Computer purchase advice

[FIF]

My youngest's 16th birthday in July and it's time to buy him a new computer (he's always had my old one before).

He's a games player - WOW, GTA, that sniper shooting war game (but sadly not IV as his graphics card wasn't up to it)

I have a reasonable but not overly generous budget.

I believe that the graphics card is the most important thing (though I could be wrong) but all the names confuse me. so some q's that spring to mind.

Are ATI now as good as NVIDIA?

Which model is a good price quality for gaming? 9800GTX 8800GT 9600GT HD3870 HD3850 others?

Should I worry about Intel or AMD?

WTF is the difference between all the different AMD and INTEL series and which ones should I be interested in.

Is 2GB enough ram?

Am I right to not worry about any of the other components or are some of them important?

Thanks for any and all help. For the money I want to get him something worthwhile.

 

[Durham Fox]

I think you need to define exactly what your budget is! You can spend a hell of a lot of cash on a gaming PC with a bit of headroom.

 

[FIF]

ah! thanks for replying

Well i'm really looking at buying over here in France so I wasn't sure that a price was going to help more than the notion of a budget.

500 ish euros for the PC is my budget.

 

[Durham Fox]

About £350-£400??

Is that to include a monitor??

 

[FIF]

no, monitor on top, it really doesn't even have to include keyboard , mouse, software etc...

 

[Durham Fox]

Id seriously consider buying an Xbox 360 or a PS3. You will get far more gaming enjoyment and longevity from it than a £350 PC.

 

[FIF]

Thanks DF;

He has a games machine, his computer is for WOW, and others. I know I can get it's just I don't understand all of the different versions.

Is there a site that clearly rates the graphics cards and the AMD/Intel chips?

 

[Durham Fox]

Thanks DF;

He has a games machine, his computer is for WOW, and others. I know I can get it's just I don't understand all of the different versions.

Is there a site that clearly rates the graphics cards and the AMD/Intel chips?

Probably but I'm not sure where.

My advice is to stick with Intel Core 2 Duo, min 2gb RAM (ideally 4) gfx card is tricky as a decent one will cost your entire budget, try and get 512mb ram minimum but i think youll struggle.

 

[FIF]

I can get that with no problem with a Geforce 8800GT 512mb is that good?


Possibly a PC Core 2 duo E8400, 2gb DDR2, 9600GT512, 500gb - I presume that's better but don't know.

 

[Durham Fox]

I can get that with no problem with a Geforce 8800GT 512mb is that good?


Possibly a PC Core 2 duo E8400, 2gb DDR2, 9600GT512, 500gb - I presume that's better but don't know.

It's 'OK' now which means in 6 months it will be nigh on useless. Hence the comments really. You also need to research what games he wanta to play as some games only work with 1 manufacturers cards. A 'good' gfx card will cost £300+ alone.

 

[Jeff]

It's 'OK' now which means in 6 months it will be nigh on useless.

You're assuming he'll want to buy the latest graphics intensive games. Not everyone wants to do that, and it would be a waste of time spending money on a graphics card that's not needed.

 

[Durham Fox]

You're assuming he'll want to buy the latest graphics intensive games. Not everyone wants to do that, and it would be a waste of time spending money on a graphics card that's not needed.

Agreed but it seems reasonably clear the graphics card is his key component. He has already stated games like GTA and CoD (I'm assuming) which are very intensive on the gfx side.

For the record, I have no clue why anyone plays games on a PC that needs a mega gfx card when you could buy a top notch lcd and a 360 for the same cost as a good gfx card.