A question to you computer experts

I am a PC gaming enthusiast, but I have no idea about anything to do with computers - usually my dad or his work colleagues help me out when the computer goes weird. So my problem is for my birthday a year ago, my dad got me a pretty high-spec desktop PC that was custom made - it was great, and played all my games, and then just started to overheat - we did everything, installing fans, going through the whole system to make sure nothing was wrong, even keeping tabs on the temperature constantly - yet something was obviously wrong with it. We had to give it back.

In compensation we got to buy another computer. This one we custom built again (I have no idea what that even really means), so it even had water inside to keep everything cool. Everything went great, until it, for some reason I can't even remember, screwed up. We gave it back.

I have many PC games and have only been able to play on the family laptop, which can barely support games like Left4Dead... so I was wondering, how could you purchase a desktop PC that was not custom built, so there would be no possible problems in its building, but that could play all the latest games (Crysis, I'm looking at you) without problem. Even better - is there any generic laptop on the market that can easily play these kinds of games? If so, how do I find them?

By the way - I live in the United Kingdom.

Why not buy a computer from a major company like Dell, for example? Dell sells XPS systems designed for what you want to do. You can configure it easily on the site and they offer tips on what you should get for what types of games/activities you use. If you are looking for serious horsepower, check out Alienware. They are expensive, but make some very fast systems.

Dell & alienware are a complete ripoff if you know how to make a computer yourself, you just saved yourself some serious cash.

as for the over heating, the case could have been one, have you made sure your cpu fan had not popped off the mobo?

I had an incident where i thought my 4870 had cooked itself, because everytime i ran a game my computer would die out.

what happened was the mobo fan came loose.

with the water cooling did you refill it when it needed to be refilled?

Fans are always a good start, but you need to make sure your tower has good airflow. (i'd recommend a thermaltake case)

Why not buy a computer from a major company like Dell, for example? Dell sells XPS systems designed for what you want to do. You can configure it easily on the site and they offer tips on what you should get for what types of games/activities you use. If you are looking for serious horsepower, check out Alienware. They are expensive, but make some very fast systems.

fib112

it sounds like your dad could help you to make a pc... pick out a bare bones kit and have your dad pick out the components from there... and i would try to find out what went wrong with the last two so you can prevent it this time

if prebuilt is a must requirement i believe this will float ur boat and not seem unreasonable. that i know of this is a cheap as they get and will DOMINATE any current laptop:

link

for those to lazy to check heres the basics of the system:

4GB DDR3

640GB HDD 72,000rpm (most likely a seagate or western digital)

ati hd 4850 512mb

windows vista 64-bit

intel core i7-920

granted this pc is a dell and its from bestbuy but for barely $1000 thats a steal and YOU KNOW IT.

this rig will play w/e whenever u want it and still be useful later down the road.

if prebuilt is a must requirement i believe this will float ur boat and not seem unreasonable. that i know of this is a cheap as they get and will DOMINATE any current laptop:

link

for those to lazy to check heres the basics of the system:

4GB DDR3

640GB HDD 72,000rpm (most likely a seagate or western digital)

ati hd 4850 512mb

windows vista 64-bit

intel core i7-920

granted this pc is a dell and its from bestbuy but for barely $1000 thats a steal and YOU KNOW IT.

this rig will play w/e whenever u want it and still be useful later down the road.

aura_enchanted

locally here in canada a similar pc would set you back roughly 1,500 as the cpu alone (localy) is $400-450