Musing which would be best?

[rjhowie]

Looking at 2 pc's and wondered which might be best for TRS 09/10?

(1)
Best Value 6-Core Gaming PC with SuperSpeed USB 3.0

Killer Performance -
An incredible, immersive entertainment system and content creation powerhouse.
AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T Processor
(2.8GHz, 6xTurbo Core, 9MB Cache)
Windows® 7 Home Premium
4GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
1TB SATA 3GB/s 7200rpm Hard Drive
1GB NVIDIA GT430 DX 11 Graphics
890GX USB3 Gaming Mainboard
22x Multi-Format DVD Writer
V4 Black Case/Blue LED/550W PSU
Free 3 Years Gold Warranty
Free Delivery

Or this one £100 dearer....
(2)
ntel® Core™ i5 760 Processor
(Overclocked up to 4GHz)
Advance CPU Cooler
Windows® 7 Home Premium
4GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory
1TB SATA 7200rpm Hard Drive
768MB NVIDIA GTX460 Graphics
Free Game: Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.® 2
ASUS P7P55 LX Gaming Mainboard
22x Multi-Format DVD Writer
Free 3 Years Gold Warranty
Free Delivery

 

[whitepass]

Number 2 do to a better video card. You did not list what monitor witch is very important.

 

[RRSignal]

Second one I think would be better as Trainz is highly dependent on CPU. As I understand Trainz is limited in the number of cores it will take advantage of anyway (I think 2 in Driver) so go for the extra raw speed.

 

[lewisner]

I'd be tempted to say the second but you are only getting the 768 MB GTX460 whereas if you buy them yourself there's only about £15 difference between that and the 1 GB GTX460 which offers much better performance.

 

[rjhowie]

Thanks for input. I checked and they can add the 1024MB NVIDIA Geforce GTX460 SE Graphics Accelerator [£ 17.63] so you were near enough lewisner (!). It is listed as a gaming machine and for all the cost it would be sensible?

 

[wreeder]

I would give the second one a 8 or 9 on a scale of 10 as a gamer PC. It should handle any game you throw at it for a few years.

William

 

[lewisner]

Thanks for input. I checked and they can add the 1024MB NVIDIA Geforce GTX460 SE Graphics Accelerator [£ 17.63] so you were near enough lewisner (!). It is listed as a gaming machine and for all the cost it would be sensible?

I have the Palit Geforce GTX460 1GB and it is very quiet and very cool, mainly because it exhausts any heat directly out of the back of the PC. As for power I have Far Cry 2 with all settings on Ultra High and it plays very smoothly.
I read all the reviews I could before buying and I'm sure one said that for the extra £15 the 1GB model with a third more RAM was nearly "twice as powerful" but don't quote me on that..
BTW when considering cards a couple of people have reported that on the Palit card one or more blades have broken off the fan and/or that the card runs very hot. I have mine in a HAF932 case which of course has great airflow so maybe they were using them in poorly venilated PC's.

 

[fran1]

Was the problem with the fan blade not a picture of one on e-bay for sale.

 

[lewisner]

Yes, I posted that link. However when I went to one of the shopping sites - either Amazon or Shopzilla - and read some more reviews a couple of other people had similar problems and in one case about 5 of the blades came off!
In the case of the Ebay one, if I hadn't bought mine already I might have been tempted as the 2GB GTX460 is a total beast and I am sure Palit would sell you a replacement fan.

 

[lewisner]

Thanks for input. I checked and they can add the 1024MB NVIDIA Geforce GTX460 SE Graphics Accelerator [£ 17.63] so you were near enough lewisner (!). It is listed as a gaming machine and for all the cost it would be sensible?

BTW It might be worth looking at this review of the GTX430.

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1436/1/

In particular read the first few paragraphs where mentions that if you use it at a resolution above 1280 x 1024 you might be "pushing it a bit".

 

[djt]

I would consider waiting for the revised version of the GTX 460 to be released (GTX 560).

Nvidia has released replacements for the GTX 480 (now GTX 580) and the GTX 470 (now GTX 570). With the revisions that Nvidia made to the GTX 570 it is now a match for the previous top end GTX 480 -

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4051/nvidias-geforce-gtx-570-filling-in-the-gaps

 

[lewisner]

Check out the prices though. I don't know what they are in "real" money (UK Pounds Sterling) but they look expensive.

 

[wreeder]

How about this one?

SYX Ultimate SLI 460's Gamer
Can you handle the power? This system features a blistering 3.06GHz Intel 950 processor, Dual 1GB GTX 460 video cards in SLI Configuration, a Crucial C300 128GB Solid State Drive and 12GB of memory. You'll be faster, better, stronger.
Features

• Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit operating system
• Intel Core i7 950 3.06 GHz Processor
• Dual NVidia 1GB GTX460's in SLI Mode
• 12GB DDR3 Memory
• 128GB Crucial SSD Hard Drive
• USB 3.0
• Sata III 6.0Gbps
• Coolermaster N520 high performance air cooling

 

[rjhowie]

Both machines I have been looking at are by Mesh in the UK and the second one which people regard as a bit better is with that extra lewisner has suggested around £770 with that addition.With what has been said it seems tempting to go for it.

 

[mcguirel]

Highly suggest the following video card (my next purchase hopefully):

60XGH6HS3HML GC Edition GTX460 1024MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...tails.asp?EdpNo=6589098&csid=ITD&body=REBATES

 

[big_b]

Have you looked at prices of building it yourself ? I found it was much cheaper & I was able to upgrade a few components on the money I saved.For example I found a difference of up to ( $150 AD ) just on the CPU in about 1/2 of searching online outlets.

Dave

 

[lewisner]

Have you looked at prices of building it yourself ? I found it was much cheaper & I was able to upgrade a few components on the money I saved.For example I found a difference of up to ( $150 AD ) just on the CPU in about 1/2 of searching online outlets.

Dave

I've built my PC myself recently and it has been absolute hell. I would strongly suggest buying one pre built with decent specs. If you have problems with a self built PC it has no guarantee and you are quite simply on your own.

 

[rjhowie]

Well I know what my limited limitations are and building is beyond me! I think you are right there lewisner. When I note that the pc firm is offering 3 years uplift and return that is an added point. I have dealt with them before and been fine. My mind is on that second one and as you advise going up a little.