LOTRO and Music Composition PC for less than £850

[MaltonSeadog]

Hi all,

Posting a new thread after becoming more realistic about my budget.

Wanting to play LOTRO at ultra-high settings, but not bothered about any other games really. It'd be nice to be able to play most modern games though if I desired.

I also want to use some music composition software and VSTs which are pretty RAM heavy, but don't envisage needing more than 8GB for now. 16GB would be preferable but only if I was within budget.

£850 is my marker really, as this equates to £25 a month on finance. I cannot go higher.

Here's what I've got so far. Any suggestions for overall better PC performance? Is it worth upgrading to i7? Is my graphics card going to cope with most modern games on very high graphics settings? Whilst I want a PC within the £850 budget, I also want it to last for the 4 years that my finance does really!


Case
PCS MAELSTROM T900 BLACK GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£20)
Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
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) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £847.00 including VAT and delivery.

Thanks!

 

[Muadebe]

Hi,

£847.00 slight change to your Specs but this one manages to get you 16gb RAM.



Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 310 BLUE CASE

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® P8Z77-M: MICRO-ATX, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX

Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (4 X 4GB)

Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD6870 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT

Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)

Sound Card
Asus Xonar DG 5.1 SoundCard & Headphone AMP (Award Winner) (£20)

Network Facilities
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence

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) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

 

[MaltonSeadog]

Will I notice any difference in sound from choosing the soundcard I have as opposed to just keeping the onboard sound?

I need the following for my composition software:

"PC: VST™, ASIO™, RTAS™"

Is the onboard ASIO or VST compatible?

 

[iain_m]

I suggest sticking with onboard sound for now - download the free "ASIO for All" drivers and see if you get acceptable performance. However you should work on the assumption that you will need an external sound card with dedicated ASIO drivers for decent performance and better sound quality. Look at brands like M-Audio, for instance.

VST is just the protocol by which the instruments connect to your sequencer so it's not directly related to whether the sound card has ASIO drivers.

 

[MaltonSeadog]

I've written film scores in the past with only ASIO for All drivers, so should be OK with onboard then.

On the specs above, how easy would it be to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB RAM in the future?

I want a PC which will see me through 4 years, but I'd rather keep the cost down and pay off the finance in 12 months, and then upgrade.

Is the upgrade route a decent one for those i5 specs?

 

[vanthus]

On the specs above, how easy would it be to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB RAM in the future?

Upgrading ram is probably the easiest upgrade to do.
In your case you would only need to buy another 2 X 4GB ram sticks and slot them in