Advice please!

[pluginbaby]

Hi guys,

The time has come for a new desktop after having a Dell XPS gaming laptop for the past 4-5 years that is now struggling to play the latest games at a decent framerate on even average settings.

I will be using it for online gaming (I want it to be capable of playing new games utilising Unreal Engine 4 - as, finally a new Unreal Tournament is under development YES! - at Ultra settings with a smooth framerate) along with the usual browsing/Office use. I won't be doing anything majorly intensive like rendering or video editing though.

My budget is probably in the 1200-1300 range.

Whilst I am a big gamer, my knowledge of components isn't fantastic (i.e, I am told not to touch AMD in the processor stakes, and the price between AMD and Intel on PCS seems to indicate as much, is that right?) so any spec that could be provided as a base would be superb. Obviously as I am upgrading from a laptop, so I will be looking for a monitor as well. Preferably 1920x1080 resolution.

Any help you guys can put forward would be most appreciated - I am concerned about trying it on my own and not having enough in terms of power supply/cooling etc so thought it best to ask the masters in advance!

Cheers

 

[keynes]

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z87X-SLI: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
3GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 780 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Free Item
FREE WATCH DOGS with GTX 660 & 7 Series GPUs!
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
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 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,281.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-haswell-pc/mp_oTMQ6NV/

 

[mantadog]

Looks like Keynes got carried away and forgot the monitor.. naughty boy...

Have a think and see how much SSD space you need. 240GB may be excessive. Depends what you want to install on the SSD though, windows takes about 40GB leaving you about 60/65GB to play with. the SSD is great for launching the OS and applications quickly, not for storing data on. So frequently used games and applications along side the OS go on that. Take a view on what you think that would add up to and if its less than 60ish then the 120 is fine. That would pay for your monitor, give or take anyway.

For the monitor, I don't really know, iiyama were highly recommended here for a while. They're all the same to me, I don't really have an eye for detail.

For gaming intel is currently dominating AMD, so yes intel wins. It's a little more complicated than that, but its 9 past midnight and im bored typing. Intel for your build is the way to go.

 

[pluginbaby]

Thanks so much guys for the quick responses, I really do appreciate it! I think I will drop the SSD down to 120gb as you suggest to get a monitor in there without really changing the price much. Is 8gb of RAM likely to require upgrading in the near future (gaming wise) or is it still, at the moment, absolutely fine?

 

[keynes]

Thanks so much guys for the quick responses, I really do appreciate it! I think I will drop the SSD down to 120gb as you suggest to get a monitor in there without really changing the price much. Is 8gb of RAM likely to require upgrading in the near future (gaming wise) or is it still, at the moment, absolutely fine?

8gb is perfectly fine for gaming.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Thanks so much guys for the quick responses, I really do appreciate it! I think I will drop the SSD down to 120gb as you suggest to get a monitor in there without really changing the price much. Is 8gb of RAM likely to require upgrading in the near future (gaming wise) or is it still, at the moment, absolutely fine?

It's fine, but get the fury ram as it's cheaper

 

[pluginbaby]

Excellent, one final question, I will be using a wireless connection, is the £16 wireless network card required for that or is it 'on board' elsewhere?

 

[keynes]

You would need a wireless card but I would recommend a pair of homeplugs instead.