New PC.

I am soon to buy a new PC. Would a dedicated graphics card be better than an intergrated one?

I was thinking of buying an all in one PC if you've any suggestions.

Cheers.

Dedicated is always better than integrated, but you get what you pay for.

Integrated graphics on Sandy Bridge processors should play FM without too many issues, but then again often you will want to do more than FM on a PC. You might not think that way now, but you might in the future.

What's your budget?

Around £600 to maybe £900tops. A lot of the all in ones have intergrated graphics but is processor speed more of a factor with FM.

I currently have Intel Core 2CPU 6400@2.13Ghz 2.13Ghz and a ATI Radoen x1600 card and it works fine.

For the last rig I spec'd up I went to http://www.chillblast.com/home.php?cat=262, if you're willing to push to the upper limits of your budget then you will be able to find a very good FM rig.

I purchased an overclockeed i7 from them over 2 years ago & it hasn't skipped a beat.

Was thinking of this one-http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-touchsmart-310-1220uk-20-all-in-one-pc-10452195-pdt.html

How would this fair with FM?

Or this one-http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-onetwo-li6327-23-all-in-one-pc-10509028-pdt.html

Personally I do not ever suggest buying a from PC World.

pcspecialist.....

Checked out the processor on these, and it was released the first quarter of this year. It's Sandybridge architecture - which means that the processor has integrated graphics - so a separate graphics card isn't really required, but I would still prefer a standalone graphics card.

Been thinking about this one £575.38 - 15.5 inch screen

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-rc520-core-i5-2410m-6gb-ram-750gb-hdd-15-6--windows-7-home-premium-64bit-laptop-7KZ5.html?refs=466560000-54950000

Smaller screen 15.5inch, but it also has a dedicated graphics card. The graphics card was released in 2010 as is an Entry Level graphics card for laptops. Which combined with the integrated graphics card in the Processor and the standalone graphics card it should be MORE than enough for FM12.

£667.93 17 Inch Screen

http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo-g770-i5-2410m-8gb-750gb-dvd-rw-17-3-w7hp-7LTD.html?refs=54590000-54950000-51220000

Same processor as all above - larger screen. No dedicated graphics card though.

And this one - £768.56 17 inch screen

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-rc720-core-i5-2410-6gb-ram-750gb-hdd-17-3--windows-7-home-premium-64-bit-laptop-7KZ7.html?refs=51220000-466560000-54950000

Larger screen. Dedicated graphics card for Entry-Level laptops.

And this one £880.00

http://www.dabs.com/products/toshiba-satellite-p750-113---core-i5-2410m-2-3-ghz---6gb-ram---640-hdd--15-6--tft-7NGC.html?refs=466560000-54950000

It's the same deal as the above, except it has a slightly better graphics card - which is middle class, not entry level, which is better graphics card than all above.

All of them have above 4gb RAM (memory) which is PLENTY.

I had a look at some laptops with 4gb but they weren't suitable, I thought.

Those PC's look remarkably like laptops, do you work for Dabs.com?

Well if it's a PC - you can check the same stats through the desktop links.

I don't work for Dabs, I just love the interface in selecting items. And laptops are way cooler. Nothing like playing FM on a sunny afternoon in the back garden with a few beers lol.

I actually think they do decent stuff and Dell used to have a similar interface, as did Komplett but they changed man, they used to be cool.

Much easier with your budget to just build your own from scratch.

I shopped between Novatech and Overclock and spent about £1100 on my new set up.

Bits I bought include

i7 2600k processor

8gb RAM (you will not need anymore)

Asus board

Corsair 750w PSU

Corsair H7 water cooling system.

The i7 2600k processor can be comfortably overclocked to 4.5 - FM literally flies.

I run about 36 leagues, most playable, database has about 65'000 players and I still get 3 1/2 stars for computer performance.

If you holiday, it completes a season in about 45 minutes or less!

This was one desktop I was looking at for myself

http://www.dabs.com/products/zoostorm-intel-core-i7-2600-8gb-500gb-dvdrw-win-7-pro-64-bit-7N4Y.html?refs=4294944212

It's a Zoostorm though, never heard of them? And the rest on the i7 range on Dabs are HPs which I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy lol (personal reasons).

It doesn't have a standalone graphics card though -unsure if you can add one? - and it doesn't come with a monitor.

And then there is this one

http://www.dabs.com/products/zoostorm-zoostorm-pc-7877-0176-7MW3.html?refs=4294944205-457210000

Again, Zoostorm brand, not familar with them. But specs look good. Processor relased 1st Quarter 2011, decent speed. Lots or RAM.

No monitor or standalone graphics card - unsure if you can add one?

What's up with all the Desktop PCs having no standalone graphics cards?

get one with an SSD-disk (much faster/more silent than normal HD) + USB 3.0

Any new PC will run FM no problem. If you're only going to play FM, dont waste money on a high-end graphic card. Integrated will do.

I'd take atleast 8GB RAM though

While FM doesn't particularly need a standalone graphics card, and integrated will do - as the i-series (i3, i5, i7) processors with Sandybridge technology will have the graphics integrated inside the processor itself.

There's no reason to think that in FM15 that you won't need a Standalone graphics card. Or FM 20

Rule of thumb, plan for the future.

You can see in the list above (in a 10 minute search) the cheapest laptop at the top of the pile has a Standalone graphics card, all-be-it an entry level (bottom rung) graphics card.

