Help with spec for new Gaming PC

Personality+ · 8 Apr 2011 at 22:36

Interested in building my first desktop pc in just over 3 years. I recently got my laptop which I thought would fully quench my thirst, it hasn't. I'll be buying/building the entire thing in three weeks time so would be grateful for suggestions given to me now. I'll have to buy a new Monitor+Keyboard+Mouse/ as well so bare that in mind, my budget is £4000. Speakers are not needed as I'd be disturbing room mates but if a headset can bring the most out of my system then recommendations would be fine (I have Bose QuietComfort 3 headphones so if these are more than needed or do the job already then fantastic)

Any suggestions are much appreciated, as I got some decent recommendations when looking for a gaming laptop. And in fact stretched my budget beyond recognition by the time I bought one

I literally have no clue what the best monitor is out there and last time I bought a gaming pc I went cheap on the keyboard/mouse I actually have seen those Tron Legacy accessories ads on the top right hand side of the forum and I'm a huge Tron fan so if those are good performers I'll go with the combo as my Keyboard and Mouse!

Please help me out!

stulid · 8 Apr 2011 at 22:46

Your basketProduct Name Qty Price Line Total
Dell Ultrasharp U3011 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £1199.00
(£999.17) £1,199.00
(£999.17)
OcUK GeForce GTX 570 1280MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £251.99
(£209.99) £503.98
(£419.98)
Intel 320 Series 120GB 2.5" SATA-II 25nm Solid State Hard Drive - OEM £164.99
(£137.49) £164.99
(£137.49)
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - OEM £161.99
(£134.99) £161.99
(£134.99)
Gigabyte P67A-UD4-B3 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £149.99
(£124.99) £149.99
(£124.99)
Coolermaster HAF X Gaming Tower Case - Black (RC-942) £132.98
(£110.82) £132.98
(£110.82)
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Elite Mechanical Gaming Keyboard £122.99
(£102.49) £122.99
(£102.49)
XFX 850W Black Edition Modular Power Supply £118.99
(£99.16) £118.99
(£99.16)
LG BH10LS30 10x BluRay-RW / 16 x DVD±RW Drive - Black (OEM) £86.99
(£72.49) £86.99
(£72.49)
Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £74.39
(£61.99) £74.39
(£61.99)
Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 5900RPM - OEM ** PRE ORDER PRICE ** £55.99
(£46.66) £55.99
(£46.66)
Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £27.98
(£23.32) £27.98
(£23.32)
Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (910-000616) £22.99
(£19.16) £22.99
(£19.16)
Sub Total : £2,352.71
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £22.20
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £474.98
Total : £2,849.89

andy_mk3 · 8 Apr 2011 at 22:49

stulid said:
Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor

Can I ask why you've not put an i7 in there? Just curious as I don't know a huge amount about them!

stulid · 8 Apr 2011 at 22:54

andy_mk3 said:
Can I ask why you've not put an i7 in there? Just curious as I don't know a huge amount about them!

Its a gaming PC, the 2500K is actually a i5 CPU, the i7 2600K only has hyperthreading as an extra, games dont use hyperthreading.

look at the game tests - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

DELETED_83755 · 8 Apr 2011 at 23:26

Personality+, do you really want to be spending that much on a gaming PC? Maybe I'm envious but that's a lot of money to spend on a monitor stulid? I understand its hugely better but is it worth that much when technology moves so fast?

Personality+ · 8 Apr 2011 at 23:32

teddy3578 said:
Personality+, do you really want to be spending that much on a gaming PC? Maybe I'm envious but that's a lot of money to spend on a monitor stulid? I understand its hugely better but is it worth that much when technology moves so fast?

It's not a necessity just what I'm able to spend if need be. Thanks for the system build Stulid just had a quick youtube look for reviews on that monitor after seeing the price, seems like it'd be worth the cash probably something I'd import though to be honest as with anything involving tech in that price range.

Personality+ · 9 Apr 2011 at 12:31

stulid said:
Its a gaming PC, the 2500K is actually a i5 CPU, the i7 2600K only has hyperthreading as an extra, games dont use hyperthreading.

look at the game tests - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

Would Sony Vegas Pro use Hyper Threading ? I believe I'm not likely to use it in the next few months but there's a chance I may be after this period.

stulid · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:07

Personality+ said:
Would Sony Vegas Pro use Hyper Threading ? I believe I'm not likely to use it in the next few months but there's a chance I may be after this period.

yes it does make use of hyper threading.

