Where can I buy a decent desktop to play DAoC on?

[Galie]

This week I returned from vaction in Japan to discover my desktop had up and died on me, it was a good few years old so it wasn't totally unexpected.

I live in the UK and I'd like to know if anyone could recommend to me a decent PC manufacturer. I have very little knowledge about PCs, but I know I'm looking for a system that can handle DAoC well. Being able to run two ToA clients reliably and without lag in RvR would be amazing.

Any advice on possible specifcations and components would be great too. I'm totally lost when it comes to choosing good, gfx cards and processors etc.

Thanks Galie

 

[Khale]

P4 3,0 Ghz (with Hyper Threading)
1 Gb DDR Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro

Should do nicely.

 

[Chrystina]

replacing the Radeon by an GeForce FX5800 or higher would be better for DAoC seeing that most problems in the tech section come from ppl with ATI cards

 

[stinkingD]

I would recommend you repair the PC that has 'died'. Unless your PC has physically exploded, or has been dropped into a bath, then it's only going to be a single component that's faulty. Somebody you know must have some knowledge of hardware enough to identify the damaged component.

For the price you pay for a brand new off the shelf system, you could get one of the new nvidia cards (apparantly DAoC has been developed to run on nvidia cards, and it is true you don't get the amount of problems that many have experienced using radeon cards on DAoC).

Even if you wanted a new PC, it is still cheaper to upgrade your old one. A complete new PC would only really mean getting a faster CPU (if your CPU is slower than 2ghz), and a new graphics card. You may need a new motherboard if your board cannot take a faster CPU. If you already have 1 gig of Ram, then that's fine, if not, put a bit more in.

For example;
amd 2600 £60 ish
new motherboard £70 ish
new graphics card £100 to £400 depending on what you want

 

[Sycho]

Check this site:

http://www.alienware.co.uk/

Suppose to make very good systems, hope that helps.

 

[Dweller]

From what I've heard, alienware are quite expensive for what your get. If you're not up to building a system yourself (which is pretty easy these days), then you could try:

http://www.evesham.com/ or http://www.dell.co.uk

 

[Nightchill]

Just (as of yesterday) built my new PC. There's a couple of things that need upgrading (which will happen next). Quick specs:

p4 3Ghz (Northwood, NOT Prescott, 800fsb)
512meg pc3200 DDR
Asus mobo (agp8x, usb2, 800fsb, inbuilt ethernet)
Zorro case (nice black job, leds, acrylic side, internal fans, 400w)
120gig maxtor SATA hdd
Gigabyte Geforce fx5700le
Sony black DVD/CD drive
Sony black floppy drive

Total = £435

 

[Poag]

Just (as of yesterday) built my new PC. There's a couple of things that need upgrading (which will happen next). Quick specs:

p4 3Ghz (Northwood, NOT Prescott, 800fsb)
512meg pc3200 DDR
Asus mobo (agp8x, usb2, 800fsb, inbuilt ethernet)
Zorro case (nice black job, leds, acrylic side, internal fans, 400w)
120gig maxtor SATA hdd
Gigabyte Geforce fx5700le
Sony black DVD/CD drive
Sony black floppy drive

Total = £435

ah so u did got for the 400w i said you should


Seriosuly tho...builing ur own PC is amzingly cheaper + if u put them togther u know where all the bits go and if u have trouble/want to upgrade u know where to look.

 

[Chrystina]

Just (as of yesterday) built my new PC. There's a couple of things that need upgrading (which will happen next). Quick specs:

p4 3Ghz (Northwood, NOT Prescott, 800fsb)
512meg pc3200 DDR
Asus mobo (agp8x, usb2, 800fsb, inbuilt ethernet)
Zorro case (nice black job, leds, acrylic side, internal fans, 400w)
120gig maxtor SATA hdd
Gigabyte Geforce fx5700le
Sony black DVD/CD drive
Sony black floppy drive

Total = £435

go for at LEAST 1gig of RAM if you want to run DAoC decent and with almost no loading times ... you might also get into trouble with just 400W PSU. my current system is almost the same, just that I have 2gig RAM, and it died with a 400W PSU when doing something intensive (3DMark 2003 for example and of course DAoC)... got a 650W PSU and everything is fine now

 

[Nightchill]

RAM will obviously be the first upgrade, followed by the graphics card. I steered clear of a Prescott since they're power hungry whores with no benchmark improvement (over the Northwood). I'll also add a few more internal fans at some point, the case supports at least another three.

Only 1 HDD in, no PCI cards (yet), the wattage drain (including max cpu drain running high benchmark stuff) shouldn't go over 250w. I've been running benchmarks all morning and it's fine so far PSU's aren't a big problem (nor too expensive) eitherway, so if it does struggle, it's easy enough to change.

My budget was, unfortunately, fairly strict, and I couldn't stretch to another 512 ram. Next payday not far off though... I posted the above just to show what you can do with £400

 

[Escape]

As has been said already, building your own PC is best. You choose everything that's being used, as opposed to pre-built PCs which show good specs on paper, but might have crap components inside.

You didn't post your budget... if you want to buy a high-street PC, do not go to PC World, or Dixons or anything like that. Take a look at some PC magazines in WH Smith(you'll normally see a group of geeks standing around the PC mags ) Most of them have a PC roundup every month, with reviews of ~10 similar spec PCs. It'll give you an idea of which company is doing well at the moment. MESH seem to get decent reviews and their prices are resonable.

go for at LEAST 1gig of RAM if you want to run DAoC decent and with almost no loading times ... you might also get into trouble with just 400W PSU. my current system is almost the same, just that I have 2gig RAM, and it died with a 400W PSU when doing something intensive (3DMark 2003 for example and of course DAoC)... got a 650W PSU and everything is fine now

Have you noticed any daoc improvements with 2gig ram, is it worth getting that much?

