Looking to get my first "Serious" gaming PC

[Krothar]

Hello!

So I'm looking to get my first proper gaming PC. I've always been a console kind of guy, so I've usually only bought a normal PC for around £400-500 for WoW. Recently however I've been very interested in playing a lot of games on the PC that my current nearly 7 year old machine (Can't believe its been that long!) simply can't handle, in fact, it's starting to struggle with WoW!

So I'm earning a decent wage and I'm looking to invest in a good gaming computer that'll blow WoW out of the water and allow me to enjoy recent games, but something I can rely on to play games into the future (2-3 years at least, don't mind upgrading the rig once I have it, but I don't want to be spending massive amounts of money every year on the thing. Family to look after, etc.)

I've never built my own computer, most I've done is upgraded the RAM, so if you guys can point me towards pre-built rigs that would be awesome.
I know the common website to look at now would be Alienware, but I'm very aware that I'm paying for a brand right there.

I live in the UK (If that changes who can deliver where) and I'd have about £1500 to spend.

I'm not 100% against building my own PC if there are instructions etc, I'm just very aware that if I make a mistake putting it together, it would be insanely expensive to fix.

Thanks in advance!

[AzeofSpadez]

I'd definitely recommend you to build your own computer!

I know how terrifying it was for me in the beginning but if you just watch a guide like Newegg's on Youtube you shouldn't be able to mess anything up.
To build a computer should be seen as "Adult-LEGO"

To "Be able to play games" for 2-3 years is very easy for any computer but the question is how picky you are when it comes to the amount of FPS (Frames per second) you want your games to run at and what quality-settings you want to play your games at?

What resolution is your monitor?

[Deleted]

I built my PC from components that I got from Scan. If you haven't built it before, they'll assemble it all together for you for ~ 50 quid iirc. They generally have pretty solid prices and their after-sales stuff is generally fairly helpful as well if you need it.

I built mine from scratch in early 2012 and I can run pretty much all games on top settings. I reduce the settings when I'm on multiplayer because I don't want the game to run slowly. Just to give you an idea, the specs are as follows:

AMD FX 4100
Asus M5A97 Motherboard
8GB 1600Mhz RAM
Radeon HD 6670 (1 GB)
500 GB HDD
550W PSU (I forget the brand, it cost about 60 quid)
Some crappy WiFi card
A basic black case

All of this put together cost 550-600 quid. I know it's not exactly top of the line by any means, but since I was a student at the time I think it was a pretty good start. I've moved country since and bought a proper case along with some decent gaming peripherals.

Hopefully this helps give you an idea as to what is out there and available. Scan also sometimes have pre-built deals which could be a good deal as well since they ship them out a lot faster.

[Krothar]

I'd definitely recommend you to build your own computer!

I know how terrifying it was for me in the beginning but if you just watch a guide like Newegg's on Youtube you shouldn't be able to mess anything up.
To build a computer should be seen as "Adult-LEGO"

To "Be able to play games" for 2-3 years is very easy for any computer but the question is how picky you are when it comes to the amount of FPS (Frames per second) you want your games to run at and what quality-settings you want to play your games at?

What resolution is your monitor?

I'd hope it'd give me playable FPS after 2-3 years (30-60 FPS) if it dropped below that I'd be looking for an upgrade. I'd be looking for a new monitor with the new computer, as the one I currently have is the stock monitor that came with the old computer.

Thanks Navssurtani, I'll give Scan a look!

[Tehterokkar]

Here's something I put together.

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/1MEQm

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£245.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£23.98 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87 Extreme3 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£99.21 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory (£129.34 @ Novatech)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£128.71 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.86 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7990 6GB Video Card (£543.75 @ Ebuyer)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£62.98 @ Ebuyer)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£15.75 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1469.57
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 12:28 BST+0100)

Building your own PC usually saves about 10%, and can be fun. It's just Legos for Adults in the end.

[Jakexe]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£83.80 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£113.14 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£97.59 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£145.97 @ Dabs)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£114.47 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (£269.98 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Define XL R2 (Titanium Grey) ATX Full Tower Case (£97.18 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: Silverstone 650W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£101.58 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer (£13.15 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1273.85
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 12:28 BST+0100)

The video card is a place holder for the r9 290x. Also it puts you over budget but I really suggest sticking with the monitor you have a save a little extra for a 2560x1440 monitor if thats an option. Could shave a few dollars off that build as well.

