Opinions on new gaming computer

[CerberusRogue]

Getting a new gaming computer, but I'm a bit out of touch new with the new specs. What's the general opinion on the computer below?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshtech-Motherboard-Per...

I'd like a computer that will run games like Forza Motorsport on it's highest settings - but also don't want to have to sell a kidney to get one.

Otherwise, what spec should I be looking for? I assume an i7 CPU is a must, along with 16GB of RAM and an SSD disk for the OS. No idea about the graphics card.

Cheers!

[_dobbo_]

Graphics card is the most important and most expensive part of any gaming PC.

A 970 should be fine for most current games at full settings, as long as you are on a 1080p monitor. Frame rate might suffer a bit when things get really hectic though.

If you want or already have a higher resolution monitor (4k for example) you will most certainly struggle with that card to run at max settings.


Edit: I'd be looking at a second SSD to run games - load times massively reduced if you do.

[Foliage]

i5 is enough for gaming, i7 is for tougher stuff like graphics design, architecture stuff.

save money on the CPU and get a better graphics card.

[chris285]

As above i5 for gaming is fine, i'd get a 1070 rather than a 970 as will last much better than that card

For reference I have a hex core sandy bridge e i7 with 32gb of ram and a 970 and it played forza at 1080 no problems at all, but if i hadn't bought the card recently i'd be looking at at 1070 as an upgrade

[CerberusRogue]

Great, thanks for the feedback. Would an i5 be plenty though for a fast game like Forza Motorsport? There is a lot going on at times.

Which graphics card should I look for then? I want to run a 1080p monitor (not sure how big but possibly ~27").

[chris285]

It's pixels not screen size that counts, so 1920x180 is the same at 24inches as 27

[CerberusRogue]

chris285 said:

As above i5 for gaming is fine, i'd get a 1070 rather than a 970 as will last much better than that card

For reference I have a hex core sandy bridge e i7 with 32gb of ram and a 970 and it played forza at 1080 no problems at all, but if i hadn't bought the card recently i'd be looking at at 1070 as an upgrade

OK, perfect! This is what I was after.

I'll go spec an i5, 32GB, and a 1070 - and also the same with a i7 to see what the price difference is.

cheers

[chris285]

32gb is total overkill, i got it for running VM's but for gaming save your money and get 16gb

Do you have a budget you are working to?

[CerberusRogue]

chris285 said:

32gb is total overkill, i got it for running VM's but for gaming save your money and get 16gb

Do you have a budget you are working to?

Fair enough, i'll look at 16gb. No fixed budget, but hoping to keep it under a £1,000 if possible.

[chris285]

I'd suggest looking around, try scan and overclockers as they have the ability to custom build systems

Also scan have daily offers here https://www.scan.co.uk/todayonly, currently the top one is more or less a barebones and you'd just need to throw psu and a cpu into that if you are confident building PC's

It is possibly a 1070 is going to be too expensive right now, and i'd say a 970 in general should be fine for most games at 1080p resolution for another year or 2 yet. Forza was maxed out detail wise for me, so you would find as new games come out you may need to drop detail to keep frame rates up but thats just the way things are.

As a guide I run project cars maxed out and get over 90fps most of the time as another comparable game

[ajprice]

Keep an eye on Dell Outlet store, PC's there are updated often. I got an Alienware Area 51 (very expandable big triangular case) from there for a lot cheaper than new. They currently have an X51 ( less expandable game console type case) for £699 with this spec:

Alienware X51 R3
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor (8MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.4 GHz)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC
2 TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
256GB PCIe Solid State Drive
2 GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Alienware X51 R3 Chassis Liquid Cooled without Optical Drive
Software
Intel 7265 2x2 802.11 ac WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0
Power Cord : 250V
Dell USB Keyboard

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch...

Edited by ajprice on Friday 24th June 12:50

[CerberusRogue]

does this one cut the mustard?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1070-GAMING-Pre-...

Apart from game loading, system boot up etc., would not having SSDs have much of an impact on game play/speed?

[CerberusRogue]

@ajprice - thanks, I'll look now

[Dodsy]

CerberusRogue said:

does this one cut the mustard?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADMI-GTX-1070-GAMING-Pre-...

Apart from game loading, system boot up etc., would not having SSDs have much of an impact on game play/speed?

SSD doesnt make a difference to the game play or load times (if your games are on the normal HDD) but it massively reduces boot times - My boys both run dual Screen and pre SSD it took an age to boot up and load games when they are working both screens for different things . It does make their PCs very nippy now when gaming on one screen and doing other bits and bobs on the second.

FWIW Their have identical spec machines - i5 , 16GB RAM , GTX970 Gaming edition (overclocked), 500GB SSD + 2TB Hard Drive and 2 x 1080p 23Inch Monitors

I made sure the 'normal' hard drives are 7200RPM 6GB/s units too with a good chunk of RAM - the type of hard drive you'll get in a packaged system will probably be 5400RPM with a tiny RAM cache.

[Shiv_P]

Its actually a reasonable price.
It has a corsair CX PSU though. Overpriced, cheaply made, a crap 3 year warranty compared to 5,7 even 10 on similarly priced competitors

[Ste1987]

CerberusRogue said:

Great, thanks for the feedback. Would an i5 be plenty though for a fast game like Forza Motorsport? There is a lot going on at times.

Which graphics card should I look for then? I want to run a 1080p monitor (not sure how big but possibly ~27").

My gaming PC only has an Intel Pentium Dual Core G3220 3.00GHz Socket 1150 3MB and got Forza to run fine.

I also have this graphics card: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-NVIDIA-WindForce...

plus 16GB of RAM and have had next to no issues so far. Even got Metal Gear Solid 5 running on max settings

[CerberusRogue]

great feedback, thanks. Forza and other racing games are an absolute must, so I want to get the spec right!


What about this spec? It's an Alienware.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-5820K (6-cores, 15MB Cache, Overclocked up to 3.8 GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz
2 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8X DVD ROM Drive
AMD Radeon R9 370 with 4GB total GDDR5
Software
Intel 7260AC Dual-Band 2x2 (802.11 ac/a/b/g/n) WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0

[ZesPak]

CerberusRogue said:

great feedback, thanks. Forza and other racing games are an absolute must, so I want to get the spec right!


What about this spec? It's an Alienware.

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-5820K (6-cores, 15MB Cache, Overclocked up to 3.8 GHz w/ Turbo Boost)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR4 at 2133MHz
2 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8X DVD ROM Drive
AMD Radeon R9 370 with 4GB total GDDR5
Software
Intel 7260AC Dual-Band 2x2 (802.11 ac/a/b/g/n) WiFi + Bluetooth 4.0

No price?

Seems a bit low spec except for the cpu.

The R9 370 is very middle of the road, low end for a gaming rig.

This site is really helpful to compare GPU's:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Rade...

[CerberusRogue]

ZesPak said:

No price?

Seems a bit low spec except for the cpu.

The R9 370 is very middle of the road, low end for a gaming rig.

This site is really helpful to compare GPU's:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu.php?gpu=Rade...

Ooops, forgot to mention the price. It's £800 + VAT off the Dell Outlet. I'll keep hunting then...

[ZesPak]

Just some guidelines:

• i5 is plenty
• 8GB should be enough, but an upgrade to 16GB is so cheap it would be silly not to do it straight away
• A modern machine should have an SSD, reduces boot times and just generally gives a much nice experience