The PC Buying Advice Thread mk II

Hi guys!

I'm not a complete computer noob, but I'm not exactly as clued up as I'd like to be when looking at building my computer, which a friend has persuaded me to do. He's given me a bit of guidance on what parts to get, but I thought I'd check with you guys as well, to see if it all looks OK. I do play quite a few games, but they tend not to be too graphics intensive. I've enjoyed the Elder Scrolls series, but mostly I tend to play RTS/turn based games (Total War and Civilisation being favourites). Other than that I just use the computer for normal internetting, word processing, skyping etc.

Casecom CB-191 Black Mid Tower Case cant say much, you get what you pay for.......just have a check thoroughly of it and remember its limitations
OCZ 500W CoreXStream PSU its decent value, but Zalman are doing some good 80+ certified psu's, so you got some choice http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/dp/B0076WGOJ6?tag=invihand-21
Intel Core i5 3470 3.20GHz Socket 1155 6MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor cant be overclocked
Gigabyte GA-Z77-HD3 Socket 1155 DVI HDMI VGA 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard loads of features, mainly a overclocking mobo, also be aware the next series of intel cpu's are on a new socket.Maybe consider the new haswell's, etc
Extra Value 8GB DDR3 1600MHZ CL11 1.5v http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/-/BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU.html?#utm_source=affiliatewindow&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=InvisibleHand
Gigabyte GTX 650 1GB GDDR5 VGA Dual DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card

Total comes to just under £400 on ebuyer, which seems to be as near enough cheapest as to make it not worth getting from various sources. I've got a few questions:

The case is very cheap, but I don't plan on doing anything fancy, I just want it to hold the bits of my computer and hopefully not have them overheat. Is it OK?
The RAM is generic value stuff. Will it be OK?
I'm looking at monitors (damn they're expensive). Any advice? A friend is advocating IPS screens coming in at about £100-120. Bit more than I'd like to spend but that does seem to be how much they cost...
I actually budgeted for maybe £50-100 more than I'm currently looking at. Have I missed out anything I might want? Is there anything you'd upgrade now for about that difference to make it "last" another year for the sort of things I'm looking at?

Thanks!

You could get a better gpu, i know everything after empir:total war tends to be very gpu intensive in the realtime battles especially the upcoming rome 2

I need your help brah.

Basically I'm thinking of buying a SSD drive. Now I am aware that people tend to have a SSD which has their OS installed to it, and then they have a seperate HDD which has most of their programs and files. What's the advantage in this case? Does this mean that only my boot up times will increase or does it also mean that my overall speed of my pc will increase , from casual stuff like browsing the internet, running low end games etc?

I've got a 500gb hdd, but I built the pc a year ago and haven't used it since. I'm trying to run the basic pc I'm on now, to the ground on it's last legs.

cheers man

Well having the OS on the SSD, speeds up the boot time, but actually also speeds up all the interactions involved with the OS..........but you'll have plenty of space, so recommend installing the drivers onto the SSD and any programs which are heavily used.
Or any games which are lagging, should provide a significant speed boost.

sounds good to me. Are there any good deals going on atm for SSD's? I was thinking of maybe a 128gb one? I doubt I'll be doing much storing and I won't have many programs, just the usual, office 2013 professional (btw my mum got it for 8 quid because the company she works in is in partnership with microsoft ) and stuff like adobe reader, norton antivirus etc, but I might store some games on it like counter strike source. I can then buy a hdd on the side just for my word document and other files.

Not sure, but you should look out for the Crucial m4, intel, Samsung 840 pro version only.
128gb will give you plenty of storage, for the important bits and plenty left for a good few games depending on the size of course.

safe brah.

I'm having second thoughts about upgrading the pc build (I did last year). Because I'm going into uni this year, it makes more sense for me to buy a laptop, because it will help alot when I want to go to the library.

So I can just give the pc I built to my mum (as her pc was 7 years old and she needs to install office 2010 on it for her work documents and shizzle).

Have you got any laptops to recommend? The budget will be around 320-350 quid. I just want something good enough to run office 2013. hard disk space isn't an issue, hopefully a good reliable make like lenovo etc.

cheers brah

If you can push it a bit you can get an i5 http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_K55A-SX376H_red_1337331.html



http://www.ebuyer.com/452736-asus-x55c-laptop-x55c-sx049h

http://www.ebuyer.com/514110-lenovo-ideapad-z580-laptop-m81hauk

no dvd drive
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/dp/B00CEZQRK6?tag=invihand-21

http://www.ebuyer.com/435444-lenovo-essential-b590-laptop-mbx29uk

I'll see about the first link. Looks very good.

is an i5 adequate? What about the onboard graphics card?

