Gaming desktop suggestions

[WhiteD3]

All,

My 16yo has decided that his 2yo laptop is not up to scratch (gaming-wise) and so wants me to flog it and get a gaming desktop for him from Santa.

I would welcome suggestions on built systems or components for a total of < $1000 as I don't have the 6 month research period I would normally use to select and procrastinate with ;)

Not interested in any fancy cases as he (and I) would rather the money go into the important bits.

We have the monitor, KB and mouse already.

Cheers,

[Ranga]

This might help

Gaming/Multi-Purpose Configurations (http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/rmp_sg_whirlpoolpcs_gaming_configs_1)

BTW, I do most of my shopping at www.umart.com.au at Milton, and have done for probably 10 years+. You'll do well to find a cheaper price online or otherwise.

[Wallaby Ted]

I had a look at that list and after running a IT services company I wouldn't touch a lot of the hardware from the previous link, but that is a good starting point.

Based on your lack of time I build one last for a friend for his business, and his stipulation is buy him what I would buy and modify for his purpose. All the stuff came from Umart, there were cheaper parts available but Umart came in about $35 cheaper overall. Whilst I in at the Eight Mile Plains store collecting it, I am pretty sure I saw a sign saying they would also assemble the parts for you (you should check with them about if this was correct and what conditions were with it).

It is a little over your budget but depending on what he is playing you may be able to go one step down on the video card to the 650 (and save about $100), go to DVD instead bluray (save about $25) and go to the slightly slower processor (about $50) which get you to the $1000 mark assuming that there has been no price change since.


Prod Desc Unit Price Qty Total Price
CPU i5 4670k lga1150 270 1 270
Motherboard Z87-HD3 152 1 152
DDRIII Ram KHX1600C9D3/8G 110 1 110
Hard Disk Seagate 1TB 95 1 95
Graphic Card GV-N660OC-2GD 219 1 219
DVDRW Blueray Writer 55 1 55
Case Thermaltake Black Commander 55 1 55
Power Supply CoolerMaskter Thunder 700W 85 1 85
Windows 7 HP OEM 64 bit 108 1 108
Card Reader 13 1 13
1162

There is no reason that this system shouldn't do 3 years with the possibility of some extra ram and hard drives at some stage (I stripe mine for speed).

If it was for me I would be adding SSD's and more RAM for speed :D

Hope that helps (and Umart still have it all in stock).


Richard

[WhiteD3]

Thanks Guys. I too use Umart at 8 Mile Plains. Not a flash set up but they do have good prices.

[Chucaro]

Then again, (I do not play games only some times the flight sim) why you do not go to an I7 LT like the MSI GE40 2OC-009US (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2423120,00.asp) for $1200 which your son can take camping or in those photography expeditions with you?
An Intel Core i7-4702MQ processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 GPU with 8gb of ram is a nice setup to start.

[Distortion]

ChooseMyPC.net | PC Build Generator (http://www.choosemypc.net/)

set it to Aus/$1000 and it spat out, I'd swap windows 8 for windows 7 but other than that It looks pretty much what I'd recommend for a cheap gaming pc at the moment

Part Recommendation Price
CPU Thumbnail for Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz Quad-Core $204.00
Motherboard Thumbnail for ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 ASRock H81M-HDS Micro ATX LGA1150 $69.00
RAM Thumbnail for G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory $99.00
Solid State Drive None Currently Selected
$0.00
Hard Drive Thumbnail for Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5 Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
$69.00
Graphics Card Thumbnail for Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB Gigabyte Radeon R9 280X 3GB $385.00
Case Thumbnail for Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower $0.00
Power Supply Thumbnail for Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX Silverstone Strider Essential 500W 80+ Certified ATX
Power Draw of this Build: 100W-423W $59.00
OS Thumbnail for Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) Microsoft Windows 8.1 - OEM (64-bit) $115.00


Only issue is the Powersupply does not have alot of extra headroom in it I would generally stick to 700 and above for gaming

[WhiteD3]

For better or worse, here it is.......

I am told (Ordered to ensure :( ) that the setup must be able to play Total War Rome 2 at high res without glitches. Umart $1296.00.



Intel Core i5 4670K LGA1150 CPU 3.4Ghz 6Mb Cache Haswell
ASRock B85M PRO4, Socket 1150, 4x DDR 3 Slots,1x PCIE x16, 1x PCIE x4, 4x SATA3, 4x USB3, HDMI,
G.Skill 8G(Single) DDR3-1866 1.35V SODIMM F3-1866C10S-8GRSL
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Gigabyte N770OC-2GD-AE GTX 770 OC, PCI-E 3.0, 2GB 256-bit DDR5, 1189/7010 MHz, 2x DVI, HDMI, DP, SPL
Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case
CoolerMaster Thunder Series 700W Power Supply
LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer
Windows 7 - OEM (64-bit)
TP-LINK TL-WDN4800 - 450Mbps Wireless N Dual Band PCI Express Adapter

[Distortion]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that build. The only other thing I would suggest particularly if you living a hot climate is a after market cooler for the cpu.

I'm currently using a Noctua NH-U12S not for any other reason than the reviews seemed favorable.

Keeps the noise down a fair bit as well(At least until the gfx card fans spin up)

I think the ATI290 currently wins over the Nvidia 770 performance for price but I've never had much luck with the stability of ATI cards

[Pedro_The_Swift]

nice vid card,, says it requires a 600W psu to run,,

700watts is not a lot these days

[WhiteD3]

Thanks Rob.

CPU fan is on the list but this little project is also about education so when the stock fan winds up like a 747 I'm hoping the young bloke will be motivated enough to do some research.

The 770 was actually our 3rd choice given we couldn't get the first two.


Absolutely nothing wrong with that build. The only other thing I would suggest particularly if you living a hot climate is a after market cooler for the cpu.

I'm currently using a Noctua NH-U12S not for any other reason than the reviews seemed favorable.

Keeps the noise down a fair bit as well(At least until the gfx card fans spin up)

I think the ATI290 currently wins over the Nvidia 770 performance for price but I've never had much luck with the stability of ATI cards

[WhiteD3]

Complex finance involved in this purchase so the 16yo key stakeholder had a budget to stick to. 700w will do it on paper but we'll see what transpires.


nice vid card,, says it requires a 600W psu to run,,

700watts is not a lot these days

[WhiteD3]

Well that was relatively painless but the updates took forever as usual. The machine is ready to go and is sitting under the tree, much to the frustration of the future owner :p

The TP-Link N wireless card screams along! 300mbps.

I must say I got a fright when I unpacked the GTX 770 card. Its a monster and I was worried if it'd fit in the case. All good though.

[singlecell]

Complex finance involved in this purchase so the 16yo key stakeholder had a budget to stick to. 700w will do it on paper but we'll see what transpires.

700W is more then enough, I ran my GTX780 on a 5 year old 600 or 700W psu for ages without a problem.