Gaming Rig; budget £700 - £1k dep. - Advice please

Karimkazi

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Hello there,

I am currently trying to make a gaming desktop rig for the main requirement of playing GW2 & Diablo 3 (other games in the future such as PSO2) - I'm here as I'd appreciate some advice on how much to spend to achieve what I wish to do.

Key points -

- I will be using a 23" Full HD TV as a monitor (not to be included in budget)
- I will be purchasing a wireless keyboard and mouse set (not to be included in budget)
- Initial budget of £1000, however I don't want to overspend whilst hypocritically not underspending but would ideally like closer to £700..save those pounds for other things!

Aim - To play GW2 on its maximum settings along with being able to run other programs ie. Mozilla Firefox/IRC/Music player/Bluetooth for wireless keyboard without imposing any lag or real stress on the PC as aiming to have it for a few years.

I guess one of the aims I would really like is to pre-empt any expansions coming out and their system reqs - as I would also like to play these on max settings too

In terms of GW2 - the minimum specs has been placed as;

Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better • Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better • 2 GB RAM • NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI X1800, Intel HD 3000, or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better) • 25 GB available HDD space • Broadband Internet connection • Keyboard and mouse

Ive began looking at PC's and I'm not sure about which websites I can link to on here, but it wasnt Scan I was looking at - so below is a PC I put together (apologies in advance, my custom PC building is very dated, so was very unsure what is worth it etc)

Intel Core i7 3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket 1155 Processor - Retail
Stage 2: Overclock of CPU - 15% Overclock (Processor speed x1.15)
Prolimatech Genesis Mega CPU Cooler
Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2000MHz CAS9 Memory Kit
Asus GeForce GTX 560Ti DirectCU II TOP 1024MB GDDR5
Seagate Baracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6GB/s 16MB Cache
OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black)
OnBoard Sound Card
OCZ ZS Series 750W PSU
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Fully Cable Managed
Sharkoon 120mm 2000RPM Fan

That totals about £1007 - just as a rough guide.

Am I over spending for what I require or would I be spending enough in terms of predicting what system reqs will be coming out?

I know I'm asking a lot but I will really appreciate any help given - thankyou in advance!

Karim
 
I think you can do much better with the budget. One thing that strikes me about is is that the graphics card is only a GTX 560ti which cost less than a £150, you might find one of them in a PC that costs £500 to build. (which would still be a very capable PC anyway capable of playing any games on good settings for a while). I think you should build it yourself, you get much better value especially on expensive computers. Some of the cheapest places for parts are probably Aria, CCL and Scan which are all well known, Overclockers are OK but a bit more expensive and you can link to any sites on here anyway
 
Thanks for your reply LJx - I've taken your advice on board and i've been looking at builds, used the majority of a build Chox1988 member had posted in a thread - http://www.avforums.com/forums/pc-g...best-builds-most-common-low-price-points.html

This is the PC I've created - is there any issues with the build ive made - any other GFX card recommendations etc for similar price to what I have built already?

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7650/81857.jpg

Total cost - £818.57

Thanks for your help

Karim
 
Based upon recent events and you can see a current case in the pc gaming topic, avoid scan like the plague as they won't honour rma requests. It's not a single instance either, many people on the forums have had problems with them on really expensive kit even after spending several thousands of pounds on kit from them.
 
With approximately the same amount I ordered the following which, I feel, make a better gaming PC.
The CPU gives the same performance as the i7 for games and the graphics card is better than the ATI

8GB (2x4GB) Corsair XMS DDR3
Intel Core i5 3570K,1155, Ivy Bridge
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H
2GB Palit GTX 670
600W PSU, Corsair Gaming Series
1TB Seagate ST1000DM003 Barracuda
Samsung WriteMaster SH-S222BB/BEBE
Antec One Black Mid Tower Performan
Arctic Cooling Freezer i30
 
Thanks for your replies :)

esaglik - I will look into this, but from experience Ive never needed to return PCs etc in the past, so I would hope it wasnt for the majority of customers, however will look into the cases and if so, find alternate places to buy!

micloi - Thanks for showing me your PC spec, I've just read about the hyper threading issue (not been building PCs for years now, so all new to me) - i thought it may be better to just get the i7 ivybridge as if games begin to use HT in the next few years, my PC will be able to manage it, whereas with the i5 it might be better for now, but ultimately be outdated faster than the i7 i built. I read a couple of comparisons saying the O/C was better on the 7850 than the 670. I guess really at this price bracket I should only be seeing marginal differences between performance though?

Karim
 

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