Looking for new machine, have up to about £1000

Stat1c

Stat1c

Stat1c

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Joined
20 Jan 2011
Posts
165
Ditched my idea of getting a gamer laptop. Going to just get a new PC instead.

I could build from scratch but would rather not as I don't have that much free time. I'm looking for something that will play BF3 and future high end games at high settings.

I'm not sure what the PC market is like just now. When I got my last machine (xps420) it was a huge bargain and didn't cost much more than what it would have cost for me to build a similar spec machine.

If a grand can get me an awesome machine then I would probably go for it, though if spending considerably less got me a better machine that I could build...I could sway in that direction.
 
Build a system as it would be cheaper. Do you need a monitor, keyboard and speakers too?

If so I suggest this:


YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI GeForce GTX 560Ti OC Twin FrozR II 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Asus VH242H 24" Widescreen LCD Multimedia Monitor - Black £139.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £109.99
1 x Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £86.99
1 x Corsair Builder Series CX 600W V2 '80 Plus' Power Supply (CMPSU-600CXUKV2) £59.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi Gaming Windowed Case - Black £56.99
1 x Corsair Gaming Audio Series SP2200 2.1 PC Speaker System - 46 Watts RMS £39.98
1 x Saitek Cyborg V5 Illuminated Gaming Keyboard £35.99
1 x Razer Abyssus 3500 DPI Optical Gaming Mouse £34.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9) £29.99
1 x Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £25.99
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,031.92 (includes shipping : £27.55).



Something along these lines would be perfect and would last some time into the future.

Feel free to change anything, even other members
 
Thanks for the help mate.

I will build it, sounds like you can't get that great a machine for a grand these days. Mouse and keyboard isn't really an issue. I have the Logitech z906 and currently an audigy 2 zs so not sure if the old Audigy would still do the job or if I should get a newer one.

If anyone else wants to put forward other possible rigs feel free.
 
Is the 560 that good a card? I want something that's really impressive, though at the same time I don't want to kill my bank balance.

The thing that put me off getting a gamer laptop was the cost, but for a £1300 AlienWare machine it still included a 580 geforce card. If I was to add a 580 card to the above setup I would be near similar cost for a similar spec setup, would I not?
 
Erm, laptops even though they have great specs, aren't as powerful and cannot be overclocked like a desktop, equalling in extra and free power.

You can overclock the CPU to 4.5ghz on air cooling alone, thats 1.2ghz per core and 4.8ghz extra power overall on the cpu. then the GPU can be overclocked to GTX570 speeds with enough time and effort. If you wanted something a bit more powerful and can be overclocked more than the 560ti and can also be unlocked in some 2gb cards to the 6970 xD

The 560ti is a awesome card, but if you want to finish the system off in style, spend another 100 or so and get the 570 or 580.
 
I know this is possibly a silly question, but is there any impending major developments coming in PC hardware with a view to high performance gaming?

I've been out of the scene a while and don't want to go and spend a fortune on something that will go out of date quickly. Obviously there's never an ideal time to spend a lot on a machine, technology quickly gets superseded. But there is WRONG times to take the plunge!
 
Well you could wait until early next year when the new ATI 7 series and the GTX600 series comes out. That's the only real update apart from Ivy Bridge!
 
Is it worth waiting? I'm really wanting a machine asap. I don't want something that will quickly become obsolete though.
 
If you want it to last a little longer, get the GTX570... you can add an extra 70-100£ on the total of your machine, but for an i5-2500k, 4gb ram, big hdd (with the prices atm) with monitor, keyboard, speakers and mouse etc (basically a whole new system) its work the money... the gtx570 will last you a good 2 years before you have to think about upgrading!
 
I don't need the monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard so probably have a bit more money to play with there. What about getting an i7 processor instead and going up to 8gb mem?
 
Can you confirm that everything will be 100% compatible before? Ran into a lot of problems last time I dealt with hardware, though that's largely because I had a Dell Btx based machine.

Has anyone got any other suggestions? Or should I just go with this
 
I might just go with the above system, plus i7-2600k and a 570 or 580. Will need to work out cost though.

Is 4gb enough? I would have thought 8gb would be the best route.

Also as above can you confirm if this is easy to configure as I haven't much hands on experience with newer hardware.

PS - What about 3d gaming, movies etc. Can I just hook the rig up to a 3d tv?
 
psu http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-117-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-047-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat= should be enough for sli should you wish to in the future, you could go 850w for extra 'headroom' if you wanted.

unless you use programs that'll make use of hyperthreading you're better off sticking to i2500k and using the money saved on better case, ssd etc.

4gb will be enough for gaming but you may as well go 8gb as the prices are good at the moment.

what res monitor will you be using? if it's 1080 or lower than you'll be fine with 570/560ti, you can always add another a little down line if needed.
 
Like the above poster said... Unless your using program's that take advantage of the i7s hyper threading feature... You may aswell invest your extra cash into more ram and an ssd.
 
I'm getting a new screen so I'll probably play at as high a resolution as possible.

I also want to be able to play the likes of BF3 at the highest settings. I don't want to be getting games in a year and struggling to play at high settings.

Would I not be better to get i7 in terms of future proofing?
 
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