[AzeofSpadez]

I'd hope it'd give me playable FPS after 2-3 years (30-60 FPS) if it dropped below that I'd be looking for an upgrade. I'd be looking for a new monitor with the new computer, as the one I currently have is the stock monitor that came with the old computer.

Thanks Navssurtani, I'll give Scan a look!

Ok, I'll make a list of components with an explanation to why you should buy each specific part:

Processor: i7 4770K. Games are starting so become more multithreaded and we can already see in many games that having an i7 instead of an i5 can give you a quite significant increase in performance.

Graphics card: EVGA GTX 780 Classified. This card is the ultimate beast on the market right now. if you compare an overclocked GTX 780 Classified vs an overclocked GTX Titan they are on par performance-wise which is incredible since there's a quite big price-gap between them.
3GB VRAM will most probably be enough for 1920x1080-gaming for 4 or even 5 years.

Motherboard: Now this is more about personal preference but you want to make sure that your motherboard of choice has got all of the features that you want and that the motherboard is good for overclocking. I'd recommend an Asus Sabertooth Z87 becuase I like the looks of it and it keeps dust away.

RAM: I'd go for 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance@1600MHz since we're also starting to see an increase of RAM-usage in games and that will most likely go up in the next 3 years all the way to 16GB and you can never have enough RAM.
The speed of 1600MHz is the sweet spot for RAM today and the performance difference between 1600MHz and up is negligible.

Case: A very big personal preference. The only thing to really look for is that it's an ATX-case, it has support for two graphics cards (You never know) and that it has good ventilation (Many fan slots)

Storage: A Samsung "EVO" SSD for the operating system and a Western Digital for everything else. Samsung and Intel rule the SSD-market and Western Digital are known for reliable hard drives. Go with the "Green"-model if you prefer silence over performance.

CPU-cooler: Sadly I don't know much about high end CPU-coolers so I don't have any good advice here but I do know that the Noctua NH D14 is a brilliant air cooler if you don't want a water cooler.

Power supply: Corsairs AX-series is the best of the best if you ask me, they give you the very best components found in power supplies and a passive fan at low system loads (It doesn't spin until a specific system load)

If you want to limit your budget a bit then tell me and I'll suggest some other parts for that budget!

[Krothar]

I want to stick around £1500 if at all possible Uzanar, but a little over, or a little less wouldn't be pushing it. (Little over being £150ish max).

Thanks to everyone for the replies, looking through the links etc now!

[Thiassi]

If you can wait a few weeks, I'd recommend waiting. AMD's new graphics cards are about to release and should make all the current ones drop in price a little.

[chazus]

I want to stick around £1500 if at all possible Uzanar, but a little over, or a little less wouldn't be pushing it. (Little over being £150ish max).

Well, a few things to consider.

Processor: i7 4770K. Games are starting so become more multithreaded and we can already see in many games that having an i7 instead of an i5 can give you a quite significant increase in performance.

They're really not. I think BF3/BF4 gets a marginal increase. Not worth the money. We aren't seeing multithreaded games yet, and wont.

Motherboard:...I'd recommend an Asus Sabertooth Z87 becuase I like the looks of it and it keeps dust away.

I would not. There are as good motherboards for less than half the price.

RAM: I'd go for 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance@1600MHz since we're also starting to see an increase of RAM-usage in games

No, we're not. 8gb is fine. Maybe next upgrade in 3-4 years. Maybe. Probably not.

Power supply: Corsairs AX-series is the best of the best if you ask me, they give you the very best components found in power supplies and a passive fan at low system loads

Corsairs are nice, but expensive too. You can get as good or better products (Seasonic, XFX) for cheaper.

If you want to limit your budget a bit then tell me and I'll suggest some other parts for that budget![/QUOTE]

[lordsphinx]

This should pretty much cover your needs + some. As others have said, I definitely recommend waiting a couple of weeks until the new AMD graphics cards some out. They are supposed to be really great in the price/performance ratio, and even if not, they will cause a serious price drop in the Nvidia cards. I would also recommend saving a couple hundred more and getting a new 1440p monitor. You can't really fit it into your budget right now without sacrificing performance, but it will be worth buying it a month from now.

