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New PC time 
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Minor Diety
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Post New PC time
It's that time of the upgrade cycle again, Pev needs a new pc. It has been about 5 years I think so definitely needed!

This time however I'm looking at a little more than usual as I'm going to give my parents my old PC so am going to need a new tower/PSU etc, however I'm not including that in my budget as those things are a bit cheaper in general.

So the specs I want:

~£500 to spend (can possibly go over this as I'd spend this anyway and parents might mitigate some of the cost) - preferred website is scan.co.uk but will shop around
Obviously a gaming PC, I'm possibly going to get Windows 8 but have 7, 64 bit at the moment so bear that in mind, plus of course want to run graphically intense games (at the moment my most intense ones are probably Skyrim - would love to get this up to max settings, just got into the ESO beta as well, things like that) and will be getting such future games as Dragon Age 3 and just generally large, open world rpg types/mmos.

CPU - prefer Intels simply because I understand the model numbers a little better.
Graphics - prefer Geforce for the same reason as above, find it easier to figure out the models. I'm not sure on this from looking into it only briefly - would getting 2 inferior cards that can SLI be better than 1 higher end card? I know the standard answer would be go SLI as it can help with bottlenecks etc but I'm just thinking from a budget point of view. I'm unlikely to get 2 x SLI cards that are half the price of the 1 better card but still give the same performance or is SLI really that much better? Also I'm assuming interface wise that it's still PCIe that's best. I also want HDMI output but think that's pretty much standard on most modern cards.
Mobo - whatever the above will fit in. Preferably a smaller one (looking at a smaller tower this time around maybe, got a big monster sitting under my desk). Integrated sound card is preferred
RAM - what DDR do I go for these days? I know there's a new standard just come out but unsure if it will be worth the extra cash. I'll probably get 8Gb of whatever.

Then just for my own tick list other stuff I will need (if you have suggestions let me know)
PSU
Tower
DVD/Bluray drive(s)

Don't need a HDD, have 2 anyway so parents can have the smaller one that used to be my backup, now have an external for backup so am covered on that front. Anything I've missed?

Let the suggestions roll in, I'm looking at getting this done around March time so no rush and if you spot any great deals drop the link here.

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Wed Jan 08, 2014 11:20 am
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Post Re: New PC time
Didn't you have an i5 build? I just finished skyrim and i'm running some old q6600 C2Q cpu. And what do you mean you don't need a new hdd, you need to go SSD and like yesterday. There's no way no how I would suggest anything other than SSD, unless there's been a release of some new tech I might have missed. Win 7 boots and responds in roughly 30 seconds, even the toy androids "Santa" brought for my brothers children don't boot up so fast.

I wouldn't recommend SLI unless you plan the following. You kit out a decent machine with a SLI capable motherboard but you only get one good card to start with. Your initial PSU should die in roughly 3 years time but then you get a higher wattage one which is capable of supporting SLI and you buy the other card used for cheaps. The gpu cards lose value quite quickly but they launch ridiculously overpriced. That's how I would do it if you are going to bother with SLI.

As for the case it depends on where it sits. If you want one that has buttons on top and sits on the floor or near your feet, Bitfenix Shinobi is very good looking one but you need to buy USB3 ports separately (I have this one btw, mine's estonian edition with black, blue and white colours.). http://images.bit-tech.net/content_imag ... bi-l-6.jpg

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Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:59 pm
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Minor Diety
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Post Re: New PC time
Thanks for that Peltz, you're right, I do have an i5 build, I can run Skyrim but not on max, I want super amazing shiny graphics for it! You pretty much confirmed what I thought on the SLI side of things so I think I'll stick to a single, uber-awesome (well... awesome-ish) graphics card then in that case.

I have considered the SSD option for a HDD but it's not a priority for me. I know it helps with speed of boot up and loading installed stuff but I'm not overly fussed about it. That's kind of in my "if I get some money back from my parents" extras ;)

Liking the case, it does sit down near my feet. Current case has the buttons on the front but I'm really not overly fussed about anything on the case other than I'd like silver but that's hardly a priority.

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Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:44 am
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Minor Diety
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Post Re: New PC time
I have an SSD but when i got it, the results i saw made me think of it more as a luxury item. It makes general computer use noticeably quicker, especially moving large files but the different wasn't enough to wow me. Saying that, now that I have one, i won't go back to HDD.

I have to suggest overclockers.co.uk, but I don't think i've shopped there for a while. My current PC i actually got from ebay (2nd hand) which was a risk but it payed out in the end. Really good value, i have to say. After a year or so, I had to swap the PSU, but other than that it's been dandy.

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Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:15 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
Cheers Derf, never heard of that website before. I'll take a look on there.

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Sat Jan 11, 2014 2:24 am
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Minor Diety
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Post Re: New PC time
Ok so I've started looking at a few bits and pieces from scan.co.uk and overclockers.co.uk, might not buy from them but this is to get a general idea of price etc. Let me know what you think on the specs/what would work best with what and please tell me if I'm missing anything obvious like an equally good component for half the price! Also any double checks that everything is compatible with the motherboards would be good, I'm bound to miss something obvious there.

