Thinking of buying a gaming PC but had a few questions

[Scatterben]

Hi, I'm thinking about buying a PC for gaming in a month or two. My budget is about £1,000. This is my first one, though, so I had a few questions about it.

1. I've read that monitors are much better than TVs, but wondered if LED TVs were better? I have a 22" Samsung LED TV (I don't know the exact model, sorry) and hoped to be able to save some money by just using this - do you think it would be alright or am I better off buying a proper monitor?

2. I'd planned on using a GTX 660Ti and wondered what peoples opinions on this card were? I want a PC that can play current games on the highest settings and will last for a few years before needing an upgrade.

3. In PCS' selection of cases, is there much critical difference (beyond cosmetic) when going in the £65+ range?

4. If I'm not buying for a couple of months, is there anything new coming out that I should hold on for before making my mind up about a build?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[keynes]

1-I have a monitor and a TV, I find the image in my monitor better. It depends on the type of monitor you have (resolution, response rate, mhz). You may want to try your LED TV first before thinking of purchasing a monitor.
2-For your budget you may be able to get a GTX 670 instead.
3-Usually the more expensive cases offer better cooling, airflow, cable management and other options like in built fan controller.
4-No idea.

 

[rorm]

Just on the subject of TVs vs monitors, it's important to note that some TVs have a much higher latency than monitors, due to the image processing that they carry out.
That could have some impact on your gaming, but it does depend on the kinds of games you play.
You may also have a game mode on your TV which could help, see this page for a little more info:

http://www.tested.com/forums/games/...e-input-lag-to-do-pc-gaming-on-tv-lost-cause/

Hope this is useful.

Rory

 

[Scatterben]

2-For your budget you may be able to get a GTX 670 instead.

Thanks for the response, do you think you could suggest a build that is within my budget? I also already have a Windows 7 disc - would installing this be as simple as turning on the PC and inserting it or should I order the PC with one?

 

[keynes]

You get instructions on how to do a clean installation of windows 7 with your built, installing windows is not difficult. Is it OEM?
The spec below will allow you to add a 2nd GTX 670 in the future to improve gaming performance if needed.

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st 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
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
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 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £993.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bridge-pc/2GfxWtMBA2/

 

[vanthus]

Thanks for the response, do you think you could suggest a build that is within my budget? I also already have a Windows 7 disc - would installing this be as simple as turning on the PC and inserting it or should I order the PC with one?

It depends on the OS disk you have,if it's OEM it can only be used on the computer it's supplied with,if it's a retail you can only use it on one machine at a time.

 

[Scatterben]

Thanks a lot! Like I said, I'm not looking to buy for a couple of months but this is what I'll try and aim for.

It depends on the OS disk you have,if it's OEM it can only be used on the computer it's supplied with,if it's a retail you can only use it on one machine at a time.

Yeah, it's a retail version. I used it to create a partition on my Macbook. From what I understand, I just need to uninstall it from there and it will work on any new PC right?

 

[vanthus]

Yeah, it's a retail version. I used it to create a partition on my Macbook. From what I understand, I just need to uninstall it from there and it will work on any new PC right?

Yes,that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[baron75mk2]

monitors will always look better than any tv as they are smaller & the pixel density is a lot higher , also beware of input lag with some TVs
( this has already been addressed by other posters) just be sure that if you have a "game mode" turn it on , but don't worry if you don't have a game mode as in my experience if there isn't one the TV doesn't need it.

Also be sure to turn off any extra post processing functions of the tv
like color enhancement , any kind of motion enhancement
( like film mode , motionflow , noise reduction & MPEG noise reduction & so on),
basically just use back light , color, contrast brightness & sharpness & turn everything else off to avoid input lag.

As far as LED vs LCD most Led TVs are just LCD panels with a LED back-light instead of a standard neon back-light
(there are one or two actual LED PC monitors out there , but hardly any TVs as far as i know)

Just try your TV first & if your not happy then buy a monitor , ive always used my TV & been happy but im more concerned with size than super high quality , but you can get a very good picture even on the biggest TVs with a little playing about with settings , im on a 55" Sony bravia & with some tailoring its very crisp & acceptable

Just don't put your desktop in 1080p , everything will be tiny - go with 720p for desktop & 1080p for your games