New Desktop ~ £850

[Hexas]

Hi there guys, after a lot of thinking and brain damage I decided buying a desktop (was considering optimus or vortex laptop before).

My budget is around £850, but no more than £900. Main use is gonna be casual gaming(LoL, SCII, Skyrim, Fifa 12, as well as some future releases: Borderlands 2, Diablo 3).

Monitor is a must. These are my specs which I chose. Thanks for all ideas and suggestions.

How long do you think is gonna last until serious an upgrade is gonna be needed.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 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
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £885.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[rosmac526]

I think the PSU could to with being changed to the Corsair Enthusiast 650W, even if it is £13 more expensive. It allows for expansion in the future, and is a safe bet based on what people have suggested to me. Judging by these specs, I'd say you've got a decent amount of time before the tech becomes dated and in need of renewal. A friend of mine can run Skyrim brilliantly on a small gaming laptop, so with this build you should have no problems at all.

If you're really in need of shaving off some of the cost, consider dropping to the top i3 processor. Performance will be a little slower as it's only a dual core as opposed to quad, but the cost saving is a fair amount (£54) and could be the game breaker.

 

[Music Guy123]

The i3 does have hyperthreading though so it won't seem as bad. You can still drop to that and it would mean that you could upgrade the gpu to the limited edition 560. Then you could upgrade the hdd to a caviar black. I would also get the 1600mhz ram as it is only a couple of pounds more. You could possibly shave more money of by dropping the case to a coolermaster elite which are still good cases. Finally if you can, upgrade the screen to a llyama they are very good quality and well worth it.

 

[Corfate]

Heres an AMD build for you:

ase
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 QUAD CORE 980 (3.70GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) I doubt you will notice any difference between this and the i3, i5 by choosing this chip
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT) Good amount of RAM, should be fine for the next few years
Graphics Card
1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti 448 CORE (Ltd Edition Superfast Card) Good card, seems to be a favourite of Music Guy
Free Item
FREE Battlefield 3 with Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 448 CORE! bonus
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) Good fast boot drive with fast file loading
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
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72) Reliable PSU, will allow for some upgrades later down the line
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER Can be changed to the Titan Fenrir if you wanted, but i kept it as standard to keep it in budget.
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) bargain
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £877.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/

Tbh, im more of an AMD person, so i'd go for this spec. However, this one i drew up, and the one you drew up are pretty similar performance wise, and this one comes in slightly cheaper.

 

[Hexas]

Yeah, I was thinking about llyama, I've read good opinions about them as well. I was thinking as well about going for amd6850 so i could crossfire it later, 'cuz i need to upgrade motherboard to sli 560ti

 

[Corfate]

Sorry, i forgot to include the monitor in your spec -.- Thats why it's slightly cheaper.. brainfart.


Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 QUAD CORE 960T (3.00GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3)
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
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
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £870.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-bulldozer-top-spec-pc/

Same spec, just changed the CPU and GPU to accommodate for the Monitor cost. Still a very powerful machine, perfect for you. Sorry about the mistake.

 

[TheKeir]

Do you insist that the monitor has to be HD? Or can it just be a normal one? If it doesn't need to be HD, you could just get the pc from here and then find a cheaper one somewhere else (you can get one for £50 (new) at morgancomputers.co.uk).

Anyway, here's what I've made for you.

Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD BULLDOZER QUAD CORE FX-4100 (3.60GHz/6MB CACHE/AM3) very decent processor, AMD is much cheaper than Intel and it's just as good.
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A78L-M/USB3: M-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) only 4GB is necessary for gaming or pretty much anything, unless you plan on serious, heavy video editing or something. Honestly, 4gb will be good enough
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 560 Ti - 2 DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready very nice GPU card, will be able to play the games you mentioned at High settings, 60 fps+
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB SATA-II 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
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
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
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) make sure you get this Silver warranty, its only £5 more
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days


£682 excluding the monitor (and mouse and keyboard).

If you want a HD monitor to make the most use of your graphics, it jumps up to £821, but if you want just a standard monitor then it will be £761.

The rig I've chosen would be a very good gaming machine, as I said above it can play almost all games on High settings at 60+ fps. Go to this website to check out what framerate it does on different games at different settings: (SC2 is preset) http://uk.geforce.com/hardware/desk...erformance/starcraft-2-geforce-gtx-560-ti-ops

 

[Rakk]

Do you insist that the monitor has to be HD? Or can it just be a normal one? If it doesn't need to be HD, you could just get the pc from here and then find a cheaper one somewhere else.

If you want a HD monitor to make the most use of your graphics, it jumps up to £821, but if you want just a standard monitor then it will be £761.

You do realise that 99% of current monitors are HD, anything with a resolution of 1280x720 or above can be classed as HD , possibly lower (though I dunno)
PS. I wouldn't put my trust in a 50quid monitor

 

[Hexas]

If by any chance I'll want to SLI, I need to upgrade the motherboard, am I right? Will Corsair 650W be enough for SLI or a newer GPU or just stay with 600W? Calculator tells me that a whole system is gonna take 448W including 20% allowance. You see I want an easily upgradable machine as possible, so I'll not have to spend a fortune later upgrading psu or motherboard. I might push it £950 Sorry for being confusing, please don't :hang: