Is it worth waiting until the next Xbox specs are announced before buying a new gaming PC?

ohhbass said:
SSD doesnt make too much of a diffewrence in gaming, it makes load screens quicker, but thats it. However it makes the world of difference to daily use like start up, shut down, browsing and general use. I wouldnt advise to buy a pc without an SSD.

p.s. the pc listed by Sparx in post #28 is pretty nice, and within budget once removing the mouse/keyboard etc. u said u already got :)
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Thanks for the advice, an SSD sounds like a nice bit of luxury that will make a difference.

Yeah the PC that Sparx listed is nice, I'm quite tempted to make that my build, one thing though, I've bought Nvidia cards in the past and they always seems to fail after a while, wasn't there a period where they were a bit unreliable? Has that been sorted now?

If I didn't go for Nvidia what would be the Radeon equivalent of that card? Not sure how to compare the two easily at the moment.
 
Sparx said:
I got trigger-happy, assuming you need everything along with all peripherals, here is my spec suggestion for you! It is a tad over but well worth the money. ;)

- Intel i5 Ivybridge CPU
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB Samsung SSD and 1TB HDD
- NVIDIA GTX 670
- Sexy 23" Samsung monitor for £101 odd!
- The speakers are awesome for the money! The mouse is the next gen of old Logitech MX518 (brilliant mouse) and the keyboard is well regarded with good reviews.

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2670-KR) £299.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x Microsoft SideWinder X4 Gaming Keyboard - Retail (JQD-00006) £29.99
1 x Logitech G400 3600DPI Gaming Mouse (910-002279) £24.98
1 x Logitech S-220 2.1 Speaker System - OEM (980-000022) £21.98
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £1,037.81 (includes shipping : FREE).

Click to expand...

Hey Sparx, considering I have monitors, keyboard, mouse already what would you recommend as a better graphics card since I have a bit more to spend? The 680? Or a HD 7970? Also are these windforce things worth getting? Thanks for your help, lots of learning still to do but I'm getting closer to hitting that order button!
 
ohhbass said:
SSD doesnt make too much of a diffewrence in gaming, it makes load screens quicker, but thats it. However it makes the world of difference to daily use like start up, shut down, browsing and general use. I wouldnt advise to buy a pc without an SSD.

p.s. the pc listed by Sparx in post #28 is pretty nice, and within budget once removing the mouse/keyboard etc. u said u already got :)
Click to expand...

This. Gaming wise all you will mainly notice is a reduce in loading screens. Might also increase texture loading times, but to be honest that wouldn't be noticeable unless you put the SSD into a low spec machine.

However, the general benefits make it one of the best performance upgrades you can put in a machine. If you run windows from it, absolutely everything will be benefiting from it and will just be that much smoother.

Unfortunately I don't have one at the moment :( Hoping to get one for Christmas if I don't snatch one up before then.


Anyway, definately buy and then worry about putting it together! Theres THOUSANDS of great videos out there showing you how to put it together, and if you do get stuck just ask on here, everyones always a great help!
 
The suggested spec above has no case.

If you wanted to, you could drop the cooler. The 7950 is also a great card.
YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7950 Twin Frozr III OC 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - AMD 3 for FREE Promotion £289.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
1 x Samsung S23A350H 23" Widescreen LED Monitor - Glossy Black £101.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Zalman Z9 Plus Tower Case with Fan Controller - Black £49.99
1 x GeIL Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £39.95
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler (Socket LGA2011/1366/1155/1156/775/ AMD AM3/AM3+/AM2/AM2+/FM1) £29.99
Total : £1,037.96 (includes shipping : £20.10).

 
MireMare said:
Hey Sparx, considering I have monitors, keyboard, mouse already what would you recommend as a better graphics card since I have a bit more to spend? The 680? Or a HD 7970? Also are these windforce things worth getting? Thanks for your help, lots of learning still to do but I'm getting closer to hitting that order button!
Click to expand...

Sorry I forgot to include a case in my spec! Although the case is your personal choice, pick whatever takes your fancy! I've included the Corsair 300R in my spec as it is a really nice for the money..

Here's my revised spec below - as for the GPU I would still stick with the 670, it is the best bang for buck and a 680 or 7970 won't make much difference really (imo).. Have a look at this review about half way down it shows the 680 vs 670 vs 7970 and there really isn't much in them for the extra £100+ odd price difference - stick with the 670 save your money.. ;)

YOUR BASKET
1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 670 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-2670-KR) £299.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £107.99
1 x Samsung 128GB SSD 830 Desktop Series SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive - (MZ-7PC128B/WW) £79.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £69.98
1 x OCZ ZT 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply £63.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £59.99
1 x Patriot Viper Xtreme 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (PXD38G1600LLK) £39.95
1 x LG GH24NS90 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £918.85 (includes shipping : FREE).

 
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So glad I joined up to this forum, you guys have helped to educate me much quicker than it would have taken me to find out things for myself!

Ok, so I'm pretty set on the GTX 670, seems a great deal and the 680 not much advantage considering the price difference. If I want to overclock the card later do I need to get any extra cooling kit? Not sure if I need to overclock it but just want to know what the options are so I have an idea.

When putting this together do you always use thermal paste? From what I've read it seems daft not to put it on, so where do you guys buy the stuff from and what brand is best? I'm most nervous about this bit with the paste actually!

A cooler was mentioned in a basket further up in this thread, is it worth spending a bit extra to get one of these?

Also I'm planning on installing Windows 8 Developer preview, runs fine on my machine at the moment, do the latest drivers for the 670 run ok on it?

Thanks chaps.
 
The GTX 670 will be fine for (some) overclocking without getting too hot.
If your not getting a cooler then you don't need to buy thermal paste, it comes pre applied on the stock one supplied with your CPU. If you are going to buy a cooler, then Arctic Silver will probably be the most recommended thermal paste here, some coolers come with thermal paste packaged in though.
 
Thanks LukieBoy, makes sense now when you explain it like that.

I guess I can always buy a cooler in the future if I'm thinking of overclocking.

I'm a real lover of 60fps in my games and that's one of the main reasons I'm getting into PC gaming again, just so sick of playing Xbox 360 games with half that frame rate, it hurts my eyes!
 
This card is on special offer today on the overclockers home page, is it a good deal?

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-194-EA&tool=3

I really want to be gaming 60fps or above, to me that is the luxury of having a custom built pc gaming rig, so thinking of upping my budget by a few hundred pounds to accommodate a more powerful card OR picking a system that can handle two 670's in SLI mode.

I would love a 690 but those prices are just too crazy for me, even with a credit card!

I see that games like Metro 2033 really seem to tax the latest graphics cards when looking at benchmark tests, is there a particular reason why this game is so demanding? When I look at footage of it compared to Battlefield 3 it doesn't look as intense so curious to know what it's doing.

Also is the main difference between 2 gig and 4 gig cards just that the larger memory is better for multiple/higher resolution monitors? I'm going to be gaming on one 1920x1080 monitor although I've read that in SLI mode you are limited to the memory of just one card, is that right?
 
Some people would argue the price difference between the GTX 670 and the GTX 680 is not worth it. Yes, the larger video memory helps a lot for higher resolution monitors or multiple monitor set ups.
I'd go for a GTX 670 in a build where SLi is an option in the future.
 
Thanks LukieBoy, so a power supply that could handle 670's in SLI configuration in the future is what I need to ensure I have.

What happens if you try to SLI a 670 with 2Gig and one with 4Gig, does the larger RAM get used or will that not even work?
 
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