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Seeing as this is the OT Forum, I'm guessing this is acceptable to post in here. Here's my dilemma - I had originally wanted to buy myself an Xbox One, but seeing as most of the games I want come out in November, and I have the money saved now, I decided that maybe, I'd be better off channeling my funds into a new PC and saving up later for the Xbox One. However, strangely enough for an avid PC Gamer, I find myself confounded by the sheer array of options open to me.

So here's what I want out of it - Graphics wise, I'd like a set-up that I can use to play grand strategy games such as Rome Total War II and RPG's (Primarily TES V: Skyrim) on High, if not Ultra settings - at the very least with a quality comparable to or above that which I already enjoy on my Xbox 360. Performance wise, I'd like to be able to run those same graphics smoothly. Finally, I'd prefer to be able to get together this set-up in roughly the £400 mark, (What I already had set aside for my Xbox - That's roughly $670), though I can stretch that a bit if necessary. Now, I know that's all a bit vauge, but I'm at a loss as to where to start, and seeing as I frequent this forum, I though some Dakkanauts may be able to assist me. I'll like to stress though, that I'm not looking for the very best there is - no Jet powered cooling turbines or ridiculous amounts of RAM - just a mid-level PC capable of playing new games with good quality.

Any help is appreciated.

EDIT: Oh yes, I should have said that I'd like it to include the capability to be upgraded in future.

Rome 2 builds:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?593050-Build-a-PC-for-Rome-2-Hardware-Recommendations-and-Advice-Thread

If you're looking to built one yourself (which can be cheaper in some aspects) here's a list of things you'll need that are within your budget:

CPU and Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1800730 - 182.98
Memory (RAM): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233218 - 89.99 (you can always buy more as there are 4 slots available on the motherboard)
Video Card (GPU): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161443 - 189.99 (An enormous card but HIS is amazing stuff and the rating on the thing is pretty decent too.)
Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339 - 59.99 (1TB is ideal for something simple)

Total: 522.95 ( I believe some of these items come with mail in rebates so it would actually end up being cheaper) That leaves you with about 140 for a case, which actually means you can get a pretty decent full-size case and still have some money left over. Of course you can always buy a larger hard drive, or a solid state to work in tandem with the 1TB (the benefits are pretty amazing).

Case doesn't really matter, if you just want something to stick your rig in than any mid/full size case will do. A note though, if you spend money on an 'ok' case now (I would recommend a full size, building a rig inside one is SO easy) you wont' worry about it later.

Not sure if I just threw a bunch of random crap at you, hope this helps.

I've looked at building a PC myself, but the thing that always terrifies me is how to know what parts are compatible with each other? If you get a high end graphics card, does that mean you need a certain quality of Motherboard? Are certain Motherboards only compatible with certain types of RAM, CPU and GPU?

The closest I've ever gotten to building or upgrading a PC was replacing my PC's old 1Gb RAM with a cheap £35 4Gb RAM. And even then I got the wrong type, DDR3, when I should have gotten DDR2 or 1 or something.

The cool thing about most sites that sell PC parts nowadays is that they all contain descriptions and/or breakdowns of the various motherboard connections. That way, when you're doing something like building your own rig, you have a base to start on.

Example:
The motherboard I linked above is apart of a package deal, it comes with a CPU that is compatible with the socket type on the board.
In that link, there's another link for the specific motherboard, on that page it has a tab you can select that'll tell you various different technical bits about it such as:
-memory type (2133/1333/1066/etc.) and the memory pin amount (240/180) which helps you search for memory later on.
-amount of PCI/PCIE connections. This is important for when you're buying graphics cards (and by extension any card that says PCI in the description, a network card would be an example).

Generally, if you figure out what you want to spend, start at the motherboard, from there you have a guideline for all the other bits.

Always remember rule #1, no matter how stressed or distracted you are...

Turn off the computer before you go poking around in it.

http://www.logicalincrements.com

Cheers for the advice people. I know a bit about PC's so I can usually sort out whether something will be compatible with another component - my main concern is what I would need to get to run certain games, having no experience of buying high end components. that said, I was possibly a touch premature in posting this thread, as I hadn't looked around properly. So, I found a site that looks reputable, and builds custom PCs. These are the specs I came up with:

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-haswell-pc/

Of course, I am aware that a substantial surcharge will be included for labour, so if I can source the parts myself then I can save on that. Similarly, If I can put it through a business channel to exempt it from VAT, I can further reduce the cost. All in all though - how does it look for running said games?