Without Monitor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£62.95 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£150.72 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£130.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.86 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (£544.79 @ Aria PC)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£71.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Total: £1418.76
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 14:12 BST+0100)

With Monitor (a little over budget with lower quality GPU):
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler (£62.95 @ CCL Computers)
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£150.72 @ Aria PC)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.98 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£130.54 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£61.86 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card (£304.97 @ CCL Computers)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case (£89.00 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£71.94 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer (£11.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor (£425.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1603.94
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 14:16 BST+0100)

- - - Updated - - -

Also, if you're worried about building it yourself, watch this video series (like someone above posted). It will show you just how simple it really is. This first one is more about selecting components (which is what we're here for =P), so you can probably skip that one.

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok

[Deleted]

Ok, I'll make a list of components with an explanation to why you should buy each specific part:

Processor: i7 4770K. Games are starting so become more multithreaded and we can already see in many games that having an i7 instead of an i5 can give you a quite significant increase in performance.

I am sorry, but which game uses multithreading? There is only Battlefield 3 at the moment that uses it in minimal performance. It will take another 3 to 4 years that they start using this permanently in games I guess.

I'd go for 2x8GB of Corsair Vengeance@1600MHz since we're also starting to see an increase of RAM-usage in games and that will most likely go up in the next 3 years all the way to 16GB and you can never have enough RAM.

What? 32-Bit System has a maximum of 4 Gig RAM usable. And 64-Bit games? Battlefield 4 will be the first one using it on first hand. Although, there are few games with 64 Bit Clients, they would never be able to build only 64 Bit games, they would lose a massive amount of players. Any gamer using more than 8 Gig of RAM when he is only gaming (maybe you are a streamer or whatever, then its okay) is wasting money.

Power supply: Corsairs AX-series is the best of the best if you ask me, they give you the very best components found in power supplies and a passive fan at low system loads (It doesn't spin until a specific system load)

Maybe giving him some numbers which one he should buy? 340W? Okay, it's from Corsair, so it's okay

I am very sorry, but my stomach hurts seeing people giving bad advises as an IT guy. Don't get irritated from the manufacturers, who want to sell their high price products.

i5 3570k, best CPU you can have as a normal gamer at the moment (price is really nice, and almost the same power in games as the i7....dunno exactly
8 Gig Ram is enough.

[Fluorescent0]

On the topic of multithreaded games. Multithreaded games aren't basically inexistent because of how little the technology has been out: the first multicore consumer computers were out in ~2005 and both onsoles from the last generation were multicore (6, 3+3 on the xbox 360 and 8 effective ones on the ps3). The real problem is that you can't guarantee absolute synchronization for each separate thread, and there's only so much you can do in parallel. It requires a complete programming revolution, and especially a better way of synchronizing threads or a completely different way of looking at things to actually change that and we're very unlikely to see anything in the next few years.

[AzeofSpadez]

I am sorry, but which game uses multithreading? There is only Battlefield 3 at the moment that uses it in minimal performance. It will take another 3 to 4 years that they start using this permanently in games I guess.

Well... Crysis 3, BF3, BF4, and Far Cry 3 comes to mind.
I don't have any other in the head at the moment but there sure are a few more and it's likely that the amount of games that use multiple threads will skyrocket in the next 3 years because as you may know the next gen consoles are multithreaded and similar to the architecture of PC's.

What? 32-Bit System has a maximum of 4 Gig RAM usable. And 64-Bit games? Battlefield 4 will be the first one using it on first hand. Although, there are few games with 64 Bit Clients, they would never be able to build only 64 Bit games, they would lose a massive amount of players. Any gamer using more than 8 Gig of RAM when he is only gaming (maybe you are a streamer or whatever, then its okay) is wasting money.

I base this statement on the fact that very many new titles recommend 8GB RAM and if you're shopping for a £1500 you shouldn't buy 8GB.
One way would be to buy 8GB RAM now and maybe buy 16/32GB of DDR4 RAM once it's mainstream though.

Maybe giving him some numbers which one he should buy? 340W? Okay, it's from Corsair, so it's okay

I am very sorry, but my stomach hurts seeing people giving bad advises as an IT guy. Don't get irritated from the manufacturers, who want to sell their high price products.

i5 3570k, best CPU you can have as a normal gamer at the moment (price is really nice, and almost the same power in games as the i7....dunno exactly
8 Gig Ram is enough.

