My Specs for a Gaming PC

[Jax]

Hi all, soon to be a first time customer just after m Christmas paycheck and I am looking for a gaming PC to last for a minimum of 2 years without any needs for upgrades though 3 years would be nice. I am not too fussed about playing games on Max settings (Medium for most part) but am not against a little more juice. My budget is around £1000 and here is what I put together on the website...

Maelstrom T900 Case

Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3570 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
8GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1866MHz X.M.P(2 x 4GB KIT)
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 660 Ti - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EARX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

CORSAIR 750W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX750 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE

Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

LOGITECH Z320 2.0 SPEAKERS - 10W RMS with 360 Degree Sound

3 Year Silver Warranty

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

A few other little things with my order like HDMI cables, cable management etc that makes the quote just over £1000. With regards to my 2x HDD's, the SSD would be for windows and for as many games as I could fit on as possible with other stuff going on the WD CAVIAR GREEN (might include some games) and I was wondering whats that HDD like? WD are a good make and that one (2tb) is same price virtually as Sata (2tb) and from what I read is good for things such as power usage though its not 7200rpm if memory serves so would that not be ideal for any games I can't fit onto my SSD?

Thanks for any feedback.

 

[keynes]

Hi,
I'd suggest dropping the SSD since it is not essential and getting a caviar black instead, the caviar gree is more adequate for storage. You could get a GTX 670 for your budget instead.

 

[Jax]

I think your right about the GTX 670, I didn't realise how little of an increase it was to go up from 660 GTX Ti to the 670. The main reason I was looking at the SSD from my limited knowledge how quick games load up from it + how quick you can get into windows from start up. However your right with it not being essential and I could always just wait for when in the future, SSD prices are lower for more GB space.

cheers for your advice.

 

[keynes]

I think your right about the GTX 670, I didn't realise how little of an increase it was to go up from 660 GTX Ti to the 670. The main reason I was looking at the SSD from my limited knowledge how quick games load up from it + how quick you can get into windows from start up. However your right with it not being essential and I could always just wait for when in the future, SSD prices are lower for more GB space.

cheers for your advice.

I have an SSD and for the games I played I have not noticed a significant difference in loading times compare to the caviar black.

 

[Jonneh]

I have, and it does load most games faster. The question is, how much is that speed worth to you?

As an example, I load a good 60 seconds before a world of tanks battle begins. I use the time to alt tab usually, since I'm just waiting for everyone else to load anyway.

World of Warcraft (or any other similar "loading screen" filled game) will have some benefit from an SSD, you'll have much quicker loading screens.. but will you just be waiting for your friend who is SSD-less to load anyway?

That is what I would consider. How often do you sit waiting at loading screens, how often would it benefit you for the loading screens to be shorter?

There is also a considerable decrease in boot times, and it probably smoothes over performance if (like me) you alt-tab from your games a lot to browse or answer IMs and alike.

Is that worth the cost of the SSD to you? Only you can know..

 

[steaky360]

I have an SSD and for the games I played I have not noticed a significant difference in loading times compare to the caviar black.

+1 I have not noticed any significant gain in speeds (agreed games load quicker, but its fractionally quicker in my experience) when compared to a caviar black

Boot times however are a different story, windows boots significantly quicker from a SSD

 

[Jax]

I think I was leaning towards the SSD just because I have a pretty sizable budget but after your feedback, it's probably better to go with the Caviar Black HDD and pump the money into a 670 GTX because the longer I can go without needing to upgrade my Graphics card in the future the better. I think in the future I will end up going SSD but not just yet. The sort of games I am looking at playing are the likes of...

Battlefield 3
Hitman: Absolution
Medal of Honor 2
The Old Republic
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Dishonored
Elder V: Skyrim
Fable III
The Witcher 2
Metro 2033

 

[keynes]

If it is between an SSD and the GTX 670, definitely go with the GTX 670
You should be able to play those games at ultra settings.

 

[Jonneh]

As above, when gaming you can't really ever consider buying a better CPU/Memory/HDD or anything until you've bought a top-end GFX card imo. Its the main component which will define your experience.