Computer doom :(
My monitor is dying :'( It's a nice little flatscreen that I've had for years (I think it's from the PC before last) and I'm going to miss it. For a while there has been a strange pink glow sometimes, but then yesterday it started properly flickering, and making strange hissy humming noises, which I suspect is in some sense not good. New monitors are a bit expensive, so I think this is probably a good time to do something relatively cost efficient and buy a whole new PC + monitor package.
OOI, what sort of processors and graphics cards should I be looking for, for something reasonably up to date? Are Athlon processors OK? Does the number of GHz matter very much, because I've just seen a 2.60GHz that promises it's the latest thing, and yet there seem to be 2.90 GHz processors around? How about NVidia graphics cards? What are integrated graphics, exactly? And is something that says 'HD graphics' a good option or a bad option? (NB I'm a strategic gamer, if that makes a difference - would like to play Rome Total War and Civ IV, and maybe the odd older RPG but nothing that would involve super-shiny fast movement, most of the time!) All advice appreciated :)
I'm looking for something that's at least 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, comes with a shiny monitor, CD/DVD rewritable drive, hopefully in black, etc. I guess I'll end up in PC World!
OOI, what sort of processors and graphics cards should I be looking for, for something reasonably up to date? Are Athlon processors OK? Does the number of GHz matter very much, because I've just seen a 2.60GHz that promises it's the latest thing, and yet there seem to be 2.90 GHz processors around? How about NVidia graphics cards? What are integrated graphics, exactly? And is something that says 'HD graphics' a good option or a bad option? (NB I'm a strategic gamer, if that makes a difference - would like to play Rome Total War and Civ IV, and maybe the odd older RPG but nothing that would involve super-shiny fast movement, most of the time!) All advice appreciated :)
I'm looking for something that's at least 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, comes with a shiny monitor, CD/DVD rewritable drive, hopefully in black, etc. I guess I'll end up in PC World!