So it's not that you're wasting money with buying an standalone graphics card - you just have to be careful when picking up on the computer and reading it's specs.

And I 2nd SSD (solid state drives) they are nice, but they can be expensive addition to buying a computer.

Using your example the best option is to not buy a dedicated GFX now as one can always be purchased down the line & of course any GFX currently on the market may not be sufficent in 3-4 years unless you're going to spend top Dollar, buying a low spec GFX is just not worth it.

As for SSD if you have the spare cash then it's always worth while having one to run the OS but I'd always suggest having a standard HDD for files, games & other general software as SSD's have the truoblesome issue of limited write cycles

SSD write cycle limits are overplayed, almost mythical. There are cases where you might need to worry about SSDs but they are generally not for consumers to worry about - it's industrials and corporations who require constant writing to and deleting from disk, 24/7, lots of small files in high volume (gigabytes per day). You are likely to end up replacing your PC before an SSD fails.

x42bn6 - do you know anything about the Zoostorm computers? Build quality or anything?

For the GFX card, I was simply going by the OPs budget. Starting at the lowest price, to the highest. The highest priced computer below £900 had the mid level graphics card. I'm sure if you went over £900 you could find a high-level graphics card, but that's not in the OPs budget.

From what I can find is that anything with a high end graphics card you're working into +£1000 range up to £4000.

And anything with even a slightly better processor in the i5 range pushed the price past £900 and anything in the i7 range pushed past the £1000 mark.

Working in the budget of the OP I selected about 15 computers and narrowed them down based on specs and comparison of processor, RAM, and graphics card.

Never heard of Zoostorm, but the fact they don't appear to have PCs with the i5-2500K is a little worrying. Some of their hardware appears a little... Dated.

Goto http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/mainstream-intel-sandy-bridge/

Select the 11th case (65 bucks), Intel i5-2500K, ASUS P8Z68-V, 8GB Kingston DDR3, 1GB AMD Radeon HD6850

1TB Serial ATA, 24x Dual Layer, Memory card reader

Corsair 650W enthusiast TX650, Intel Socket LGA1155, Onboard 6channel, Onboard 10/100/1000, 6 x USB2.0

Windows 7 Premium 64bit

Select this stuff and leave the rest to default. Should come out to be 691 pounds.

Get the Dell U2311H for ~200 bucks and Mouse and KB of your choice from amazon or something.

Thanks for the input folks but its an all in one pc or nothing im afraid. Need to cut space around my office.

Thanks for the input folks but its an all in one pc or nothing im afraid. Need to cut space around my office.

The difficulty is that all-in-one PCs aren't that popular so it's not really that easy to find them. In addition, they tend to be more expensive and surprisingly bulky.

In addition, the many reviews I've seen always pound all-in-ones due to a lack of performance or design flaws. Personally, I'm not convinced they're really value-for-money either.

Was thinking of this one-http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-touchsmart-310-1220uk-20-all-in-one-pc-10452195-pdt.html

How would this fair with FM?

Or this one-http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-onetwo-li6327-23-all-in-one-pc-10509028-pdt.html

If it came down to a choice between the two, take the second one - the i5-2400S is a much better processor. However, it's designed for low power consumption (hence the "S" in the processor name) - I'm really not sure this is what you need!

I can't find anything that betters the latter link, however.

Wow just how much did this topic turn from a guy wanting to run FM on a new pc(decent budget)to people telling him to get the latest gaming set up?

Not sure why anyone would suggest a SSD instead of just single hard drives,or indeed just 1 hard drive the guy has a decent budget but why would he need an SSD for FM?...well except the fact his windows would load faster >_>

Anyway.

Get yourself a good 4x or better processor,you can get them at a decent price these days,also make sure your motherboard either has or can take 8gb of RAM.

If you are buying a new system make sure you get a 64bit windows operating system(same price as a 32bit) so you can use the 8gb of RAM.

As for a graphic card you are always best to have a stand alone,you do not need anything fancy unless you want to play the best of games,for around 100 pounds you can pick up a Nvidia 550ti or 1 of the older models such as the gts450 they will more than do your needs.

He wants an all-in-one - that pretty much rules out an external video card and 8 GB of RAM. Not that he will really need either...

Gonna go for an HP Touchsmart 610-1100. £850. Intel® CoreTM i3-550 Processor.4 GB RAM.ATI Radeon HD 4270.

Cheers for all the advice.

I'm not too great with PC's, so can someone answer this quick question: Can you get a PC with a dedicated graphics card already built in it?

Ok, since we're having this discussion, can I come in with what is probably quite a dumb question?

Is there such a thing as a PC monitor which can double as a TV, but not for the purposes of watching TV, more for hooking up to my PS3? I've been wanting a new desktop for a while and just came into some money so the urge to buy has been very strong BUT I've got no space for a desktop. My plan, therefore, is to chuck out my old massive gaming TV and replace it with a desktop computer, but that leaves me with nowhere to plug in my PS3, so I was wondering if there was a computer monitor that would accept being hooked up to a games console. Cheers.

Doesn't the PS3 use HDMI? Without HDCP? Any monitor with an HDMI input should, in that case, do.

Doesn't the PS3 use HDMI? Without HDCP? Any monitor with an HDMI input should, in that case, do.

Awesome, I thought there was probably some simple answer, just to prove the depths of my lack of tech-savvy, cheers