Going to buy a new pc specifically for FM 2010 and to browse the net

This is my first post on here so please take it easy on me lol.

My current PC which is an Acer and the spec is listed below:-

System

Microsoft Windows XP

AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual

Core Processor 3800+

1.00 GHz, 960MB of Ram

I have been told that i have burnt out the CPU on my PC (i have no knowledge whatsoever about PC's) due to playing too long and overheating.

I only ever play the English leagues, mostly down to the lowest league with the biggest database.

When i load my save game i can play about 2 games before my PC becomes very hot and re-sets itself.

I am thinking of buying a new PC but only have a budget of £500 (only need the PC as monitor is fine). Could anybody reccomend a PC which would run the game well?

Might it be best to wait until the specs for FM10 are released? Then you'll be able to get a PC that reaches or exceeds the specs for the game you want to play it on.

Welcome to the forums

Welcome gb80,

Something along these lines is my suggestion. Well under budget too.

Might it be best to wait until the specs for FM10 are released? Then you'll be able to get a PC that reaches or exceeds the specs for the game you want to play it on.

Welcome to the forums

Should my PC have run 09 ok with the spec?

Originally it ran ok but got slower and hotter the more i played it.

Thanks for the reply

Welcome gb80,

Something along these lines is my suggestion. Well under budget too.

Thanks appreciate your help.

Being a complete novice regarding PC's what is important to running FM or is it a mixture of everything?

Decent amount of Ram, half decent graphics card and processor are the keys. That machine more than ticks all the boxes.

FWIW your previous machine should have coped ok with 09, the one I suggested should eat 09 (and thefore FM10, hopefully) for breakfast.

Tbh, yours doesn't sound brilliant but it should cope, yes. Although I doubt you'd be able to run 3D very well.

Minimum specs for FM09 were

XP:

Processor Speed - 1.4GHz

Memory - 512MB

Videocard - 128MB (Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra, ATI Radeon 9800, Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater)

And FM10 is expected to be about the same. Personally I'd look at something like Celtic 1967 suggested, which is way above the minimum and even the recommended. Although it may be more expensive than nessecary, there will be a noticeable difference.

If you wanted you could even get a reasonably good laptop from the same site that Celtic1967 linked to for the money you are prepaired to spend.

I actually saw some excellent laptops for the money, but figured he was replacing like for like. If a laptop appeals then for £500 you'll get one to run FM no probs. Wont be as good as the desktop but thats the computer market for you.

Anyway if you want me to suggest a laptop I happliy will, just say.

Have a look at the dell website.The Inspiron 17 at £399 should meet your needs.

Why can't you just simply buy new CPU, the best possible that is supported by your motherboard?

if you can increase your budget to £900 you can get one of the best gaming desktop out there:

http://alienware.co.uk/main.aspx

If you've a friend that is capable you might be able to upgrade the inards of the machine you have say, a new processor, graphics card and/or maybe extra ram. Get them to look at fans or cooling, can be much, much cheaper. However, some times an upgrade to a completely new machine is necassary but, think about it if it's just for FM and surfing online. Then when are you going to need to upgrade again.

If you can gate a mate round who really knows what they are doing you can do all this on the cheap, or upgrade to a new PC and you'll probably fine for a few more years to come.

if you can increase your budget to £900 you can get one of the best gaming desktop out there:

http://alienware.co.uk/main.aspx

Haha I was going to mention AlienWare.

If you've a friend that is capable you might be able to upgrade the inards of the machine you have say, a new processor, graphics card and/or maybe extra ram. Get them to look at fans or cooling, can be much, much cheaper. However, some times an upgrade to a completely new machine is necassary but, think about it if it's just for FM and surfing online. Then when are you going to need to upgrade again.

If you can gate a mate round who really knows what they are doing you can do all this on the cheap, or upgrade to a new PC and you'll probably fine for a few more years to come.

The issue with upgrades is that you can still be horribly held back by clock speeds. It's alright going for the best processor the motherboard will take, but if the motherboard and ram are running at much lower clock speeds then performance wont be much improved as it will just cause data bottle necks. As such if your upgrading the CPU then it makes much more sense to match that with new RAM and Motherboard if affordable.

Obviously if your happy with the current performance then a new processor and better cooling will be ok.

