Upgrade for gaming - rebuild or new system?

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 01:08

Hi all, I bought in 2012 this system recommended by Jony27 and it has been fantastic. Still shying away from doing my own build :eek:

I want to play Star Citizen and it is struggling to play Watch Dogs now..the CPU is now at 100%. Should I add or just bite the bullet and go for whole new unit?

this is the system I have now. bad news is that Sky in my area is not due for Fibre optic so stuck on poor upload speeds so need to maximise speeds on rubbish internet connection. Prepared to do some decent spend this time 1500-2000pounds. All suggestions appreciated

Cheers!

Originally Posted by Jony27 View Post
hi mate, heres my two pence

YOUR BASKET
1 x Samsung S24A300BL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black **GET THE VAT BACK** £125.99
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 460 Superclocked FTW 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (01G-P3-1363-KR) £109.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £61.99
1 x Intel Pentium G840 2.80GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £53.99
1 x Gigabyte H61MA-D3V Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £47.99
1 x XFX Pro 450W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £41.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9AD3B1K2/4G) £20.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
1 x OcUK Black Gaming Keyboard (5105GU) £10.99
Total : £546.01 (includes shipping : £20.10).

iirc, Wow prefers Nvidia over ATI/AMD and this isnt a ordinary GTX460, its factory overclocked at 867MHz instead of the stock 675MHz.

also included a very nice 24" Samsung monitor with the VAT back (£20) which brings the total to
~£525 or you could use that and get abetter eyboard such as the Sidewinder X4.
you can get a 1TB for around the same price of a 500GB if you look around .

Space Monkey · 30 May 2014 at 01:32

Do you have a budget?

Personally, if you have a decent budget to play with, I'd build a whole new system and just keep a couple of items from your current PC (ie. HDD etc) unless of course you are happy to sell your PC as a whole and just start a fresh?

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 02:08

My Budget is around 1000 pound, what do you recommend I keep? I am not sure weather to start a fresh or to upgrade. Tbh I have no idea what to do, and my computer knowledge is terrible :/

I also heard that the current best pc now would only be able to play star citizen in medium when it is released next year, but i dont know how true that is :/

I was also told that i should wait till July because new graphic become available and the old best graphic cards will be cheaper, but again i dont know how true that is.

thanks for the reply space monkey all and any help is much appreciated

Danny75 · 30 May 2014 at 02:25

I'd keep the monitor, optical drive and keyboard, and sell everything else as a fully functioning computer with more value than otherwise.

There's nothing else really worth keeping if you're upgrading with £1000, except the 500GB drive perhaps, if you feel you won't need more storage than that (along with a new SSD), and you don't mind the computer you are selling not being fully functional.

What's the situation with the OS? Do you have a personal copy of Windows you can add or transfer to the new computer?

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 02:42

I have Windows 7 that i could transfer over, but i would buy windows 8 if that better? I have been shown a alienware pc for 1100 but am i paying for a brand?

i would be happy to sell the pc if thats the best option which its looking like from what you have said. What would be a fair price for it?

i am happy to go over 1000 i would like as high end as possible without going crazy. but because my knowledge is terrible am not sure whats worth it and whats not tbh.

what is the optical drive btw? :/

thanks again for the reply

lee32uk · 30 May 2014 at 03:23

The optical drive is the DVD ReWriter in your initial spec

lee32uk · 30 May 2014 at 03:39

Here is something to get the ball rolling. You can ask OCUK for a quote if you want them to build a pc for you.

YOUR BASKET
1 x VTX3D Radeon R9 290 V2 X-Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (VXR9 290 4GBD5-DHX) £319.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £173.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x Asus Z97-K Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £94.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £43.99
Total : £1,017.85 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Are you likely to want to add a second graphics card in the future ?

The Haswell refresh 'k' cpu's are due around the middle of June, so I would look at getting the i5 version of that. The one in the spec above is the current haswell cpu. The refresh cpu's are a little bit faster at stock, and will also overclock better due to improved thermals.

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 04:04

Yes i was looking at getting a second graphics card, I have decided to up my costs to 1500-2000pounds.

should i wait for the release in the middle of June?

