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PC Spec Advice


BlakeySFC
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Hey everyone, I'm thinking about getting a Gaming PC but don't really know an awful lot about PCs to be honest.

 

What I want is a gaming PC that can run games like Assassin's Creed Unity, Batman:Arkham Knight next year etc. on Ultra settings, would something like the spec below be enough, would this be 'future-proofed' for a good few years or would I have to spend more?

 

CPU: BX80646I54430 - Intel® Core™ i5-4430 Quad Core 3GHz [6MB Cache, up to 3.2GHz]

CPU COOLING: RL-S12V-24PK-R1 - Cooler Master® Seidon™ 120V CPU Water Cooler

MOTHERBOARD: H81M-PLUS - Asus® H81M-PLUS Intel® H81 Micro-ATX (Socket 1150)

MEMORY: 16GB-WMACH - 16GB High Performance DDR3 1600MHz (2x8GB)

GRAPHICS CARD: NE5X76001042-1042F - NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 760 2GB GDDR5 [Rating: 8.0/10]

HARD DRIVE BAY 1: SV300S37A/120G - 120GB High Speed SSD SATA 3 6Gb/s

HARD DRIVE BAY 2: UT1TB - 1TB SATA 6.0Gb/s, 7200RPM, 64MB Cache

POWER SUPPLY: CP-9020050 - 550W Corsair® VS Series 80 Plus Certified PSU

OPTICAL DRIVE: SH-224DB/BEBE - 24x Dual Layer DVD±RW/DL SATA Drive

SOUNDCARD: AUD-ONBOARD - Integrated High Definition Audio - Standard on all systems

NETWORK CARD: ONBOARD-ETHERNET - Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet - Standard on all systems

OPERATING SYSTEM: WN7-00614 - Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit inc. DVD + License [utopia Recommended]

INTERNET SECURITY SOFTWARE: BG-FREE - BullGuard Internet Security - 90 Days free trial

UTOPIAN DIGITAL PERFECTION: DP-001 - Manufactured in Scotland - Flawless craftsmanship & cable management

UTOPIAN NO-FAIL GUARANTEE: NO-FAIL - 30-day No-Fail Confidence Guarantee

WARRANTY: 2YEAR-WARR-RTB - [silver] 2 Years Return to Base Part Replacement - 30 Days FREE Collect & Return*

 

Doesn't include a Mouse, Keyboard, Wi-Fi or Monitor, but still seemed good for £881

Edited by BlakeySFC
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I'm not particularly au fait with he latest PC technology but my desktop and laptop are both i7 cpu and although the graphics card isn't a slouch by any means there are better spec cards out there. I don't see any mention of the network card being wireless.

 

I bought mine from Novatech, a Pompey based company that had a store in Cardiff and I've found them to be excellent.

 

I would decide your best budget and then see what's available.

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Bought my last machine from chillblast.com, a firm based in Bournemouth.

 

Very nice, and would get another from them. They scoop lots of PC Pro awards, and know what they're doing.

 

Almost 2 years later, still playing everything at full res in high detail.

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Thanks for the advice.

 

I've been looking around and Utopia and Chillblast are my prime candidates right now.

 

Utopia advised I drop the 16gb Memory, go for 8gb and instead get the GTX 970 instead of the 760, which puts the price up a bit, need to price up a custom system on Chillblast still, was also considering the Alienware Alpha 'Console' but think I've reconsidered since.

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Thanks for the advice.

 

I've been looking around and Utopia and Chillblast are my prime candidates right now.

 

Utopia advised I drop the 16gb Memory, go for 8gb and instead get the GTX 970 instead of the 760, which puts the price up a bit, need to price up a custom system on Chillblast still, was also considering the Alienware Alpha 'Console' but think I've reconsidered since.

 

I built mine about 2+ years ago and did the exact opposite as was recommended to you. I forget what the newest GPU out was at the time but if it was the 7's, I bought a 6 series (670 I think). Assuming you're not bent on blowing lots of money, the difference in performance vs money for a 9 vs 8 or even a 9 vs 7 is not always worth it. Maybe the cards 2 or more years from now will be worth it but I wouldn't buy the newest card just because it's the newest. You can get last years top cards cheaper. If you're trying to future proof it, the more RAM the better. The cost is negligible for 8gb vs 16gb and if you want to use 4 memory channels down the road you need the exact ones you bought for the first two.

