Looking for advice for new gaming PC

Xharken

Xharken

Active member
Hi folks,

I bought my last PC in 2014 with advice from people here and it was a great PC. I am now looking for some advice to purchase a more modern gaming pc. I would ideally like to run games like Warhammer Total War, Fallout 4 & Witcher 3 on the highest settings and can maintain frame rates of 80+.

Below is my current pc and advice on possible upgrades would be appreciated.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
Gigabyte Z97-HD3: ATX, LG1150, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready

1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)

2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

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

Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler

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

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

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Are you looking to get a whole new pc or just to upgrade a couple of components?

Overall the machine you currently have doesn't look bad at all, you could slot in a new GPU and see how that goes. If you then still want a new computer you could just swap it into the new rig when it comes.
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
You won't get a PC that's really worth buying for £1000. You could buy a PC with an i7, fast RAM etc and reuse your current GPU, ssd, etc but that seems like a waste. It would help with FO4 and WHTW, particularly with minimum FPS, but it's not great value.

A new GPU would improve your average FPS. Why do you want 80+ FPS? What monitor are you using?
 
Xharken

Xharken

Active member
Oussebon said:
You won't get a PC that's really worth buying for £1000. You could buy a PC with an i7, fast RAM etc and reuse your current GPU, ssd, etc but that seems like a waste. It would help with FO4 and WHTW, particularly with minimum FPS, but it's not great value.

A new GPU would improve your average FPS. Why do you want 80+ FPS? What monitor are you using?
Click to expand...

That was actually a typo.. whoops :p, I meant 60fps+. What kind of budget would I need to think amout to get a real improvment on what I currently have?
 
Oussebon

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
To answer your question, something like:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 III ADVANCED CASE (GREEN)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-7700k Quad Core (4.20GHz @ up to 4.8GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX Z270E GAMING: LG1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GB, Wi-Fi - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1[SUP]st[/SUP] Hard Disk
2TB SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
M.2 SSD Drive
256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
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 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Quantity
1

Price £1,680.00 including VAT and delivery

Unique URL to re-configure : https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/intel-z270-overclocked/YZZxnJ09TR/

But it's really not worth it imo.

In all honesty I'd probably recommend sticking it out until the next gen of CPUs and just putting up with slightly reduced settings in Total War etc. Unless units of 160 peasants/goblins are worth £1700 more than units of 120 goblins at 1080p. Literally maxing out settings, especially in titles like TW, generally isn't worth it.

If you're desperate for an upgrade, another option would be to upgrade your monitor to a 1440p gsync one (or even a 4k gsync one) and an appropriate GPU. Which would still be cheaper than the above spec. (or wait for AMD to launch Vega in a month and stick with freesync, which would probably be even cheaper.)

Since this synchronises your monitor's refresh rate to your GPU's FPS output, you don't get the same kind of stuttery experience you so with Vsync at 60hz when your game drops below that. And you'd be getting a fidelity upgrade through the higher resolution.

You could pick up a 4k gsync monitor and a 1080 ti for just over £1k, or a 1080 and a 1440p 165hz IPS gsync screen for probably about £1k, maybe a shade under.
 
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