Gaming PC Advice

nampo9

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ok, so, i've got a budget of about £1000 +/- £100, i've been looking around and if found a Desktop PC for £1039 with the following specs

Case: CoolerMaster Silencio 551 Mid-Tower Silent Gaming Case Black featured front USB 3, Internal sound damping.

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3770 Quad Core 3.40 GHz 8MB Cache LGA1155 + HD Graphics

Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX2 Intel Z77 Chipset, ATX Mainboard w/ 4 RAM slots, SMART Digi+ Power Control, AI Suite II, 7.1 HD Audio, GbLAN, 2x PCIe x16 (1 Gen3, 1 Gen2), 2 PCIe x1 & 3 PCI

Memory: 8GB (2x4GB) PC12800 DDR3/1600mhz Dual Channel Memory (Kingston HyperX Blu w/Heat Spreader)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 64MB Cache 7200RPM Hard Drive

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)

Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

LCD Monitor: 24" TFT Active Matrix LCD/LED Display (24" (23.6" Viewable ) Wide TFT LED Panel Black 1920X1080 2ms, DVI, Spk)

Speakers: Logitech S120 2.0 Stereo Speaker Set (BLACK Colour)

Network: ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT -- As standard on all PCs
Keyboard: (Keyboard & Mouse Combo) Logitech MK120 USB Keyboard & Mouse

Wireless 802.11N Network Card: PCI-E Wireless 802.11n 150Mbps Network Interface Card

Ultra Care Option: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows 8 (64-bit Edition) (64-bit Edition)

Warranty Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3 Year Labour, 1 Year Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support

Is this a good Price for the tech i'm getting? or can you suggest a better one?

P.S. this is on Custom Build Gaming PC, Desktop PC, Custom Computers, Gaming Laptops and it's a build-it-yourself PC

Thanks :D
 
That spec will be ok for gaming. But it's not optimal. You can improve your bang for buck by making some simple changes. As you have stated that this is a gaming PC, these are the changes I would recommend.

Drop the i7 and replace with an i5. There are no performance gains in gaming using i7 chips because games do not utilise hyper threading.

With the money saved from changing the i7, put it towards upgrading the GTX 650Ti to a GTX 660Ti. Ideally a GTX 670 is a sweet spot for gaming at 1080p but they are not cheap and given your budget, maybe out of the question.

Also I've noticed your spec mentions nothing about the PSU. This tends to imply the supplied PSU is a dreadful cheap affair. PSU's are often overlooked by buyers but they are just as important as any other part of the PC. A cheap PSU that goes bang 6 months in and takes out half your hardware with it is the last thing you want to happen. I would enquire what the PSU is and google it to see what people are saying about it. Generally a safe bet is to buy a Seasonic or Corsair or other well known manufacturer after you've read up on the particular model.

Your motherboard is quite well equipped for it's price and it can overclock your CPU quite easily using the UEFI Bios. I don't know if overclocking is something you have thought about, but it's so easy to do now a days it's worth considering. An after market CPU cooler would be required though, so it's more expense, but the performance gains are good if you decide to down that route.
 
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So you're willing to build it yourself?

Ideally you want a 'k' series chip so it can be overclocked so 3770k for instance.

Graphics card wise I would be aiming for a Radeon 7950 at least so drop down the processor to a 3570k if necessary.
 
thanks guys, i was wondering about downgrading down from an I7 to an I5 with overclocking, just worked out the price, upgraded the PSW to a 600w CX600m Corsair, Core I5-3570k with a 20-30% guaranteed overclock, upgraded the CPU cooling system to a SHARKOON Eagle SE Ultra Silent Modular Fans, 500-1200rpm (I think that's better?) and upgraded the basic case cooling fans and also upgraded the GPU to the GTX660 TI, and it works out as £45 more expensive, but that's within budget, thanks for the advice! :)
 
on a side note though, would it be better to go for a 10-20% overclock to be on the safe side? on the website, it says that this is safety guaranteed, and if the other configuration has the potential to blow up in my face, i'd rather not risk it :/
 
The main thing when overclocking is to monitor your temps. This above all else determines how far you should go. If they are guaranteeing a 20-30% overclock then I'm guessing they have bench tested it with whatever CPU Cooler they are selling you.

For an i5 Ivy Bridge overclocked to say 4.4GHz (about 30%) with a decent cooler you should be expecting temps of around 55°C when gaming and around 65°C when benching. These are rough figures and will vary. If you're way above these figures then you know something is wrong.
 
ok, so i'll make sure that the cooler is good enough for the hardware, thanks a lot! :)
 
ah, ok, thanks, i'll make sure to change it :)
 

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