CPU - Is it worth going for a quad core? Does anything really use them yet? I know last time I bought a CPU (long time ago) the quads weren't really utilised so I'm going to put a couple of duals and quads below, any tips appreciated. Price difference isn't massive but £20 or so saved on a "wasted" extra 2 cores could be useful elsewhere...
Intel Core i3-4340 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - £120
Intel Core i5-4440 3.10GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - £136 on scan, £144 on overclockers
Intel CPU i5-4570 3.2GHz Socket 1150 Quad Core Haswell Retail with Heat Sink Fan - £140
Intel Core i5-4670 3.4GHz Socket 1150 Quad Core Haswell Retail with Heat Sink Fan - £156

Graphics -
MSI GTX 660 GAMING 2GB Twin Frozr IV PCI Express Nvidia Graphics Card - £138
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 FTW ACX 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (02G-P4-3063-KR) - £150

Mobo -
Asus B85M-G Socket 1150 Motherboard B85 Haswell - £55
MSI Z87-G45 GAMING Intel Z87 Socket 1150 Motherboard with mSATA Slot - £108 (I'm not much good with mobos but this one is looking very tempting to me, plus it just looks amazing with the dragon design)
MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard - £80
MSI Z87M-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard - £92


RAM - what DDR do I go for these days? I know there's a new standard just come out but unsure if it will be worth the extra cash. I'll probably get 8Gb of whatever.
Corsair Memory Vengeance Low Profile Jet Black 16GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 10 XMP Dual Channel Desktop - £124
Corsair Memory Vengeance Jet Black Low Profile 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz CAS 9 XMP Dual Channel Desktop - £66
I think the two above are basically the same RAM, just one in 2 x 8Gb and one in 2 x 4Gb
Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) - £62

If I went for the most expensive of everything on that list I'm looking at £537. I can knock that down to £479 if I stick to 8Gb of RAM. So let me know what you guys think, what mistakes I've made or if you have any alternative suggestions. I've bolded the ones I'm inclined towards at the moment so let me know if you (dis)agree, particularly look at the mobo's as I'm useless with those. I've bolded the Micro as I believe that's the smaller one so would allow for a smaller case but for the extra £16 the dragon one is very tempting. Particularly as I only have 2 speakers (though the 7.1 HD sound on the micro is a nice draw). If I got what I've bolded it comes to £436 so that leaves me a little room for maybe treating myself to a SSD or an extra shiny case. Or perhaps just go for the 16Gb RAM.

Argh, decisions!

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Sun Feb 09, 2014 3:15 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
The only game on my Steam list that really really needs a quad core processor and more than 4gb of memory is X-Rebirth. However can you post your current specs to see if some items are recyclable. The current generation hardware out there is for multi-monitor and ridiculous builds. There are only a handful of titles out there that really push the hardware and most of them are crap game-play wise.

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Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:42 am
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Post Re: New PC time
No point posting my current build as it's going to my parents to replace their very aging, very crappy laptop. But that's good to know about the quad core and RAM, I may stick to a dual in that case though I won't drop below the 8GB RAM as that's what I currently have, no point in dropping any ;)

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Mon Feb 10, 2014 12:00 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
I'll look at it tomorrow.

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Mon Feb 10, 2014 3:04 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
CPU - go fr the cheapest i5 possible.

GPU - The 760 is only 20 pounds more but brings 5-10frames across all games and benchmarks, worth considering.

DDR3 - Whatever suits your taste in speed and money, the difference is nearly non existant considering the cpu and gpu choice. Wouldnt go above 8gb, even 4 is enough for most games because they will crash after reaching 2gb in use, only games built for 64bit os can use more, and you're only game is probably SKyrim for which you need loads of high res mods and the game will still look like shit because of the outdated engine. The difference in speed is more evident in non gaming use but i doubt ripping a cd in 15,5 minutes or 13 minutes makes much of difference, you will still end up doing something else in the meantime.

Mobo - I think three of the mobos you pointed out support AMD crossfire but since you are going Nvidia it wouldn't make much sense.
These are the SLI supported boards:
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-z87-g55-intel-z87-s-1150-ddr3-sata-iii-6gb-s-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-dvi-hdmi-atx
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/gigabyte-ga-z87x-sli-z87-sli-ready-ddr3-upto-3000-(oc)-sata-iii-6gb-s-sata-raid-pcie-30-(x16)-d-sub-

If they are too expensive go for single GPU boards. The differences are cosmetic mostly.

Once you go SSD you will never want to sit behind a HDD again.

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Tue Feb 11, 2014 6:14 am
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Post Re: New PC time
Thanks for that Peltz, will definitely look at the 760s and see what they're like. I had a look at SSDs and they're still too expensive for me for the Gbs they store. No way I'm going back to a 120Gb one particularly at those prices! My games take up a lot of space as they're mainly MMOs, usually a good 20Gb each if not more and I hate uninstalling games as I tend to flit between them regularly so I need the storage. I'll just have to live without the amazing load times for now. I'll stick to 8Gb RAM too so that will get me the extra £20 (and more) towards a 760. Appreciate the advice! :)

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Thu Feb 13, 2014 11:15 am
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: New PC time
Grats on being in the market for a new pc! Have you purchased yet, or still weighing the options? I'm actually going to build a new box soon as well, though I'm waiting for Intel to release their next generation CPUs. Unfortunately, that got delayed, so no clue when that'll actually happen. :/

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Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:24 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
Why Satis, i know the exact date for that, it is n+1 where n stands for the date you purchased all the components :D

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Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:56 pm
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Post Re: New PC time
Haha yeah that's probably true Peltz!

I haven't purchased yet, going to spend the weekend finalising what I want and then I'll buy the stuff after payday (28th). I intend to have it all delivered and build for mid-March so I can make sure everything is up and running smoothly before ESO is launched.

You'll have to post what you're going to build when you finally decide Satis, so I can drool and be jealous.

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Wed Feb 19, 2014 3:36 pm
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Felix Rex
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Post Re: New PC time
heh, ok, no worries. Same to you. BTW, if it's not too late, I'll second Peltz on getting an SSD, at least for your boot drive. 120GB is plenty for the O/S and a game or two. The difference is, in my opinion, phenomenal.

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Fri Feb 21, 2014 5:03 pm
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