Can anyone please find me a desktop with as good as specs as a budget of £350 will allow? I'm just looking for a base unit, monitor and peripherals not needed.

Would be very helpful if you could link me, and will rep

is it for basic use?
do you already have windows OS?

Well I'd like it to be powerful relative to the money I'm willing to spend, if that makes any sense

Just everyday use really, for work, media, movies. Not so much games. But I'd like it to have relatively good specs.

Could you recommend any?

Or do you think I'm better off building it myself? I'm come across a few guides that take you through building a machine.

Hi all, I am back now at the end of June with the money to buy a new computer Just some things to help you guys help me

OS-Not needed

Budget- £1800ish (The lower the better)

Minimum RAM- 12GB

Case- Not a noisy one

Overclocking- Yes

Gaming- Yes

Monitor- Needed

Mouse/Keyboard/Speakers- Needed

Help would be great

The issue is that if you dont have Windows already, the best you can do is an i3 desktop..............but if you did you could get a i5 desktop.

Building it yourself is still an issue due to windows taking a chunk of the budget.



prebuilt or you building yourself?
and solely for gaming purposes?
any overclocking?
any special needs, ssd, large hdd, etc?

The issue is that if you dont have Windows already, the best you can do is an i3 desktop..............but if you did you could get a i5 desktop.

Building it yourself is still an issue due to windows taking a chunk of the budget.

Building myself

Not solely for gaming, gaming is a small part of it as I dont' game MUCH but lots of Photoshop work dealing with huge images and maybe some 3d work as well in 3DS Max, etc...

Overclocking, yup!

1TB HDD really is standard for me. SSD is optional, but not necessary.

I have the Windows 7 disc for my home desktop, but is there a way I can use that for another machine?

cpu: i7 4770K http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/-/BX80646I74770K.html?#utm_source=affiliatewindow&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=InvisibleHand£264 + free game, best for video editing, etc plenty of power and overclockable, though you could go for the i5 version instead but the i7 would do better under more major workload
mobo: Asus Z87-A http://www.ebuyer.com/507915-asus-z87-a-socket-1150-hdmi-displayport-7-1-channel-audio-motherboard-z87-a £115.60, slightly overkill depending on whether you like the specs on it
ram: 8gb of ram http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/-/BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU.html?#utm_source=affiliatewindow&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=InvisibleHand £45, rams expensive at the moment
gpu: kfa gtx760 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/nvidiageforcegraphicscards/nvidiagtx760keplerseries/76xph6dv6kkz.html £200, pretty good value........though you may be enticed to go for a gtx770 but £130 more.
case: Going to be an issue, whether you want something with very good airflow like the Corsair 300r or good noise levels like the
Fractal Design Define R4, so have a look at them both
cooler: http://www.ebuyer.com/288855-coolermaster-hyper-212-evo-rr-212e-16pk-r1 £28.49.......for better cooling, hence lower temps and less noise or
Corsair Hydro Series H40 water cooling for a bit more?
psu: Corsair cx600 http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/powersupplies/cp-9020048-uk.html £56, it should handle all of it but with a bit for overhead, though you may be enticed to go for a 650-700 should you want to put in extra fans, HDD,etc
HDD: http://www.ebuyer.com/319639-seagate-1tb-barracuda-internal-hard-drive-oem-st1000dm003£50 for 1tb, though could go for 2tb but £20 more
optical drive: http://www.ebuyer.com/410560-liteon-ihas124-24x-dvd-rw-dual-r-ram-sata-drive-internal-black-ihas124-19cu £13, blu-ray is avaliable from £25
SSD: http://www.ebuyer.com/410473-samsung-128gb-840-pro-series-ssd-mz-7pd128bw £107.15, a bit expensive 128gb but fast for keeping your os and programs on


Total so far £891.24.........excluding the case and read the bold bits very carefully by the way

I'm not great with monitor, etc stuff.



You could get away with it but not sure....
http://www.ebuyer.com/395308-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1074

or go for the one with the os with cashback but a bit over budget http://www.ebuyer.com/395297-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-0436

You could get away with it but not sure....
http://www.ebuyer.com/395308-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-1074

or go for the one with the os with cashback but a bit over budget http://www.ebuyer.com/395297-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-0436