Getting a New Desktop

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Matty

Matty

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Egg's box? £3.60.
Well as the title describes, I'm getting a new Desktop

There's a few requirements and questions I need answered first though.


And the requirements would be:
To be able to run iRacing. (Not sure how good a graphics chip it would need for this.)
Decent sized RAM. (Preferably 3gb upwards.)
Decent sized HDD. (Preferably 500gb upwards.)
Big screen as I would most likely run iRacing on it unless I get a new TV soon, which I probably will but nevertheless. (Preferably 17" upwards.)

I have a budget of 400 euro.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, just want to get the best for my buck now.
No monitor needed.
 
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Well in that price bracket you have priced out an Apple machine immediately (a 17" MacBook Pro is €2,540.00 and the cheapest 13" is €1,219.00) not to mention that OS X on its own does not allow the running of the iRacing simulator without a Windows bootcamp or parallel.

So I'd say Windows is your best option :p
As for iRacing specs, well here is their system requirements.
 
As a long time Mac user, I'd have to agree. The graphics chip on anything less than the 15" MBP wouldn't run... Well, any games, my brother tried to play TF2 on his 13" MBP and was shocked that a laptop as expensive as that couldn't run an old game like TF2. They might actually have improved them lately but I don't think so, I don't know. And you can just forget about the MacBook Air! That's forgetting entirely about the OS, though booting Windows via Boot Camp is pretty good, I used my Mac Pro as a gaming PC for quite some time.

Beyond that, I know nothing about laptops, just don't buy an Apple one if you don't want to spend much to play games.
 
@ Soloracee3 and neema_t, thanks for you input.

Will remove entirely any thoughts of getting a mac.

Will look around at some laptops with the requirements.
 
A little above your budget and it's not a 17" but it will run iracing good for it's hardware. link. It has a quad core APU(means CPU + GPU on the same chip) with decent graphics for your pricepoint. Plus it has a total of 6GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD with Windows Home Premium 64-bit on it. Maximum battery life of 5 hours, which is great to have, since most of the time you should be getting 3-4 hours during normal use(youtube, office programs, etc... normal stuff). I've only looked through google.ie so there might be better deals from different regions but that's the best I've found so far.
 
Thanks nick09, haven't done much looking yet. Just hoping my requirements aren't too mad. I'm starting to think some of my wants (17" screen and 500gb HDD) are going to be hard to find in that price range.
 
Also, you may want to have a look at this. Still within your budget, same specs as the one nick09 posted but it has an Intel Core i5 2450M @ 2.5 GHz.

Basically, that's the exact same laptop as mine but only mine is 14" while that one is a 15". I'll put on a review soon but all I can say is, it's a great laptop to use and fantastic performance overall. I can play rFactor, RACE 07, F1 2011 and many more with ease but not iRacing (as I've never played that on my laptop). With F1 2011, my laptop can handle even with high detail so I think it's actually pretty powerful.
 
This might work, though it's about $10 over your budget

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$644.99 with instant rebate (base price is $744.99)

Alternatively for an extra $5, you can drop the Graphics cards and rely on the CPU integrated graphics, which could let you boost the CPU to 2.5 base /3.1 turbo GHz and get 6GB RAM.
 
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That seems like a good buy. Especially since it was nearly $1000 not to long ago.

Also, whether this means much or not, I won't be actually buying it for a few months (Late June early July) so if it's just out of range it might drop into it.

I haven't done much searching around yet as I was unsure of a few specs I'd need, but I'll have a look and see what I can find now.
 
If you won't be buying for a few months then wait for the IVY Bridge laptops(you can tell by the cpu number, such as i3-3xxxM, where an current sandy bridge i3 is an i3-2xxxM) to come into the market. The CPU's are slightly better but the integrated graphics are highly overhauled.
 
Okay, so I would be waiting for the i3-3xxxM and not i3-2xxxM correct?

I know the x's aren't the actual no of a laptop just in case.
 
Yes. It will look like i3-3xxxM, i5-3xxxM, and i7-3xxxM for all laptops with IVY bridge. The laptops are out but in a month or two they should get cheaper and more will be out there.
 
nick09
Yes. It will look like i3-3xxxM, i5-3xxxM, and i7-3xxxM for all laptops with IVY bridge. The laptops are out but in a month or two they should get cheaper and more will be out there.
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Okay, and I assume i7's are just out if this world fast?

And thanks for the input, but any idea how much the i3's would cost when they come out?
 
i7's are the fastest, but I think they're out of your price range. i5's will probably be the best you can get. My current laptop has i5 450M that runs at 2.4 GHz, and I can run pretty high settings for most games.

I'm looking to replace my laptop with one that uses i7 3720QM, but the price range I'm looking at is $1500-$2000.
 
Exorcet
i7's are the fastest, but I think they're out of your price range. i5's will probably be the best you can get. My current laptop has i5 450M that runs at 2.4 GHz, and I can run pretty high settings for most games.

I'm looking to replace my laptop with one that uses i7 3720QM, but the price range I'm looking at is $1500-$2000.
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I would be happy with an i5, but would a i7-2xxxM run faster or slower then an i5-3xxxM? And would they be similarly priced?
 
Well here in the US market the i7 ivy bridge laptop starts at roughly $800-$870 USD. I could see the i3 ivy laptops being $375-$500 USD and the i5 would take the gap between them. Though I'm just doing mere speculation on the prices based on some i7 ivy laptops out right now.
 
