My mates a noob! help required.

[bragor]

He dont know whether to buy from here or PC world, he wants a good gaming computer, but he wants to buy this from pc world:

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-870 Processor
- 2.93 GHz (up to 3.6GHz with turbo Boost)
- 2.5 GT/s DMI
- 8 MB Smart Cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM - 8GB installed RAM
- 4 DIMM slots
- maximum 16GB supported memory
Graphics card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230 with PureVideo® HD technology
- 1.5GB dedicated memory
- Up to 5118 MB total available graphics memory
Screen type None
Hard drive 1.5 TB SATA 3G Hard Disk Drive (5400 rpm)
Memory card reader 15-in-1 memory card reader
USB 10 x USB 2.0 ports
FireWire 2 x FireWire® IEEE 1394 ports
Wi-Fi Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g/n PCI-Ex1 minicard
Bluetooth No
Video interface 1 x HDMI
1 x DVI
1 x VGA
Audio interface 2 x front audio ports
6 x rear analogue audio ports
1 x rear digital audio port
TV output 1 x HDMI (digital video/audio)
1 x VGA (analogue video)
Extension card slot 3 PCI-Express 1x (1 free)
1 PCI-Express 16x
Sound High Definition Audio 7.1
Keyboard & Mouse Wireless keyboard and mouse
Accessories included Keyboard, mouse, power cord, documentation
Software included Symantec™ Norton Internet Security™ 2010 (60 days live update)
Microsoft® Internet Explorer
Windows® Live Messenger
Adobe® Reader
Adobe® Flash Player
HP Power Assistant
Vision Diagnostics
HP Setup
HP Advisor
HP Support Assistant
HP MediaSmart Suite: Music, Video, DVD, Photo
Windows Live™ Applications
Cyberlink DVDSuite
HP Music Station: Discover, download, play and share millions of music tracks
HP Games Console with hours of free game play
Norton Online Backup (30-day trial)
EasyBits Magic Desktop
Size 179 x 422 x 401 mm
Weight



is that good for gaming? just want to help him out.

 

[Alex]

It all depends on resolutions and the games you are playing, but overall it looks very nice.
I'd advise he shops around a bit though, so I think it'd be worth having a look on here and comparing systems- he might be able to save some ££s

 

[Pete]

not a bad spec, the only thing that jumps out is the hard drive is slow at only 5400 rpm and not 7200 - but could be upgraded later.
how much is it going for ?
you also presumably don't know what make all the components are ?? what power supply does it have? less than a 600w might be a bit of a concern.
As Alex suggests spec up a a similar pc on here.

 

[JSG10]

What brand of RAM and HDD are in that and how much is the whole thing?
All that software they say is included is pure bloatware and just a marketing gimmick to make it seem you're getting more than you actually are. All of it is available free to download from the respective websites if you really require it.

This is a nearly identical spec from PCS:

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-870 Quad Core (2.93GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT430 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1.5TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD15EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI EXPRESS CARD (£19)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Optical Wheel Mouse USB (£5)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days

Price: £796.00 including VAT and delivery.

Parts to note are a more powerful GPU, quality branded RAM and HDD and a decent warranty. Its got slightly less USB ports but you really won't use 10! 6 is ample. This build is also, obviously, customisable and fully upgradable in the future.

 

[bragor]

its like 1.2k in pc world

 

[Phoenix]

He dont know whether to buy from here or PC world, he wants a good gaming computer, but he wants to buy this from pc world:

Processor Intel® Core™ i7-870 Processor
- 2.93 GHz (up to 3.6GHz with turbo Boost)
- 2.5 GT/s DMI
- 8 MB Smart Cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM - 8GB installed RAM
- 4 DIMM slots
- maximum 16GB supported memory
Graphics card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230 with PureVideo® HD technology...
is that good for gaming? just want to help him out.

No that graphics card is just terrible, it's not for gaming at all. The build JSG10 posted is better but the graphics card is still on the weak side. You could get a better system by dropping down to an i5-760 and upgrading the graphics card to a Radeon HD5770.

Edit: Does your friend have a budget of £1,200.00 to spend then?

 

[bragor]

He's going to make his own thread. then u can answer him

 

[Tom DWC]

No that graphics card is just terrible, it's not for gaming at all.

Completely agree - advertising the original spec as a gaming PC should be made illegal. The GT430 provides a small leap over integrated graphics chipsets for a bit of light editing work and HD playback. That's about it.

 

[JSG10]

£1.2k ?! Wow... complete cowboys. If he's got that much to spend you can get a cracking build on here, tell him to forget PC World and get to work building a spec on here He definitely won't regret it.

And yes I realised that the GPU I suggested is still weak for gaming but wanted to get it as close to the PC World spec as possible.

 

[Tom DWC]

And yes I realised that the GPU I suggested is still weak for gaming but wanted to get it as close to the PC World spec as possible.

Yeah what you did made perfect sense - illustrates the staggering difference in price.