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Upgrade Suggestione Anyone?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I'm going to upgrade in the next 2 to 3 weeks and I've been looking for a desktop to replace my ancient laptop that I've come to love so dearly. (Dell Inspiron 8500 circa 2003) I can play WoW on it but not much else. Though I've had a key since last year, I've never been able to play STO yet and I've waited years for this game to come out. Vids take 4ever to load/play, latency/lag gets me killed, can't see things at distance cause I'm at minimum settings. IE, Need a new......

I'm going to be playing WoW, Star Trek Online, maybe another MMORPG and I love flight and military sims like LoMac, Dangerous Waters and Steel Beasts. Other than that, just Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and browsing. I plan to link it to a 32" HDTV at 1080p by 120hz but does anyone know if I need that to be internet capable or will an HDMI port do well enough? That's on a separate budget btw.

I was looking at the Dell refurbished outlet (save some bucks) and saw the 8300 models that feature an i7 2600 processor at 3.4Ghz, 8gb of DDR3 at 1333 Mhz but the best GPUs offered seems to be the Radeon HD 5670 or 5770. They also have some with the i5 core at 2.8 or 3.3 Ghz.The other 9100 series and the Alienware Auroras use the i7 900 series which are all below 3.0 Ghz on processor speed. I also REALLY want to do the desktop for under $1,000.00 (maybe $1200.00). Does the processor speed matter as much as I think it does? How noticable is the difference during play? Are the seemingly cheaper AMD Phenom processors as good and if so, which ones compare to the i7 series for my purposes? Are there specific ones to avoid?

The 8300's all have a second integrated card (I think, might be a misprint.) which is the HD 5450, very low on the GPU hierarchcy and I don't know how that will work alongside a GPU if at all even though Dell seems to have them both in the same machine at the same time as listed.

Nvidia graphics used to be reliably better than the Radeon systems but I'm not sure that's still true given the price differences. I'd prefer Nvidia if the data is generally the same as then but is it? The hierarchy chart on GPU's at Tom's has the best Radeon unit at about 5 tiers below the top Nvidia cards. Tom's published it's hierarchy comparisons for CPU's and GPU's in February of this year and I'm also wondering if they are still accurate. Here are the source pages for interested parties:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-overclocking-processor-recommendation,2866-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-6950-1gb-geforce-gtx-560-ti-gaming-graphics-card,2857-7.html

I want to go with Dell because of some very good service and support experiences I've had with them but does anyone know of a company that gives same support level at a comparable price?
Alienware Aurora system spec'd for me priced at around $1200 to $1300. I hear that they are the best but is it really worth the extra money? Many opinions are that they are vastly overpriced but don't consider the solidity of the warranty or ease of replacement/repair.

How badly things can go for someone lacking experience like me if I were to go for the biggest bang for my buck and assemble my own. How well do parts companies back their stuff? Which ones would be the best to buy from? What kind of tools would I need if any?

Would it be better to buy an i7 2600 based unit and then buy an extra/separate GPU if the power supply can handle it? I also haven't been able to find out which boards are SLi or Crossfire certified so I can't tell if I can even afford the base system and then get a dual card later. Anyone know where I can find out?

I am NOT IT or Tech savvy so any help for a tech lame gamer would be appreciated. I also don't play the 'blame game' because the final decision on how to spend my money always rests on my shoulders. IE, no blowback on people who are just giving sugestions, providing info and trying to help. I just want to be able to improve my gaming experience and performance, enjoy the 'artwork' of the environments and avoid latency and lag issues that often get me killed in PvP.Thanks.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2011
    i bought an hp pabvilion desktop with an amd phenom 4 quad core in my reaserch and exp the amd phenom 2 4 core is better then the i7 the only problem i had was i had to swap out the 250 watt psu for a bigger better psu once that was done i added an ati 5750 and bingo star trek online runs super fast hope this helps feel free to pm me if you have any more questions heres a link tot he pc i bought its super cheap all you need to do is buy an upgraded psu and a new vid card let me know if this helps

    http://www.officemax.com/technology/computers/desktop-computers/product-prod3310036?history=lssp7dch|categoryId~10004^categoryName~Technology^parentCategoryID~category_root^prodPage~25^region~1@uf10yy1f|categoryId~283^categoryName~Computers^parentCategoryID~cat_10004^prodPage~25^region~1^refine~1@ktjl1pz8|prodPage~15^refine~1^region~1^categoryName~desktop-computers^categoryId~324^parentCategoryID~cat_283@6lq4kze2|refineName~Processor+Series^prodPage~15^refine~1^sub_attr_name~1^region~1^refineValue~Phenom+II
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2011
    i recommend one of these (ye i link different ones on different theads but thats due to price search) Intel Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz 4GB 500GB Gaming Computer PC
    the card you can pick i recomend no lower than a gtx460 in gen if you plan to game not just with mmos. you can even drop the psu down to a 650watt fi your not gonna sli in the future but the pxu in that build gives you the room if you do go that route later on.
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