Cookeh · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:08

I'd go eyefinity with either 22" or 24" rather than a 30" - much much better and more immersive for gaming

It would, but it wouldn't be £70 faster

stulid · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:12

Cookeh said:
I'd go eyefinity with either 22" or 24" rather than a 30" - much much better and more immersive for gaming

And a 30" screen in front of you isnt? no stupid bezels either.

It would, but it wouldn't be £70 faster

From the reviews of hyperthreading comparisons OFF/ON in video encoding tests I just googled to make my judgement, I say it probably is.

dfarrall · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:16

Imo id definatly scrap that monitor and go for something cheaper or multiple monitors.
You could also add a larger SSD.

Cookeh · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:33

stulid said:
And a 30" screen in front of you isnt? no stupid bezels either.

From the reviews of hyperthreading comparisons OFF/ON in video encoding tests I just googled to make my judgement, I say it probably is.

No bezels is a plus. But for fps/flightsims/driving games having that "panoramic" view around you is really good. Being able to put them into portrait mode is great for rts as well.

From my quick Google I couldn't justify it - but I am a tight *******

I would put some of that toward some beefier cooling as I imagine clock speed will have more of bearance than HT - please tell me if I'm wrong!

Cookeh · 9 Apr 2011 at 13:39

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

Comparison of the two for the OP.

Personality+ · 9 Apr 2011 at 20:31

Cookeh said:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/287?vs=288

Comparison of the two for the OP.

Thanks was posted by Stulid before hand

about the Monitor however is 7ms acceptable for Sports and Racing Games ? I know it's unlikely with a monitor costing as much as that but better safe than sorry, especially as I'm not a know it all with those ms intricacies. My current monitor has 4ms and has no issues and I heard if memory servers me right it's around 16ms you see ghosting just want to make sure.

stulid · 9 Apr 2011 at 21:03

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/holiday-gift-guide-dell-streak-usb3,review-32074-4.html

http://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/monitors/zardon/dell-u3011-ultrasharp-review/4/

Both reviews mention NO GHOSTING.

andy_mk3 · 9 Apr 2011 at 23:40

stulid said:
Its a gaming PC, the 2500K is actually a i5 CPU, the i7 2600K only has hyperthreading as an extra, games dont use hyperthreading.

look at the game tests - http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/288?vs=287

I understand now, many thanks

Cookeh · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:08

Personality+ said:
Thanks was posted by Stulid before hand about the Monitor however is 7ms acceptable for Sports and Racing Games ? I know it's unlikely with a monitor costing as much as that but better safe than sorry, especially as I'm not a know it all with those ms intricacies. My current monitor has 4ms and has no issues and I heard if memory servers me right it's around 16ms you see ghosting just want to make sure.

I was recently 'lectured' on this.

Apparently, response time isn't the key factor to a monitor. The input lag time (some similar name - will look it up in the morning) is. (yes, more than slightly drunk, 16 pints does that to you

).

For example, a monitor with 0 lag time and 16ms response time will be much better than say a monitor with 2ms response time and quite a high response time.

Why was never explained to me, but there you go

stulid · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:17

Cookeh said:
I was recently 'lectured' on this.

Apparently, response time isn't the key factor to a monitor. The input lag time (some similar name - will look it up in the morning) is. (yes, more than slightly drunk, 16 pints does that to you ).

For example, a monitor with 0 lag time and 16ms response time will be much better than say a monitor with 2ms response time and quite a high response time.

Why was never explained to me, but there you go

Thats not quite right.

Input lag is the difference in time from an input from the mouse being displayed on the screen, this can be shown by putting two different screens next to each other in a "cloned" mode, and displaying a stopwatch on screen, if you take a photo of the two screens one will be displaying a different time, due to the delay in the circuitry.

Ghosting is caused by the delay in the LEDs not switching fast enough due to some colours requiring a lower voltage for the LEDs to switch, the best manufacturers will use a Grey to Grey response time, this colour requires a low switching voltage. Black and White use the highest and lowest values so switch the fastest.

coupe69 · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:22

If I was gaming on a 30" Dell, I would be wanting something with a bit more VRAM than the 570s. Perhaps swap those for a pair of 480s or 6950s (unlocked).