New Gaming Machine Advice

[Azeryk]

Well the PC would be mainly used for gaming and Internet surfing so the extra £20 for the 256 SSD would be worth it and even then I'd keep the more basic games on the HDD and keep the SSD space for the OS and the better games.

Good to know about i5 and i7 though - my current rig has an i5 and I never found it an issue but don't want to get a new machine and find out I made a mistake somewhere.

 

[Azeryk]

Ok so after reading the advice I currently have:

Windows 8.1
Aerocool V3X Evil Black Edition Case
Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz (3.9GHz turbo)
Gigabyte Z97-HD3 (Socket 1150) ATX Motherboard
8GB DDR3 RAM 1600MHz
Samsung 250GB 840-Evo Series SSD
Seagate 1TB HDD
AMD Radeon R9 270x 4GB Graphics
Realtek 7.1 Channel Sound (On-Board)

Comes to £815 which is a happy number and looks solid enough although no option to upgrade to 16GB of RAM and OC replied saying that can't be changes is only downside.

 

[ShivP]

Nah mate, there's a lot you could change for the better with £20 more
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-SLI - Devils Canyon Core i5 4690K Bundle **£14 Saving** £258.58
1 x KFA2 GeForce GTX 780 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card - Retail (78XNH5DN9IST) £215.99
1 x Crucial MX100 256GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT256MX100SSD1) £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £77.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLRED38G2133HC11ADC01) £65.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x **B Grade** Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (S (HD-257-SE) £26.99
1 x Raijintek Themis Direct Contact CPU Cooler £19.99
Total : £835.45 (includes shipping : ).







This is £20 more
- This 780 will humiliate an R9 270X (why did you choose this? The 4GB version is pointless)
- Better CPU and Motherboard, overclockable and SLI ready
- Cheaper SSD which will be similarly fast
- Faster RAM (can save a fiver by dropping to 1600Mhz)
- Generally much faster in games thanks to the upgraded GPU

270X 4GB is pointless, there will never be enough oomph there with a 270X to make use of the 4GB VRAM.

Rhyswh's build with a Themis cooler up the top would also destroy it for the same price as yours!

This would be my build.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Inno3D GeForce GTX 970 OC 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £259.99
1 x Intel Core i5-4690K 3.50GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £179.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97-HD3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £79.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17000C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U21331104G-2CI) - Blue Light £65.99
1 x Crucial MX100 128GB SATA 2.5” 7mm SSD + 9.5mm Adapter (CT128MX100SSD1) £54.98
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 550W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £49.99
1 x Raijintek Agos Midi Tower - Black £39.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £39.95
1 x Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler £24.97
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
Total : £819.40 (includes shipping : £8.00).



With free shipping

w/ the Z97X-SLI bundle and Themis cooler, possibly 256GB MX100 SSD and this will make mincemeat of the 270X

 

[Azeryk]

My only defense to the GPU question is umm... yeah my knowledge might not be quite what I expected. Damn model numbers etc gets confusing.

Any way.. last question I promise and slightly unrelated, to help fund this I plan to sell my old machine but have no clue what it's worth. I can format it and re-install the OS to make to ready too. the specs areL

Intel® Core™ i5 750 Quad Core Processor (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache) - LGA1156
Genuine Windows 7™ Home Premium Edition - English
Midi Tower XGS Gaming Chassis - Black / Red Mesh + 700W PSU[upg £ 45.00] ***
ASUS P7P55D LE Mainboard - Intel Core™ i5 / i7 - LGA 1156 / ATX
4GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - (2x2GB)
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
Samsung 22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATi HD4890 Graphics accelerator DVI, DirectX 10.1 PCI Express 2
52-in-1 Multi-format Memory Card Reader (ATX)
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound

Any idea what it's worth second hand?

 

[ShivP]

Can't do that I'm 'fraid, price checks only allowed inside the member's market (1000 posts and 180 days membership.) Check out the FAQ

 

[Quartz]

Can you overclock your CPU? Because you might be able to save yourself a lot of money by just buying the GPU, a SSD, an extra 4 GB RAM, and overclocking the CPU and seeing how you get on. And if it doesn't work out, you can transfer your new components to a new system.

 

[Rhyswh]

Like Shivy011 said, both the gtx 770 and (especially) the 970 is better than the 270x by quite a bit!

I wouldn't just add another 4gb to what you've got already unless you can buy another 4gb of the exact same ram. Even then I think you're better off replacing the whole lot with 8gb of faster ram.

I would go with my spec with the cooler recommended by Shivy011 and the bundle. With the gtx970 it would be a beast and should handle everything on ultra for a good while!