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I've been thinking about it for the last year or so and i just can't shake the wanting. I don't necessarily want it for the improved graphics but more the ability to run 'Real' pc games, also as a bit of a tightwad it would be nice to actually capitalize on those 'steam sale' things people are going on about. I am also interested in game creation and all of the big engines are, of course, hardware accelerated.

Update: In the end i built my own.

i5 4570, Gigabyte z87 HD3 mobo, Cooler master TX3 cooler, Kingston HyperX 8gb Ram, Kingston 120gb SSD, WD 1TB blue drive, Corsair RM750 PSU, NXZT Source 210 elite (black).

ASUS Direct CU II GTX 770

Windows 8

What graphics card are you getting?

The base one that comes with the machine one of AMD's 'Sapphire' series. It seems to crop up on articles about building more 'bang for your buck' machines.

The one thing that i would miss personally is that nvidia cards come with some useful applications.

Good PC but get the 760 IMO you will need the gpu power especially with the next gen games, also 1TB ould be useful and maybe a new case fi you want i really hate the hite but if you like it.

That r7 260x seems really low end but I couldn't find that many reviews (all seemed to have silly obsession with 8xAA).

Paying extra for 1tb might be a good idea. I'm using 250gb and it is really cramped and I'm constantly deleting stuff. Good thing I have fast connection so I can easily redownload.

Eg. Skyrim with loads of mods can easily take 30gb and couple of free to play games also take loads of space. Add some movies and TV series and you'll find yourself out of space really. fast.

Check out novatech - their systems and components are usually pretty well priced If you want to compare.

The Novatech machines were better value in terms of ssd's and hardrives but i noticed the graphics cards on their machines of similar price had only 1gb of VRam. Thanks for the recommend though.

As for hard drives, they were options and i added them. That's why i was spending ~840 rather than the 650 quoted on the base model.

Am noticing a distinct lack of reviews for the card, wasn't on 'notebook check' my go to for graphics card checking.

With the 760 it comes to around 900. It does have good reviews.

EDIT: if i'm willing to game at 720p (never noticed the difference) will that make the framerate way better?

If you are going to join the master race there is only one resolution worth playing with.

Native.

Anything below native looks horrible and native looks decent (assuming 0.1mm pixels). The difference between native and non native is like day on the surface of the sun and night inside the moon. If you can't tell the difference there is no point what gfx settings you use because you have no eyes.

What is your screen resolution?

The monitor i own is 1080p i think (Threw the box out ), i don't really use it much. One problem is that i only really bought it for photoshop, i didn't really look into how it would perform as a gaming screen.

I believe this is it, however i do not recall paying that much. IIRC i payed ~£75.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-S22B150-21-5-inch-Widescreen/dp/B006Z5GGN4

So it will be all upscaled and ugly at 720p? Does upscaled always look like garbage? Is the telly a viable option? I think my telly looks great at 720p on 360.

Pretty much every game upscales if ran below native (some older games put black borders).

The thing with consoles is that people look them further away meaning most details get muddled up. On pc you usually look screen closer so even the smallest of jaggy edges are visible. Image quality gets exponentially worse when going below native. You should see UT3 with 500x300 resolution on a 1200x1024 screen.

You could also plug your pc to your tv to get around this problem.

Try to find a proper review of r7 260x because playing 1920x1080 with 8xAA doesn't give a very realistic picture. Also don't worry too much about vram. I have radeon 6990 which comes with 2gb of ram. I play with multimonitor setup and I rarely hit vram limit (I believe only bf3/4 have high vram usage). Although this might change in the future because next gen consoles have ram in them.

This, an OS of your choosing and any peripherals and you're good to go.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8680957&CatId=7747

Now, have you thought about building your own PC instead of buying a pre-made one?

I would second building your own. I am in the process of doing my first build and I can say the amount that I have learned is amazing.

And the biggest benefit I got the exact computer that I wanted that will run just about everything on high and is easy to upgrade. All at about 2-4 hundred less then buying a pre-made.

^ Agreed. I built an "above average" gaming rig for about $650 USD. AMD FX6300 cpu, nice ASUS motherboard, 1TB HDD, and a Radeaon 7850 graphics card.

Maybe for the next one Parts are considerably cheaper in the US i've noticed as well.

I think i'd rather learn by upgrading an existing machine anyway. I can't help but feel that doggedly following an online guide to build one, with no previous experience with electronics, (besides soldering, and household wiring), would not be a learning experience for me personally.

Honestly, it's fairly simple. All the parts you buy give you basic instructions on installing installing them, and you basically just have to plug everything in! Kinda like a intimidating Lego kit in my opinion

But, I multiple friends who had built their own pc's, so I had a rough idea on what I was doing anyways.

