Considering a new gaming build

Amirani

I'm in the market for a new pc at the moment as my laptop has broken beyond repair. I haven't had a home pc in about 6 years and have been using laptops in the interim. Portability is a bit of an issue as I travel a a fair amount and occasionally use a laptop when studying in college.

If however I can be guaranteed a significantly improved gaming experience (over a comparably priced new laptop) for my budget then I'll probably opt for a desktop build.

Opinions are very welcome. Here's what I'll need:

1. What is your budget? [€750]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming - Mainly the likes of Football Manager, Civ 5 and some simulation games]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [No]

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [Probably 20' or 22']

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Yes, don't really have anything at the moment]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Not right now]

8. How can you pay? [Any]

9. When are you purchasing? [Within the next 2 weeks]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Should be okay on this front]


Thanks in advance.

Amirani

Anyone able to help on this?

IrishMetalhead

going to look into it for you but i notice in your location it says new york so are buying out of america or are really buying here in ireland?

IrishMetalhead

slight bit over budget but assuming you are living in ireland i would recommend something like this:

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2320 Box, LGA1155|€166.00
ASRock B75 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€69.02
8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€31.49
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.50
MSI R6870-2PM2D1GD5/OC, 1024MB, PCI-Express|€139.00
Toshiba DT01ACA Series 500GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€54.41
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.97
Thermaltake Smart Power 530W|€42.99
MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SB-Version Englisch|€90.17
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Good Connections DVI-D 18+1 Anschlusskabel, 1,8m|€5.49
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€765.03

only things i left out is a keyboard, mouse and speakers but you can buy them cheap locally like argos but if your budget is extremely tight and needs to be under 750 i would cut back the cpu to a i3 instead:

http://lb.hardwareversand.de/Socket+1155/41221/Intel+Core+i3-2120+Box%2C+LGA1155.article

either way it would be miles ahead of a laptop at a simular price

Amirani

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm back in Ireland now so I would indeed be ordering to here.

Roughly, how 'future-proof' is that build? And how upgradeable would it be do you reckon?

IrishMetalhead

fairly future proof and highly upgradable since it's newing newer parts so for example you can later on upgrade to a more powerful graphics card in years to come when games become more demanding or upgrade the cpu to a k series i5 or i7 since the motherboard supports cpu overclocking if you ever need that bit more processing power and possibly the best upgrade you could possibly do is add a ssd which will dramaticly improve your comps speed and respons times

spix

for a bit extra i think you should get a 2500k and 7850

also i dont think you can overclock that motherboard

IrishMetalhead

would push the budget to about 850 tho cause lets not forget you'll want a decent aftermarket cooler for overclocking tho but it would be worth extra expense and maybe get a z77 mobo instead

Amirani

Alright, I've decided to fully pursue the desktop option over the laptop.

I can probably push my budget to around 850 or so.

Do you think the more significant improvements to IrishMetalhead's build would be an SSD, mobo upgrade, cpu or gpu upgrade? Or is there room for a couple of them options perhaps?

Amirani

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€197.08
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€232.34
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€39.86
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.50
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€87.14
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's NB Upgrade Kit|€119.99
Toshiba DT01ACA Series 500GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€54.41
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Thermaltake Smart Power 530W|€42.99
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.97
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€940.27

I've done a bit of messing around and come up with this. Think I have everything there.

I can hold off buying some peripherals/cables as I can probably find some old ones I can use for a while. I can also use a Linux distro until I sort out Windows. I'm still going to need to reduce that price a bit, preferably by about 100.

The obvious downgrade it probably the GPU? Is the 7870 worth an extra €30 over a 7850?

I'm not sure what else is worth downgrading?

Craig B

You could save a little but by getting a 64 GB SSD for OS and if you want a bigger one buy it down the line.

pcadvice

if it was me i think i would leave out the ssd instead of buying a 64GB, i would regret buying less than the samsung 128 GB and thats your €100 euro saved. just my opinion btw

IrishMetalhead

NiallSparky wrote: »

Item|Price
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155|€197.08
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, 2GB GDDR5, PCI-Express|€232.34
8GB-Kit Corsair Vengeance Low Profile schwarz PC3-12800U CL9|€39.86
Samsung SH-222BB schwarz|€16.50
ASRock Z77 Pro3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€87.14
Samsung SSD 830 128GB SATA 6GB's NB Upgrade Kit|€119.99
Toshiba DT01ACA Series 500GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€54.41
BenQ G2255|€99.00
Thermaltake Smart Power 530W|€42.99
BitFenix Merc Beta|€31.97
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€940.27
I've done a bit of messing around and come up with this. Think I have everything there.

I can hold off buying some peripherals/cables as I can probably find some old ones I can use for a while. I can also use a Linux distro until I sort out Windows. I'm still going to need to reduce that price a bit, preferably by about 100.

The obvious downgrade it probably the GPU? Is the 7870 worth an extra €30 over a 7850?

I'm not sure what else is worth downgrading?

if you going for that monitor don't forget to add a dvi since it dosn't come with one:
http://lb.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=58051&agid=1315

also the 7850 is a perfectly fine gpu with not much between the two

Edit: also if you need to cut €100 off the budget i'd say drop the ssd and just add one later, also that ssd kit is unnecessary since the basic kit is €25 cheaper and all you loose is the accessories you don't need:
http://lb.hardwareversand.de/Solid-State-Disk/56866/Samsung+SSD+830+128GB+SATA+6GB%27s+Paper+Box.article