New Gaming PC! Alienware?

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Hi,

I am new to the forum and am looking for some advice regarding purchasing a gaming PC. For the last few years I have been using a laptop for gaming but would like to get a proper gaming rig. i have a budget of between £1000-£1200 for the PC on its own and enough to purchase two monitors onto of that.

I had set my sites on a custom build however have just been offered a Alienware Aurora R4 ALX by my friend for £600. The computer has an Intel i7-3930k, GTX 580 and 8GB RAM. It does not however include a hard drive or OS. I already own a copy of Windows 7 so would just need to buy a new hard drive. Would this be a good option? Is it a good price? I was also planning on adding a gtx 780ti and 16gb Corsair Vengeance Ram and then in the future add an SSD raid.

I have been reading up about the computer and am a bit confused when it comes to the motherboard. By the sounds of things it has a normal motherboard and then a smaller one? Does this make upgrading it harder as I would like to upgrade the motherboard in a couple of years in order to extend the lifespan of the system.

Any help would be greatly appreciated,

Alex
 

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4T5

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£600 & adding the cost of a 780ti, 16Gb Corsair & then an SSD is going to add up to a pretty penny.
If I was going to spend that much I'd buy the components off here (Bound to say that :D) & build a brand new system with Warrantys to match. :cool:

Any worrys you have on building yourself can be put aside as there are plenty of knowledgeable people here that will talk/walk you through it. :)



And Welcome to OcUK. :cool:
 
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^^ What the old man said ^^ :D ;)

Get new, without a doubt. You can buy straight into the new Intel Haswell chipset rather than put up with an end of life socket with warranties to match.

Do you already have a monitor? Guessing not.

Oh, and welcome :)
 
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Are you able to post the full spec of the pc you have been offered. £600 sounds a little bit pricey to me. The 580 is now a fairly old card (I would assume worth less than £100 second hand) so you are paying over £500 for a cpu, motherboard and some ram. As mentioned above, you may find it cheaper to buy everything new. Once you have price it all out you could maybe renegotiate with your mate, but I would suggest building your own - its fun!
 
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Hi,

Thanks for the replies! I don't know the full spec but it is all standard. I suspect the motherboard is fairly basic and the ram 1600mhz. The price does seem fairly high but I think its because the case is worth quite a lot. The processor would be good but switching to the latest socket type may be worth while in the long run.

By the sounds of things I should pass up on the offer and buy new. I priced a computer at £1200 which included 780ti, i7 4820k, 16gb ram, Corsair Obsidian 750d, 120gb SSD and 2tb Hard drive. Does that sounds decent? With the processors and socket types Haswell are the new processors and they use the 1150 socket type? Which motherboards are considered the best for this?

Many thanks,

Alex
 
Soldato
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4930k is overkill for gaming, as is 16gb RAM. I'd suggest the new 4790k when it comes out and a nice Z97 board, 8 gigs of RAM, 780ti, 750D etc.
 
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By the sounds of things I should pass up on the offer and buy new. I priced a computer at £1200 which included 780ti, i7 4820k, 16gb ram, Corsair Obsidian 750d, 120gb SSD and 2tb Hard drive. Does that sounds decent?

Does it include a good cooler, motherboard and PSU? If so, sounds decent, although am not sure if you actually want an Ivybridge-E CPU.

You don't need 16GB RAM for gaming. And unless you're planning on SLI, an unlocked i5 CPU will do the job.

The 750D case is for custom watercooling really. If you like Corsair cases, the 450D or 760T provide better airflow. If you want the 750D anyway, it'll still be okay, although not ideal for SLI air cooling.


With the processors and socket types Haswell are the new processors and they use the 1150 socket type? Which motherboards are considered the best for this?

Many thanks,

Alex

The i7-4829K (Ivybridge-E) requires a 2011 socket motherboard. Unless you know you need 2011 for some reason, it's better to go with Haswell and socket 1150.

Wait for the new i5 or i7 K's. Any moment now.
 
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Here is a £1200 ish spec. As already mentioned, the new Haswell 'k' cpu's are due around the middle of June (Assuming they don't get delayed) so if you can wait a few weeks then go for one of those.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £399.95
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £56.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £13.49
Total : £1,230.30 (includes shipping : £12.50).




The gigabyte motherboard comes with a free Corsair Raptor HS30 headset

The PSU is good for a single graphics card. If you want to add a 2nd card anytime then you would need to change it for an 850W.
 
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Thanks for the replies! Your right I don't need 16gb ram straight away so will go for 2x4gb and then can always add another 8gb in the future. Thanks for the heads up on the processors I can definitely wait for them. What is the latest socket type 2011 or 1150 and is that what the new k processors will be using?

The alienware had a decent psu, motherboard etc however I'm not sure I wan't an Ivy Bridge processor and old socket motherboard.

Also before I buy does anyone know when DDR4 will become common? I've seen in mentioned before but haven't seen any products. Is it soon enough to wait or just stick with DDR3?

Thanks for the suggested basket! It's good to confirm my budget can get what I am looking for. As for the case I haven't really decided. I really liked the look of the 750d but if it's not the best performer I'll definitely look elsewhere.

Many thanks,

Alex

EDIT: In the future I was thinking of adding another 780ti instead of replacing the graphics card. This would be the cheaper option. So I would look at getting a 850W power supply now
 
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1150 is newer but 2011 is used for the Sandybridge E and Ivybridge E processors which are good but old architecture now.

As mentioned above I would be basing your system around socket 1150.

DDR4 is scheduled to be released with the new Haswell-E boards in Q3 of this year I believe and wont be making a debut into the socket 1150 style/equivalent until next year.

I have the 750D and I absolutely love it, by far the best case I have ever owned. It really is a joy to work with and makes building your system really fun.
 
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Soldato
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Thanks for the replies! I'll take a look at the motherboards suggested. As for liquid cooling what does everyone suggest? I was leaning towards the Corsair H100. Is that any good?

Many thanks,
Alex
 
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Here is a £1200 ish spec. As already mentioned, the new Haswell 'k' cpu's are due around the middle of June (Assuming they don't get delayed) so if you can wait a few weeks then go for one of those.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI Radeon R9 290X Gaming Edition 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £399.95
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00614) £74.99
1 x BitFenix Ronin Tower Case - Black £69.95
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £67.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD38G2133HC11ADC01) £59.99
1 x SuperFlower Golden Green HX 650W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black £59.99
1 x Toshiba 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache - OEM (DT01ACA200) HDD £56.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler £49.99
1 x Pioneer 24x Internal DVR-221LBK DVD Rewriter - OEM £13.49
Total : £1,230.30 (includes shipping : £12.50).




The gigabyte motherboard comes with a free Corsair Raptor HS30 headset

The PSU is good for a single graphics card. If you want to add a 2nd card anytime then you would need to change it for an 850W.

Nice build, but would look at the 780 for a saving in ££, power & heat!
 
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