Opinions on new gaming computer

[CerberusRogue]

ZesPak said:

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

all of the above, plus I want a 1070 graphics card as well :-)

[Aphex]

Am I missing something, where are all these people playing forza on pc?

[ZesPak]

CerberusRogue said:

all of the above, plus I want a 1070 graphics card as well :-)

Thing is, when you want something like that in a pre-built system, they often going to up everything. 32GB of RAM, 3TB of HDD, i7,... and the price goes up.
To me, a gaming rig, esp sub 1000, you're often better off building it yourself.

[CerberusRogue]

ZesPak said:

CerberusRogue said:

all of the above, plus I want a 1070 graphics card as well :-)

Thing is, when you want something like that in a pre-built system, they often going to up everything. 32GB of RAM, 3TB of HDD, i7,... and the price goes up.
To me, a gaming rig, esp sub 1000, you're often better off building it yourself.

I had originally considered this road but decided against it, mostly through laziness to be fair. Might be worth pricing up all the parts and doing it myself.

[ZesPak]

That way you also have quality gear. I know Dell can get huge discounts on RAM because of volume, but they also won't hesitate to put in some obscure variant of a gpu that they could get from some manufacturer if it means it'll save them 10 quid.

[CerberusRogue]

ZesPak said:

That way you also have quality gear. I know Dell can get huge discounts on RAM because of volume, but they also won't hesitate to put in some obscure variant of a gpu that they could get from some manufacturer if it means it'll save them 10 quid.

OK, fair point. I'll look at that route. I'll also check out some local computer shops, they might have some good prices as well.

[_dobbo_]

If self building an entire system bothers you, try looking at prebuilt motherboard/CPU/memory bundles. This way you've only got to whack them in a case and cable everything up.

[tankplanker]

Aphex said:

Am I missing something, where are all these people playing forza on pc?

In their living room? I'll get my coat.

Its in open beta last time I checked: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/forza-m...

[CerberusRogue]

thanks everyone for all the help, it's been great. This *should* be my final question...!

I've customising a computer on Overclockers, to see how it comes out. When it gets to the graphics card section it's offering way too many options! Looking at either the 980 or the 1070, there seem to be lots of different types. How can I pick the right one, or do I just pick on the price alone?

Example below...

[ZesPak]

They're often the same. Some are bundled with a couple of free games, different fan, different state of tune.

Just make up a shortlist and do your research.

[CerberusRogue]

thanks everyone for all the help with this. Without it I would no doubt have bought a box of useful crap from PC World!

I've now bought an i5 with 16GB of RAM and the 1070 graphics card from Scan for £900. I opted not to get the SSD as the difference got be the better graphics card. Scan customer service were really helpful, giving honest advice rather than just trying to squeeze me for money. I also ended up getting a 27" monitor as they had some sale items going

It's being delivered today :-)

[_dobbo_]

I'm sure you'll love it, but not getting an SSD is an error in my opinion.

You've spent £900, get over to Amazon and spend another £50(ish) to pick up a 240GB SSD, it will be worth every penny.

[iwantagta]

If you are looking at Dell = 0NP89M7?JQ85P9

Is a single use discount code for 10% off any alienware over £699.

(I used one this morning to purchase a laptop from them after my ebay scam disaster)

Obviously if someone else nicks this before you use it PM me and will send you the other one i have.

[Aphex]

tankplanker said:

n their living room? I'll get my coat.

Its in open beta last time I checked: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/forza-m...

Well I never! Cheers for the info

[chris285]

Hope you are happy with your purchase, as above an SSD is a must for gaming now IMO but I am sure your new system will be bang on the money for what you want as scan and pretty good

I'm trying to not think about watercooling my rig, well custom water cool it all that is lol

[CerberusRogue]

chris285 said:

Hope you are happy with your purchase, as above an SSD is a must for gaming now IMO but I am sure your new system will be bang on the money for what you want as scan and pretty good

I'm trying to not think about watercooling my rig, well custom water cool it all that is lol

I had planned on the SSD but the guy from Scan told me that the only real benefit of the SSD is for booting of the computer and loading the game - once both of these are done the value of having one is pretty low. He advised upping the graphics card instead to the 1070 as i'd see a far bigger benefit from that for the same money.

but thanks!

[ZesPak]

He's not wrong.

But it's generally a much, much nicer experience. And loading times are important in several games.
On top of that, a new 800 quid computer without it is just plain to me.

[chris285]

Agreed but having had a ssd for a few years i couldn't go back I have to say, but like i say sounds like your rig should be spot on

[ManOpener]

CerberusRogue said:

chris285 said:

Hope you are happy with your purchase, as above an SSD is a must for gaming now IMO but I am sure your new system will be bang on the money for what you want as scan and pretty good

I'm trying to not think about watercooling my rig, well custom water cool it all that is lol

I had planned on the SSD but the guy from Scan told me that the only real benefit of the SSD is for booting of the computer and loading the game - once both of these are done the value of having one is pretty low. He advised upping the graphics card instead to the 1070 as i'd see a far bigger benefit from that for the same money.

One word of warning- some recently games- I'm thinking Fallout 4 in particular but I've seen it reported with others- really don't seem to play ball with HDDs at all.

I run a high-end system (overclocked 5820k and now a GTX1080), previously I had a 1TB HDD for games and a 256GB NVMe M.2 SSD for the OS. Fallout 4 experienced terrible texture pop-in in areas with lots going on when installed onto the HDD; some object textures would only render in low-resolution mode and on occasion some wouldn't render at all. Issue was entirely resolved by moving the game from the HDD to the SSD; I've now junked all of my old HDDs and run a pair of SATA3 Samsung SSDs in addition to the M.2 drive.