£900 Gaming Desktop

Meursault

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After having canned the purchase of my first gaming laptop a while back due to financial constraints I once again find myself in the position to finally replace my ropey old Toshiba P200 (which now sounds like a jet engine and runs hotter than the sun.)

I'm looking for something that will run the obligatory fps's as well as less taxing stuff like football manager and star wars: the old republic once it's released.

I've decided to go for a desktop this time in order to get more bang for my buck and at the moment I'm looking at this ::YoYo Tech:: as recommended on techradar, I've no idea how much sway their word holds on this forum. I'm hoping I'll be able to drop the monitor from the linked bundle to bring the price down closer to the £900 mark.

Before I take the plunge in time for Christmas I was hoping you guys could give your thoughts on the pc linked and suggest any better alternatives. On that note I better mention that I'm not savvy enough to put a computer together myself, so I'm definitely looking for a prebuilt number.

I bow before your collected knowledge.
 
Other similar option Aria have almost the same thing but with a 560ti instead of 6950 graphics card, and it has a named PSU which is a good thing £900 Gladiator Hellspawn Intel Core i5-2500K @ 4.40GHz DDR3 Gaming PC - Aria PC

Same sort of thing on Scan Value systems G30 system £778 but not overclocked Award winning supplier, performance hardware & systems - Scan.co.uk

Short of putting it together yourself I don't think there are any other drastically different or better deals from the one you linked from what I have seen recently but someone else might have seen something
 
How about a Dell XPS 8300?

Dell XPS 8300 Deals, Evalue Codes and Coupons

Check the last but one in the list. i7 3.4 Ghz, 12GB RAM, 3TB HDD and 2GB AMD Radeon HD 6950 for £1088. Then use the discount code at the top of the page to get 15% off. Brings it down to £925.

Or for £999 you can get the same processor and RAM. A 2TB HDD and a 1.25GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti. After the discount it comes down to £850.
 
How about a Dell XPS 8300?

Dell XPS 8300 Deals, Evalue Codes and Coupons

Check the last but one in the list. i7 3.4 Ghz, 12GB RAM, 3TB HDD and 2GB AMD Radeon HD 6950 for £1088. Then use the discount code at the top of the page to get 15% off. Brings it down to £925.

Or for £999 you can get the same processor and RAM. A 2TB HDD and a 1.25GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti. After the discount it comes down to £850.

Only prob with Dell is you usually cant overclock them.....great price though.
I always bought Dell systems till i started self building :smashin:
 
Thanks for the quick feedback guys, I've looked at the Dell website a few times in the past but I'm not sure if i'd get better results out of an stock i7 system like the ones qwerty linked or an overclocked i5. Truth be told I tend to get suckered in by bigger numbers hence the interest in a clocked i5:)
 
Once again thanks for the help people and sorry for the double post but I managed to answer my own question. A quick web search showed people comfortably running the games I'm aiming for on systems inferior to the ones qwerty linked, so I bit the bullet and went for the XPS8300 Radeon 6950 build.

A system I know will do what I need from a reputable source seemed more sensible than the overclocked one from a seller I'm not familiar with. Fingers crossed I made the right choice.
 
Glad you have bought a solid system that will suit your needs.....we all have differing opinions and needs so advice on here can be soo wide ranging as to get a bit confusing.
I have had several Dell systems over the years, and all have been solid and trouble free :smashin:
I decided to go self build as i wanted to be more hands on with my pc, and better understand what does what inside it.
Enjoy :cool:
 
Glad you have bought a solid system that will suit your needs.....we all have differing opinions and needs so advice on here can be soo wide ranging as to get a bit confusing.
I have had several Dell systems over the years, and all have been solid and trouble free :smashin:
I decided to go self build as i wanted to be more hands on with my pc, and better understand what does what inside it.
Enjoy :cool:

Yep. My current Dell XPS laptop is coming to around 5 years old now.

Replacing it soon with a desktop and the XPS was on my list but decided to go for a self-build because I fancy the challenge. Been a while since I built one.
 
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I consider myself pretty handy at maintaining and trouble shooting a pc but I haven't the first idea how to actually build one from scratch. It's certainly something I'd like to do in the future though, how did you guys get started?
 
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I consider myself pretty handy at maintaining and trouble shooting a pc but I haven't the first idea how to actually build one from scratch. It's certainly something I'd like to do in the future though, how did you guys get started?

I've been involved with them since a young age. For quite a few years since I was around 7, my Dad and Uncle owned a PC repair shop so that's how I got into it.

Been a few years since I've been following the latest hardware and stuff properly though so getting used to all that again!
 
I consider myself pretty handy at maintaining and trouble shooting a pc but I haven't the first idea how to actually build one from scratch. It's certainly something I'd like to do in the future though, how did you guys get started?

My introduction to computers was later in life (early 90's). My newly acquired wife was working as an i.t. support tech on an American airbase. She dragged me kicking and screaming into the age of home computers when she bought a brand new Acer home pc set-up. It was on windows 3.11 os with a 1Gb hard drive and 256Mb of Ram. She then had dial-up internet installed (yawn) and my addiction started. After that came a series of regular new pc's ready made as i knew how to turn on and surf, then shut down but that was it. I only started to get interested in what went on inside and why about 4 years ago, which led to specking up ready made Dell machines instead of just taking a totally stock pc.
18 months ago i researched on this and other forums till i got brave enough to spec a custom build from p.c.specialists....awesome machine but expensive at over a grand.....Last year i had a nervous breakdown and have been fighting the anxiety/depression ever since. Lack of money meant i had to sell my custom pc and laptop to pay bills, but i set aside some of the money to build a pc myself (cheapest way to keep a decent spec system). Again loads of research on this and other forums, then loads of direct help with components from some of the very knowledgeable members here followed by a very steep learning curve and presto, "ADAM" my first self build was born.
Now i have the bug though, so be warned, it is a slippery slope once you get started. :eek:
Since then i have re-built and upgraded one of the wifes friends pc's, and just finished "EVE" my second build as a b/day-x/mas pressie for my wife.
What to do now???????????
Sorry to go on........jamie :thumbsup:
Click below links to see my 2 build threads, first one has a link to a "how to" for self builds..
http://www.avforums.com/forums/desktops/1521890-my-first-desktop-build-diary.html
http://www.avforums.com/forums/desktops/1552847-project-eve.html
 
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Ha that last post certainly got the nostalgia flowing, I still remember bringing my first computer home from Escom and being absolutely blown away by it's pentium 100 power, those were the days.

It's pretty Interesting to see the difference in backgrounds, I was worried everyone but me had spent there entire lives elbow deep in motherboard :) I can certainly see that "how to" link stinging my bank balance at some point, odds on you can look forward to a "my self build won't boot up" thread in the future.
 
I had major probs with my first, but if you ask on here etc, and follow a systematic diagnosis pattern it can be valuable experience for future builds :rolleyes: Soo satisfying when you "crack" the problem and end up with a sweet running system that you created :thumbsup:
With my 2 subsequent builds i learnt to run out of cabinet, starting with just board, chip, ram, and cooler conected to a monitor, then add hdd, test, add optical, test and so on. The pc i built for wifes friend had one yellow wire in main board power plug was slipping back through plastic housing and making bad connection causing random probs, but at that early stage was fairly easy.
I am very glad i decided to brave the selfbuild route, just beware of the potential financial consequences of addiction :devil:
atb.....jamie.
 

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