Well, the thing is that I observe the OP as a guy who wants to keep his computer for a long time and you never know what kind of choices he will take in the future like say buy a second graphics card because he gets a sweet deal for a cheap GTX 780. Then he's got the power supply to support it.
I'm picking parts for a beast that's easy to upgrade and doesn't get outdated very quickly due to changes in the gaming-industry. (That being multithreaded games)

I would not. There are as good motherboards for less than half the price.

Like I said, it's personal preference but the Sabertooth sure has the right components for overclocking.

Well, a few things to consider.

They're really not. I think BF3/BF4 gets a marginal increase. Not worth the money. We aren't seeing multithreaded games yet, and wont.

No, we're not. 8gb is fine. Maybe next upgrade in 3-4 years. Maybe. Probably not.

Corsairs are nice, but expensive too. You can get as good or better products (Seasonic, XFX) for cheaper.

If you want to limit your budget a bit then tell me and I'll suggest some other parts for that budget!

Look at what I wrote above

[Fluorescent0]

Well... Crysis 3, BF3, BF4, and Far Cry 3 comes to mind.
I don't have any other in the head at the moment but there sure are a few more and it's likely that the amount of games that use multiple threads will skyrocket in the next 3 years because as you may know the next gen consoles are multithreaded and similar to the architecture of PC's.

Last gen consoles were multithreaded as well, as said in the post above which I suggest you to actually read. Keep in mind that all the games you quoted offload secondary stuff (AI, Physics) to the secondary threads while still executing all the main logic on a single thread.

[AzeofSpadez]

Last gen consoles were multithreaded as well, as said in the post above which I suggest you to actually read. Keep in mind that all the games you quoted offload secondary stuff (AI, Physics) to the secondary threads while still executing all the main logic on a single thread.

Well, the thing is that this time the architecture is x86.
I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but from what I've heard from many people and many articles this will really make PC hardware utilized in games to come.

[Fluorescent0]

Well, the thing is that this time the architecture is x86.
I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but from what I've heard from many people and many articles this will really make PC hardware utilized in games to come.

Architecture has little to do on how a thing is programmed. It might make things more efficient, but it won't change the key concept behind things in any way. You'll indeed have to rewrite, especially if you're using low level coding, but keep in mind that writing something isn't but a technical minority in programming, the whole thought behind it is the real thing. And you don't see multithreaded games on consoles either, most used secondary cores for music and secondary stuff as well.

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

Here is a list of parts with reasons for each:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£167.99 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Be Quiet DARK ROCK PRO 2 67.8 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler (£53.24 @ Scan.co.uk)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£135.00 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Mushkin Blackline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£38.20 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£132.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£47.41 @ Aria PC)
Video Card: Gigabyte Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB Video Card (£269.98 @ Dabs)
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case (£69.26 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply: XFX 650W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply (£73.48 @ CCL Computers)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.00 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: Dell U2312HM 23.0" Monitor (£157.55 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1213.11
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-10-09 16:44 BST+0100)

1. Not more than the i5 is needed for gaming. If you were going to do some rendering stuff, or something similar, then I would opt for the i7.
2. The Dark Rock Pro is a great air-air cooler, along the same lines of Noctua NH-D14, and looks better. (similar performance)
3. There are quite a few MBs to choose from, I just went with one that would fit a color scheme and is still decent. (without being overpriced)
4. The RAM here is all you need for gaming and general purpose. (also cheap!)
5. Gave you a really nice 250GB SSD and 1TB for storage.
6. The GPU is a place holder till the new ones come out from AMD, and if I am not mistaken the 280X will be basically the same card. (Price might drop a bit on the one I have listed due to being the "old" model and stores wanting to get rid of stock.
7. Decent case, geared toward airflow. You can get something different if you prefer something aimed towards silence or for a different aesthetic.
8. The PSU here is 650W, which will be plenty to run your system with overclocks. There are others you could take a look at though around the same price.
9. W8 cause you need an OS
10. Dell monitor at a decent price. It is an IPS panel, so the colors are lovely.

Now, I left out an optical drive. It is not really needed, though you could tack one on if you like and it shouldn't be much more.
The build I posed here does keep you well under budget and you could get some really nice accessories to go with it if you like.