Help needed to choose new PC

caraeg

Hi

I'm currently looking to get my first desktop, after years with a cheap Dell laptop. My budget's about £1,000 but probably £800 left for the actual PC after getting a monitor and peripherals (I'm thinking a Dell Ultrasharp U2312HM but that might change). Mostly want it for general home use/internet but I do some gaming (Civilization V mostly atm, though my laptop has recently decided it can't cope at all even on low settings) and plan to do a lot more when I have a system that can cope with it!

I'm not quite feeling reading to build my own, so looking to use somewhere like dinopc or Chillblast - does anyone have experience with either?

There's a couple of specs I'm looking at

One from Chillblast - a customised Longbow system that specs at £890

Chillblast Vantage Black Midi Mesh Gaming Case
Intel Core i5 4570 Haswell Processor 3.20 GHz (No Overclocking)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 11 Low profile cooler
Asus Z87-K Motherboard
16GB PC3-10666 1333MHz DDR3 Memory (2 x 8GB sticks)
Chillblast NVIDIA GeForce GT 640 1024MB Graphics Card
120GB Samsung 840 EVO Solid State Drive
1000GB 7200RPM Hard Disk - 6Gbps
24x SATA DVD-RW Drive
Xigmatek Premium Grade 600W PSU
Onboard High Definition Audio
17 in 1 3.5" Internal Card Reader
300Mbps 802.11n Wireless PCIe Adaptor
Windows 8 64 bit

or this dinopc spec, which quotes at £853

PU: Intel Core i5 4670
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS5X Performa
Operating System: Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
RAM: 16GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x8GB)
Hard Drive: Samsung 120GB 840 SSD S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Additional Storage: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Internet: Wireless 802.11N 300Mbps MIMO PCI card
Accessories: Internal Card Reader
Case: Zalman Z11
PSU: 550W Corsair VS

Do these look sensible?

Cisco001

dinopc spec is better.

RAM - I don't see the need of 16GB RAM at the moment, you can probably stick with 8GB and get better GPU.

Have you consider getting powerline adaptor instead of Wireless card?
It would having better connection

And I personally would get USB wireless adaptor instead of PCI card as PC would usually put under desk or at the corner which affect reception.
And you should consider getting dual band instead.

caraeg

Definitely hoping to string a cable across for internet, but would be good to have a backup option - the thought of being without internet is a weird one these days. Wouldn't a USB adaptor plug into the tower and end up under the desk anyway? (Or am I missing something obvious?)

Dropping to 8GB of RAM makes sense, and I guess that one's upgradeable later if necessary.

Thank you!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

caraeg wrote: »

Definitely hoping to string a cable across for internet, but would be good to have a backup option - the thought of being without internet is a weird one these days. Wouldn't a USB adaptor plug into the tower and end up under the desk anyway? (Or am I missing something obvious?)

Dropping to 8GB of RAM makes sense, and I guess that one's upgradeable later if necessary.

Thank you!

building a pc is easier than and less time consuming than building a flat pack wordrobe.

TBH i wouldnt care about how much memory, and if it comes with 16gb as part of the bundle then so be it (something you wont have to spend out on in the future is money saved by not paying to expand ram capacity).

it all depends on what you want a pc to do and what youll use it for but if your gameing a GFX card is your most primary concern.

no1catman

I went from a 'XP' machine to Windows 7 last year. I chose Chillblast - the reviews were very good. And their website I found informative as were their staff - by email.
One thing though to bare in mind when playing around with the options - they exclude VAT - So if something is quoted as £50.00 extra - it's really £60.00 !!

Cisco001

caraeg wrote: »

Definitely hoping to string a cable across for internet, but would be good to have a backup option - the thought of being without internet is a weird one these days. Wouldn't a USB adaptor plug into the tower and end up under the desk anyway? (Or am I missing something obvious?)

Dropping to 8GB of RAM makes sense, and I guess that one's upgradeable later if necessary.

Thank you!

If you use usb adapter, you can use USB Cradle / usb extension such that the adapter itself can place it on the desk or some where have better reception

Cycrow

i personally wouldn't go for either of those.

if your priority is gaming, then you should focus mainly on the GPU, but of those have pretty weak GPU's.

16gb ram is overkill for the usage you have planned.

for that kind of money i would go for a GTX760, or AMD 7950

Cisco001

Cycrow wrote: »

for that kind of money i would go for a GTX760, or AMD 7950

But only if he prepare to build one himself. I haven't seen a custom make one with i5-4670k, SSD & GTX 760 within £800

Cycrow

then sacrifice the SSD and/or cheaper CPU.

a better GPU will be a better improvement over either of those.

i would also chose an AMD 7850 over the 650 (same price, far better performance).

if the main focus of the PC is gaming, then you should pick the best GPU you fit within the budget and build the rest of the pc around it

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Cycrow wrote: »

then sacrifice the SSD and/or cheaper CPU.

a better GPU will be a better improvement over either of those.

i would also chose an AMD 7850 over the 650 (same price, far better performance).

if the main focus of the PC is gaming, then you should pick the best GPU you fit within the budget and build the rest of the pc around it

SSD will increase gaming performace not something i would uncheck when its part of a build.

16GB memory who cares if its overkill its in the build, and something you dont have to do in the future is upgrade that.

i5 haswell, 4th gen processor nothing to turn your nose up at.

comes with A graphics card so upgrade in the near future when he has the cash.

ive had AMD ATI and Nvidia must say NVidia ticks the boxes for me as i dont have to try and enable physx on the processor when i want pretty graphics.

gtx 650 ti will do nicely for COD games battlefield etc.

caraeg

Never seen a USB Cradle before - but it's a great idea.

I'm tempted to build but I think that will have to wait for my next PC - after I've practised on a few unsuspecting relatives' cheap builds first!

As far as RAM goes, if I drop to 8GB I can afford a spec something like this (dinopc):

CPU: Intel Core i5 4670
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS5X Performa
Operating System: Windows 8 (64-bit)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87-HD3
RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (2x4GB)
Hard Drive: Samsung 120GB 840 SSD S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Additional Storage: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Internet: Wireless 802.11N 300Mbps MIMO USB dongle
Cherry eVolution Barracuda Wireless keyboard and mouse
Case: Corsair Carbide 200R
PSU: 550W Corsair VS

I'm quite keen to stick with SSD card for the general speed boost (not just for gaming), but I've heard in a few places that it's worth speccing up the GPU over what I had, so attempting that one.