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com

I used that site when building my PC earlier in the year (also a first built). Not only can you use it to look at and compare much of the market from one easy to use site, but you can also find good deals on prices from many retailers as well. Makes the process a lot easier - plus you can easily show your build to others (when you design a pc you get a link that others can follow to see your build).

Cheers for the link. I'd already come across that site, but went for the other as I found the layout better. Nevertheless, I'll use it to make the same build and see who comes out cheaper. Thanks Overread.

Get a decent brand PSU. Really. Your PSU is vital, I'd try to go Seasonic or find some other brand that has it's units built by Seasonic.

Also, size and noise are important, and so is the socket.

I'd advise against the HIS 270x for that price. You can get a 280 at around € 150,00 and that's a very decent GPU for 1080p gaming.

But first things first. You have a monitor already? Do you know how to build a PC ?

@Destrado - I was going to go with Corsair (You can see the full specs in my 2nd last post) for my PSu. I've decided to go with 450w as that was the recommended size to run everything. I could always get a bigger one, but there's really no point as the components will only use what they need to use - in this case 450W. 650W would be overkill as it's un-needed by the components and will only cost my more in both expenditure and future Electricity bills.

Regarding whether I can build a PC - I'm more than adept at the hardware side - been doing that since I was yea high. The software side, I'm covered by my Father who's got over 20yrs experience of building, programming, networks and all other aspects of ICT.

I presume by not going for the 'HIS' 270x you mean the graphics card. I'll admit that alongside RAM and the CPU this was my key concern. That said, I'll have to see whether I can squeeze some more cash to get better, but I'll have to bear in mind, that it'll also bump up how much power I'll need, resulting in more money spent.

This thread is confusing. You're saying you want to build a high end PC, but then you're saying you only want to spend $600-700 total (which is about what a decent video card goes for), and are running the whole thing on a 450 watt PSU (which will cripple any future expansion).

You are looking for a budget PC, and you need to be looking at budget PC build guides. I'm not trying to be a snob - not everyone is into gaming enough to really justify a high end PC - but the best advice comes when you're clear what you want.

For Skyrim on Ultra, I am pretty confident a Maxwell Series card can run it on ultra no sweat, and they're cheap. If I were doing a budget build, this is what I would get.

Corsair makes great PSUs but I think 450 watts is a poor plan. The load drawn from the PSU isn't what it's drawing all the time - a 1200 watt PSU running 200 watts of gear is only going to draw 200 watts. It's cheaper to buy one good PSU than to buy an inadequate PSU and then later to buy another more powerful PSU.

@Ouze - Yeah, sorry about that. It's all a bit confusing as I'm constantly changing ideas myself. Really, I never expected to get any replies as this is primarily a 40k forum. Perhaps it may be best to let sleeping dogs lie...

I can appreciate your confusion over me saying I was going to build it on £400 (roughly $600-$700), but I did say I could stretch that if needs be. What, I forgot to mention in my last post, was that I can stretch to about £700-£750, which is roughly $1100. I know you're not trying to be a snob, and I'm well away there are those who want to game, and those who are real extremists, but I'm just in the former category. The issue with the PSU - I was originally going for a 650W PSU, but the site I used to plan a PC build advised that only 450W was needed, so I downgraded.

Thing is, this was always going to get a bit confusing, for me especially, as there's that many components, and just as many varied opinions of said components, that I was never going to get an empirical answer, so thanks for the input, but it may be best to leave this thread until I have a solid idea of what I want myself. Like I said in my last post, I'm not a complete novice to the idea of building PC's, but I've yet to solidify what I want to get out of this. Once again though, thanks for the advice.

Well, if you decide on a specific build, I think you can (sometimes) get decent advice here. $1100 buys a pretty solid machine that should last at least 5 or 6 years with minor upgrades. All those guides I dropped should have midrange PC builds as well.

Skyrim isn't super graphically demanding these days so I think most gaming cards that cost $150 and up can probably swing it.

