Pc gaming geeks needed!

montsie

Hi guys!

I'm looking to buy a new PC for playing Skyrim and Witcher 2 on (my current 5 yr old machine is struggling!)

I know nothing about building (even though I know it's cheaper) I was hoping somebody could suggest a nice pre-build (or 2) for under £1500?

Thank you!!

Tropez

You should be able to get a more than adequate setup for much less than that, perhaps even half, particularly if you're willing to move your monitor from your current system over to the new one. Many companies will sell units without monitors and other peripherals (mouse, keyboard etc.) so if you're happy to swap your existing ones then you can save yourself a bit of cash.

However, if you are looking for something with all the bells and whistles then you can go as far up to your £1,500 price tag as you would like.

Your first concern should be space. Assuming that you're after a desktop, it is worth bearing in mind that some of the more advanced graphics hardware is very bulky which necessitates a larger case and given that adequate ventilation is a must for such equipment you really need to consider how much space you will have available. Small form factor computers are available but can be quite troublesome without something such as a water cooling setup which requires maintenance.

Looking at the higher end of your price cap you could opt for something like this - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-223-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat= and by opting for an upgrade to either the Radeon 6970 graphics card or the nVidia GeForce GTX 580 you should have no problems running the two games that you are looking at on high, if not maximum, graphics settings. You can also choose a case which suits your tastes and possibly size requirements.

In the mid range of your price point you could opt for this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-211-OE&groupid=43&catid=2040&subcat= and then once again opt for a graphics card option such as one of the two I mention above.

Either way I would say you would be looking for a quad-core (or better) Intel Core, AMD Phenom II or AMD Bulldozer FX processor with 4Gb RAM as a minimum but preferably 8 or 16 with Windows 7 64bit. Graphics wise, even a relatively lowly Radeon 5850 or 5870 would do the job but the more modern card you can get such as a Radeon 6970, 6990 or nVidia GTX 580 would future proof your machine to some extent and allow you to enjoy the majority of games on their highest settings.

montsie

Wow thank you for the fast reply!

I was getting so confused with all this talk of SSDs and what not! I just want to hit things with a sword!

Tropez

montsie wrote: »

Wow thank you for the fast reply!

I was getting so confused with all this talk of SSDs and what not! I just want to hit things with a sword!

No problem.

SSDs are Solid State Drives - they're a nice luxury but they're not a necessity. Most people I know with SSDs, myself included, use them only as a boot drive to get Windows to load up a minute or so quicker. It's still more common to use a 7200RPM HDD for storage and installing games on simply because you can get a 1Tb drive for less than £100 whereas you pay a huge premium on SSDs for much less space. The main advantage to SSDs is simply their speed - they are much faster than regular HDDs but right now there's very little in gaming that truly benefits from them.

The site I provided the two setups from is from a reputable dealer (I've dealt with them many times and have had only one issue, which was due to their delivery people not fulfilling an order in time and not only did they refund my delivery costs, they gave me a £20 voucher) and they have a forum of their own with many, many computer geeks desperate to give you some advice so you can use them as another reference point if it helps

montsie

Amazing! You have been so very very helpful! Especially on the graphics front...I tend to look at options and just pick the highest so it's nice to know it's probably not necessary to totally soup my pc up!

Idiophreak

montsie wrote: »

Wow thank you for the fast reply!

I was getting so confused with all this talk of SSDs and what not! I just want to hit things with a sword!

Technically, if you just want to hit things with a sword, you could get an xbox 360, a *really* big TV and a surround sound system and still have change from the £1.5k...

I know it's a bit of a tangent from the original request, but you'd end up with a pretty decent gaming experience...

Tropez

montsie wrote: »

Amazing! You have been so very very helpful! Especially on the graphics front...I tend to look at options and just pick the highest so it's nice to know it's probably not necessary to totally soup my pc up!

It's always tempting to pick the highest!

You may find this useful - http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

It is a chart of the high end graphics cards on the market rated on their performance in a graphics testing tool called 3d Mark. It doesn't necessarily mean that the card on top will always outperform the ones underneath as some games are optimised for particular cards and manufacturers but it should give you an idea.

I have a machine using the Radeon HD 5850 which is the 26th card down. That card currently runs most games on High to Ultra/Max settings (although I haven't played Witcher 2 or Skyrim on it). I would say if you're looking at machines, anything with one of the top 10-15 would be good enough and should give you at least 2-3 years of high-specced gaming pleasure My 5850 has lasted me since... November 2009, I think, and still going strong!

Oh and one tip, should you buy from a store like PC World make sure they confirm to you the wattage of the Power Supply Unit (PSU) in the machine before you buy it. They've been known to sell relatively high end machines with very low-watt PSUs which will break down under the strain after a year.

montsie

idiophreak - I bought skyrim on the 360 and I hate it! It makes me feel dizzy and sick, I love pcs for gaming - you cant beat them!

Tropez- thanks for the link, it's suddenly all getting very intense! I hate pc world etc as nobody ever has any helpful advice (unlike you thnx).

I was going to get an alienware but the only graphics card available is
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555 which is definitely not in the top of that list! grrrr...
I will peruse and start bugging the other forum!

Tropez

montsie wrote: »

idiophreak - I bought skyrim on the 360 and I hate it! It makes me feel dizzy and sick, I love pcs for gaming - you cant beat them!

Tropez- thanks for the link, it's suddenly all getting very intense! I hate pc world etc as nobody ever has any helpful advice (unlike you thnx).

I was going to get an alienware but the only graphics card available is
1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555 which is definitely not in the top of that list! grrrr...
I will peruse and start bugging the other forum!

Have to agree with you on that. My Xbox doesn't make me feel dizzy and sick but it isn't a patch on a PC for gaming. Better graphics, wider choice of controls, ability to play with addons... wonderful! I've only got about 8 games for my Xbox.

I've owned an Alienware laptop and it isn't something I'm going to be doing again in a hurry. It's basically paying a premium for a name and if anything goes wrong then Dell's support is bloody awful!

You can definitely do better than the GTX 555!

Hope you are able to find what you're looking for. It might be worth giving Overclockers a call and see if they'll build a system for you if one of the helpful forum members there specs you up something that sounds good

Idiophreak

Tropez wrote: »

Have to agree with you on that. My Xbox doesn't make me feel dizzy and sick but it isn't a patch on a PC for gaming. Better graphics, wider choice of controls, ability to play with addons... wonderful! I've only got about 8 games for my Xbox.

Meh, it's horses for courses, innit.

I'd much rather play racers or Fifa on my xbox, I'd rather play FPS or RPG on the PC. I find the xbox much simpler to get on with for online play, too.

I tend to play more on the xbox now, just because it's so much cheaper than continually upgrading the PC. I think you have to be quite a hardened gamer to get value for money out of PCs these days - and as OP said they just wanted to smack stuff with a sword, I thought it was worth mentioning just in case

montsie

Seriously- thank you for the suggestion!

I'm just picky about my platform choice.

Something like Fifa or racing I'm 100% with you about the 360. It's a better experience with an open field of vision. All my games are RPG and very involved - when I say smacking with a sword...I mean of course a highly customised "magic sword" that has been forged to exact specifications and matches my studded armour :P
I'm the kind of girl who tilts her head with the controller but not a mouse.

Slightly more involved than hitting things with a sword - i should've been clearer!