Looking at a gaming PC.

[GreyianStorm]

Garcian Smith said:

GreyianStorm said:
Alternatively, I was also looking at a Dell Studio XPS 8100. I'm not sure if this link will work, seeing as it is the Irish site, but here it is: http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Desktops/studio-xps-8100/pd.aspx?refid=studio-xps-8100&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&~oid=ie~en~510295~studio-xps-8100_d00x8104~~

I would go with an Alienware desktop, but I don't have the money right now as I am in college.

The first build you linked is weird. The Core i5-650 is a CPU with an onboard graphics processing unit, so it doesn't make sense sticking a 5450 in there as well. In addition, neither of those solutions will let you play games very well. It also has more RAM than you need and the rest of the components are probably crappy no-name parts.

The Dell one has a CPU (Core i7-860) that's WAY overkill for your needs, a slightly better but still inadequate graphics card, an overkill amount of RAM (again), and two drives in RAID 0 which may actually be harmful to your data. And, again, most of the other parts are probably substandard too.

I know you said that you don't know much about computers, but I'd honestly recommend building one yourself. It's not much harder than putting together Ikea furniture, you'll get the exact components for your needs (no more, no less), and you can almost definitely do it for less money. While I'm not terribly familiar with PC prices in Ireland, I could spec you out something that shouldn't set you back much cash.

That would be great if you could tell me what sort of specs/parts I should be looking for. To be honest, the biggest load it will be under will certainly be gaming. I will be using it for other stuff, but most of that will be stuff like MS Word, surfing the net, but nothing else that an average everyday computer can't do. The biggest reason for getting a desktop is certainly for gaming, seeing as my 3 year old laptop can still do everything else I need (though it does overheat from time to time )