Advice on a gaming desktop (£850-950 budget)

[Corby Trouser Press]

Hey guys, long time browser/daydreamer, first time speccer.

Looking at something around the £1000 range (though saving money is always good) for decent gaming performance, some general Photoshopping, the usual multi-tasking, nice and fast.

I'm not someone that needs to play games on super ultra HQ settings, but something that will handle most games on medium/high for the next couple of years would be good. I don't want to have to keep upgrading every 5 seconds.

How does this look?

Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

That's coming out at £1061

Anywhere I should be looking at upgrading/downgrading?

Many thanks.

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

Talking to myself here, but I've expanded my budget to circa £1000 and upgraded the spec above (bumped the mobo up a level, 4590->4690 processor, increased SSD size, 450->550 PSU).

Any advice on this?

 

[keynes]

Can't see the spec but for £999 you can get the Minerva system in the review section.

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

Weird, don't know why my opening post disappeared. It was there before.

Spec:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690 (3.5GHz) 6MB Cache
Case
InWIN GT1 BLACK GAMING CASE
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970 - 1 DVI, 1 mHDMI, 3 mDP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
500GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD5003AZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W VS SERIES™ VS-550 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI-E CARD
USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

 

[Rakk]

Weird, don't know why my opening post disappeared. It was there before.

When you are new to the forums, your posts will often get auto-moderated, which means they will not be visible until they are approved, this includes edits to previously approved posts, so you just have to wait til a mod sees it and approves it - it should be visible again now

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

Can't see the spec but for £999 you can get the Minerva system in the review section.

The Minerva is intriguing but it's priced at £1175 now. Also not sure I'd need 16gb and an overclocked processor.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The Minerva is intriguing but it's priced at £1175 now. Also not sure I'd need 16gb and an overclocked processor.

The review systems are the price stated... if you hit configure it'll show you the actual value cost, you need to press straight on the order tab to get the quoted price. So yes, it's still 999.

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

The review systems are the price stated... if you hit configure it'll show you the actual value cost, you need to press straight on the order tab to get the quoted price. So yes, it's still 999.

Ahh so it is, nice one. So you basically get a better price than a custom build for whatever reason.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Ahh so it is, nice one. So you basically get a better price than a custom build for whatever reason.

Yep, it's a good few hundred quid off, really good value. And you get quicker delivery I believe.

 

[SlimCini]

And you get quicker delivery I believe.

Not that I'm aware of (unless the review build includes speedy dispatch). They're not pre-built and I'm pretty sure they don't jump the 'build' queue. You can ring and pay extra to make it fast dispatch though I'm sure.

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

So the Minerva is well recommended then? I'm struggling to find any reviews for it apart from the main one, and nobody on the forums seems to have bought it yet.

 

[keynes]

I am sure there are plenty of people that bought one. You need to look at the performance of the conponents, it is good value for money

 

[Corby Trouser Press]

I am sure there are plenty of people that bought one

I'm sure too :yes: I just mean I can't find any reviews on the forums. Maybe the search engine is letting me down. Can't see any complaints either, which is probably a good sign.

Think I'll go for it