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[lordcooper]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU:  Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  (£165.59 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler:  Noctua NH-D14 65.0 CFM CPU Cooler  (£62.99 @ Ebuyer)
Motherboard:  Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  (£143.98 @ Dabs)
Memory:  G.Skill Sniper Gaming Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  (£143.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:  Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Disk  (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£43.88 @ CCL Computers)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£43.88 @ CCL Computers)
Video Card:  MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB Video Card  (£226.46 @ Dabs)
Case:  Silverstone SST-RV03B-WA ATX Full Tower Case  (£90.04 @ Scan.co.uk)
Power Supply:  XFX 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply  (£80.01 @ Dabs)
Optical Drive:  Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer  (£12.22 @ Dabs)
Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)  (£65.99 @ Aria PC)
Monitor:  Asus PB278Q 27.0" Monitor  (£458.72 @ Scan.co.uk)
Speakers:  Creative Labs Inspire T3130 25W 2.1ch Speakers  (£48.49 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £1715.24
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-11-10 21:27 GMT+0000)

To head a few things off at the pass, I mess around with video editing and 3d modelling a fair bit, so that quantity of RAM isn't quite as pointless as it appears, I will not be getting a CPU that isn't Intel under any circumstances, and past experiences have made me weary of 2TB drives.

I'd ideally like a 290X or 780ti, but the ridiculous temps of the former and unavailability of the latter make that seem unlikely.  I'm gonna be ordering on or around the 23rd, so any advice before then would be appreciated.  My budget can stretch another £500 or so if needs be.

E: Forgot the mouse and keyboard.

Keyboard: UK Filco Majestouch-2, NKR, Tactile Action Keyboard (£120)

Mouse: Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse (£89)

[Mephisto]

Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£43.88 @ CCL Computers)
Storage:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (£43.88 @ CCL Computers)

If you're buying a massively overpriced PC anyway, I'm surprised you didn't spring for 10k RPM hard drives.

[acetech09]

Agreed.

Do some more shopping with those parts. I bet you can find equivalent-performance parts without the premium of a 'cool' name and gamer branding. Not 100% sure but there's a good chance.

[Bdthemag]

You definitely could save a lot of money if you looked a bit harder for more cost-efficient parts. A good rule of thumb is if the product itself has "Gamer" in the name, you probably can find something better.

[Tellemurius]

All of that looks correct to me.
I would recommend getting hold of Windows 8, before you all bitch at me for what a horrible OS it is, Windows 8 had massive improvements performance wise and its a good FPS boost for gamers.

The memory is good price wise for the speed, as much as company like tagging "gamer" RAM is usually the same price throughout and just depends how fast you want it to go.

[foil]

All of that looks correct to me.
I would recommend getting hold of Windows 8, before you all bitch at me for what a horrible OS it is, Windows 8 had massive improvements performance wise and its a good FPS boost for gamers.

The memory is good price wise for the speed, as much as company like tagging "gamer" RAM is usually the same price throughout and just depends how fast you want it to go.

Windows 8 doesnt really make a performance difference to games or apps at all. Some are faster and some are slower so its neither here nor there, most improvements are from stripping the Os down to be suited for tablets and battery life, pointless on a desktop plugged into the mains. 

Im about to go back to Win 7 after using 8.1 since launch as its still got stupid bugs even from back in Win 8, Win 8 feels much less polished and thats even after its 1st service pack.

  Theres also the issues that a load of important menus are now Metro only even when hacking a start menu back and it gets frustrating trying to configure a pc using a phone based touchscreen interface with a keyboard/mouse.

Although you could buy Win 8 Pro for cheap and use the downgrade license to get Win 7 Pro for free.

Id also suggest maybe getting the Sapphire Toxic R9 280x.  If you are spending that much on a pc you'd be better not buying the lowest priced 280x.  The Toxic supports huge overclocks and should run a bit quieter due to better heatsink and fans.

Ive been using a Sapphire Dual x 280x OC and it struggles to max some games @ 1080p still, better getting one that overclocks better and quieter as mine can cause a lot of noise.

Just remember that the Toxic is a bit longer than the standard 280x.

You could also save some cash buying memory that doesnt have gun shapes glued to the sides of it.  Those memory heatsinks are pointless and non ricer ram will do the exact same job.

[Knight of Fools]

I've been perfectly happy with Windows 8, after getting used to it. I haven't upgraded to 8.1 yet since there's still a few big problems they're hopefully working through, but plan to do it soon.

Windows 8 certainly isn't the best thing since forever, but it doesn't deserve the horrible reputation it currently has.

[lordcooper]

I'm surprised you didn't spring for 10k RPM hard drives.

Is there actually any noticeable gain to be made by doing so?  I tend to only keep a couple of 'modern' games installed at a time, so the SSD should suffice for them.  That said, I'm open to considering it if there are benchmarks showing a reasonable performance increase.