 

[Sharma]

Check this site:

http://www.alienware.co.uk/

Suppose to make very good systems, hope that helps.

They do make good systems however their prices are staggeringly high.

I'd reccomend places like:

www.aria.co.uk
www.komplett.co.uk

 

[Chrystina]

Have you noticed any daoc improvements with 2gig ram, is it worth getting that much?

it's bloody amazing! loading times are almost non-existing (even starting the game takes just a few seconds)... and you can even use the PC for other things while playing DAoC because you have some extra RAM and that cuts down the swap-file access

 

[Balbor]

anyone tryed playing DAOC on a Ram Disk

 

[Khale]

replacing the Radeon by an GeForce FX5800 or higher would be better for DAoC seeing that most problems in the tech section come from ppl with ATI cards

Some people just can't handle their pc's proper.. (most often forget to uninstall previous driver and then install the new, with GeForce drivers you can just through one of over the other it doesn't matter). But looking at the performances I still have to say Radeon is making a better progress then GeForce cards do nowadays. (GeForce really needs to come with a new lineup soon). I had some problems in beginning with my ATI but was mostly due to drivers. Radeon 4.4 ones seem to be the best atm with working dynamic lighting. And if you do go for a P4 don't forget to install the processor driver from intel (else you AGP speed might not be functioning proper).

And about where to get it.. I know some good .NL stores but that ain't really gonna help I think. So you might wanna ask some good UK shops. I've made my own pc from 3 different stores cause I never like those pre-combined systems. Too many stuff I don't want on it and usually is more expensive then to assemble it yourself with parts you want on it.

 

[Mojo]

www.dell.co.uk

St Michael's place :worthy:

 

[Garok]

http://www.meshcomputers.com/updated/index.htm

Offer a good package .. i know quite a few people who have got PC's from here and none of us have had any problems.

Also as posted above by Dweller www.evesham.com

These two come out top in quite a few reviews..

 

[Jebelious]

www.overclockers.co.uk
www.kustom.co.uk
www.ebuyer.co.uk

everything u will need will be on those i mainly use overclockers cause they are situated locally to me

 

[Krait]

MESH seem to get decent reviews and their prices are resonable.

Have to agree with MESH Computers....year after year their machines get good reviews and they always use good components.

But building your own is infinitely better in the long run.Always buy a motherboard with as much future-proofing as you can afford and is able to use either Northwood or Prescott CPU's (Northwood is better atm for cooling and great for overclocking).
Graphics card-wise I'd recommend a Radeon 9800pro unless you can afford a x800 or Geforce6800.
For memory,try for at least dual-512mb with the fastest memory you can afford (again) Corsair 3200xlpro is what i'm using atm and is excellent for overclocking with good timings.
Lastly (as has been mentioned earlier) use a large/powerful PSU as well as good cooling and a quality Heatsink/Fan.

 

[Sharma]

Have to agree with MESH Computers....year after year their machines get good reviews and they always use good components.

But building your own is infinitely better in the long run.Always buy a motherboard with as much future-proofing as you can afford and is able to use either Northwood or Prescott CPU's (Northwood is better atm for cooling and great for overclocking).
Graphics card-wise I'd recommend a Radeon 9800pro unless you can afford a x800 or Geforce6800.
For memory,try for at least dual-512mb with the fastest memory you can afford (again) Corsair 3200xlpro is what i'm using atm and is excellent for overclocking with good timings.
Lastly (as has been mentioned earlier) use a large/powerful PSU as well as good cooling and a quality Heatsink/Fan.

People don't always have £800 spare.

 

[Krait]

People don't always have £800 spare.

That's what credit cards are for.

 

[Fana]

Would advice people not to build a new system until late august or early september since Intel have announced their intention to lower prices on all their current cpu's around the end of august by as much as 30-35%. And that means Athlon most likely will have to lower prices as well.

 

[judas]

dell allways make good comps for "ok" prices. and allso has good guaranties for their stuff. get one of their newer models and you should be ok.

 

[Oro]

Similar thread here with some info.

For DAoC, you seriously need 1GB RAM+, as you'll have load-lag everywhere you go while you're disk cache is thrashing away if you don't. I'm putting 2GB minimum in my next system. Dell XPS good place to start checking comparitive spec and price on their webby.

I've been a dedicated GeForce user for several years now, having bought GF2,3 and 4 and used the mobile versions of same in my laptops. Next card is ATI Radeon X800 probably, which pips the latest GF cards just slightly, though there isn't much in it. Its not wallet-friendly though.

Though few mention it, make sure you've got a dirty great power supply in the PC. One of my gripes with places like PC World is that you always get the bare minimum to make their off-the-shelf puppy work then when you upgrade the PSU is unable to handle the extra load. Guess I'm saying make sure that it will be able to cope with whatever you fill your new gleaming box of goodies with. Graphics cards these days are quite good at causing much strangeness if the PSU isn't quite up to the task, as I found out the hard way.

If you are just wanting off-the-shelf with no tweaking of your own, I'd only recomend Dell from personal experience. HP/Compaq, Fujitsu and a few others never quite cut it for me. Don't touch PC World brands like Advent etc.
If it says Packard Bell on it, laugh, and keep on walking. The barge pole in your hand is your friend.

As said above, not used Alienware, though their systems are well specced and reccomended by many.

Hope this helps