Gaming Desktop Advice Please :)

[chrcar59]

Hello all,

Firstly thank you in advance for your assistance!

I haven't had a desktop for almost 10 years now having been a laptop person.

My laptop is not great for gaming so will leave that to one side for other purposes and get a desktop!

I will be playing games occasionally so performance needs to be ok, after a little research and guessing on my part I have come up with this:


Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA **SPECIAL OFFER**
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £930.00 including VAT and delivery.




I am not an extreme gamer but any tips would be brilliant before I decide to purchase, hopefully this spec is somewhat ok?

Thank you

 

[Narcotics]

Change the motherboard to a ASUS P8Z77-V and if you can get a 560 ti it would be well worth the upgrade. Other than that it looks good:yes:

 

[chrcar59]

Thanks Narcotics,

What's the difference between your chosen and mine?

Also the difference between the 560 and the 560 ti? Other than the £30 price difference?

With the motherboard change and the 560 added, the price has been boosted by £50 to £930

Found easier way of copying haha...


Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA **SPECIAL OFFER**
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £930.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/

 

[Xii_Damian]

560TI is a higher clocked, better version of an already good card (560) I'm a 460 fan-boy but you need 2x of them to pull performance for some demanding games so unless you want to SLI...get a 560

 

[Narcotics]

Thanks Narcotics,

What's the difference between your chosen and mine?

Also the difference between the 560 and the 560 ti? Other than the £30 price difference?

With the motherboard change and the 560 added, the price has been boosted by £50 to £930

Found easier way of copying haha...


Case
InWIN BLACK DRAGON RIDER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA **SPECIAL OFFER**
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £930.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/

http://nl.hardware.info/reviews/215...-560-review-aliens-versus-predator-directx-11

V-LX only supports CrossFire P8Z77-V supports SLI & CrossFire

 

[chrcar59]

All in One Gaming Pc - Purchasing Soon!

Hi all,

I have changed a few parts and have now added a monitor, keyboard and mouse. (Please advise if you believe there are better elsewhere)

I will be purchasing this in the next few days and need final comments/advice as £1200 is a lot of money to me.

I will be using for:

-Latest gaming
-Music
-Video
-Web Surfing

I have tried to scale the price down without compromising performance but if you can see any other places which could be changed please say so

Here it is:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - DVI,HDMI,VGA **SPECIAL OFFER**
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® G110 GAMING KEYBOARD WITH BACKLIGHTING (£69)
Mouse
Razer® Deathadder Re-Spawn 3500DPI Infrared Gaming Mouse (£48)
Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,176.00 including VAT and delivery.

Thanks!

 

[Xii_Damian]

looks good, if you were looking to upgrade in then future and depending on the price I'd get a bigger PSU, all the desktops i see friends getting I refused to let them get lower than 600-850w gives fantastic head room if you by a quality PSU it can be quite future proof

 

[chrcar59]

Thanks Damian, I actually had another play around with this before i read your post and did just that. You have made me happier with the choice i have made.

I have again, changed it slightly upon further research.

I am however still debating a few things and would love some advice on what to do with my situation:

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 500R WHITE MID TOWER CASE - Attractive and from the images, look tidy inside with plenty of space but expensive

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3770 (3.4GHz) 8MB Cache - Still debating whether the I7 is worth the extra cost over the I5 - Future proof?

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX - I don't think i will ever need SLI?

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) - From forum searching, alot have said the Samsung is just as good but few have said the Kingston looks better, not a huge price difference anyway?

Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready - Upgraded to 2GB - Not sure TI is worth the extra money from looking at the stats?

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW) - For O/S and Games - Is 120gb enough?

2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) - All other - Still debating whether to get Green 2.5TB instead...Performance or Space hmmmmm....

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69) - Future proof

Processor Cooling
TITAN FENRIR EVO EXTREME HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£39) - Sounds good haha? Do i really need it?

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD) - I have speakers so not really needed.

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2473HDS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, 2 HDMI/DVI-D 1920x1080 (£159) - Have had a look around and all seem similar priced

Cable Tidy
JML 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management For Your PC (£4)

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,267.00 including VAT and delivery.

My price keeps going up and up, only really wanted to spend around the £1000 mark but worried about the future with technology advances. Really could use some reassurance on this set up please.

Thank you!

Im also now thinking of downgrading the Case and upgrading the graphics card? Suggestions?

 

[lady0sheep]

Have you had a SSD before? SSDs are really speedy yes, but if you want to upgrade the graphics card and are looking for something to downgrade for this then you could leave out the SSD for now and you'll have extra cash for a graphics card, that's what I did, with the intention of getting a SSD in a year or so's time when I can afford a decent sized one (at least 240gb) that I can put my OS and probably Steam with quite a few large games installed. My pc is pretty damn speedy, games open quickly and it boots up fast so I'm not really regretting it at the moment.

Having said that, if you've had a SSD before I've heard it's often a case of once you've had one you'll never go back, so I guess in the end it's your choice but I chose a better GPU instead of an SSD within my budget.

In terms of RAM, I went for the 1600Mhz simply because it was only £9 more than the slower stuff, so meh

Processor wise, guess it's up to you. I know several people who had the i5 2500k (the Sandy bridge 'version' of the i53750k) and it's lasted them a while already and is holding up fine for all the games they've wanted to play on high graphics. I went for the i5 3750k myself, with the thought that if I decided I wanted a faster processor I could always overclock it in the future for the simple cost of upgrading my cooler rather than getting a whole new processor. I'm not anticipating really wanting or needing this any time soon though. Most games won't make the most of the i7's hyperthreading, I guess they might start in the future but I'm guessing not for a while.

Edit: Just saw your question about the cooler, the answer is no, unless you plan to over clock, for which you'd need the i5 3570k processor instead of the 3550.

 

[chrcar59]

Thanks Sarah,

I've gone and done it again but I think I have improved graphics performance immensely.

I've downgraded the case, the i7, hdd memory and the cooler.

I couldn't bring myself to take away the SSD because of what I have read and heard.

I think this will be what I will be purchasing unless someone comes in and replies with any good ideas before Sunday.

I'm hoping this will last for years with good future updates.

Btw, I stole your case Lady but may regret not getting the Corsair but hey ho!

Here it is:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 330 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD7502AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,204.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/

Comments please?


Edit: i forgot to mention. I have a Samsung LE32C450 tv and was wondering if I could use this as a monitor and if so, what wires would I need for it to work?

Please could someone check also if you see any problems with the set up that I have done?

The £1200 budget is perfect for me.

 

[chrcar59]

Anyone please?

Need this final bit of information before I purchase

 

[keynes]

Anyone please?

Need this final bit of information before I purchase

The specs looks good, allows you to add a second GPU if needed. Looking at the features of your TV it allows for either DVI or HDMI, I'd buy a DVI cable and use external speakers.

 

[chrcar59]

The specs looks good, allows you to add a second GPU if needed. Looking at the features of your TV it allows for either DVI or HDMI, I'd buy a DVI cable (around £1 on amazon) and use external speakers.

Thank you! +rep

Would the quality be ok compared to a normal led monitor?

I already have external speakers so happy about that.

Cancel: I have decided to purchase a monitor instead. Found a 24 inch Acer on Amazon for £127 so will go with that. However I will still purchase the dvi cable should I wish to watch movies on my tv!

I am now going to buy my perfect pc!

Thanks all


Halifax blocking my payment because it's a large amount, now charging me premium number to get this authorised. Hmmmmmm!