The issue with upgrades is that you can still be horribly held back by clock speeds. It's alright going for the best processor the motherboard will take, but if the motherboard and ram are running at much lower clock speeds then performance wont be much improved as it will just cause data bottle necks. As such if your upgrading the CPU then it makes much more sense to match that with new RAM and Motherboard if affordable.

Obviously if your happy with the current performance then a new processor and better cooling will be ok.

That makes a lot of sense.

Have a look at www.arbico.co.uk there are some pretty good machines there.

Haha I was going to mention AlienWare.

I'll be getting one of those when i am older, hopefully football manager will still be releasing game when that happens (round 4 to 5 years) fingers crossed!

I'll be getting one of those when i am older, hopefully football manager will still be releasing game when that happens (round 4 to 5 years) fingers crossed!

I can't afford it. Just other more important things to pay for. But they do ooze cool.

/Cries into pillow.

if you can increase your budget to £900 you can get one of the best gaming desktop out there:

http://alienware.co.uk/main.aspx

I dont understand this. OP says budget is £500. So maybe suggestions up to £600 are worthwhile. However suggestions at nearly twice the budget are not realistic regardless how good the machine is.

I highly recommend www.pcspecialist.co.uk . Its where I got my current PC from and I haven't had a single problem with it. For £500, you can get a quadcore processor, 4GB RAM, 250GB hard drive and a decent graphics and sound card.

Get an AMD Phenom processor, they rule.

Have a look at www.arbico.co.uk there are some pretty good machines there.

Arbico are excellent, my last 2 PCs are from there.

Arbico are excellent, my last 2 PCs are from there.

Regarding the option of the laptop - Not really keen and don't think the Mrs wants a laptop.

I have noted the websites which have been posted and past them on to the Mrs to check with her I T dept for them to recommend a PC.

Appreciate the help!

Get an AMD Phenom processor, they rule.

I thought Intel processors rule???

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167441

I think I'm going to go for this one, Quad Core Processor, 800Mhz bus, 4GB DDR3 RAM, upgradable to 8GB (which I will order with it). Graphics are okay, not great, but could get a half decent graphics card for £50 or £60.

Will be able to re-use old mice, keyboard and monitor.

Should run FM2010 like a dream.

Absolutely no point in getting 8 Gig installed unless you will be running a 64 bit OS.

Absolutely no point in getting 8 Gig installed unless you will be running a 64 bit OS.

Like Windows 7 64 bit?

That'll do it.

That'll do it.

Yeah got it on order from ebuyer. Plus 4GB DDR3 RAM, and a reasonable graphics card at £25.00

Bit concerned about getting Windows 7 on release though, Microsoft aren't the best at getting their software out in a fit and working condition on day one though, bit like SI a few years ago (that was a joke btw).

When is Windows 7 out? Will it be soon after FM10?

October 22nd.

whoever told you that is a clueless, get that pc for maintenance - dust removal and eventually cpu fan or fan+heatsink replacement.

October 22nd.

Windows 7? Beta-testers seem to imply FM runs lovely on it - any responses?

Could be worth holding out for a new W7-installed computer to play FM10.

Do not upgrade the current system you have as it is outdated and... not very good.

I would concentrate on getting a pc with a AMD processor (they are fast and cost less then the Intel)

Memory is important but is something you can always upgrade or have someone do it very easily

Graphics card is not so important for FM

Also dont neglect finding one with a big enough harddrive to load more leagues, and bigger database.

whoever told you that is a clueless, get that pc for maintenance - dust removal and eventually cpu fan or fan+heatsink replacement.

Indeed. If all you want to use the pc for is FM and the internet then the pc you have will do fine. All that is happening is that it's overheating because something is wrong with the pc, but almost certainly something that will be much cheaper to fix than going out and buying a new one. As MECAP says it's probably just dust clogging your heatsink, or possibly a fan has given up. A local independent computer shop will sort it for you for very little money. Or you could try and sort it yourself. Open up the side of your pc and use the nozzle on your vacuum cleaner to suck out the dust. Be careful to not bash the motherboard with it though .

EDIT: I see in the original post you refer to 1.00GHz. This is NOT the speed that processor should be running at. The 3800 should run at 1.8GHz and can easily be overclocked to 2.5GHz.

whoever told you that is a clueless, get that pc for maintenance - dust removal and eventually cpu fan or fan+heatsink replacement.

Must agree.

