Some pointers needed for a new computer purchase

I've decided it's time to retire my current laptop and am hoping to buy a new computer in the new year. I was wondering if more knowledgeable users than me could give me a few pointers regarding what I should be choosing when it comes to the various components.

I'll be going for a desktop this time and I'll be buying from Dell (I have a good history with them and I don't have the hardware skills to build a computer or know anyone who could build for me). I'll mostly be using the computer for COH/V but will also probably use it for other newly released games and also some HD video watching/editing (although possibly not too much of the editing).

The main queries I have are:
OS - Vista Home Premium or Ultimate or does it even matter? (Dell doesn't do 64 bit in the range I'm looking at so that's not an issue)
Processor - Dual Core or Quad Core or does it even matter?
Graphics Card - NVIDIA or ATI?
Ageia PhysX card - would it add much to my COH-playing enjoyment?

Any comments on the above would be greatly appreciated!

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I've decided it's time to retire my current laptop and am hoping to buy a new computer in the new year. I was wondering if more knowledgeable users than me could give me a few pointers regarding what I should be choosing when it comes to the various components.

I'll be going for a desktop this time and I'll be buying from Dell (I have a good history with them and I don't have the hardware skills to build a computer or know anyone who could build for me). I'll mostly be using the computer for COH/V but will also probably use it for other newly released games and also some HD video watching/editing (although possibly not too much of the editing).

The main queries I have are:
OS - Vista Home Premium or Ultimate or does it even matter? (Dell doesn't do 64 bit in the range I'm looking at so that's not an issue)
Processor - Dual Core or Quad Core or does it even matter?
Graphics Card - NVIDIA or ATI?
Ageia PhysX card - would it add much to my COH-playing enjoyment?

Any comments on the above would be greatly appreciated!

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OS - If you want a few extra goodies, then go for the Ultimate. But you could always buy Home Premimum, I had that for a month or so because it was before SP1 for Vista was realased and Vista would crash after 5 mins of playing a 8 yr old game, but it ran CoX fine.

Processer - IIRC CoX had problems with Quad. I'm sure I heard it around this forum somewhere.

GFX Card - I'm a Nvidia here, but AFAIK ATI should run with no problems. It's down to personal preference.

PhysX Card - I've never used it, can't say. Although here it says it helps a variety of games: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ageia,1270.html
As for buying it? Can't say, I'm afraid. Gonna have to ask someone who's used it.

ultimate vs home premium, shouldnt affect you really. You will get bored of ultimates little extras pretty quick so stick with home premium. Would recommend 64 bit OS with 4 gb memory tho if you can

Processor: Quad all the way , esp if video playback/encoding. Got a Q9550 E0 running CoH without any issues at all so not sure what the poster before was referring too, course anyone can have issues with games on any hardware

GFX, another vote on nvidia, esp as they brought the physx tech and have added support for it in their cuda drivers using their cards, geforce 8 onwards tho. Just dont bother getting the physx card and use the power of your geforce if you want to get better results get two identical cards and use one for gfx and one physx, supported in nvidia drivers

GL Matey

The duel core quad core thing is thus, CoH will see two cores, no more, same for almost all games, some will only see one.

so unless you are video editing or the like, quad core chips are pointless, just means you get a lot of idle processor time.

gfx is personal choice, i go with what ever works best with the mobo chipset i get. don't bother with Phyis X

Cheers for the responses guys. I've got a HD video camera that I'd use more if I had a computer capable of editing its recordings so I think I may go with quad core for that. I've been having a think about upgrading Vista to 64 bit myself and I think I'll hold off on that until I've had the computer a while to see if I need the extra oomph that that'd bring.

The current model I'm looking at has a Dual SLI 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9800GT card or a 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 280 graphics card available for a little more moolah - which'd be better for my needs/less likely to mess me about for playing games? I'd hate to get a new computer and find after that I can't play COH/V without crashing

Avoid SLi like the plague, if you really feel the need to get the 280, you might want to consider the 4870 X2 which costs the same as a 280 but is a great deal more powerful, as it is two chips on one die.

i just got the 260 my self and it fly's along like nobody's business even at 1680x1050 in Fallout 3.

Thanks, that's some more food for thought. Dell aren't hugely flexible with their graphics card options within each of their base model types so I'm going to have to work with what they offer. That said, the 280 looks mighty fine for my current/future needs from what I've read up on this evening.

If you want more flexibility, I could build you a PC... I've build many in the past and know how it all works. It would literally just be the parts (much cheaper than buying a a pre-built PC) + £50 labour. Obviously I'd build it exactly how you'd want it.

