Hi, I am in need of a new tower. mine which is only 2 years old( packard Bell )has died on me.I mainly play the casual games now,but still some adventure ones which actually ran quite well on the packard bell but I do not wish to buy another one. I can go up to £350-£400. I have been recommended to get the Levona H420, but on reading the reviews it says not very good for playing games on. At the moment I am using my husbands which is Acer. I have also found a Dell Inspiron 560 for £399. I would appreciate your advice please Sam.

Hi ya Samson, I'm going to move you over to Glitches. The folks over there are the real experts.

samson, are your sure your computer has died? Could it be that you just need to replace the power supply?

Or the hard drive.

I have had someone out to look at it, and he says it is broken. He did say it would not be worth fixing. Sam

samson,
You can check out this site,but I do not know if they ship to the UK.
( http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ )

Cyber Power has their own UK website...

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/

samson out of curiosity did the person who looked at your computer tell you specifically what's not worth fixing?

A two year old computer really isn't that old, so I'm questioning what's broken that makes it not worth the money to repair it.

Before going in for a new system I'd get a second opinion, just to make sure it really isn't worth the money to fix.

I agree, Homer. If the motherboard is fried, that's one thing, but if it's just the hard drive or the power supply, that's easily fixed.

He said it was the motherboard.I think he was trustworthy but you never know do you. Has anyone any idea if the two I mentioned would be any good for playing the casual games I like.They were the Lenova H420 and the Dell Inspiron 560. I have found a couple more in my price range. Tha Advent DT1404, HP Pavillion p6-2010uk, and Acer X1430 or if anyone can recommended any more I would be very grateful. Thank you Sam

If you got the Inspiron 560 model that had the Radeon HD 6450 video card, it would be adequate for casual games. I would not recommend getting one with Intel graphics, which is probably what you'd find in local stores, so be sure to check what the computer is using for graphics if you buy one locally. Intel graphics might be adequate for most casual games, but even casual games are starting to require a better video card than Intel graphics -- for example the latest Ravenhearst game. With Intel graphics, some casual games would have to be played windowed instead of full screen due to excessive sluggishness and flickering screen, and some games might not play at all.

I can't tell that the Lenovo H420 comes with anything other than Intel graphics.


As far as I can tell, the Advent DT1404 and HP Pavilion p6-2010 only come with Intel graphics. The Acer X1430 has integrated AMD Radeon HD 6320 which is very low end and might not be much better than Intel. You really should try to get a computer with a separate video card.

If you are more concerned with price than anything else, go ahead and get one with Intel graphics. As I said, it will probably play most casual games, though some will have to be played windowed to avoid flickering screen or sluggishness.

Jenny, this raises a question I don't know the answer to re Intel graphics. I know the good old Intel GMA 4500 motherboard integrated graphics are not good at all for gaming. But, do you know anything about the Intel 2000 and 3000 graphics that are integrated into the new Sandy Bridge CPUs? They are supposed to be excellent for movies etc. But what about gaming? And I don't mean Battlefield 3 or Crysis 2 which obviously need a hefty stand-alond video card, but rather casual gaming and adventure gaming.

For instance, the Advent DT1404 and the HP P6-2010 have the G620 CPU which is a low-end Sandy Bridge CPU with the Intel 2000 graphics. I put this processor into my mother's new build and it's appears to be fine for playing her Hoyle card games and the great-grandkids playing simple Big Fish games, but I'm leery of it with the new Big Fish games or a newer adventure game.

Can you please tell me if intel pentium is the same as intel graphics, and what the difference is between dual core and quad core. Thanks Sam

Drac,
I can only tell you about my experience with the Intel GMA X3100 (GM965) on a Vista laptop. It was fine with most casual games (HOGs, IHOGs, and Adventure Lite like Nancy Drew Dossier) until about a year ago, though some games had to be played windowed. There were even YouTube videos where determined gamers were able to coax the GMA X3100 into playing older FPS games at acceptable rates. Unlike earlier Intel graphics, the GMA X3100 (and the X3000 which was the desktop equivalent) was capable of hardware T&L.

The GMA 4500 you mention is faster and more capable than the X3100 and should be capable of playing most casual games now, though some may need to be played windowed. But I'm just extrapolating from my experience with Intel X3100 and older games. Unfortunately even the GMA 4500 shares the same problem that all Intel graphics have shared -- poor driver compatibility with games (except for casual games where they do test with recent Intel graphics).

Samson,
Intel Pentium is a type of processor. The processor is the "brains" for your whole computer.

Intel graphics is only the video -- what you see on your monitor. Intel graphics are often used on Intel motherboards, though not every motherboard has onboard graphics. They are low cost compared to separate video cards and not meant for gaming. The only reason they have 3D at all is because Vista and Windows 7 have the 3D Aero desktops.

A dual core processor has two processing cores.
A quad core processor has four processing cores.
More cores won't make much difference with games that can't make use of four cores. There are Darkside games that require processors with two or more cores, but I don't know of any adventure games that do.

I know it's been a long time since I did this search, but this list of games that play on the Intel 2000/3000 integrated CPU graphics popped up right away.

Intel 2000/3000 Integrated CPU Graphics.

And some benchmarks...

2000/3000 Benchmarks

Since Samson is looking at a couple of desktops using the G620 Sandy Bridge processor which uses the Intel 2000 graphics, maybe this will help determine the gaming capabilities of the chip.

Thank you for your help. I was wondering if I can up my price from £400-£500 which one would you recommend please. Sam

Samson, if you're shopping at Dixon's, the cheapest one with dedicated graphics I saw was £629.99.

Maybe Jenny or Inland can give a better idea of whether those CPU integrated graphics will work for casual gaming or not. What kind of gaming do you like?

Thank you for your help I have eventually settled on a Dell with dedicated graphics. A friend helped me pick one out. I hope it does the job. The games i like are mainly lite adventure with a few hidden objects. Once again thank you Sam

Enjoy your new computer!

I'm glad to hear you were able to find something.
It's a bit difficult to recommend computers for someone in a different country who doesn't want to buy online.