PC Tower Spec

[jjandellis]

Not bought a new PC for a while, but due certain accounts being compromised I've now lost faith in the one I own. Also the laptop surfs considerably quicker than the tower, so clearly needs upgrade.

I have 2 monitors and would ideally like to upgrade this to 3.

I don't use the PC for anything fancy, just poker, downloading movies/music and a little surfing. Could someone please recommend a spec that I can punch into amazon please?

[paulhouk03]

Not bought a new PC for a while, but due certain accounts being compromised I've now lost faith in the one I own. Also the laptop surfs considerably quicker than the tower, so clearly needs upgrade.

I have 2 monitors and would ideally like to upgrade this to 3.

I don't use the PC for anything fancy, just poker, downloading movies/music and a little surfing. Could someone please recommend a spec that I can punch into amazon please?

y do u  need 3 monitors ? if ur only poker dl and surfing?

[AndrewT]

If all you're doing is a little poker, films and surfing, what's wrong with the laptop, with an extra monitor if needs be?

[EvilPie]

Not bought a new PC for a while, but due certain accounts being compromised I've now lost faith in the one I own. Also the laptop surfs considerably quicker than the tower, so clearly needs upgrade.

I have 2 monitors and would ideally like to upgrade this to 3.

I don't use the PC for anything fancy, just poker, downloading movies/music and a little surfing. Could someone please recommend a spec that I can punch into amazon please?

y do u  need 3 monitors ? if ur only poker dl and surfing?

1 - Poker
2 - Movies / music
3 - Surfing

Can't you count Ho?

How much you wanting to spend? There's been loads of cool looking set ups on here in the past for under a bag.

What's the spec on your existing one? Considered upgrading the bits on that which need doing? New hard drive, processor and a chunk of memory could be pretty cheap.

[EvilPie]

You can get a decent motherboard for £70, quad core AMD 3.4GHz processor for £110 and 8GB of RAM for about £80. All cheaper if you shop around obviously.

Stick that little lot in the case you've got and you'll be good to go.

That's about what I've got and the CPU usage sits at about 8% (highest about 60% when burning 2 DVDs at once) and the memory at about 35% (highest 80%)

If your existing hard drive's big enough just stick with it. You won't notice the benefit of a better one with what you're doing. I know I wouldn't and my usage is similar to yours by the looks of it.

I don't know if you'd have to re-install everything if you did it this way. There'll be a geek that can help with that.

As far as I'm aware everything is on your hard drive so if you just plug it in to a new motherboard / processor it should just be the same as before but quicker. Is that correct or would you have to re-install everything?

[EvilPie]

You can get a decent motherboard for £70, quad core AMD 3.4GHz processor for £110 and 8GB of RAM for about £80. All cheaper if you shop around obviously.

Stick that little lot in the case you've got and you'll be good to go.

That's about what I've got and the CPU usage sits at about 8% (highest about 60% when burning 2 DVDs at once) and the memory at about 35% (highest 80%)

If your existing hard drive's big enough just stick with it. You won't notice the benefit of a better one with what you're doing. I know I wouldn't and my usage is similar to yours by the looks of it.

I don't know if you'd have to re-install everything if you did it this way. There'll be a geek that can help with that.

As far as I'm aware everything is on your hard drive so if you just plug it in to a new motherboard / processor it should just be the same as before but quicker. Is that correct or would you have to re-install everything?

Sounds great - but I'm kinda wondering if mine has computer AIDS...worth getting a new hard drive???

Guess so if there's nothing too important on your old one.

It'd only be another £60 - £70 for a half decent 2TB hard drive. You don't need anything fancy for what you're doing.

[Dino]

Don't forget you will need to add a graphics card capable of supporting 3 monitors to that.

[bobAlike]

Don't forget you will need to add a graphics card capable of supporting 3 monitors to that.

As it happens I have a Matrox Quad PCIE card (upto 4 screens) which has only been used once for 10 minutes. These cost in the region of £400 new. I'd let it go for any reasonable offer.

[Longines]

CPUs can be compared at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php The i7 scores around 50% higher than the AMD.

SSD is a no-brainer IMO, just replaced my laptop last month - the old one had a 1st gen SSD and the new one has the latest Samsung SSD, it just flies. My son's laptop has a 7200RPM HDD and it's painful in comparison.

Buying a smaller SSD for Windows and HEM whilst keeping a big std HDD for the pr0n/music/other stuff is a good idea if you're looking to cut costs.

I'd also choose Win8 over Win7. It's pretty simple to configure Win8 to look just like Win7 and never have to see the Metro look.

I know very little about desktops but those power supplies may be a little low on the Watts if they are going to power 2 graphics cards, 2 HDDs and a DVD drive?

[titaniumbean]

read first one and in response to your questions.


 aids >windows

but 7>8



SSD is a must especially if you're building it to use hem on. IT'S A MUST. screw the 400 terabyte slow hard disks just get SSD.


2x graphics cards I have no idea why they are doing that, if you don't play FPS games then absolutely no need. 8gb ram will be fine. processors are fine and as said can be compared easily.

i7 you don't really need but are nice and fast but will cost a chunk more.

I recently bought a new tower for a similar price-
 intel i5 3470
16gb ram
7870 2gb gfx
ssd
no os

bowly power/case/dvdr etc  £640.


I want it for first person gaming aswell though hence the graphics card. Didn't see the need for the  extra spend on the processor, though punted on the ram because I loves it. I didn't bother with a hard drive other than ssd as I have a large raid back up device anyway with tonnes of spare space, got 2x 120gb ssds (2 >1 for breaking situations etc).

[titaniumbean]

I'd also choose Win8 over Win7. It's pretty simple to configure Win8 to look just like Win7 and never have to see the Metro look.

lol at having to buy an os then do everything you can to revert it to the old version.

s'ok son you have a desktop? well start rubbing your fingers over it like its all touchscreen innit.


useless fools

[Graham C]

I'd get a 240SSD at the min.  I have a 120gb and it's full and I don't have that much on there really (one game)  SSD's are fantastic, def get one.   I'd take a larger (2tb) hard drive as a secondary drive too to store files, whatever they may be.

[strak33]

That Pc is above is ready to plug in 2 monitors and have an OS put on?

Thanks

[Marky147]

OK so being at my parents and being a dufus I didn't realise that my brothers job (for last 2 years) was all things IT related for some company - to the point he can build them too! But being a busy boy he pointed me in the direction of a company called 3B Systems.  It so happened they're a 45 min drive from the parents.

I browsed the website and they have lots of pre-built gaming PC's.  I called them up and they were very helpful and willing to make a few modifications to one of their packages. So helpful in fact that I called them at 1330 hrs today - and was collecting it, fully tested, by 1630 hrs!

The machine, without OS (provided by my brother), came to £393:

CPU - AMD FX6 6300 (6 x 3.5 ghz)
Memory - 8GB DDR3 1600 mhz
120 GB SSD Drive
500 GB Hard Drive
Asrock AM3+ 960GM-VGS3 FX Graphics Card
Radeon HD6450 2GB (3.8 GB Hyper) DDR3 VGA/DVI/HDMI
550w PU
Motherboard with lots of room for expansion
2 x Big fans
Ncie but fairly basic case with Blue LED

Think thats about it!

Just installing drivers/updates etc - but seems lightning quick AND silent.

Company website for those interested:

http://www.3bsystems.co.uk/

That's me sorted when I order my next tower, thanks very much.