Computer spec etc!

[Zergx]

Well....in general im a complete noob when it comes to this kind of thing...its not that im not interested in it, i just cant be bothered to learn about it, so i just end up trying to ask those who have more knowledge about it!

Basically it was my 21st recently and i said i would get myself a gaming desktop for it....i have NO IDEA what kind of spec i need/can get nowadays, and obviously its purely to play WoW + streaming...not much else really

I have a budget of no more than £850, which would include purely the tower, operating system, wireless internet enabled, or £900 max including a gaming keyboard also. I dont neccessarily need a monitor, though a 20+" would be nice, and given that £850 is OTT for the spec i need/can get, then a monitor would be nice.

Obviously ive been looking on a few different sites, and each have completely different setups for the same kinds of prices, all with different brands of hardware, of which i have no clue how to distinguish between them, and how to merge them into 1 computer that wont have problems for a few years at least....

Any help people could give me would be massively appreciated, since i dont think some average PC world worker in town is gonna have a clue about anything in comparison...

Thanks in advance!

[Azzael]

You should look on Overclockers, they have good deals (and the prices on pre-built units, as they tend to make 10-15 a week of certain configs) are usually reduced in price towards the end so of the 1-2 week period so they can shift them.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 44&subcat=

Is a good example, though I think it totals over £900 when you include Windows 7, gfx card upgrade if desired and peripheries (keyboard and mouse etc).

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 44&subcat=

Isn't bad also, though I'd prefer an i7, mine is a bloomfield type, latest is sandybridge but the difference in clock speed is not that different, certainly not noticeable in WoW. Seeing as WoW is a heavy user of the CPU it would be good to get an i5 or i7, as would be investing in solid state hard drives as these are quite cheap now and you could run just your OS and WoW on these with other games and applications on another HDD.

That site does some WoW pre-built pcs too, but up to you, just a guide I guess, but I've bought 4 pcs from that site and they always offer good value

[Grizzi]

U want some kind of sandybridge setup, Asus P8P67 is good, I5 or I7, size based on how much moneyz u has, with a Gforce 540/60 TI, if u dont OC, then most value memory will be fine but get 8gigs min. And then get a SSD dics for ur system and games, crucial RealSSD C300 is probly the best bet, next gen is coming out very soon though. Get a standard HD, WD green is good for all ur porn.

If u want a new monitor, make sure u go for a 120 hz version, the samsung 2233RZ is probly the best choice for ur budget.

[Sapphire]

U want some kind of sandybridge setup, Asus P8P67 is good, I5 or I7, size based on how much moneyz u has, with a Gforce 540/60 TI, if u dont OC, then most value memory will be fine but get 8gigs min. And then get a SSD dics for ur system and games, crucial RealSSD C300 is probly the best bet, next gen is coming out very soon though. Get a standard HD, WD green is good for all ur porn.

If u want a new monitor, make sure u go for a 120 hz version, the samsung 2233RZ is probly the best choice for ur budget.

Unless u are a hardcore overclocker dont bother with a sandybridge system because a i7 will beat the 2500-2600K model cpus clock for clock benchmarks anyway, and they cost roughly the same as a i7 950. It is only worth it if u know your way around overclocking and can push the sandybridge to 4.8-5ghz because then u will start seeing a decent advantage on the sandybridge system, unless u have a 6 core i7 because that beats everything .

If u want value on the gfx card u should go for AMD because they have way better perforamce/prize ratio. u can pick up a HD6950 and flash it to HD6970 with a bios mod and that will beat any nvidia card in the same prize class. The HD6950 has about the same performance as the GTX 570 but costs 100 euros less.

If u want a SSD u should buy either the new intel generation drives with SATA3, if u want value for the money, or as grizzi said go with the crucial drive it is also very decent for it's prizing.

Besides LGA 2011 and X79 chipset from intel is just around the corner and will be released late this year, the new socket is rumored to have 8 cores on normal cpus and 10 cores on the extreme ones. AMD is also releasing thier new 8 core and AM3+ bulldozer cpus socket, this summer.

By then all i7 setups today will look shit slow compared to the new sockets. And those new sockets will last a couple for years atleast.

[Grizzi]

Why would any1 buy last gen of mobo and cpu? no matter ur OC abbilities?

Nvidia cards perform better in wow than ATI cards does, so if u play wow, u want to go Nvidia.

And ye, next gen SSD is right on the doorsteps, but will be around 2x the price for atleast some time, and u will only get faster transferrates, not faster seek, which is what u want really.

[Sapphire]

Why would any1 buy last gen of mobo and cpu? no matter ur OC abbilities?

Nvidia cards perform better in wow than ATI cards does, so if u play wow, u want to go Nvidia.

And ye, next gen SSD is right on the doorsteps, but will be around 2x the price for atleast some time, and u will only get faster transferrates, not faster seek, which is what u want really.

I dont understand what u are talking about Sandybridge was made to replace the i5(LGA 1156) setup not the i7(LGA 1366). LGA 1366 has mutiple advantages over the Sandybridge for example the number of PCIe lanes that is supported on the motherboard and not to forget tripple channel DDR3 which sandybridge dosent have. As I said clock for clock the i7 Bloomfield/Gulftown > i7 Sandybridge by far and the cost is the same, if u compere it with the 2500-2600K sandrybridge cpus which are the ones u want to buy, becuase the others are just useless in every aspect.So there is no logical reason for a non OCer to choose a Sandybridge i7(LGA 1155) over a Bloomfield i7(LGA 1366).

Over the the gfx card, it might be true that a nVidia card preforms better in WoW, but it is not like there is a major diffrence between in performance on nVidia compare to AMD maybe a a few fps.Also then the HD 6950 is already a much faster card then a 550 or a 560 because they dont compete in the same leauge and yet the 560 is roughly prized the same as a HD 6950. Dont get me wrong I always used AMD before but recently I changed from a HD 6990 to 2x gtx580s because of poor AMD drivers. But be sure that a HD 6950 will outperform a 550-560 in WoW and the prize is almost the same, besides the HD 6950 is a very good overclocker and is easily unlocked to a HD 6970. And the HD 6970 > GTX 570 by far and the prize cant even be compered because the diffrence is more than 100 euro atleast in Sweden. Also the 6950 has 2gb of ram and the 560 has 1gb that cant even be compered performance wise because the diffrence is retardedly huge espeically in high resolutions.

Conclusion:

AMD > nVidia in performance/$$ ratio

but

nVidia do have better drives especially when it comes to multiple screen.


And the next gen intel drives are not expensive they are quite the opposite infact, thier prizing can compete with the old gen extreme drives.

[Bragor]

AMD > Nvidia in the $$ Always in the last three generations.

As for the wow comment about fps... lol my three year old 4870 with an i3 can play on it.

Any system when built depends on how much the guy is willing to fork out.

Brb... playing BF2 on Three Samsungs 23in screens while rocking i7 920 C0@3.8ghz (Damn you intel) and two 6970s.

AMD 6970 is cheaper then a nvidia 570.
AMD 6950 is cheaper then nvidia 560

lolwut Long live Saudi Arabia!