuyer's wide selection, despite their lousy customer service and shipping policies).
That said, I couldn't see that model on their site at all, although I did see a similar set of specs under the 'barebones' section, with less ram and a different video card.
Specwise, I guess it's ok, the hard disk is a little too small for my tastes, and I'm not an ATI fan. No mention of PSU, case, OS or other fripperies.
I really suspect that you'd be much better off waiting until the prices come back down, I know that it's hard to wait, but right now hard disks are £260 for a drive that was £50 3 months ago. And when you're on a tight budget that means you're going to get stuck with a 500GB or smaller drive when 3 months ago the same portion of the budget would have afforded 2TB. When will the prices stabilise? I'm afraid no-one knows, the factories are still flooded, and it might take them several months to recover once they're dry again.
The power supply is very low for my tastes. 600W is the minimum and really 700W is better. Although a system may work on 250W-300W, a lot of PSUs will deliver far less than the rated output. Add to that a good videocard, peripherals, high CPU utilization, etc. and you really need a good margin of safety.