Buying new pc

Dreadful

Hello Boardsters.

I will be buying new pc within 4-6 weeks. And need some help as I have stopped following hardware since I bought my last/current pc, which was 3 years ago.

I dont want to go through all the hassle putting the thing together myself so Im going throught something like custompc.ie. If you know of a better website, please suggest it.

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So this is what Im looking at

Processor CPU: Intel i7 870 2.93Ghz 4 Cores
CPU Cooling: Antec Performance Cooling
Memory: 4GB Viper 1600Mhz Extreme
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M LX
Sound Card: 8 Chanel OnBoard Sound
Hard Disk 1: 1 Terabyte 3.5" HDD
Optical Drive 1: Sony 24X DVD Rewriter
Video Card 1 Main: Nvidia GeForce 1GB GT520
Power Supply: Antec Gamer 520 Watt Power

I am a serious gamer and I have a picky personality, so I always want top notch stuff. I want to know if those will pull of BF3 on high settings.
On custompc.ie that comes out to be 1100 euros. Fair price? Opinions and suggestions please.

BULLER

Dreadful wrote: »

Hello Boardsters.

I will be buying new pc within 4-6 weeks. And need some help as I have stopped following hardware since I bought my last/current pc, which was 3 years ago.

I dont want to go through all the hassle putting the thing together myself so Im going throught something like custompc.ie. If you know of a better website, please suggest it.

---

So this is what Im looking at

Processor CPU: Intel i7 870 2.93Ghz 4 Cores
CPU Cooling: Antec Performance Cooling
Memory: 4GB Viper 1600Mhz Extreme
Motherboard: Asus P7H55-M LX
Sound Card: 8 Chanel OnBoard Sound
Hard Disk 1: 1 Terabyte 3.5" HDD
Optical Drive 1: Sony 24X DVD Rewriter
Video Card 1 Main: Nvidia GeForce 1GB GT520
Power Supply: Antec Gamer 520 Watt Power

I am a serious gamer and I have a picky personality, so I always want top notch stuff. I want to know if those will pull of BF3 on high settings.
On custompc.ie that comes out to be 1100 euros. Fair price? Opinions and suggestions please.

Generally speaking the GPU will be the most important part of a gaming PC.
The GT520 is a low end budget chip. You'll want a decent mid range card on a new build like that.

Get at least a GTX 560ti or a HD6870, it wont break the bank (about €180) and it will let you run BF3 on high.

Dreadful

1GB GTX560 adds adds additional 220euro. HD6870 adds 280.
Is custompc.ie overpriced?

deconduo

Dreadful wrote: »

1GB GTX560 adds adds additional 220euro. HD6870 adds 280.
Is custompc.ie overpriced?

Very very overpriced :P

You will get much better value by getting a proper custom build. Here's a sample of a much cheaper and much much better gaming computer:

Total build cost: €921.30 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €182.69
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W €52.04
Palit Geforce GTX 570 Sonic, 1280MB, PCI-Express €274.59
Samsung EcoGreen F4 2000GB, SATA II (HD204UI) 8,9cm (3,5") €62.99
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.22
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9 €33.65
ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €87.71
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Titanium Grey €92.81
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet €33.47
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch €85.13

If you're in Dublin I'll be happy to build it for you for free, or the site itself can build it for €20.

Dreadful

Ok, I like that price much better then 1.3k :P
So you suggest I go with hardwareversand.de ?

How come you pick i5 instead of i7? Explain it to me like I am 5 :P

Skerries

that i7 is the last generation Intel chip and the new Sandybridge i5 is much faster and better for gaming
the newer Sandybridge i7 is pointless for gaming as it uses Hyperthreading which could actually make your gaming slower so the i5 is the best chip at the moment for gaming

ANSI

Skerries wrote: »

that i7 is the last generation Intel chip and the new Sandybridge i5 is much faster and better for gaming
the newer Sandybridge i7 is pointless for gaming as it uses Hyperthreading which could actually make your gaming slower so the i5 is the best chip at the moment for gaming

how can hyper threading make something slower? Thought it was to improve speed?

deconduo

ANSI wrote: »

how can hyper threading make something slower? Thought it was to improve speed?

Hyperthreading essentially turns one real core into two virtual cores. For tasks that take advantage of multiple cores, this is great as it can almost double the performance. Threaded applications would be stuff like 3D modelling, Photoshop, video editing etc.

However most games only use 2-4 cores, so having 8 doesn't give more of an advantage than 4. Also because you now have 8 virtual cores instead of 4 real cores, the virtual ones can give slightly worse performance.

tl:dr
The i5-2500k is the best for gaming, the i7-2600k is the best for threaded tasks. If you are doing a lot of both get the i7.

Dreadful

Yeah I do most of Adobe, but nothing heavy. I usually use college pcs for big projects. Ok, Ill go with that i5

How about that graphic card? And that tower case? Comments on those?

ronkmonster

deconduo wrote: »

Hyperthreading essentially turns one real core into two virtual cores. For tasks that take advantage of multiple cores, this is great as it can almost double the performance. Threaded applications would be stuff like 3D modelling, Photoshop, video editing etc.

However most games only use 2-4 cores, so having 8 doesn't give more of an advantage than 4. Also because you now have 8 virtual cores instead of 4 real cores, the virtual ones can give slightly worse performance.

tl:dr
The i5-2500k is the best for gaming, the i7-2600k is the best for threaded tasks. If you are doing a lot of both get the i7.

Can you not turn the hyperthreading off on the new i7s?

deconduo

ronkmonster wrote: »

Can you not turn the hyperthreading off on the new i7s?

Yes you can, in which case you have an i5 that you paid €100 more for :P