Hi all,

I need help buying a new desktop. Exclusively for playing pokers, I want it to last a few years, so not looking to buy a new one by 2014.

I want a 30" screen, + fast processor, ram, hd etc... budget is £2000 (located in the UK, ldo)

Thanks

are you willing to build it yourself, or does it have to be pre-built? you will get a much better deal by putting it together on your own, or you could even pay someone to do it and still save money from buying a pre-built one.

also, 30" monitors can be quite expensive. i'd recommend getting dual 24"

Has to be prebuilt with warranty - preferably 3 years warranty. I have bought Dells in the past and I have been very happy with them. The screen has to be 30".

well the 30" alone is going to eat up a decent portion of that budget.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/sy...7_Andromeda_GT

They do not have a 30" LCD optio on the site but this system with a 28" comes in under £1700. If you are deadset on a 30" you can always order it from another source and leave monitor off this.

You may be able to drop the video card to something less expensive, if you are not going to play any hi end games.
More details about what all you want to do with the system.

im looking at getting the 30" on eBay as they are cheaper there and buy a base from some where else.

the case is a bit ott, lol. I will be using it for pokers and not much else. So the graphics card doesn't have to be hi end.

you can select a more plain jane case then and save some $.
I would advise that you call and speak to someone and get a case that has adequate cooling fans without the fancy look.
also drop the video card down to ant ATI Radeon 4850 with 512MB and save $170 more. The 4850 will handle all the poker you can throw at it.

thoughts?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-XPS-625-A...ht_1846wt_1165

Looks l33t enough imo

That will probably meet your stated needs just fine.
FWIW the same spec machine from the source I linked you can be bought for £583 (inc. vat) , about 40 less because you don't need both video cards.
I know several people that have ordered from their US site and as a only build my own since the start I was far more impressed with what they produce vs. what I have seen come out of any of the major manufacturers and the quality of the components is better.

Thank you all for your advice

<3

Assuming about half will be spent on the display:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=FS-065-OE

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...70&subcat=1261

add Win 7 Home Premium 64 and if you want, upgrade to a Radeon 4870 (if you want to play games), and it comes in at about £1120

Will eat that Dell system for breakfast.

CPU Intel Core i7 920
M/b ASUS P6T
RAM 6GB Gskill 1300
SSD Intel X25-M G2 160Gb (or two if you want to put database on a separate disk)
HDD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Video Radeon HD5870
DVD Sony NEC (if you want blue rays, get Pioneer)
Case Antec CP-850
PSU Antec P183
Fan Noctua U12P SE1366

This should be about half your budget. Spend the rest on a 30 inch + peripherals.

Lol, there is no way that comes in anywhere close to budget. I got as far down as the case (the case you mention is a PSU btw), and I'm already around £1250. Add another £200 on case, psu and fan of the calibre you're suggesting and we're looking at 75% of budget according to UK prices, and that isn't even pre-assembled (which OP insists on). That GPU is massive overkill I think. There's some good components in there but there's also some money being really badly spent for a poker system imo. Drop the GFX card to a 4850 and the x25 to 80GB and we're closer to about £1200, which is closer to budget, but even then OP doesn't want to roll his own PC (something I also would suggest but horses for courses I guess). I assume you're posting from outside the UK cos we get stiffed on price for stuff like this compared to many other parts of the world.

Afterthought: The system I linked comes pre-assembled, with the Gigabyte equivalent of the Asus board (the UD3Rs are rock solid ime), the Corsair equiv of the G.Skill, minus the SSD (which could be added for ~£200 for the 80GB model), but with a more real-world GFX card. That would actually get him a very similar system to what you're suggesting, that just scrapes into budget and comes ready to go out the box.

Lol, yep I missread the budget. Sorry
In this case:

CPU Intel Core i7 920
M/b ASUS P6T
RAM 6GB Gskill 1300
SSD 2x Intel X25-M G2 80Mb
HDD Samsung Barracuda 1Tb
Video Radeon 4870
DVD Sony NEC
Case Antec 300
PSU Antec Earthwatts 500

This should be more reasonable, although I am totally unaware of British prices obviously. Take this list to the next door Asian shop, they will assemble everything for $50.

If its too much, get one SSD now and another one later. This is system will last and carry you for a few years.

ps And the reason I brought up 5870 is simply because of Eyefinity if he decides to expand his monitor one day

Thank you both

Any thoughts on this?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dell-Precision...ht_1841wt_1165

NVS 290 doesn't support a 30". And that computer is slim. Finding low-profile card that supports a 30" is going to be an expensive pain, especially in the UK.

Avoid.

This comp is for a friend.

He isn't a huge multi tabler -he plays 4 at most, mainly ipoker and betfair - he went to buy the comp I posted a few posts ago, with a 30" monitor and the guy on the other end of the phone wanted him to buy the above comp, and have 3 20" 1480*1065 or w/e that resolution is. It was less than 1600*1200.

I need your help to find the best pc for his needs. Please help Maybe I should have said this in the op but he told me what he wanted and now he doesnt know what he wants!

thanks

also what are the main differences/bemefits of a 64bit os compared to a 32bit one?

64bit - can use more than 3 GB of RAM, applications take a bit more RAM, 64bit applications might work a bit faster (?), requires a 64bit CPU.

thanks jurr.