 

Another good site is Toms Hardware.

http://Www.TomsHardware.com

 

I built mine using that site and NewEgg. I'm pretty sure there's a UK NewEgg but I'm too lazy to post the link.

 

I also never put a cooler in mine and over clocked it to 4.2 with no problems.

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If you can go the extra $$$ I would swap out the graphics card for a GTX 970, this generation is a sizable jump in technology over previous series and well worth the extra. Also increase the size of the SSD to at least 250G and maybe increase the PSU to 650 or 750w...definitely do not reduce the 16g of memory.....You'll thank me in around 18 months ;)

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This is the spec I went for in the end:

 

3XS Black Friday Promotion "Train with a Pro"

 

3XS Pro Gamer Training with a either Zaccubus, Device, or NVC of Team Dignitas - 2 Hours - RRP £40

£0.00 inc VAT

3XS Black Friday Promotion "Gaming Peripherals"

 

Free Corsair Corsair Vengeance M65 Performance Laser Gaming Mouse - RRP £50

£0.00 inc VAT

Cases

 

Corsair Graphite 230T, Various, Steel/Plastic, 270x490x560 (WxHxD in mm), 2x USB 3, Headphone & Mic [Grey on Black with Blue LED with Window]

£65.08 inc VAT

Motherboards

 

Asus Z97 Motherboards [Asus Z97-K, CrossFireX, 6 SATA 6Gbps, 1 PCI-E M.2, SATA RAID, ATX]

£83.96 inc VAT

Intel CPUs and Overclocking

 

Intel Core i7 4790K, Haswell Refresh, Quad Core with Hyperthreading, 4GHz, 4.4GHz Turbo, 8MB Cache [Overclocked - CPU professionally overclocked up to 4.6GHz.]

£263.00 inc VAT

CPU Coolers

 

3XS Customised Corsair H80 hydro cooler with single SP120L fan.

£60.60 inc VAT

Memory

 

16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro, 2133MHz, CAS 11-11-11-27, 1.5V [Gold Heatsink]

£149.52 inc VAT

Graphics Cards

 

4GB EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0, 1165MHz GPU, 1664 Cores, 7010MHz GDDR5 [single Card.]

£281.96 inc VAT

Graphics Card Overclocking

 

Not Selected

Power Supply Unit

 

600W Corsair CX, Semi-Modular, 80PLUS Bronze - Any Single Graphics Card

£55.92 inc VAT

 

Storage - Solid State Drives

 

256GB Crucial MX100 - 550MB/s Read, 330MB/s Write, 85K IOPS

£78.30 inc VAT

 

Storage - Hard Disk Drives

 

System Drives - These drives have been hand-picked as system drives as they are the highest performing conventional spindle based disks, this is primarily due to the higher 7200rpm speed. Although fast an SSD is still the ultimate in performance storage. [2TB Seagate Barracuda, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache]

£60.24 inc VAT

 

Optical Drives

 

Samsung SH-224DB - 24x DVD Reader & Writer

£12.58 inc VAT

Sound Cards

 

Not Selected

Network - Wireless Adapters

 

Asus PCE-N15, 11n Wireless Internal PCI-E Card - 300Mbps

£15.58 inc VAT

 

Operating System

 

Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit [Microsoft Windows 8.1 64Bit]

£75.37 inc VAT

Gaming Peripherals

 

23" Asus VS239HR LED IPS Monitor Full HD HDMI/DVI/VGA 1920x1080P 250cd/m2 80M:1 5ms Black [23" Asus VS239HR LED IPS Monitor Full HD HDMI/DVI/VGA 1920x1080P 250cd/m2 80M:1 5ms Black ]

£114.28 inc VAT

 

Network - Wireless Adapters

 

Asus PCE-N15, 11n Wireless Internal PCI-E Card - 300Mbps

 

3 Year Warranty - 1st Year Onsite, 2nd & 3rd Year Return to Base (Parts & Labour).

£0.00 inc VAT

Upgrade Assurance

 

Upgrade Premium - Scan will upgrade your graphics card, add extra HDDs or SSDs or upgrade a non-overclocked CPU.

£0.00 inc VAT

Build Time

 

£1459 total.

 

Ordered with Scan Computers, should arrive next week with any luck.

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