I can say that even though this was my first self built computer and I had little knowledge of what I was doing. Its really not that hard. As Mega said its mostly just plug it in and run it. Thats where the time comes in, doing the research making sure all the parts are compatible and have the proper hookups.

 Perkustin wrote:
Maybe for the next one Parts are considerably cheaper in the US i've noticed as well.

I think i'd rather learn by upgrading an existing machine anyway. I can't help but feel that doggedly following an online guide to build one, with no previous experience with electronics, (besides soldering, and household wiring), would not be a learning experience for me personally.

It's surprisingly easy actually.
Like big expensive Lego, following guides helps a lot though...

Yeah, it was more fun a year and a half ago before RAM doubled in price. 2X8 gig sticks just cost me $185, cost my buddy $85 or so when he built his computer.

 Bromsy wrote:
Yeah, it was more fun a year and a half ago before RAM doubled in price. 2X8 gig sticks just cost me $185, cost my buddy $85 or so when he built his computer.

You can pick up 16 gigs of RAM for around 90$. There are differences in RAM, all DDR3 1600 is not made the same, they have different latency ratings that effects their performance - low latency, higher cost. My old reaper hpc ram cost more for 8 gigs than my 16 gigs of corsair, but it had 33% faster clocks.

If you build your own system, you will always get a better deal, either by getting higher quality equipment (notice they do not tell you the manufacturer of the RAM, Mobo, PSU?) and/or by paying less money.

There are some flags with that titan system you linked. First off: it says that it is using the stock intel CPU cooler. Those are garbage. If you want to run new games, you want an aftermarket CPU cooler and high quality thermal grease. They do not list the manufacturer of the MOBO, RAM, and PSU, that is an extremely important detail as the vast majority of the manufacturers of those components are of low quality. The PSU is listed at 550w - new video cards of decent performance generally require 750w (the radeon R9 280 and 290 series for example). 550w is FAR too low for a modern gaming rig, my 6850 video card eats 200w and my system has two of them. I dont even think it will boot with a 550w as my 730 is just cutting it. The R7 is a weak GPU, it is not going to handle modern games well. I believe the new names are actually just that, new names for the 7000 series. The R9 290 is a new card, but the R9 280x is the 7900, just with a new name. The R7 is a 7700 and its pretty weak for high end gaming.

This is what you get with pre built computers, they bait people in by listing precise details about the Intel CPU, because everyone knows the intel CPU and they will ignore the other, equally critical details. IMHO, man up and truly join the elitist computer nerds. Build your own rig.

Pretty much just going to echo the rest here, build it yourself. It'll be cheaper and better in exchange for a little time investment.

I did it! I built my PC! It works!

Now, you have 1 job and 1 job only. Enjoy the feth out of your new machine and lord over anyone who does not build their own. Then the master race will rule the WORLD MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


Sorry I was gone for a bit I'm back now. Carry on.

Well what did you put in it?

 Perkustin wrote:
I did it! I built my PC! It works!

Gratz! I also (finally) put the finishing touches on my new machine earlier this week. But, I'm with KK; what you use??

Good going.

What did you put in it in the end?
Not all the bits, but:
OS:
Video card:
HDDs:
CPU:
The link in the OP has been removed.

Gorn, tell us how uber it is

KingKodo wrote:
First off: it says that it is using the stock intel CPU cooler. Those are garbage. If you want to run new games, you want an aftermarket CPU cooler and high quality thermal grease.

This is not true. The stock cooler is perfectly acceptable for doing what it's job is, which is keeping a normally-clocked processor within it's thermal specifications when under load regardless of what that load is, be it gaming or video editing or putting words on cat pictures. I've had a stock cooler on my Q6600 since 2007 and never run into an issue once with temps and I have played many modern games during that entire timeframe (although it's finally, at long last, struggling with the un-optimized Everquest Next Landmark alpha). You'll have absolutely no problem cracking open a retail boxed processor that meets the minimum specs to play Titanfall and playing it with no CPU related issues with a stock cooler.

However, virtually every aftermarket cooler on the market will outperform the stock cooler, and if you overclock it, then you will need an aftermarket cooler; but by definition you're not using the product as designed and so it's not reasonable to say that the stock cooler is "garbage" because it can't support running out of spec heat generation.

I would definitely recommend using good thermal paste regardless of what cooler you use; the heat pad on the stock cooler is garbage. On that there is consensus.

I'm actually just about to replace my home PC.

I've been bulding/upgrading it for years, but it's at the point where so much has to be replaced I'm better off going from scratch, save the video card (which are stupid easy to install).