Okay, so my best bet would be a ivy i5-3 when they come out?

And that should be around $500-800?

If I'm correct that would mean about 350-550 euro. Which is my perfect price band.
 
Matty
I would be happy with an i5, but would a i7-2xxxM run faster or slower then an i5-3xxxM? And would they be similarly priced?
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The best 2nd gen i7's will probably be faster (I don't know how much though) than the i5's since they are nearly as fast as 3rd gen i7's, but i5-3's will have better integrated graphics. Like nick said, that's one of the biggest differences between 2nd and 3rd gen.
 
Yes that is assuming that the prices are low enough by late June or July and the market will be a tad more expensive than the US(so figure roughly an extra 100 euros).
 
Matty
I would be happy with an i5, but would a i7-2xxxM run faster or slower then an i5-3xxxM? And would they be similarly priced?
Click to expand...

The i7-2xxxM will run faster or somewhere around there than the i5-3xxxM but the biggest difference will be graphics performance which will be much better in the i5-3xxxM than the other one. That is what I understand from most writes..

EDIT: Woops, tree'd by Exorcet :lol:
 
Would i3's be up on websites for pricing now? Because if so I can have a look round on Irish websites and compare prices.
 
Seems like they are coming out early June. You can see all of the IVY bridge CPU's here, both desktop and laptop models, and as before the ones with the 'M' on the end is for laptops. All dual core i5 laptop models will come out June 3rd as it says.
 
I would re-suggest the laptop I posted before. That Intel processor would not play the game nicely with just the Intel graphics. You would be better of with the well rounded AMD A series chips. They are both good as a processor and have the best integrated graphics available for the processor compared to Intel. The A6 is better for your budget and your gaming purposes.
 
Matty
HP G6 B960 15.6 Inch 2.2GHz 750GB Laptop

That's the laptop I think I'll get.
6GB RAM
750GB HDD
2.2GHz processor speed.
Intel Pentium Dual Core.

Is 2.2GHz enough for iRacing?

Also thinking of getting a new TV, and have this in mind.

Bush 40" Full HD 1080p TV
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That laptop offers either intel or amd, i would expect argos to be stocking the intel version, which to be honest will not run iracing very well. You need to go for a laptop with dedicated graphics, also, you asked whether or not 2.2ghz is fast enough for iracing, yes, it should be enough, however speed isn't everything, e.g. an old intel processor at 2.0ghz may perform worse than a current intel processor at 1.7ghz.

Also, you should know that amazon does that exact laptop for a much cheaper price. One more thing related to cpu's, an i7 in my opinion is a bit overkill, a decent i5 will do a perfect job of running iracing, you just need good graphics, i would recommend a laptop with AMD 66XX or 76xx graphics. e.g. 67xx is better than 66xx etc, same goes for the 7xxx series.

This laptop has Nvidia 610M Graphics, which should be able to run iracing, the i5 cpu is also adequate and there is plenty of ram.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006UCO0TY/?tag=gtplanetuk-20

Seems like a decent buy if it's within your budget.
 
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nick09
I would re-suggest the laptop I posted before. That Intel processor would not play the game nicely with just the Intel graphics. You would be better of with the well rounded AMD A series chips. They are both good as a processor and have the best integrated graphics available for the processor compared to Intel. The A6 is better for your budget and your gaming purposes.
Click to expand...

jimftr
That laptop offers either intel or amd, i would expect argos to be stocking the intel version, which to be honest will not run iracing very well. You need to go for a laptop with dedicated graphics, also, you asked whether or not 2.2ghz is fast enough for iracing, yes, it should be enough, however speed isn't everything, e.g. an old intel processor at 2.0ghz may perform worse than a current intel processor at 1.7ghz.

Also, you should know that amazon does that exact laptop for a much cheaper price. One more thing related to cpu's, an i7 in my opinion is a bit overkill, a decent i5 will do a perfect job of running iracing, you just need good graphics, i would recommend a laptop with AMD 66XX or 76xx graphics. e.g. 67xx is better than 66xx etc, same goes for the 7xxx series.

This laptop has Nvidia 610M Graphics, which should be able to run iracing, the i5 cpu is also adequate and there is plenty of ram.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006UCO0TY/?tag=gtplanetuk-20

Seems like a decent buy if it's within your budget.
Click to expand...

Both very nice and just within my budget. Think I would go with Nick09's one though cause its locally availible in Ireland so I could pick it up.
 
Turns out I'm now able to get a desktop, which if there cheaper I will most certainly get. I will have to lower my budget to €400 for the desktop itself and then maybe another 3-400 for the monitor, 32"-42" would be what I'm looking for there.
 
Matty
Turns out I'm now able to get a desktop, which if there cheaper I will most certainly get. I will have to lower my budget to €400 for the desktop itself and then maybe another 3-400 for the monitor, 32"-42" would be what I'm looking for there.
Click to expand...

You want to spend 400 on an entire computer and then spend that much on a monitor? Surely you mean a TV which will double as a monitor because that's poor budget management. Also I don't know of any 32"+ monitors anyway. It'd be a much much better idea to go with 700 on the tower and 100 on the monitor if you have a TV already.
 
Yeah the monitor will also be my TV, as I only have a 15+ year old big box TV.

In a way by having a monitor/TV I think it makes for clever budget management. Also thinking of getting a Surround Sound system, but don't know how much that would be.
 

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