So I'm wanting a Gaming PC...

Hey guys!
You've all helped me immensly in the past with various pc related questions so I thought I would come here for your advice again.
I'm looking to get a Gaming pc for my 15 year old son. I don't think he needs anything too flasy for the moment as he mostley plays World of Warcraft and a few FPS's and managerial games. So I found this...

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product...2508&session=176a2e0cd17bbfcf16717c7f85b5b504

What do you guys reckon? Is this decent for the price? I'm not comfortable buying the pieces and then putting them together myself so I figured a premade tower would be decent enough.
We aren't looking for top of the range, but something capeable of at least playing the latestish games on the lowest settings is fine.
Thanks in advance guys.

 

Well, I'll take a stab at this since no one else has responded yet. (I saw you were asking about this in MG's chat window when I first logged on.)

I live in the U.S. so I'm not familiar with this company. The hardware looks pretty decent, though I note that for some items (such as the hard drive) they don't specify a brand name. As long as it's not some off brand you've never heard of it's probably fine. And be sure you're getting the 2 gigabytes of RAM and the video card upgrade at no additional charge (you definitely want the 8600 GT, not the 7600 which is a much slower card). Both the additional RAM and the faster video card should make the computer perform much better and capable of running more recent games at higher settings.

But what about a monitor, keyboard and mouse? Do you have those already? They're apparently not included in the price. Make sure that your monitor is compatible with this video card -- that it has the right kind of connectors to plug into the back of the computer/video card. Some video cards may only have digital sockets while other may have both analog and digital. Check to see which kind your old monitor has (assuming that's what you're going to use) and check to make sure you can plug it into the new graphics/video card.

That quoted price doesn't include an operating system either. Note down toward the bottom of the page they list the Vista Home Premium Operating System, but you pay extra for it. That's fine as long as you understand that. I don't especially like Vista and many gamers find that games run substantially faster under Windows XP than they do under Vista. On the other hand, some gamers do like the flashier graphics that DX10 makes possible on a few games. (DX10 is only available with Vista -- Win XP includes DX9 though).

You'll find plenty of advocates here at MajorGeeks for both Win XP and Vista. Maybe your son has a preference -- ask him.

One other point -- how will your son hook up to the internet? Does your home have a wireless network and do you have a dialup connection or DSL or cable or what? The computer you're thinking of buying has LAN built in, so if your son's computer will plug directly into a network router, which in turn connects to a DSL or cable modem, for example, you'll probably be fine. And if you already have an old dialup (phone), DSL or cable modem that will work with the new computer, then you're probably all set. Otherwise you'll probably need some additional hardware.

The OS questions and the internet hardware aside, the system looks pretty well equipped for all but the most demanding games. And probably he can play most of those if he can accept running them at lower settings. All this is assuming the company you're buying from is solid and dependable. There is one thing that makes me a bit suspicious about this ad however. Note that down at the bottom, in the same section that lists the price for Vista Home Premium, there's a RAM "upgrade" and it says this: "When you order a new "Top Performance" Bigpockets PC, this memory product will automatically be upgraded (unless we are notified in the "addition Comments" section in the check out)... for only £24.90". If I read that correctly, you have to "opt out" to keep from being charged the additional amount for this RAM upgrade.

I don't know what good RAM typically costs in the UK, but I think putting this note way down at the bottom, where it's easy to overlook, telling the buyer he's going to be charged an additional amount unless he opts out during the purchase procedure, is a bit sneaky. It may be nothing more than an otherwise honest dealer trying to bump up the price a bit, or it may indicate this is a company you'd be better advised not to do business with. How much do you know about this company and their reputation for customer satisfaction?

The other thing about the RAM that bothers me is it's not clear to me how much RAM the system will have if you decide not to accept the 24.90 charge for the additional gigabyte of RAM. Will the computer have 1 or 2 GB of RAM if you don't buy that extra gig? If you do buy it will the system then have 2 GB or 3 GB of RAM. I can read the ad either way and again, I don't think the ambiguity is a good sign. If the system comes with 1 GB of RAM without paying the additional 24.90, then I think I'd want that additional gigabyte of memory. But if the system includes 2 GB of RAM and you'd be paying 24.90 for a 3rd gigabyte of RAM, I don't think you'll notice very much difference in the computer's performance so in the latter case I don't think I'd advise getting the additional 3rd gigabyte.

If you decide to buy from this company, make sure you find out what their reputation is. Do a web search on the company name looking for info, complaints, and praise from customers. As I said, the fact that they seem to be trying to add on some more charges but put that info way down at the bottom, and have structured that additional sales charge so that instead of making it optional you have to choose not to accept it may be a warning flag or it may just a bit of a nuisance. I think it all depends on how much confidence you have in the company or how much you can find out about them.

Hope this is some help. Good luck to you and your son!

 

Looks good to me.... the only thing I'd change is maybe up the CPU to a 5600+ or higher, but as it stands, it should have no trouble with the games you mentioned. Definitely a good starting point, and having 4 memory slots (instead of 2 which is common on MATX motherboards) is a big plus for future RAM upgrades.

 

Thank you very much for the replies.
It's ok about the operating system. We have a few spare already. Aswell as everything else this pc doesn't come with. so we should be fine.