Whats Recommended For...?

[KillerPWNy]

what do you recommend for a gaming computer for under £1,000?

[KillerPWNy]

bump

[Bizzie]

Build one yourself, save the old chassis and optical drive(s). Steer clear of Nvidia GPU's (they're expensive and require lots of power). Pick Intel's i5 or i7 as the processor (so you don't have to go for an expensive update later on).

Can't really help more than that, I'm afraid. OEM PC's are not worth it, so if you're looking for a pre-built machine, I'd suggest to get a friend or a local computer store to build it for you.

[tom_armitage]

On the subject of PC's, What advantages would an I5 have over an I3

[Bizzie]

On the subject of PC's, What advantages would an I5 have over an I3

New Sandy Bridge i3's only have two cores (just like the older Nehalem i3's), compared to i5's four cores. i5 also has bigger L3 cache. The clock speeds are fairly similar between i3, i5 and i7, but i3 lacks Intel's turbo mode - here's more information on that.

I have no clear information how well Core 2 Duo series fares against i3 and i5, but I'd say a Core 2 Duo E8XXX beats i3. Take my assumption with a pinch of salt, though, I haven't kept myself up-to-date.

[Gridlock]

Don't disregard AMD's CPUs, they can turn out to be a real bang for your buck. I'm sporting a 955 BE @ 3.2Ghz myself, hasn't failed me so far and manages to take most things I throw at it head on. But with £1000 it doesn't really matter what route you choose.

[tom_armitage]

I wont go into to much detail, But the 'goverment' is supplying a laptop for me for university (along with global automatic spellcheck software, Bizzie should love that)

The rough specs sofar is a 17 inch screen, atleast 4GB of ram, Atleast a 500GB harddrive (I imagine it should be up closer to 1TB) and an I3 Processor. So just above mid-range.

I may have the chance to pa the difference if I need to upgrade anything, I think i may get an I5 put in there

[Bizzie]

the 'goverment' is supplying a laptop for me for university (along with global automatic spellcheck software, Bizzie should love that)

Hahaha!

4 gigabytes of RAM will be enough, trust me. 6 GB would be the absolute maximum (unless you do heavy video editing or 3D modelling).

[tom_armitage]

Well its all in the PL_Pipeline now. (do you see what i did there)

In a few weeks I should get a letter comfirming what I can have, And how to go about getting all my bits. So I may have a choice as far as the brand goes, So I will be back for more advice.

[tom_armitage]

Got my specs through for the new laptop -

Samsung R740 i5, 1gbvram 17.3 inch (WKH17/CAD17)
Core i5 480M / 2.66 GHz - RAM 4 GB - HDD 640 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - WLAN : 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - 17.3" Widescreen LED backlight TFT 1600 x 900 ( WXGA ) - camera

[brim4brim]

Got my specs through for the new laptop -

Samsung R740 i5, 1gbvram 17.3 inch (WKH17/CAD17)
Core i5 480M / 2.66 GHz - RAM 4 GB - HDD 640 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - WLAN : 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - 17.3" Widescreen LED backlight TFT 1600 x 900 ( WXGA ) - camera

Nice, install a temperature monitor, had a few gaming laptops turn into toast on me when I was in college.

Maybe even get one of those cooling things to go underneath it and look up tips on keeping the battery life at maximum for your type of battery/usage.

I think the excessive heat killed my batteries in my old gaming laptops.

[tom_armitage]

Got all my tech delivered.

The samsung laptop had been changed at the last second.
Got a toshiba Satellite Pro:

Processor Information:
    Vendor:  GenuineIntel - I5
    Speed: 2294 Mhz
    4 logical processors
    2 physical processors
    HyperThreading:  Supported
    FCMOV:  Supported
    SSE2:  Supported
    SSE3:  Supported
    SSSE3:  Supported
    SSE4a:  Unsupported
    SSE41:  Supported
    SSE42:  Supported
   

    Operating System Version:
    Windows 7 (64 bit)
    NTFS:  Supported
    Crypto Provider Codes:  Supported 323 0x0 0x0 0x0
   
Video Card:
    Driver:  NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M

    DirectX Driver Name:  nvd3dum.dll
    Driver Version:  8.17.12.6669
    DirectX Driver Version:  8.17.12.6669
    Driver Date: 16 Jan 2011
    Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
    DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M
    VendorID:  0x10de
    DeviceID:  0xdec
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    No SLI or Crossfire Detected
    Primary Display Resolution:  1600 x 900
    Desktop Resolution: 1600 x 900
    Primary Display Size: 22.20" x 12.52"  (25.47" diag)
                                            56.4cm x 31.8cm  (64.7cm diag)
    Primary Bus: PCI Express 1x
    Primary VRAM: 1024 MB
    Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x
   
Sound card:
    Audio device: Speakers (Realtek High Definiti
   
Memory:
    RAM:  4076 Mb
   
Miscellaneous:
    UI Language:  English
    Microphone:  Not set
    Media Type:  DVD
    Total Hard Disk Space Available:  476539 Mb
    Largest Free Hard Disk Block:  224688 Mb
    Steam Hard Disk Usage:  35 Mb
    OS Install Date: Jan 01 1970
    Game Controller: None detected