Pricing Guideline

mlbtheshow · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:43

Im not going to ask for a full spec at this stage, but in the next month or so I will be able to purchase a new system.

Going off of todays prices, how much would I be looking to spend if I wanted the best of everything... monitor not to fussed about and I dont want some super cooling system, just something that does the job. Im talking about best CPU, GPU, HDD and RAM etc for a gaming rig.

Would 1k get me that machine, or am I looking at 2k +

Apologies for the 'foggy' type of request, just wanted to get a sort of budget plan in place for when I have the funds.

stulid · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:45

1K will do it, for just a base unit with Win7

greywolf · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:49

As you can see 1k gets you quite a nice system.

mlbtheshow · 18 Feb 2011 at 19:59

Cheers, should be ok then I hope... maybe a few price drops in the coming weeks as well, id go to 2k maximum I think.. but 1k lets me get a laptop as well

Sayso · 18 Feb 2011 at 21:56

If you only want a gaming rig it can be done under £1000 as most PC games are console ports so will not really be pushed until there is a console refresh.

If you want eyefinity or 3d gaming you will need a high end GPU or 2 depending on res.

If gaming i would go for a quad core CPU for the £1000 price bracket it would be worth going for Intel CPUs, the new Sandybridge are currently top dog with the 2500K in my opinion being the best bang for buck gaming wise...but depending on deals a I5 760 would be the best of the last gen.

I would have said get 4Gb of Ram but at the moment 8Gb 1600mhz RAM is so cheap (and will be used for the next few years) you might as well get 2 x 4Gb sticks.
PSU is something you cant skimp on depending on whether you are going for one GPU or 2 as long as you get a decent make (approx 550W for one GPU 800W for 2)

Motherboard selection depends on a few things...what do you want, high spec(lots of connections, PCI-e slots, fancy heatsinks etc), overclockabilty, just something to plug everything into

most motherboards will overclock to an extent for example, i had 4 different X58 mother boards ranging from £120 to £300 and they all over clocked an I7 to 4Ghz.

The next thing to think about is cooling...

6644kp · 18 Feb 2011 at 23:15

you could build a gaming rig for £300 (without os) Athlon X4, 4GB RAM and Radeon 5750.

However the more you spend the more powerful muchine you can get, for a £1000 I'd want something like a 2500K and a GTX 570 or GTX 580.