Help on which prebuilt pc to buy

[Chrispotter]

Hi,
When I look at pre-built pc's online and they list the specs, I really dont have a clue what they mean, for instance when it comes to video cards all I see is GForcex-123 and I have no idea how that differs from Gforcex-321. If you get my point.

Anyway,
on my current pc I can play wow on fair with 0 fps issues but as soon as I try for "good" or higher I get some issues. My current pc is also very slow to do things such as proccess videos that I create on movie maker and is generally getting a bit old.

Currently I have the processor and Ram below:




What kind of processor/Video card is needed for me to play 25 man raids on "good" or higher without issues. I also plan to livestream in the near future and although I understand that is more about your internet upload speeds you may need to take that into consideration. I live in the UK and have been looking at pcworld.co.uk at prebuilts but im not really sure what to buy. As for a budget I would like to say as low as possible for what I need but lets say for instance I had a budget of up to £700.

Any help would be vastly appreciated!

[Toffie]

Any chance you can build yourself or get someone to help you? Is there any parts you can reuse? HDD, optical-drive, case, windows.

[Lathais]

On that budget, you will not get much pre-built. Especially capable of streaming. Also, while upload speeds can drastically affect your ability to stream, you need a solid CPU as well. I was streaming with my AMD Phenom x2 965 BE while playing Rift and I took a HUGE FPS hit while streaming. Like 20-30% Hit. I would highly recommend, on that budget, building yourself. You'll get a lot more bang for your buck. You say you don't know where to start, however, I have already chosen the best place to start and that is right here.

There are 2 links in particular in the sticky on this forum:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-in-9.75-Steps
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...step_explained

That can get you started and show you just how easy it is. Building yourself you can save about $100 that can then be put towards a stronger CPU/GPU rather than in someone pocket for putting it all together for you.

[Chrispotter]

Lets say I didnt want to build one myself, what would be the cheapest PC that is still able to do all the things I want it to do in the original post?

[Chrispotter]

bump?
Anyone have any suggestions ploz?

[Ripox]

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-x51/fs
Will probably need to hit the 849 pound model to hit what you want,

At such a budget, you should build yourself, it isn't as hard as you think! You'll be surprised how much you can learn from watching a couple of videos, you'll save a lot and you may find it fun


With video cards, you have two main brands: nVidia and ATI

Lets take the NVidia GE-force for a bit of a lesson
The current models are like GTX 6XX, so you have like a GTX 660 Ti, GTX 670, GTX 680, GTX 690
The first number, the 6, is just like a series. Before, it was 480's then 580's, now 680's, etc. It represents the current technology of the cards. The latest are the 6 series. The bigger the numbers after the 6, the better and the more expensive. A GTX 690 is better than a 670, get it? Now, what can be used for what? If you're playing single-monitor 1920x1080, usually world of warcraft, at ultra graphics with a good cpu* then a GTX 660 Ti or a GTX 670 would be GREAT for you.

*good cpu: Two main kinds of CPU's: Intel and AMD. Intel are generally more powerful and also more expensive. Less expensive builds tend to have AMD CPU's with the higher end ones usually having Intel cpu's. With Intel, you have the big 3: i3, i5, and i7. For your purposes, you'll want to focus on the i5 and i7. Those are the powerful CPU's that are good for gaming. The difference between the i5 and the i7 is minimal for gaming. A good i5 will be perfect for gaming, but i7 is used for people who want HD streaming and video editing. Now lets take the i5 for an example. Like the video cards, the first number is the series. So you have the i5-2500, i5-2330, i5-3330, i5-3570k. Once again, you can pretty much assume that the bigger the number, the better. The current generation of processors is Ivy Bridge which is the "3" series, the 3rd generation i-series. Upcoming soon is the Haswell series which will be the 4th generation, so there will be CPU's like i7-4770k as opposed to today's i7-3770k. Now, generally, good gaming rigs have an i5-3570k. This is basically the 'best' i5. The 'k' at the end indicates that the CPU is 'unlocked', allowing it to be overclocked. What is overclocking? Well, on CPU's you may have seen that some are like 3.0GHz, some are 3.5GHz, etc. These are clock speeds and essentially, the higher the faster. Overclocking gives the ability to increase that clock speed at little to no negative effects other than increased heat, its like putting steroids on your CPU. So you may be able to push a 3.8GHz CPU to something like 4.4GHz!

Watch these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls

Indulge yourself for fun, check out these videos. You may actually be excited to build your own. There is a sense of accomplishment, personalization, enjoyment. You may become friends with your computer. It is much less expensive, can be more aesthetically appealing, generally lasts longer, and can be customized to your needs!