Spec advice for mid(ish) gaming

[Henry]

Hi all,

Can I have some feedback on this system, please? I plan to use it more for strategy games like Civ V rather than FPS's on max settings, nor am I likely to use it for video/photo editing, so I haven't gone wild on the graphics front. I also gather that it's probably not worth getting more RAM yet, instead upgrading it when it falls in price later? Also, the monitor is needed.

I'm already stretching the limit of my budget, however could be persuaded to find a bit more (perhaps another £100) if a convincing reason came up. Of course, if the cost could be trimmed a tad, that would be good.

Thanks for any help.


Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 955 (3.20GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTS450 GDDR5 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Free Item
FREE H.A.W.X.2 Game (RRP: £39.99) with a qualifying GTS450/ GTX460 GPU!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
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 & Case Cooling
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
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 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
19" Wide TFT Silver/Black 1440 x 900 5MS, D-Sub, DVI, 18.5" Panel (£89)
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet 350 USB Keyboard (£9)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Optical Wheel Mouse USB (£5)
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 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £722.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[Meds]

The spec looks as good as it'll get for that price. I'd take a look at getting the GTX460 though if you can squeeze that into the budget?

 

[Henry]

Thanks for the feedback.

I see that the 768MB GTX would add only an extra £20 on, but the 1GB about £60. Do you think it likely that I would find it worthwhile to get the latter? If it would make a noticeable difference I could stump for it, but if it's only going to be a fairly marginal improvement over 768, then I imagine I'll probably be beter off settling?

 

[Sleinous]

Settle up for the 768MB I think, it will still be better than the current card you speced

 

[Henry]

Sounds good, now just a matter of waiting for this month's wages to come through before ordering. Although I must confess I am tempted by a bigger monitor now.

 

[Matt00011]

Sounds good, now just a matter of waiting for this month's wages to come through before ordering. Although I must confess I am tempted by a bigger monitor now.

Hi mate, I'm going for a similar spec. At the resolution of the monitor on your spec, the 768mb version is very close to the 1gb version. It's only at the higher resolutions the 768mb starts to suffer.

If you want a 1920 x 1080 resolution monitor, the 1gb GTX460 is recommended. Don't forget a 600watt PSU.