Need advice on my first gaming PC. :)

[RoyalWelsh]

Hey folks, I really want to get into PC gaming more but i'm not too sure when it comes to specs yet. I was wondering if this setup is suitable to play games like Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, Bioshock Infinite etc, games like them. Also, how well do you think this set up can run those types of games?

This PC is from this website - http://www.computerplanet.co.uk/gaming/gx2000/builder.html

Any advice you can give would help me greatly.

CPU - Intel i5 3570 - (4 x 3.4 GHZ) - Ivy Bridge

Memory - Corsair 8GB XMS3 PC3-12800 1600MHz (2x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)

Graphics Card - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 - 2 GB - (GAINWARD) - (PCI-E)

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H (Intel B75) - VGA/DVI/HDMI

Sound Card - Motherboard Integrated HD Sound

Power Supply - Cooler Master GX Lite 700W PSU - Low Noise

Hard Drive - 1 TB Seagate (1000 GB) SATA-III HDD 7200 RPM 64MB

Operating System - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT

 

[Eleuthera]

That set-up beats my (3 year old) system hands down, and I've yet to run into any games (including Skyrim) I can't play at decent settings. I'm sure there will be some more knowledgeable people along shortly to tweak this set-up, there always are

 

[RoyalWelsh]

That set-up beats my (3 year old) system hands down, and I've yet to run into any games (including Skyrim) I can't play at decent settings. I'm sure there will be some more knowledgeable people along shortly to tweak this set-up, there always are

Sounds good so far then. Thanks for the reply.

 

[SnowyGamester]

There's not much here to tweak. It's basically what I've got now but with a much better graphics card...you won't have any trouble running anything with a rig like that and you probably won't find anyone here that'll suggest much different - it's pretty much ideal. If you want a bit more graphics oomph you might go for a 660ti over the 660...it's a little more pricey but you're getting roughly as much performance increase as price increase relative to the 660 (edit: ok maybe not quite that much, the price listed there changed a bit more than I expected). I'd also go for Windows 8 myself but I'm weird like that.

edit: I also wouldn't worry about an alternative heatsync...the little fan that comes with the CPU is more than enough at stock speeds, and since you went for the standard version of the 3570 you won't be doing any overclocking. Definitely a waste of money.

 

[AWAR]

I second Snowy, scrap the heatsink. Also the 700w PSU is an overkill. 500w/600w would suffice.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

There's not much here to tweak. It's basically what I've got now but with a much better graphics card...you won't have any trouble running anything with a rig like that and you probably won't find anyone here that'll suggest much different - it's pretty much ideal. If you want a bit more graphics oomph you might go for a 660ti over the 660...it's a little more pricey but you're getting roughly as much performance increase as price increase relative to the 660 (edit: ok maybe not quite that much, the price listed there changed a bit more than I expected). I'd also go for Windows 8 myself but I'm weird like that.

edit: I also wouldn't worry about an alternative heatsync...the little fan that comes with the CPU is more than enough at stock speeds, and since you went for the standard version of the 3570 you won't be doing any overclocking. Definitely a waste of money.

I second Snowy, scrap the heatsink. Also the 700w PSU is an overkill. 500w/600w would suffice.

Ok, I think I may be able to stretch my budget to get the 660ti with the lower PSU and without the alternative heatsync.

Thanks for the advice guys, really appreciate it!