Time for a new gaming machine

[andy85wsm]

Hello!

So, the last desktop I had, I built myself. I don't know a lot about computers but someone told me it was easy, I took some advice on parts fitting together and went with it. Never had a problem with it and I built it about 4-5 years ago.

The reason I built it was because my old computer wouldn't run WoW. So now down to why I want this one....

The main use of the desktop is going to be for gaming. It's extremely unlikely that I will play anything other than WoW, SWTOR or Guild Wars 2 on this machine. But when I do play those games (especially Guild Wars 2), I want to have high FPS on very high if not the highest settings.

What kind of machine am I looking at for this? Ideally I don't want to go over £1000, the less the better! I don't NEED a monitor but I may be tempted as my other one is about 3-4 years old so the resolution that it can output isn't probably going to be good enough for the graphics cards I want. Not looking at using anymore than 1 screen, and the only other thing that I'd really want it for is fraps and maybe a bit of editing. I've owned fraps for a while but my computer won't run it anymore while WoW is running. It would be nice to take some footage of Guild Wars 2 when i start playing

Few questions

1) What's the best machine you could build between £800-1000

2) Am I going to save much buying the parts and building it myself?

3) Is there much different between i5 and i7 processors? Do I need an i7? How long would they both be future proof for? And while talking about processors do you have to have a better processor with a better GPU? i.e if you have a GTX 680 do you need an i7

4) How does AMD stack up against Intel?

5) How good are the GTX 560/570/580 and will you experience massive differences between the 3? (And on that note what's the difference between the 560 and the 560ti)

6) What are AMD graphics cards like?

7) I guess I only need about 8gb of RAM? Much difference between the Kingston and the Samsung RAM?

Hopefully that's all the questions for now, but as I probably have to save for a month before I can afford it, and the fact it's nearly 3am I'm sure I'll think of plenty more questions.

Thanks for all your help in advance!

 

[ellspeedy]

Hey andy welcome to the forums

1) Heres a quick build iv come up with at the top end of your budget, it should run the games listed at high settings:
Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 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
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
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
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £993.00 including VAT and delivery.

This looks like a solid build, you can drop the CPU to the i5 and boost the GPU to the 580 and it comes to just over £1k.

2) Possibly im not too sure, but with PCS you get the knowledge that it has been built by proffesionals, gone through quality control, and you have all the help of the forums etc!

3) Im not too clued up on the CPU. The spec above with the i7 is just because it is £70 more than i5 and will likely last you slightly longer and perform better (may want more experience advice on this one)

4) AMD is still a strong CPU brand but are more 'bang for your buck' as PCS say. Meaning that they are not quite as good as intel, but if youre on a tight budget they can be an option, however i would say for £1k budget intel is the way to go.

5) In essence they get better and better as you go up. Again a more experienced poster will likely give you accurate benchmarks etc, but i would say that paying £50 more to get the 570 instead of 560ti is well worth it. Could be wrong though!

6) Personally i have no knowledge on this one, only ever looked at nvidia cards!

7) Any thing over 8gb is overkill for gaming (with even 8gb being slightly un-needed, but good for a little future proofing!). Again for gaming you only need 1333Hz, anything above is again overkill (unless you are overclocking)

 

[seatay]

Ellspeedy's build looks just right for what you want ive posted the 580 graphics with same processor and it comes to just over 1k so up to u.

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA CASE + 2 FRONT USB
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7-2600 Quad Core (3.40GHz, 8MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V/GEN3: PCI-E 3.0 READY, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP (Special Offer)
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
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
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
Firewire & Video Editing
3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
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 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,053.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[ellspeedy]

Note that seatays' build doesnt include the OS, not sure if u will need an OS andy (if youre old computer has windows 7 may be able to salvage that?)
In addition Seatay, your build uses the basic case, are you sure that will be ok to handle the hardware on this rig?

 

[andy85wsm]

Think I'm going to go for

2TB hard drive
2500k i5
8Gb RAM

It's just the graphics card I can't decide on. I guess for GW2, WoW and SWTOR - a GTX680 is overkill? But it's not much difference in price between that and the GTX580.

Or do I just get the 560Ti and upgrade in the future?

It's a shame there isn't much info about specs needed for GW2 yet

I don't need Windows.

 

[ellspeedy]

Just to check, you want the 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm). Not the standard unbranded 2TB.

The 2500k i5 CPU is for over clocking, you didnt mention this in your initial post. If you do not plan on overclocking go with the 2500 i5. The 'k' is simply for overclocking, nothing else.

8GB RAM is good, at this time may be a tad overkill but for the price increase from 4GB to 8GB is so small and gives a little more future proofing.

Yes the GTX 680 is most definately overkill for WoW. And from quick research it seems the same for SWTOR. I cannot comment on GW2 obviously The GTX 570 will be more than adaquete for WoW and SWTOR so i would personally go for that.
However if you have spare cash to use, maybe upgrading to 580/680 is a good idea, simply down to personal preference.

PS before you go ahead and purchase, wait for a more experience poster to comment - dont take my word for everything, im a newbie here ^^

 

[seatay]

lolz when making it i forgot he might not already have an OS, and becuase of price I didnt really want to up the case that much but u could probably get away with it. Ellspeedy is defintely right about the 680 being total overkill for WOW and SWTOR. The 570 is more then qualified to handle these games, if u already have the OS and a bit of spare cash i'd say go for the 580.