Upgrading my gaming rig, advice requested please

[Mannginger]

Hi folks

I'm strongly considering mothballing my Alienware M15x gaming laptop in favour of a desktop system within the next month or so, my question is what's in the art of possible and how much more improvement will I really see?

The M15 was a good compromise when I needed flexibility to game aorund the house but that's really gone away now. It is currently running the following:

• Intel I7 q820 Processor (1.73GHz)
• NVidia GEForce GTX260M Graphics card
• 4GB Ram

It does an ok job but can overheat I think and also has some other stability issues and is not quite strong enough to play top end games or play high settings on most games in my experience.

I am not technically able enough to build my own so would really want something from an Overclockers or similar where I have confidence in their build.

Budget wise, ideally if I can keep to around £1k I'd be happy but prepared to go to £1500 if the difference will be significant over a £1k system. I presume I'm looking at something with SSD but really not knowledgeable enough to say one way or another - so I bow to the collective knowledge to point me in the right direction

Cheers in advance

Phil

PS: Prefer not to go windows 8 as an OS and will need a decent monitor so that'll need to be factored into the price

[BlueMR2]

You should get something nice for that money, a reasonable processor i5 3570k or similar, a quality make motherboard, 128-256gb ssd 2 or 3TB storage drive, good quality psu with enough headroom if you want to upgrade it in future to 2 graphics cards.

An oem blu ray drive can be had for £30.

Then add a 670 or 680 gtx nvidia graphics card.

Pop over to pcspecialist and get a quote putting in the models i have mentioned to get an idea of price.

8gb of ram should do you.

[MocMocaMoc]

Worth noting, building your own takes about as much technical skill as most Lego sets these days.

Between me and a bottle of wine, I had mine up and running in a couple hours! Should take less than an hour without any distraction.

[jacobpalmer05]

No advice to offer regarding the actual pc, but I would recommend buying from Dinopc.com when it came to purchasing mine, I tried to build their pc myself, i.e price the parts from amazon, ebay etc and I would have saved myself £30, that saving isn't worth the time or the effort of sourcing and building yourself.

Obviously the pricing would be different for yours, but what I am getting at is, it is a tiny saving and considering they do it all and supply a warranty themselves with it, its just not worth building yourself.

[Mannginger]

OK So starting with something like this then maybe?

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/GW2-Extreme-PC/

[TheEnd]

What I bought-

Case-
http://www.box.co.uk/Aerocool_VS-3_Midi_Tower_Case...

700w PSU
http://www.box.co.uk/Cooler_Master_Gx_Lite_700W_86...

i5 3570k + z77 Motherboard
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/INTEL-Core-i5-3570K-3-4G...

I used the DVD rom from my old PC, the old HD as a storage drive and a Samsung 120gb SSD as a system drive.

[Meoricin]

This is what I would do with your budget. Apologies for going over £1k, but I didn't notice the need for a monitor and OS until after I'd finished. Only used Overclockers as it was easier for me to browse and build the list - shopping around would change things (I'd get different fans, and would research the monitor rather than just picking one out of a hat. Probably be able to find a better option for the OS, too).

I'd build this system with two of the additional fans on the heatsink, two of them on the front fan intakes, and then move the heatsink's fan to one of the side intakes.

[BlueMR2]

Mannginger said:

OK So starting with something like this then maybe?

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/GW2-Extreme-PC/

Sounds pretty good.

I just specced this.


Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX BEAST DUAL-DDR3 2400MHz X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
3GB AMD RADEON™ HD7950 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Free Item
FREE CRYSIS 3 & BIOSHOCK INFINITE with AMD HD 7950/7970 GPUs!
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
4x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ROM (£27)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler (£19)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Price: £967.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/intel-ivy-bri...

Blu ray drive was only £13 extra. £5 for extra 1 year collect and return rather than 1 month. The 120gb Intel 520 is only about £12 more than the 90gb kingston. The 7950 is more powerful than the 7850 and comes with 2 free games. The power supply should be able to cope with another 7950 if you want more grunt in the future.

