Help with a Gaming System!

[Duncan70]

Hey everyone, it has been quite a few years since I last read about the latest CPU's and GFX Card's and purchased a PC so I don't know too much about all the options these days. I have done a bit of research and I think this would be the best system I can get for my budget (about £800 give or take a small amount).

Would this be able to play the best games for the next year or two on top settings?

And is there anything you suggest thats wrong with this or can be improved or changed with gaming in mind (and taking into account the budget) ?

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-760 Quad Core (2.80GHz, 8MB Cache) + Turbo Boost
Motherboard
ASUS® P7P55 LX: USB 2.0 & SATA 3.0Gb/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X BLU DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Price: £814.00 including VAT and delivery.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[Craig]

Pretty nice computer, just in case you didn't, order the silver warranty.
The gfx card is more than enough, the RAM is also not too bad, but I would prefer 6GB or 8GB for a bit more future proofing.
The CPU and motherboard is a good choice, not thought about making PCSpecialist overclock it? You can probably go up to 3.5GHZ.
The PSU should probably be a 650TX or 850TX, if you wish to upgrade it in the future, but other than that, looks good!

 

[PCS]

Nice spec, well balanced, and the GTX570 should last a good few years for gaming!

I'm confident that the GTX570 can handle top settings now on most, if not all games, but who knows what games will be around in 2 - 3 years time?

 

[Duncan70]

Thanks for the help with the replies!

I have an urgent question I need to get answered before the 4th!

With the news that the next line of Intel CPU's (Sandy Bridge) being released on the 9th, I need to know if its worth waiting for? Can I get a better CPU / Motherboard for the same price as I have on here? Will there be a big enough difference for me to get one of the new CPU's instead of the i5 760? Since the VAT is going up I need to know before the 4th if this will be worth it! Otherwise I will order this set up before the VAT increase.

Thanks for any answer on this!

 

[Phoenix]

They'll probably be about 30%~ faster but they might be more expensive.

 

[PCS]

On a £1,000 order the extra VAT is £25. I think £25 is worth the wait for the latest technology, but then again nobody knows exactly how much faster it will be, and the initial launch will be expensive because most processors are high end, with the mid range not coming until Feb.

 

[Gorman]

As PCS says, the VAT increase isnt a big hit with one off large purchases like a pc.

Its the increase on every day items, the little bits that add up that is the bad side of the VAT increase.

I would not let the 2.5% increase effect the decision too much.

 

[Duncan70]

Thanks again for the replies. So it sounds to me that it might be worth the wait.

In reality, am I going to notice a difference when gaming and multi-tasking if I had an i5 760 instead of one of the new ranges (around the same price, such as the i5 2400)? It is almost exactly the same price, but I just dont know if the cost of a different motherboard that works with it will be more expensive as well, because my budget really is limited to about 850 and I definately want the GTX 570 in my system!

 

[PCS]

We can't say yet as we have not been able to do benchmarks, but my best guess is that there will be a performance increase.