Eratia
09-10-2007, 01:44 PM
Well, first of all, my apologies as I know sounding out advice on PCs isn't exactly what this forum is for! However, I've seen some good advice here so I wonder if I could be cheeky and ask?
Basically, I had been playing WoW for about a year on a pretty rubbish HP pavillion. It was ok though--ran perfectly smoothly on above average settings at 60fps. It blew up in August and since then I've been going through a bit of an epic saga in trying to get a replacement I like.
I originially went for a gaming laptop from Rock, the Xtreme 770. I was super excited, but it arrived on Saturday and was a bit of a disappointment. The audio locks up every 5 minutes or so for about 3 seconds while playing WoW, and every 20 seconds or so I get a half-second hang in the graphics (I don't think this is lag as my HP never had this and my latency usually averages around 50-60ms). Oh, should also say I have updated the drivers for both the graphics gard (7950 GTX) and the audio (realtek HD thingeemajig). Besides all that, I've just realised that I hate how fiddly and annoying laptops are. So I am sending it back.
It leaves me with about £1,400-£1,500 to spend on a good desktop (sans monitor). However, being a complete noob, as they say, I'm really struggling with what would work best for me. Most of my gaming time is dedicated to WoW, but I'd like to play bioshock and a few other newer games. I've narrowed it down to three choices:
Dell XPS 720 -- This seems like a good system, but with the graphics card there are pretty limited options. Either 256mb nVidia 8600 GTS or two of this card in an SLI configuration. I don't particularly want SLI as I have read that it is a bit of a waste of money. I'd rather spend the £s on getting a single, higher-end card.
Alienware Area 51-7500 -- I actually quite like this one, even though I feel far too old for it :laugh:. My only concern here would be that I am actually paying way too much for what I am getting as Alienware seem to have a reputation for outrageous mark-ups.
Mesh Xtreme 6750 DX10 http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=232137 -- I like this one as well. However, even though you get a bit more ram with this package, it seems like it is of slightly lower quality. Also not sure about the motherboard options.
So, that is my essay. Advice and opinions are greatly, greatly appreciated!
Basically, I had been playing WoW for about a year on a pretty rubbish HP pavillion. It was ok though--ran perfectly smoothly on above average settings at 60fps. It blew up in August and since then I've been going through a bit of an epic saga in trying to get a replacement I like.
I originially went for a gaming laptop from Rock, the Xtreme 770. I was super excited, but it arrived on Saturday and was a bit of a disappointment. The audio locks up every 5 minutes or so for about 3 seconds while playing WoW, and every 20 seconds or so I get a half-second hang in the graphics (I don't think this is lag as my HP never had this and my latency usually averages around 50-60ms). Oh, should also say I have updated the drivers for both the graphics gard (7950 GTX) and the audio (realtek HD thingeemajig). Besides all that, I've just realised that I hate how fiddly and annoying laptops are. So I am sending it back.
It leaves me with about £1,400-£1,500 to spend on a good desktop (sans monitor). However, being a complete noob, as they say, I'm really struggling with what would work best for me. Most of my gaming time is dedicated to WoW, but I'd like to play bioshock and a few other newer games. I've narrowed it down to three choices:
Dell XPS 720 -- This seems like a good system, but with the graphics card there are pretty limited options. Either 256mb nVidia 8600 GTS or two of this card in an SLI configuration. I don't particularly want SLI as I have read that it is a bit of a waste of money. I'd rather spend the £s on getting a single, higher-end card.
Alienware Area 51-7500 -- I actually quite like this one, even though I feel far too old for it :laugh:. My only concern here would be that I am actually paying way too much for what I am getting as Alienware seem to have a reputation for outrageous mark-ups.
Mesh Xtreme 6750 DX10 http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=232137 -- I like this one as well. However, even though you get a bit more ram with this package, it seems like it is of slightly lower quality. Also not sure about the motherboard options.
So, that is my essay. Advice and opinions are greatly, greatly appreciated!