You will probably want to add a storage drive if you don't have any already, then mouse and keyboard / monitor is up to you. You can always change the graphics card to a 670 or 680 nvidia, they will put the price up though.

Of course you can change the case to whatever you prefer.

[tim2100]

Have also used Overclockers as I am used to them. It is very very easy to build a PC nowadays. The Processor onto the Motherboard takes 1 minute of care, the rest is routing the cables for the power supply. Below is fairly similar to my own build.
with the i7 & graphics card it is high spec now, so will be powerful enough for a good few years. SSD drive for the OS (Windows 8 included), and storage for programs on the hard drive.
The monitor I have just picked one, its best to choose the size and quality of one you want. I have put in a blu-ray drive for versatility. It will read & write DVD's no problem, and gives you more options.
The case is fantastic and has plenty of queit cooling fans.
The standard cooler that is with the i7 is good enough for most applications, However I have added the intel water cooler as it is a simple closed system that will keep the processor nice and cool and quiet.

1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £269.99
1 x HIS HD 7950 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H795F3G2M) with Crysis 3 & Bioshock PC Games £239.99
1 x Asus VE228HR 22" Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor - Black £119.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 64-Bit DVD - OEM (FQC-05955) £109.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £89.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD120BW) £89.99
1 x Corsair Dominator 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C10 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMP16GX3M2A1600C10) £89.99
1 x Cooler Master CM-690 II Advanced USB3.0 Dominator Case - Black £84.98
1 x Intel Liquid Cooling Solution CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1155 / 1156 / 1366 / 2011) £73.98
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £72.98
1 x Corsair 2013 Edition Gamer Series GS 600W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CP-9020063-UK) £64.99
1 x LG CH10LS28 BD-ROM 10x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (Retail) £59.99
1 x Logitech Wireless MK520 Desktop (920-002606) £45.98
Total : £1,436.95 (includes shipping : £20.10).

[Mannginger]

Excellent, thanks for the advice folks, will probably do a bit more research and then push the button in a few weeks time once I've moved house.

Cheers again

Phil

[Jazzer77]

7950 GPU
3570K CPU

Best bang for your buck imo. As things start to move on in a year or so they will be easy to overclock to keep up.

[Mannginger]

FWIW here's what I went for in the end:

Case
COOLERMASTER CM690 MKII ADVANCED CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-V: PCI-E 3.0 READY, WIFI, SLI, CROSSFIREX
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 670 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)
Processor Cooling
Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8 Standard Edition 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Office Software
Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2013 (1 License Key Card)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor
BENQ XL2411T 23.6" GAMING LED - 1920 x 1080, 1MS, DVI-D, HDMI

Currently being built and very hopeful (excited!) to get it on Saturday and get playing!

[Muska]

Your spec is near identical to mine, I think you'll be very pleased. The 3570k is great for overclocking and I find most games can be run at ultra settings if not damn close.

[tim2100]

Great Spec

[mikef]

Mannginger said:

Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£86)

FWIW I'm running 2x overclocked GTX580s on one of those, it's been reviewed as rock solid at over 900W (OEM'ed Seasonic unit). You should be good for a second 670 with your PSU if you get the upgrade bug.

[Mannginger]

Yes this was pretty much the advice of the chaps on the PCS forums.

PCS themselves very helpfully noted (Great CS BTW) that I was over-powered and could save me some money but with the thinking that if needed / wanted I could add a second 670 in there I kept this power supply.

Honestly - I know I'll be upgrading the computer, one of the frustrations of the laptop has been it's fixed nature and I believe the tower is capable of fielding much more

:OhgodI'mgoingtobesopoor:

[KingNothing]

Looks pretty good, where you getting it from?

[Mannginger]

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Good service so far and useful forums for a comparative noob like me.