Windows 8

I really do hate the UI, but I'll have a look into benchmarks for the types of games I generally play (mostly strategy and RPGs).  It'll be a hard compromise to make either way

Id also suggest maybe getting the Sapphire Toxic R9 280x.  If you are spending that much on a pc you'd be better not buying the lowest priced 280x.  The Toxic supports huge overclocks and should run a bit quieter due to better heatsink and fans.

Ive been using a Sapphire Dual x 280x OC and it struggles to max some games @ 1080p still, better getting one that overclocks better and quieter as mine can cause a lot of noise.

Just remember that the Toxic is a bit longer than the standard 280x.

I'm gradually coming over to the idea of splashing out on a 290 (recent driver updates that upped the fan speed have apparently put it within a handful of frames of the 290x).  I'd really like to see some non-reference coolers before I make my mind up one way or the other, but I'm reluctant to delay the upgrade much longer (waiting for one thing has lead to waiting for another, which made me want to wait for another and at this rate it'll be 2015 before I have a new PC!).  The 780 is seeming a bit more appealing to, what with the recent price drop.  Any thoughts from those who've been keeping a close eye on recent developments?

[Knight of Fools]

From what I've heard the 780's more powerful than the Titan when it comes to gaming, and the Titan was already a beast. Nvidia's also got some cool beta features they're playing with, the most interesting one being a video capture program that doesn't throttle your frame rate and also allows you to capture the past ten minutes of play.

Since you're looking at GPUs, remember that 2560x1440 has 1.7 as many pixels as 1920x1080. You're going to either have to lower your settings or go big with your GPU at that level, and even with a powerful GPU you may not get the high quality settings you want. SLI and such exist, but you're doubling your investment into graphical processing. There's a reason high pixel density monitors aren't quite as popular yet.

[Tellemurius]

Honestly you aren't gaining anything by going for the 10k Drives, you are better off with SSDs now a days if you want fast storage, especially as they are around the same price range.

Windows 8 I deal with at work, christ sakes my servers are running 2012 with the metro ui. Just because the ui is horribad doesn't mean rest of the OS is crap. New AAA games are taking advantage of new improvements (BF4 got at max 20fps increase with 8 over 7) and hell it boots even faster than 7 since they stripped most of the useless stuff. Windows 7 isn't going to receive any more performance updates so you might as well go for Ubuntu or Windows 8.

Memory heatsinks are now relevant these days as we push more speed on ram they get hotter. Mine are only 1600mhz yet they burn at touch under full load.

Conclusion: Gaming computers at their core is that they are the best money can buy, these are suppose to last at most 3 generations before you can consider upgrades. They are also overclocker machines, people would like the ability to increase their performance value of their computers by pushing their components more making it last longer. With OC you get tons of heat so gaming parts at best needs all the cooling they can get but in the end you can get more for what you spent. And at last but not least, gaming computers are expensive. You get what you paid for and if you want something powerful prepare to spend. Theres no cutting corners on wanting power and you want the best.

[Sensei]

I'm very confident you won't be getting your money's worth out of the 120 pound keyboard, especially for strategy and rpg games. I can see the need for a sturdy keyboard with narrow key travel but you can probably get that for less than half the price nonetheless. And to be honest? Even that probably won't be a huge difference over a ten pound keyboard from whatever office store is closest.

An expensive mouse is a lot more justifiable but I still wonder whether that's worth it unless you're super competitive about first person shooters.

[Tellemurius]

An expensive mouse is a lot more justifiable but I still wonder whether that's worth it unless you're super competitive about first person shooters.

Its good for RTS players for fast traveling, a good gaming mouse should give you the ability to change the dpi speeds on the go so you would be able to adjust it however you like it.

[foil]

£1700 is also a shitload of cash for only an i5 and r9 280x.

The i5 280x im using atm cost maybe £650 max.

[Tellemurius]

that is true, you might get a better deal and get everything from http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ they specialize in gaming components, shipping should be alot cheaper than from multiple people.

[lordcooper]

£1700 is also a shitload of cash for only an i5 and r9 280x.

The i5 280x im using atm cost maybe £650 max.

I'm not particularly concerned about saving money here, but even then you seem to be ignoring the fact that over £500 of that is just going on the monitor and speakers.  The only thing I think I might be overspending on is the RAM, but I'm okay with that.  It's not like I'm gonna be swapping it out in the next few years anyway.  My concerns were more about whether I was underspending on any components.  That said, feel free to point out any specific parts you think I'm going overboard with, along with what you'd suggest as a replacement.

AFAIK there is zero point in having an i7 at present (their only real advantage is hyperthreading which basically zero games actually use yet, it an even be a disadvantage due to certain games treating single cores as if they were two for no particular reason) and as I said earlier in the thread, I'm considering the 290/290X/780ti now.