Space Monkey · 30 May 2014 at 08:40

If you can wait a few weeks for the cpu at least, then I'd get the Intel refresh that's due out, the rest of the PC can be had now (with a Z97 motherboard)

£1500-2000 will get you an amazing PC, though you may not need to spend it all?

When I'm on a PC later I'll try and do a spec for you, alternatively have a look on OCUKs system configurator, yes you'll pay a bit more than if you built it yourself but you get them to build it, 2yr pick up and return warranty, and full tech support, which to a lot of people is worth its weight in gold

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 09:31

That's great thanks a lot. Yes if you recommend it better to hold out a few weeks then that's no problem at all.

If I don't need to spend it all then that's an added bonus. I would have to get OCUK to build it I think as I have no idea how to do it myself.

A lot of people have told me it's very easy but I really don't want to take the risk.

I might use the PC I have now as a tool to learn from and mess around with.

do you have a rough idea of what I could sell the PC I have currently for if I leave everything on it?

I have heard it is better to have two or more hard drives and to leave the 'c' hard drive with just windows on it and the PC will run better, is this true?

thanks again guys for all the help and advice.

Space Monkey · 30 May 2014 at 09:38

Price checks aren't allowed outside of the Members Market, which you won't have access to yet

I've always had my main OS hard drive (not partitioned) and separate HDDs for other files, like backups for example, always run fine for me.

You'll want a nice SSD for your main drive, will make the PC so much quicker and snappier

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 10:12

That sounds great

Should I go with windows 8?

Space Monkey · 30 May 2014 at 10:14

I would (and have), it's the latest OS, and personally I quite like it, though you'll get mixed opinions on that

No point in using anything older now, especially with a brand new system

sevenpenguins · 30 May 2014 at 11:38

yeah makes sense ll do that then

cheers

mightymouse · 30 May 2014 at 20:06

windows 8 just need getting used to and not much difference to win 7 since mine boots up to desktop anyway

sevenpenguins · 31 May 2014 at 00:03

thanks for everyone's help.

lee32uk · 31 May 2014 at 01:12

I would use your current copy of Windows 7 if you can. I don't see the point of spending another £75 or so on Windows 8.1.

Do you know which version of Windows 7 you have ? i.e 32Bit or 64Bit version ?

lee32uk · 31 May 2014 at 01:24

sevenpenguins said:
Yes i was looking at getting a second graphics card, I have decided to up my costs to 1500-2000pounds.

should i wait for the release in the middle of June?

Here is a spec that would allow a 2nd graphics card. The cpu is just a placeholder until the new ones arrive. The case is also personal so you might want to change that as well.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-03-40G) £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £107.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £98.95
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £81.6
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £56.99
Total : £1,232.46 (includes shipping : £12.50).

You can probably add on around £150 for the cost of OCUK building and testing the pc for you, so i guess around £1400 as a rough figure.

sevenpenguins · 31 May 2014 at 01:42

lee32uk said:
I would use your current copy of Windows 7 if you can. I don't see the point of spending another £75 or so on Windows 8.1.

Do you know which version of Windows 7 you have ? i.e 32Bit or 64Bit version ?

No am not sure what version tbh, ll try and find out tomorrow I guess it would be in properties?

sevenpenguins · 31 May 2014 at 01:45

lee32uk said:
Here is a spec that would allow a 2nd graphics card. The cpu is just a placeholder until the new ones arrive. The case is also personal so you might want to change that as well.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Tri-X 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (11227-03-40G) £329.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £119.98
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x EVGA SuperNova G2 850W '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £107.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 540 High Airflow ATX Cube Case - Black (CC-9011030-WW) £98.95
1 x Antec Kúhler H2O 1220 Series 4 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £81.6
1 x TeamGroup Xtreem LV 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (TXD38G2400HC10QDC01) £59.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £56.99
Total : £1,232.46 (includes shipping : £12.50).

You can probably add on around £150 for the cost of OCUK building and testing the pc for you, so i guess around £1400 as a rough figure.

would you recommend having two of of the graphics card you have listed above?

and thanks for the advice.