Building a PC for the next gen

[Pheo1386]

hello all

this is a continuation of another thred I posted; http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/538.818795-Poll-PC-or-PS4#19722839

basically, I'm going to be able to save about 120 pounds (i live in the UK) per month, so to get an idea of how long I will have to save and wether or not this will co-incide with the release of next gen games, I need an idea of what kind of specs I will need and what componants to get for a truely "next gen" gaming PC

just to be clear, I know NOTHING about building a gaming PC - I have a friend who would be willing to put it together and install windows 7 on it for me, and he has already given me some componants but they are more for the current gen then next gen, or so he says. I want it to have a hdmi output for my TV and bluetooth/wifi is preferred but not vital. I also want to be, if anything, overpowered for excellent graphics, 60fps and as little slowdown as possible.
if you can supply where I can get the componants you suggest (ideally from ebuyer) I would very much appreciate it!

I know Im asking a lot, but any help and advice from more experienced PC gamers would be very welcome.

Pheo

 

[SnowyGamester]

A good place to start would be with one of the best CPUs on the market so you'll end up with a long lasting build. If you want AMD that would be this [http://www.ebuyer.com/409184-amd-fx-8350-4ghz-socket-am3-16mb-cache-retail-boxed-processor-fd8350frhkbox] or for Intel that would be this [http://www.ebuyer.com/467637-cpu-core-i5-4670-3-40ghz-lga1150-box-bx80646i54670] or alternatively the overclockable version [http://www.ebuyer.com/467647-cpu-core-i5-4670k-3-40ghz-lga1150-box-bx80646i54670k]. There are better Intel CPUs on the market however they're either not really advantageous for gaming and/or ridiculously expensive.

As for RAM, you'll want at least 8GB [http://www.ebuyer.com/342352-crucial-8gb-ddr3-1600mhz-ballistix-sport-memory-bls2cp4g3d1609ds1s00ceu] of 1600mhz DDR3, or maybe 16GB [http://www.ebuyer.com/407269-corsair-16gb-ddr3-1600mhz-memory-cmv16gx3m2a1600c11] which is a bit more than required at the moment but will keep you going for longer. Keep in mind that you can get faster RAM but that will require overclocking, a motherboard capable of overclocking and RAM capable of being overclocked.

As for the mobo, you obviously need something that will support whatever of the above that you choose. You can find compatible AMD boards in this subcategory [http://www.ebuyer.com/search?subcat=3536&cat=222&store=2] and Intel ones in this subcategory [http://www.ebuyer.com/search?subcat=4109&cat=14&store=2]. As for what specific ones to go for, ideally you want one with dual channel RAM (4 RAM slots), enough PCI slots to fill your needs (that's if you might need any other than for the GPU, e.g. a Wi-Fi or tuner card), enough USB slots that you don't need any hubs, and something that is capable of overclocking if you plan on doing anything like that. There are brands to go for and those to avoid however which they are can vary depending on who you ask. That being said, as far as I can tell the general consensus is that ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte are some of the best.

On top of that probably the most important component you'll need is the graphics card. This will probably end up to be the most expensive component. Which one you actually go for really depends on how long you want to save up. You can get pretty decent ones for a few hundred bucks however you can spend over a thousand if you really want the best of the best. That being said, you'll probably find the best balance between overall cost and cost to performance ratio somewhere between $200 and $400 (or whatever that is in pounds). After that the price shoots up dramatically and you're really paying for more than you'll get when you consider the actual performance increase.

You'll obviously need a few other components. The PSU is pretty important, though how powerful it needs to be depends on your other choices. After that it's just a hard drive big enough for you, a case you like and maybe a card reader, disk drive or SSD if you're interested in those sorts of things.

 

[eBusiness]

If you are not about to buy it now there is no need to ask for components now, the market will likely have changed in some fashion by the time you are actually going to buy. Basically around £500 should buy you an acceptable machine, £1000 will get you a pretty good one, and more than that probably isn't worth it, especially if your economy is a little tight.

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

Hey there. I have taken the liberty of putting some prospective builds together for you, instead of giving abstract advice. They all represent the kind of price points you'll be looking at.

[a href="http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/98921ab3294944d3b6835a1cbff2535b"]This build[/a] is the cheapest one you'll be looking at. You have an AMD based machine that's utilising the IGP (integrated graphics processor) on the chip. 8GB of memory running at 1866 MHz to bring out optimal performance of the IGP (as IGP performance is typically bound to speed of RAM). A 1TB HDD suffices for your storage, Windows 8 64 Bit (picked due to it being more stable than 7, and has better driver support), and a 430W basic power supply. £400 all in.

[a href="http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/5c7e2cc106764564a28518e8b9a5eee1"]This build[/a] brings in a discrete graphics card. Here, you see the processor knocked down a tier to a slower one (you no longer need the more expensive one, as the graphics are now being handled by the card). The graphics card is a GTX 650 Ti, a [a href="http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32693-3.html"]very recommended card[/a] at this price point due to it sitting very nicely on the price/performance curve. Everything else is par for the course, the only other difference being the RAM. It's 8GB as before, but is slower at 1600MHz. It is this way as you no longer need faster RAM, 1600MHz suffices for the CPU. Going any higher offers needless extra cost in this use case. £500 all in.

[a href="http://www.scan.co.uk/savedbasket/acc428998a584ca08a1be082c8ae8ddc"]This build[/a] goes more expensive, and brings in some higher end parts. You're looking at a bottom end Ivy Bridge quad core I5 processor with a suitable motherboard. Ivy Bridge has been chosen instead of Haswell because Haswell offers little performance benefit over Ivy Bridge, and is currently more expensive than Ivy Bridge setups. You may as well make the most while stocks last. Despite the I5 being considerably slower than the AMD CPU's, their clock-for-clock micro operations per second count is far higher. In short, the I5, despite operating at a lower frequency, can get still more done than the AMD CPU. The tradeoff is that it's considerably more expensive. You've still got your standard 1TB HDD, but it's now supplemented by a 120GB SSD from Samsung. This will hold Windows, drivers, AV and nothing more. With this, you'll get a far quicker and more responsive system. The GPU has been upgraded to an AMD 7870, again chosen on the weight of [a href="http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/gaming-graphics-card-review,review-32693-4.html"]recommendations[/a] for this price point. The PSU has received a bump in power to account for the more powerful GPU and processor, everything else is as it was before. £750 all in. If you wanted, you could theoretically remove the SSD for a more powerful GPU, if you wanted more graphics power at the expense of a slower loading system.


We can go higher than this, but I thought this would be a good start. I'll keep the builds up on my account for a while so you can consider them.

 

[Laughing Man]

To the OP when do you expect to purchase this PC? If it isn't right now but at some time in the future then my advice is to wait.

CPU wise the latest and greatest from Intel are the 1150 Haswells but they have hit a few issues. 1150 is on Intel's roadmap so having a 1150 motherboard at least guarantees some future upgradability.

If I was buying a system right here and now I would go for the 1155 I5 3570K Ivybridge. It's third gen so it's worked out the bugs the chips have had, it is a good overclocker and the only downside is that the 1155s are going to be phased out but saying that a 1155 will serve you for a good few years.

Right here and right now though I would wait and see what the 2nd gen Haswells bring to the table.