Mine overheats every so often ( every 6 months or so ) as soon as CPU temp hits 95 deg + i get BSOD

I simply give the inside of the case a bloody go vac and de-dust, remove the heatsink and fan, unseat the cpu, clean off the old paste with a weak alcohol based solvent, replace compound past, re-fit the heat sink and fan, and hay presto, my pc if fine and runs at around 60 deg whilst running 30+ leagues with HUGE db selected

Windows 7? Beta-testers seem to imply FM runs lovely on it - any responses?

Could be worth holding out for a new W7-installed computer to play FM10.

Yep, FM09 runs quicker on Win7 than vista in my experience.

I'd recommend being a bit patient and wait for Windows 7 being released officially sometime during October, then get something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-062-OE

It's only £419.98, and if you want you could upgrade to 8GB RAM and it still only comes to £466.97. 8GB is a lot of RAM!

That package doesn't include Windows... Supposedly Windows 7 is a lot better than Vista, Vista can be very annoying at times.

This is my first post on here so please take it easy on me lol.

My current PC which is an Acer and the spec is listed below:-

System

Microsoft Windows XP

AMD Athlon64 X2 Dual

Core Processor 3800+

1.00 GHz, 960MB of Ram

I have been told that i have burnt out the CPU on my PC (i have no knowledge whatsoever about PC's) due to playing too long and overheating.

I only ever play the English leagues, mostly down to the lowest league with the biggest database.

When i load my save game i can play about 2 games before my PC becomes very hot and re-sets itself.

I am thinking of buying a new PC but only have a budget of £500 (only need the PC as monitor is fine). Could anybody reccomend a PC which would run the game well?

i would reccomend not to buy acer in future. i hear constant problems with acer's over-heating all the time. 2-3GB of ram would be great on the next one (not as if ram is expensive these days)

I'd recommend being a bit patient and wait for Windows 7 being released officially sometime during October, then get something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-062-OE

It's only £419.98, and if you want you could upgrade to 8GB RAM and it still only comes to £466.97. 8GB is a lot of RAM!

That package doesn't include Windows, you can either pay for it or get a copy from "somewhere else"... Supposedly Windows 7 is a lot better than Vista, Vista can be very annoying at times.

dont you think 8GB of ram for just one game is a bit excessive? 3-4 would be plenty and ive read quite a few reviews on windows 7. vistarrrrrggghhh is completely useless compared to it. and on some machines bought you are eligible for a windows 7 upgrade upon release. look out for that when buying.

These are the specs of mine, with a free windows 7 update when its out.

Should be alright? Maybe need 8 ports me thinks.

500 GB SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 16MB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 - 896 MB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)

Corsair XMS2 4GB PC-6400 800 MHZ (2 x 2 GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR2)

OCZ 600W Stealth XStream - Low Noise

Standard Operating System Backup

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (4 x 2.83 GHZ) 1333FSB - 12 MB

Asus P5N72-T PREMIUM 1333 FSB (NVIDIA 780i)

X-Clio Super Tower - NEW

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-BIT (Genuine DVD & COA

Speeze QuadroFlow VIII - Low Noise

Norton Anti Virus 2009 (1 Year - 1 PC License)

Motherboard Integrated 5.1 Sound

4 X USB 2.0 Ports

Samsung (S222A) DVD PLUS/-RW 22x Dual Layer - Black (IDE)

Yes, of course that will be alright. A thinly veiled "look at my new PC post" that one Although you haven't mentioned your graphics card there.

What do you need 8 ports for??

Yes, of course that will be alright. A thinly veiled "look at my new PC post" that one Although you haven't mentioned your graphics card there.

What do you need 8 ports for??

Take it 4 is ok then.

graphics card is:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275 - 896 MB - 2xDVI/VGA (XFX)

Is it the 250 or the 275 which is about the most expensive card you can buy these days?

Struggling to think why you would need more than 4 ports - Mouse, keyboard, printer...?

Is it the 250 or the 275 which is about the most expensive card you can buy these days?

Struggling to think why you would need more than 4 ports - Mouse, keyboard, printer...?

External Hard Drive, iPod, Webcam?

surely you wouldnt need them all connected at once?

How many people actually have an external hard drive? You don't need ports with any of the items you listed, as you can just whip one out and replace with the other when you need to use them.

Surely no one permanently has their ipod, webcam, usb hard drive and printer connected to their computer at all times?

You say no-one has, but its not impossible. That said I think more than six is overkill.

If you buy a custom built computer(highly reccomended). Most cases have at least 6+ usb ports