Purchasing New Pc....

Purchasing a new PC in around a weeks time...my 333mhz Celeron :lol: :lol: just aint up to the job anymore!?!!?

Found this package with a UK dealer -
AMD Athlon 3.2XP+
1024 DDR Ram
16x DVD Rom
8x DVD RW
Motherboard XP+ 8xAGP 6 USB2 FSB 400mhz
Radeon 256MB 9200
6.1 Audio
speakers, keyboard, mouse..blah..blah..blah

for £509.00

Now i'm thinking this is a pretty good deal, and i know it has shedloads of power in the Processor and all the RAM....BUT....is the graphics card anygood for say Doom 3/Half Life 2..etc..as I think the 9200 is not DX9 compatible...the 9200 is getting on a bit isnt it???? Would i be better asking them to stick me in a 9600 or 9800??

I need advice from Tech folk who know a little more about Hardware...advice greatly appreciated... ;)

Go for a cheap 9800 Pro if possible.

The 9200 isn't up to the job, go for a 9800, but not the SE.

I don't see a HDD in that spec, could that explain the low price?

And I assume the dreaded VAT is on top of that.

Quote:

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Originally posted by lynx@7 July 2004 - 10:36
The 9200 isn't up to the job, go for a 9800, but not the SE.

I don't see a HDD in that spec, could that explain the low price?

And I assume the dreaded VAT is on top of that.

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The HDD is 160gig...no that price is excluding VAT...is the 9600 upto the job?? With all that processor/ram power could I opt for a 9600 and be OK???


Just outta curiousty if I asked the dealer to keep with the same price £509.00..drop the ram to 512 and stick in a 9800...would it run Doom 3 etc...like a breeze????

512MB ram should be ok for most apps, that's what I've got and with XP Pro it just hasn't been an issue.

I'm not a graphics card expert, but as long as that's not the 9800SE it won't have any problems at all running Doom3. In fact the SE shouldn't have any probs either, but you would have to lower some of the settings.

Just spoke to the dealer again and he said for the same price £509.00 (inc VAT), he could do me -

AMD 2.8ghz
512 Ram
80G HDD
Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB

and all the other stuff I mentioned before....

would I be laughing with that setup???

On a quick calculation I would suggest he is getting the better end of the deal (probably by about £30), dropping 3 items down for 1 item up. It still looks like a reasonable deal, but not as good as it did.

I suppose he's probably got a very limited market for the 9200 card though, which is probably why the deal was so good in the first place.

I would buy the original spec machine and just get my own graphics card...the 9600XT would be fine...and either sell the 9200 or keep it as backup.
The extra RAM and faster chip are well worth it and video card prices are dropping.

Cheers peeps for all the advice...im gonna go with clockers idea and grab a 9600XT...altogether for (sorry for typin this out again) a....

Athlon 3.2XP
1024 Ram
160gig HDD
9600XT 128mb
17inch monitor
and all that other stuff..........

it would be...

£645.00

sound good?????

Quote:

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Originally posted by slimboyfatz@7 July 2004 - 09:39


it would be...

£645.00

sound good?????

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Well yeah...depending on what kind of RAM, what brand of HDD, which board, etc.

You were a little vague on the details.

Actually, you failed to mention them at all, so I guess you were more than a little vague...

I'd presume, from such a price, that the RAM is likely to be PC2700 (DDR 333MHz). The motherboard, upon first glance, looks to be of some decency, however, I have some doubts about the keyboard, mouse and speakers - as they are prone to being "unbranded" and simply not comparable to the standards of Logitech or Microsoft.

Edit:

Quote:

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it would be...

£645.00

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... Plus VAT charged at 17.5%, comes to a cost of £757.88.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Amarjit@10 July 2004 - 21:28
I'd presume, from such a price, that the RAM is likely to be PC2700 (DDR 333MHz). The motherboard, upon first glance, looks to be of some decency, however, I have some doubts about the keyboard, mouse and speakers - as they are prone to being "unbranded" and simply not comparable to the standards of Logitech or Microsoft.

Edit:

Quote:

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it would be...

£645.00

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... Plus VAT charged at 17.5%, comes to a cost of £757.88.

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AMD 64 Bit 3200
512mb PC3200 Samsung/kindston (maybe 1gb)
160gb gd hard drive
Gigabyte mobo with AGPX8 and the usually stuff
9800 Pro

Roughly £600 + £30 P&P is what im paying. Im building it myself so those are just the parts. To be honest seems like he's ripping you off alot.

Yup, go with an xt.

And there's some merit to chosing the 9600 over the 9800, it runs colder and uses less power for instance.

Which is mainly worth mentioning when building an sff system, tho'.