Buying a new gaming desktop

[JackReeves]

Hi Guys,

I've recently been looking into buying a new PC (Probably from MESH) but I wanted some advise on a few things.

Basically I am not sure whether to go for an £800 model or a £1300 model because I'm not sure whether the upgrades will make all that much difference for my needs.

Here are the 3 systems I am looking at:
System 1 XGS PII 945 Price: £836.99
AMD Phenom™ II X4 945 Quad Core Processor AM3 (3.0GHz, 8MB Cache)
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 550W PSU
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 11.07]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5750 Graphics Accelerator
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD


System 2: XGS PII 965BE Price: £ 1093.96
AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Black Edition Processor - (2.8-3.3GHz,6xTurbo Core,9MB Cache) [upg £ 25.53]
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU [upg £ 12.76]
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3 TurboV EVO Mainboard - AMD 890GX CrossFireX- AM3, DDR3 - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 21.27]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 119.15]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel) - M4A79XTD
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD

System 3 XGS i7 930 Price: £1241.97
Intel® Core™ i7 930 Quad Core Processor (2.80GHz,8MB Cache) - LGA1336
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
XGS Gaming Chassis - Midi Tower Black / Black Mesh + 700W PSU
ASUS P6T SE Mainboard - Intel Core™ i7 & i7 Extreme Edition - ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB )
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 17.02]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 136.17]
Multi-Format Memory Card Reader -(52-in-1 Internal) [upg £ 8.51]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 10x USB 2.0 Ports (6x back panel, 4x mid-board) - P6T SE
2 x 1394a ports (one at mid-board; one at back panel) - ASUS P6T / M4A79XTD
Network Ready PCIe Gigabit LAN
ASUS PCE-N13 Internal 802.11N WiFi Adapter - 300Mbps [upg £ 41.70]
2 Year Return to Base Hardware Warranty - inc 2 Years Free Collect & Return [upg £ 67.23]




As you can see the base model is quite a lot less than the highest but I was wondering whether the difference would be worth it in your guys opinion. I would basically be buying this PC for gaming and a small amount of music production so they would be my needs, anything else is useless to me really.
I've read the reveiws on the Graphics cards and it seems the HD5850 is much better than the HD5750 but is the up grade worth it? I have seen that the FPS is much better on the HD5850 does a lot better but as this would be my first high spec computer I am not sure how much of a difference it would make when you get to the knitty gritty.

In regards to the processer I have no idea, I have read that the i7 is not worth the money at the moment however I have also read that it is the best processor? I was also a little confused as the lowest price system has 3.0GHz and the middle proccessor has 6 cores (Not sure whether that makes too much difference)?

I would be grateful for all your experience as you can tell I am out of my depth!

Thanks in advance

By the way I wasn't sure what area to put this as it wasn't really tweaking but couldn't find anywhere better!

 

[Ritwik7]

Out of the above 3 choices, the second one seems the best bet. Although you could save a few bucks and get the Phenom II X4 965 BE instead of the PII X6 1055T. The HD 5850 is definitely theway to go.

 

[slh28]

Looking at the systems which you have chosen, I think 8GB RAM and 6 core processors are overkill for what you are trying to achieve. Gaming is pretty much all dependant on the video card, and there is very little real life difference between the Phenom II X4/i5/i7 processors.

Here's something I configured at pcspecialist.co.uk for £1087:

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (£80)**SPECIAL**
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5-750 Quad Core (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache)
Motherboard
ASUS® P7H55D-M EVO: MICRO ATX, USB 3.0 & SATA 3.0GB/s
Memory (RAM)
4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY!
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1.5TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 32MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 650W PSU (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£79)
Processor Cooling
INTEL SOCKET LGA1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

You get a better graphics card (5870 rather than 5850), better case, better power supply and also USB 3.0. You could also go AMD of course, which will probably be around the same price.

In any case for the CPU I wouldn't go any higher than the i5 750/Phenom 955 and for the GPU I wouldn't go any lower than a 5850. There is a vast difference in gaming performance between a 5750 and 5850.

 

[Ritwik7]

I like that build, slh28.

 

[JackReeves]

You guys are amazing, I think I'm going to get your build However I might upgrate to 8 GB of RAM, or is this definately not worth it?

 

[red1776]

Hi jack,
the answer to the additional 4GB of ram for a vast majority of the population is that it will not benefit them at all, however with you doing the music production, it very will may be of benefit. I guess you have to quantify "small amount of music production". I do some audio work myself and often have 5-7gb of ram being used.

 

[slh28]

8GB RAM is irrelevant for gaming, and it may or may not be helpful depending on which music production apps you use. Even so, you will see much better performance gains across your system if you take the £100 from the RAM upgrade and spend it on an SSD as a boot drive.

 

[JackReeves]

Hi People,

I have been offered the following:

Elite ATX 750
System Base Price: £ 552.34
Intel® Core™ i5 750 Quad Core Processor (2.66GHz, 8MB Cache) - LGA1156
Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium pre-installed
ThermalTake V5 BE Gaming Chassis + 700W PSU [upg £ 55.32]
ASUS P7P55 LX Mainboard - Intel Core™ i5 / i7 - LGA 1156 / ATX
8GB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM - ( 4x2GB ) [upg £ 102.13]
1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer [upg £ 21.27]
22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM
1GB ATI Radeon HD5870 Graphics Accelerator [upg £ 289.36]
Multi-Format Memory Card Reader -(52-in-1 Internal) [upg £ 8.51]
7.1 High Definition onboard sound card - for 8 Channel Cinema sound
Free Microsoft® Works 9
Free Cyberlink Video Editing Utility Suite - 7 titles (oem)
BullGuard Internet Security ver. 9 - 90 Day Trial - AntiVirus/Firewall/Backup/Spamfilter
Supports up to 14 USB 2.0 ports (6x mid-board, 8x back panel) - P7P55-M
Network Ready PCIe Gigabit LAN
3 Year Return to Base Hardware Warranty - inc 3 Years Free Collect & Return [upg £ 126.81]
Fast Track: Ready to Ship - usually 48hrs delivery (RTS)


I have been advised that the PSU is made by HEC and I had a look and there are some good reviews for this company.

Its all that for £1194.98?

Is that good?.... Mesh seem desperate to make the sale mwahaha

 

[Ritwik7]

Looks pretty decent.

 

[Arris]

Looks good considering I just spend about £250 on just 5850 card alone :S
Although with i5 750 vs i7 is hard to tell what is better to go for...

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/processors/intel-core-i5-750-633100/review

Gone is the original Core i7's triple-channel memory controller, replaced by a simpler dual-channel item...
......
Of course, as a Core i5 rather than Core i7-branded chip, this processor lacks HyperThreading technology.

Not sure how much of a performance hit that is.

 

[Ritwik7]

For gaming purposes there won't be any noticeable difference between the i5 750 and the i7 920 / 930.