There's a company which operates up here called NCIX which is a pretty ace suppliers, and they'll do the one thing I don't want to do for negligable cost; installing processors.

They have a service where you choose the components you want for a given PC, their website can give you a basic compatibility check, and then for $50 they'll put it all together and do the relevant software/testing.

And when I say choose the components, it's literally anything. They have some suggested archetypes, but you basically build it from the ground up; case, PSU, CPU, heatsinks, RAM, HDs, etc.

I'm looking at about $1400 to make this PC relatively future proof (Note: "You don't live in 'murica" tax does exist as well for hardware).

Off the top of my head, as I don't have the specs handy, I was looking at a new model i7, basic heatsink, 750w PSU (OCZ I believe is the manufacturer), 2x8gb Corsair RAM, 1TB Western Digital HD, a 24'' Benq 1920x1080 monitor, an aesthetically pleasing sub $100 case with good ventilation, my current ATI 7850 (When I first got into the Master Race, ATI's best card was the 9800; we've almost come full circle on numbers!), and a compatible mobo from Asus.

The processor eats up a lot of the cost, as does a new monitor, but what better time tp upgrade than when tech seems to have slowed down a little, and I'm getting $1750 this year in between tax return and tuition reimbursement from work.

I've done some number crunching, and I can save a little bit by salvaging a few more of my existant components and doing it all myself, rather than just part, but the grand total in difference by cutting every cost I'm willing to is only like $150, so I'm opting for all new, save the video card, and avoiding the possibility of me mucking the processor, as if you feth those up, the warranty won't cover it.

Any thoughts? I'll post some better specs if needed when I'm home. Currently under 20cm of snow on top of a mountain.

I am actually in the same boat, need to upgrade bad.

I've got a pre-build with the following specs. Note - I will be installing windows 8, and putting in my 500GB HDD and probably a TB HDD.

INTEL CORE I7 4770 3.4GHz
GIGABYTE GA-H87M-D3H
16GB DDR3 1333 RAM 8Gx2
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 120G
AMD R7 260X 2G VIDEO CARD
Built in Audio
2 x USB2.0@Front 6x USB3.0 @Rear
NO KEYBOARD
NO MOUSE
CASECOM CE-JL-68-R GAMING CASE
CASECOM 700W 82PLUS
LITEON IHAS124-OEM(BLK) 24X
NO SPEAKERS
Gigabit LAN, 10/100/1000
NO WINDOWS
1 Year System (parts) Warranty & 2 Year Labour Warranty - All Return to Base.

Thats 1.2K AUD.

However, the second most expensive option is this
INTEL CORE I7 4770 3.4GHz
GIGABYTE GA-H87M-D3H
24GB DDR3 1333 RAM 8Gx3
SAMSUNG 840 EVO 250G
AMD R9 270X 2G VIDEO CARD
Built in Audio
2 x USB2.0@Front 6x USB3.0 @Rear
NO KEYBOARD
NO MOUSE
CASECOM CE-JL-68-R GAMING CASE
CASECOM 800W 82PLUS
LITEON IHAS124-OEM(BLK) 24X
NO SPEAKERS
Gigabit LAN, 10/100/1000
NO WINDOWS - NEED WINDOWS 7 PRO 64BIT
1 Year System (parts) Warranty & 2 Year Labour Warranty - All Return to Base.

Again, would install windows 8, I have a nice soundcard and speakers, and the mouse and keyboard plus the 1TB and 500GB. Thats 1.4K AUD.

Opinions?

(I know it's cheaper to filch everything from wholesalers, just don't want to go through the annoyance of having to put together a computer).

Doctadeth, Those two systems, based on AUD to Sterling, are good value IMO, maybe not quite as good based on AUD to USD though. R9 270x is EDIT: THE best price to performance card on the market AFAIK.

If these are parts, and not specs for a Pre-built i would maybe look for a better PSU, the fact they aren't a well known brand and have sub-bronze efficency makes me think they are far more of a 'Budget' option. They may be good for the money but they might cause you issues. I'd recommend a semi modular PSU as well, i bought a fully modular, but looking back there was no point, as you're always going to need a 24 pin and 8 pin.

Also you seem very keen on Ram, this is unwise at the moment as there's a bit of a price spike, especially for the beefier DIMM kits. Another thing is that the RAM you've chosen is only clocked at 1333mhz, idk if that's simply a diminishing return when you buy bigger kits but all the widely used kits are clocked at 1600, at least for the 8gb kits.

I would say Just go with 8gb of really good RAM for now and upgrade if you need it for say video rendering or a RAM disk or whatever.