Is this a good buy for my first gaming pc.

[joedavison]

This is the infinity Apollo pro. Its going to be 600 pounds which is the upper end of my budget if anyone on here could make some suggestions on changes to this build or another build that would be better that would be great. not very keen on building a pc my-self so would prefer a pre-built one.Thanks.

Case: Cooler Master Elite 310 Mid Tower Gaming Case with see-thru side panel
Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default Case Fan
CPU: INTEL® Core™ Pentium™ Anniversary Edition G3258 3.2 GHz 3MB Intel Smart Cache LGA1150 + HD Graphics ***Overclockable XXX***
Overclocking Service: XXX Overclocking (CPU Extreme overclock: guaranteed min. 20%, max. 30%.)
Cooling Fan: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 Evo with 3 x Direct Contact heat-pipes CPU Cooling Fan ***Overclockable XXX***
Motherboard: ASUS H81M-D Plus INTEL H81 Chipset, Micro ATX Mainboard w/ 2 RAM slots, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, USB 3.0, SATA-III, 1x Gen2 PCIe x16, 2x PCIe x 1
Memory: 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3/1866mhz Dual Channel Memory (HyperX Fury White w/Heat Spreader)
Video Card: AMD Radeon R9 280X 3GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Single Card)
Power Supply Upgrade: 600 Watts Power Supplies (Corsair 600 Watts CX600 Gaming Power Supply, 80+)
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive (Single Hard Drive)
Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)
Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
LCD Monitor: 22" TFT Active Matrix LED Display (22" (21.5" Viewable) Wide TFT Panel Black 1920X1080 5ms, D-Sub, DVI)
Network: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 8.1 (64-bit Edition)

 

[keynes]

Since the forum belongs to PCS it is not encouraged to give advice on other retailers.

 

[ricbai]

Okay, your spec comes to £531 ex vat (637.20 inc vat) from the "other company" - let's see how close we can get that with http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk ... It's going to be tricky as good quality components cost and £600 is quite a small budget for a gaming rig (mine cost circa £3k for a 4K monitor, 16Gb 2400Mhz RAM, Intel Core i7 Six Core, 4Gb Geforce GTX 980, 500Gb SSD and 4Tb data drive: admittedly, that is probably overkill for most things [although Warcraft at 90fps is nice - and that's windowed!])

Interesting enough, while trying to replicate the spec, PCS' configurator said the G3258 has a maximum RAM speed of 1333Mhz (and "confirmed" via TomsHardware.com and LinusTechTips.com ) so going for faster RAM (such as the 1866Mhz) is a bit pointless : and with that spec you need around 426W of power (so a more powerful PSU would go to waste) - odd that the "other company" doesn't alert you to things like that - it's another thing I like about PCS, they appear to be "honest and upfront" with you and try and actually try and stop you spending money you don't need to!

Case: COOLERMASTER ELITE 342 M-ATX CASE
Processor (CPU): Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core G3258 (3.2GHz, 3MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard: ASUS® H81M-PLUS: Micro-ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM): 8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card : 3GB AMD RADEON™ R9 280 - DVI, HDMI, mDP - DX® 11.2, Eyefinity
1st Hard Disk : 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive : 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply : CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling : INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste : STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card : ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking: 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
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)
Monitor: AOC 21.5" WIDESCREEN LED TFT - 1920 x 1080, 5MS, D-Sub, DVI-D (£87)
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 5 to 7 working days

Price: £663 inc VAT and delivery : Play with the spec here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-home-office-pc/6GqkANv5DW/

With that spec, yes the RAM is slightly slower (but your chosen CPU can't use it to the maximum speed anyway), a 0.5" inch reduction in the montitor and no Eye-infinity 4 support on the GPU.

So why buy from PCS if it's going to cost you a bit more? Well, this active forum is one Official support is pretty good too, PCS have an excellent rating on TrustPilot (9.3 out of 10 on 8,996 reviews: the "other supplier" has 9.1/10 from 1425 reviews), a 4.6/5 rating on ReviewCentre (the "other supplier" has 3.5/5 from 27 reviews), a 93% positive rating from 1672 reviews from Ciao (yes, the "other company" has a 100% rating on Ciao, but that's only from 4 reviews) - all those are third party independent review sites: reviews "on site" from the different manufacturers may be "moderated" - and PCS provide "normal rate" telephone support (03 numbers - the "other company" uses 084 numbers which aren't included in most call plans). Of course, as a PCS customer I'm biased, but I've had a problem with my PCS rig (a faulty component caused the PSU to fail, but PCS shipped a replacement PSU out to me, that failed again due to the component, and then picked up my PC, rebuilt it entirely from scratch and sent it back out - all without any additional cost).