As this seems to be a PC thread can anyone tell me how you get the flying aircraft bit on Google Earth? I read somewhere that it can be done, but I have lost the instructions

Originally Posted by SparkySteve

Lads,

I've got around £800 to spend on a new rig, and im looking for something that is going to play games in 3 years time. I've got a contact who supplies DELL systems, and is speccing me both an XPS Rig and an XPS Laptop for that price.

Just wondering, am i going to be better off going elsewhere?

SparkySteve

Yoyotech Intel Viper MKII

£712.00 inc vat

PC Format reccomends as a machine you can run any current game at 1650x1050 with everything turned up.

Originally Posted by SparkySteve

Dual or Quad?

Multiple....apparently.

Originally Posted by Part_Timer

Originally Posted by SparkySteve

Lads,

I've got around £800 to spend on a new rig, and im looking for something that is going to play games in 3 years time. I've got a contact who supplies DELL systems, and is speccing me both an XPS Rig and an XPS Laptop for that price.

Just wondering, am i going to be better off going elsewhere?

SparkySteve

Yoyotech Intel Viper MKII

£712.00 inc vat

PC Format reccomends as a machine you can run any current game at 1650x1050 with everything turned up.

P_T, looks good, but the one im going to be specced by my supplier is going to have more RAM, a monitor, keyboard and rodent for a hundred pounds more....

Basically, i want to be able to play Crysis or Call of Duty 4 at top whack, with the extras said for about £850 tops

Originally Posted by Ispeakcrabandpongo

As this seems to be a PC thread can anyone tell me how you get the flying aircraft bit on Google Earth? I read somewhere that it can be done, but I have lost the instructions

Spookly enough there is an indepth article on Google earth in tis months PC pro. It says to access the Flight simulator - "Load Google earth, then before you touch anything else hit Ctrl-Alt-A or if that doesnt work Ctrl-Windowskey-A

Originally Posted by SparkySteve

.......P_T, looks good, but the one im going to be specced by my supplier is going to have more RAM, a monitor, keyboard and rodent for a hundred pounds more....

Basically, i want to be able to play Crysis or Call of Duty 4 at top whack, with the extras said for about £850 tops......

Just checked out the dell site and I assume you must be talking about the XPS 420. Indeed it does look a nice machine, but one thing to bear in mind is the Graphics card is not as good as the Yoyotech one. For example if you go to the YoYo tech site and choose configure, if you opted for the same ATI card as specced in the XPS machine, the yoyo tech machine is £117.03 cheaper than the quoted price. that said, yoyyo tech are out of stock on some of the viper parts, but have a play around with the configurator and see what it comes to.

Originally Posted by IT_GEEK

Just checked out the dell site and I assume you must be talking about the XPS 420. Indeed it does look a nice machine, but one thing to bear in mind is the Graphics card is not as good as the Yoyotech one. For example if you go to the YoYo tech site and choose configure, if you opted for the same ATI card as specced in the XPS machine, the yoyo tech machine is £117.03 cheaper than the quoted price. that said, yoyyo tech are out of stock on some of the viper parts, but have a play around with the configurator and see what it comes to.

XPS 420 Silver, http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...hs1&l=en&s=dhs .
Might speak to the contact and see if he can throw in a sound system as well......Do you recommend i see if i can change the graphics card on the Silver system?

As you have said that you want the machine to play games in 3 years time there are a few ways to play this, you could stick with a cheap graphics card (I see Novatech is selling the 512Mb version of the 2600 for £88, so the Dell Graphics card is a pretty cheap card :( ) with the understanding that in 2 years time (or less if you want to play all the latest sellers), you might need to upgrade the card. Or bite the bullet now and fork out for a better card.

Its a bit like buying a brand new car and hoping it lasts 10 years or butying a banger for £500 every year. The banger is the cheaper option in the long run, but it nice to have a shiny new car for a few years :D

Only your wallet can tell really :D

Just to add, its worth googling the ATI 2600 for reviews

here is one site

http://www.thetechlounge.com/article...+2600+XT+256MB

Note that in Company of Heros for example the 2600 scores 45 frames per second against the 8800's 60 fps. But..... the question to ask yourself is, "is 45 fps playable" and the answer is a definite yes"

Has anyone used the "pcspecialist.co.uk" site - there products and spec seem very reasonable and on a like for like comparison of the tech specs come up about £400 cheaper than an HP equivilent ??