I'd pretty much be at my limit with $1100, but is still very much a theoretical at this stage (Life has a funny way of demanding money for things you never planned for! ). However, your advice, and all other contributors for that matter, have certainly given me food for thought. I'll see how I go, and should I need more advice in future, I'll know where to look. Oh,and as a sidenote, I know Vanilla Skyrim isn't too demanding, but I intend to go down the route of playing it heavily modded, lighting, textures, the whole nine yards - that's the bit that needs the extra mile.

Honestly from what you've said I would say you've a few options;

1) Stick to £400 and build with that - you likely won't get to top graphics with newer games and chances are you'll have to upgrade all or part of the computer to keep up.

2) Increase you budget; I would say increase it enough to put a really good mother board and processor into the computer along with a large/fullsize tower.

That way you've got the space (tower) and you've got a high end mother board and processor that won't need to be replaced in a long time. That's important because they are the most time consuming and tricky parts to mount into the computer - the rest is pretty much plug and play these days so you can go for a cheaper graphics card and less RAM for now and upgrade that as time passes. If you also get a good large power supply that also means you don't have to swap that (and all its cables) out either - again it might be overkill for what you get now, but in the long run it will stand you in good footing (and it won't eat up more power - far as I'm aware a PSU only takes what it needs no matter its rating, so one with a higher rating will not cost more to run on the same setup than a lower wattage one).

Heck if you can get a good quadcore processor and high end mother board you can do a lot even on a very cheap graphics card.

Warpig, a good psu isn't measured by its watts - some PSU's advertise 800 Watts but can't supply 2/3rds of that. The problem with a bad PSU, is mainly the safety of other components. A bad unit can fry itself and other, more expensive hardware - you wouldn't believe how badly some are built, with no safety precautions - literally time(d) bombs. That scared you? Hope so, because although the chances of burning down the house are low, having your pc restarting every now and then, or worse, not turning on and you having to replace anything else is really bad.

Other advantages with a good quality PSU (and with higher wattage):
- You eventually want to squeeze some Mhz out of your CPU. You definitely don't want power to be the limiting factor (I overclocked my Xeon from 2.8 Ghz to 4.2 Ghz stable, on air cooling, with minimum voltage increase, and little temperature difference);
- You decided to get another GPU and do SLI/Xfire. You want your PSU to be able to feed them without having to buy some special cables that turn your 4-pin cables to an 6 or 8 connector for the GPU (which it wasn't meant to);
- Possibility of having more HDD's;
- A good PSU will probably be semi or fully modular and this will facilitate organizing the interior of your machine, meaning better airflow, better cooling, better component life.

And finally, though a lot of standards have changed the PSU connectors are mostly the same. If you decide to make a completely new build in 3 years you can keep the PSU (they usually have 5 year warranty and very good policies).

Now, other components, like I said, will vary according to your own preferences. Do you want to be able to overclock (raising the clock speed of your CPU)? If going with Intel you have to get a Z branded motherboard (Z97, for example) which are usually more expensive. Even with this you have a lot to pick from, but usually Asrock provides the best bang for buck. Then you get an unlocked CPU (only I5's and i7's will allow this; they are usually Core i7 1234K - the K denotes it's unlocked).
The exception is the Pentium Anniversary Edition CPU - it's cheap and OC's easily but when OC'd it is on the same level as an i3. So is there really a point in buying a more expensive, Z branded motherboard to OC a weaker CPU? Well, there might be if you plan on upgrading to a K processor in some months.

On AMD's side I don't really know, usually CPU's are cheaper (a lot), motherboards tend to cost the same, they are almost all overclockable but draw a lot of power (thus generate a lot of heat). Here you have two types of CPU: The A series (ranging from A4 to A10), with integrated graphics - the better the CPU the better the integrated graphics (and more cores on the processor). This is interesting for a home theater pc (you don't need to add a GPU), but ultimately if you intend on adding a GPU why are you paying more for a feature you won't use?

Then you have the FX-Series, which I am under the impression that the socket they use (where it slots on the motherboard and controls a lot of things) is showing it's age and will be replaced not too long in the future (which frankly you can say about any other component). They can OC a lot from what I read, and they can have a lot of cores (4 to 8, I think?) however very few games use more than two! Skyrim is a notable exception in that it loves lots of cores, hence I think that cpu > gpu in this case.

I think this covered the importance of you knowing what you want to do with your money and telling us about it - you want a pc to last, to be able to upgrade your gpu and oc your cpu, you don't really care for any of that and you just want a build that will last 3-4 years to game on 1080p, etc.