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I think one thing you are glossing over doc is the lack of selection in most pre builds. When selecting my components, selected very specidic parts that allowed me to maximise performance for budget. If i wanted similar perfwas my machine from a pre built, i wold have had to pay a lot more. The pre builds dont alow for the micro selection of components like having 20 different models of 670 gtx to select from, same as ram etc. You have a basic (and often poorly optimised) choice.
I looked into ordering my system pre built from lots of retailers and for similar performance, i was looking at 2-300 more.
We could challenge you the other way, find my system prebuilt for withing this £200 windows with equal or better components.
@xdc the doc wrote:
@bmstalker wrote:
Also, if you want to find the cheapest of each part, use this website
you can specify criteria for each part and it will show you the selection available at the lowest price. Great site, but I ordered all from the one site. Might help you though WET
Good site Ben – just looking at it now as I am tempted by a 670 myself. Actually looking at prices it reminds me of another point – that 670 Lammie links to is very cheap – but it only has one small looking fan – there are loads of different versions out there and most people would pay a bit extra to get one of the nicer ones (I am looking at this one) http://www.ebuyer.com/368520-gigabyte-gv-n670oc-2gd-gv-n670oc-2gd
These cost 40-50 quid more than the basic version – so it would be worth you asking PC specialist exactly what brand they are using WET. When I bought my computer from them a few years back I was worried as i was getting a notoriously loud 470 – but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were going to fit the Palit version of the card with a better cooling set up.
If they are doing the same with their 670s that means that you would have to knock off another 40 or 50 quid from the potential savings from building yourself. Once you are down at the 100 quid mark i reckon you are wasting your time building yourself for sure.
I actually spent a little extra to get the EVGA 670GTX FTW version. I could have picked up a stock 670 for around £290 but for £310, I got a card that has the same performance as a 680 GTX (from scan.co.uk)
edit.
Which has actually dropped down to £304 since I purchased it.
son of a….
edit 2.
Also, scan are a great retailer, they busted their balls to get my order out to me asap and even gave me a free £90 monitor upgrade to keep my happy. I would absolutely recommend them and will do all my future computer shopping there because of the customer service (massive price variance may change that ofc)
Also, if you want to find the cheapest of each part, use this website
you can specify criteria for each part and it will show you the selection available at the lowest price. Great site, but I ordered all from the one site. Might help you though WET
Gary, the source quoted in that article doesn’t exist (BSN News), I’m pretty sure that the new cards won’t be out until next year and if they do, I’ll hopefully be able to take advantage of the step up thing where you can swap old cards for new withing 3 months of purchase. It won’t happen though.
edit.
Actually, after a bit more searching, I found their source article. What they are saying is a load of shit, it’s the 700m series that is coming out. It’s the mobile graphics chips coming out that are based on the same architecture as the 600 series. The 700 desktop series will be next year. Stupid news article to whore some website hits.
@Gary Goat wrote:
Its also worth noting that nvidia’s 700 series is coming out this month as well as intels next gen chips next month so might be worth waiting a bit before you upgrade.
The GTX 780 will be using the same chip as the titan with less cores active, the 770 will be using a new version of the chip in the current 680 and will perform better.
Nvidia have stated that they are pushing back any new releases until next year. I would have waited if that was not the case for the 700 series GPU.
Re. building your PC being cheaper, for the particular components, a lot of retailers will put together bundles or a system config thing but you will always be cheaper reviewing each individual component on it’s own and selecting it specifically on a bang for buck basis. To get my exact build made for me (with the closest fitting components) would have cost me an extra £2-300. I did actually look at this option as I couldn’t really be bothered to build it but it came down to my deep seeded tightness beating out my laziness in the end so I just built it.
Lammie’s built is a great build, perfect for the budget he set. I would make the upgrades you mention, the bigger SSD, the graphics card, the RAM isn’t totally necessary but it’s so cheap you would be as well to. But that could be me being anal about spending as much on a graphics card as I can to ensure it lasts at least 2-3 years.
Nvidia vs ATI, I’ve never been 100% sold either way. ATI are generally more bang for your buck. The reason I went with Nvidia, is that when you go with 2x cards, you get “microstuttering” which causes FPS troughs which is apparently amplified on ATI cards, also, I was expecting some gold for World of Tanks which actually helped swing me over, even though in the end, the supplier had run out of vouchers 🙁
OS choice, it doesn’t really matter which version of Windows you go for, ultimate gives a few extras, like the ability to join a domain etc that wont really apply to you etc. I’ll see what I can do about getting you a Windows 7 ultimate key too, would save you some cash.
Agreed with Matt’s comments about thermal paste, the main components I checked was the CPU/GPU etc. He only has 1x 670 on the list so lack of SLI isn’t an issue. You caould do it a lot cheaper and get more performance for your budget as matt said. When you come to buy, I can help you pick out exact components rather than the “rough” outline you have here if you’d like.
Very interesting, I had read it was FB2. Either way, from watching the video, it doesn’t seem like a massive upgrade from FB2 and I’m sure at 1080p and below a 670 would achieve at least 60fps at ultra settings.
As it happens, I have a nice samsung 22″ @ 1680×1050 (£70) and 24″ @ 1920×1200 (£100 but possibly already sold) I’m looking to sell on the cheap but that monitor also looks sweet.
Looks like a solid setup WET.
A few things to note, although Intels next cpu will be out in a month or 2, the next gen GPUs will be next year at the earliest according to both manufacturers so likely, you will need to get current gen cards.
Also, BF4 is running on the frostbyte 2 engine, the same as BF3 so any card that easily handles BF3 just now will do similarly well in BF4. A card such as the 670, if you are running on a single screen at or below 1920×1080 will be more than enough.
In my previous machine, I had a creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer sound card. In this machine, I am using the mobo’s sound. It could be that I don’t appreciate a better class of audio, but I have noticed no difference in quality of sound (in the games I play, I don’t watch films/records music etc).
For windows, I guess it’s your choice. I had a few Win7 keys lying around so it would have been silly for me to buy a Win8 key. I’m not sold on Win8 and the only feature it has that I would like is a quick bootup tim of around 7 seconds. My PC boots in 15 now so not that much of a difference anyway, guess it’s down to personal choice and if you can get a hold of a Win7 key on the cheap, I would do that.
With the SSDs etc, it depends on how you use it. A 250GB drive, by the time you have installed windows, all its updates/sps and a game or 2, will likely be down to around 180GB. If you install maybe 10 games, you will be running low on disk space. HDs are cheap, I’d say go for the bigger SSD whilst you can and if you reach a point in the future where you need more internal space (to install more games/programs) go and buy another HD then, they are cheap and easy to install anyway.
These are of course all my opinion, but hope I’ve helped.
He’s been updating facebook, so still alive at the very least. Last time I spoke to him, he asked me if I could give him some lives on Candy Crush Saga….
@TurksMeister wrote:
What do you use the 3 monitors for? Minecraft?!
Nope, I’ve so far used it for Dirt 3, BF3 and World of Tanks. Looks awesome
The cooler is fine. To be homest, i was lazy this time. Lat time i had water cooling, i bought a £300 custom loop and manually overclocked the cpu and gpu. This time, i bought a pre overclocked bundle from scan that guarantee a stable 4.5 ghz overclock. It seems quiet but i keep the case fans on high and they are definitely louder.
The H70 looks cool though 🙂