I dunno if you'd consider that, but if so, send me a private message

I appreciate the offer but I think the worrier in me prefers the peace of mind of having a warranty and being able to phone my good friends in India if I run into trouble and need support. Thanks for the offer though

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I appreciate the offer but I think the worrier in me prefers the peace of mind of having a warranty and being able to phone my good friends in India if I run into trouble and need support. Thanks for the offer though

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Lol, the good friends in India...I have a feeling that is not or joke...or maybe it is

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I appreciate the offer but I think the worrier in me prefers the peace of mind of having a warranty and being able to phone my good friends in India if I run into trouble and need support. Thanks for the offer though

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Lol, the good friends in India...I have a feeling that is not or joke...or maybe it is

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^Dell Customer Support

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I appreciate the offer but I think the worrier in me prefers the peace of mind of having a warranty and being able to phone my good friends in India if I run into trouble and need support. Thanks for the offer though

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Lol, the good friends in India...I have a feeling that is not or joke...or maybe it is

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^Dell Customer Support

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Mwhaha... Fair enough mate, hope it goes well for ya!

I went with this configuration in the end:

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Processor Q9450 (2.66Ghz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB cache)
MONITOR 24in S2409W WIDESCREEN UK Black (1920 x 1080)
HARD DRIVE 1.2 TB (2x 640 GB) Serial ATA (7200 Rpm) Dual HDD Config Raid 0 Stripe
MEMORY 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4x1024]
GRAPHICS CARD 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 280 graphics card
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray RW Disc Drive (read/write CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Disc)
SOUND SOFTWARE SoundBlaster™ XFI™ Xtreme Gamer Card

I'm hopeful I'll soon be able to wander around the COV zones with better than the 10 - 20 fps I'm currently getting

Oh, and happy birthday Kinenetical

Thanks for the info - which flavour of Vista did you go with in the end? 64-bit, given that you have 4GB in there?

Will be updating my system in the New Year (maybe a whole new box, maybe just strategic components) and it'd be good to hear how your setup performs so I can offload all the risk-taking in your direction.

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it'd be good to hear how your setup performs so I can offload all the risk-taking in your direction.

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Cheers

I'm going with 32 bit Vista for the time being as that's all Dell offers on the model I went with. I'll more than likely upgrade to 64 bit in the future so that's why I went with the 4 Gbs of RAM.

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I went with this configuration in the end:

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Processor Q9450 (2.66Ghz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB cache)
MONITOR 24in S2409W WIDESCREEN UK Black (1920 x 1080)
HARD DRIVE 1.2 TB (2x 640 GB) Serial ATA (7200 Rpm) Dual HDD Config Raid 0 Stripe
MEMORY 4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [4x1024]
GRAPHICS CARD 1GB nVidia GeForce GTX 280 graphics card
OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-Ray RW Disc Drive (read/write CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Disc)
SOUND SOFTWARE SoundBlaster™ XFI™ Xtreme Gamer Card

I'm hopeful I'll soon be able to wander around the COV zones with better than the 10 - 20 fps I'm currently getting

Oh, and happy birthday Kinenetical

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Oooh nice choice, I bet that was pricey! And thanks!

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it'd be good to hear how your setup performs so I can offload all the risk-taking in your direction.

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Cheers

I'm going with 32 bit Vista for the time being as that's all Dell offers on the model I went with. I'll more than likely upgrade to 64 bit in the future so that's why I went with the 4 Gbs of RAM.

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With only 32bit Vista, you'll only be able to access 3.2gb of that 4gig of RAM. If I were you, I'd buy an OEM copy of the 64bit edition for that rig. See if Dell will ship without an OS and save a bit on it...

64 bit has more chance of there not being compatible drivers for peripherals though doesn't it? I've not used Vista before so I figure it'll be easier to work with the 32 version for now and worry about 64 bit down the road when I feel I might need the extra RAM.

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64 bit has more chance of there not being compatible drivers for peripherals though doesn't it? I've not used Vista before so I figure it'll be easier to work with the 32 version for now and worry about 64 bit down the road when I feel I might need the extra RAM.

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Not with modern devices. It might be the case with a really old devices, but pretty much anything that came out in the last 3 or 4 years will have drivers.

I run Vista x64 Ultimate, and all my devices work fine in it.

Agree with FFM there about 64bit. Am running it flawlessly with every device I have supported.

However I dont agree with getting the OEM version. You can grab a vista home premium upgrade from amazon for about 60 quid and apply to MS for a media change from 32 bit and get the 64bit for about 7 quid (as 32bit is all that comes in the box, apart from Ultimate which ships with both).

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvist...a/default.mspx

However if you are a student etc you can grab Vista Ultimate very cheaply for about 40 quid from http://www.microsoft.com/student/dis...k/default.aspx which is even cheaper.

In theory OEM is limited to that one machine (although I know ppl work around that) but an upgrade version can be put on your computers in the future , one at a time of course