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PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (October)

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I made excuses about it the last time I wrote an article and Im going to do it again.  Yes I know the original plan was to do this monthly, but the hardware market has been pretty stagnant of late now that all the major releases are more or less out of the way.

That said I thought that now would be a good time as we now have Nvidia’s answer to the midrange graphics card question and also Christmas is fast approaching which is often a good time to be buying a PC.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
Antec One Case

Cost – £43
Ive long been a fan of Antec cases as they are generally very well thought out and nice to build with.  The Antec One has been targeted at the lower end of the market but it still comes with Antec’s usual attention to detail.  Functional, with lots of space of cooling and expansion but with the addition of ‘nice to haves’ like front facing USB3 ports and even pre-drilled for water cooling.

Power Supply:
OCZ CoreXStream 500W

Cost – £35
Slightly less powerful than previously but you really dont need all that power.  In truth a 350W would manage but its always good to have a little headroom for any upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency, which at this price is excellent and should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570 3.4Ghz

Cost – £164
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games as well as a number of revisions that Ivybridge brings over the previous series. Admittedly there isnt a great difference in performance between the Ivybridge and Sandybridge, but the price is largely the same too so you may as well get the new one.  The reason for the top end CPU rather than lower down the pecking order is again to do with negligible price difference but more about this being a good time to buy a PC so invest in quality.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £68
The board remains the same, I previously switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support but given the power of single card GPUs you really dont need to go to this length.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £27
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort and at this price I would even be tempted to double that to 16GB if you can stretch the budget.

Graphics Card:
Gigabyte GTX 660 OC 2GB Windforce X2

Cost – £172
Nvidia have finally shown their hand after months of AMD owning the midrange GPU market with their 7850s and 7870s which have been my primary recommendation.  I think its fair to say that the 660 wasnt quite the card people were expecting especially after the success of the 560 but its still a very good performer.  Is it massively better than the 7850/7870?  Not really and ultimately your choice here should be governed by price.  At the time of writing this 660 was only a few pounds more expensive that the Gigabyte, giving me the slight advantage of PhysX through Nvidias drivers.  If AMD were to do another round of deals or special offers which they have of late then this recommendation could easily be a 7850 or 7870.  My advice?  Shop around and get the best deal.

Hard Disk:
Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200RPM 64MB Cache

Cost – £60
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have finally been able to recommend a 1TB storage as well as SATA III which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. We are finally back to being able to put in good performing platter based drives without remortgaging the house, but hopefully the prices will continue to drop.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid due to their tendency not to support all disk types, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
LG IPS234V-PN 23″ Monitor

Cost – £113
LG, AOC and Asus may have started the trend of lost cost IPS screens, but there are now a number on the market.  As with the other panels these are getting favourable reviews consistently getting better with every model released.  On that basis its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more unless you are interested in 3D.  IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh and the Ilyama Prolite X2377HDS, its worth shopping around although this is by far the cheapest Ive seen so far.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £16
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attractive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Microsoft SideWinder X4

Cost – £33
I previously removed this from my recommendation as it was rumoured that Microsoft were closing the brand however they have been consistently available and the price gets better and better.  Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price, what more do you need?

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £21
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£765

A whopping £50 cheaper than my last recommendation!

Wouldnt it be great if there was a handy way of buying all this stuff together?  Ive got you covered here

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (July) cont.

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Once again I know this hasnt been as regular as before however the reason this time is slightly different.  I had a bit of a think about what I wanted to offer from this system which has slightly changed the way I have gone about selecting the parts.  I have come to the conclusion that I want to present two systems with parts selected at different ends of the market.  That way for those that want an easy choice, you just select one of them, and for those that want to customise you have more options in each category to focus on.

This months machine has taken into account some of those changes so you will see a lot less cross-over between the two systems.  Peripherals for example will now be higher end than the entry level system and you can decide how much you want to spend.

The Enthusiast’s Overclocking System:

Case:
CoolerMaster Silencio 550

Cost – £64
Ive long been a fan of CoolerMasters cases who across their whole range typically create options nice to work with.  The Silencio is no exception, another sleek looking case with heavy duty sound proofing and all the connectivity options including USB3 that you would expect.  A close second is the Fractal Design R3, both often go on sale, pick the cheaper of the two.

Power Supply:

OCZ ZS Series 750W PSU

Cost – £74
Plenty of power headroom for upgrades and overclocking, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform, and a modular cabling system to manage airflow. Its pricey but when you are playing with voltages, a PSU you can trust is critical.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570K 3.4Ghz

Cost – £178
As before, I haven’t choosen the i7K due to the similarities in performance, if you are planning on doing lots of video encoding then get the i7 otherwise save your money, the i5 is rock solid. As with the other recommendations, Ive switched to the top end of the Ivybridge range with the K series for overclocking.

CPU Cooler
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro rev2

Cost – £16
A bit of an oversight on my part that I have never recommended one of these before however they can make a significant difference in stabilising your CPU’s overclock.  The freezer pro may not be as fancy as some of the other options on the market but its capability is often comparable to options three times its cost.

Motherboard:
MSI Z77A-G43 Z77

Cost – £82
As with the entry level system, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits. . MSI have long been an excellent choice for both price as well as the support they offer on their boards for overclocking.  Through the combination of build quality and strong OC software suites / BIOS support this board is difficult to beat.

RAM:
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz

Cost – £70
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding, whether you are building a whole system or not a RAM upgrade should be on your radar. Lifetime warranty and good service from Corsair when you need it. Additionally on this set you have the benefit of decent heatspreaders to support overclocking and also quad channel support should you look to take this RAM with you into a future board that supports it (currently only the socket 2011 boards support quad channel).

Graphics Card:
Gigabyte GTX 670 Windforce 3X 2GB

Cost – £330
Normally here I would be recommending an SLI or Crossfire setup but with a lack of options in the mid range GPU market im favouring a single card solution in this system.  The GTX 670 is an incredibly capable card which makes it difficult to ignore in favour of say two 7850s in Crossfire.  Single card solutions are more reliable performers than dual card setups and leave more options open such us tri-monitor setups (which do not work with dual cards) or alternatively, adding another 670 further down the line.

Hard Disk:
BOOT: OCZ 120GB Agility 3 SSD

Cost – £73
SSD prices have been unaffected by the price hike on platter based harddisks and are currently going through quite a coup. I have switched from the Corsair Force 3 purely on the basis of price.  When asked about SSDs these are the two I recommend, buy whichever is the cheaper of the two as performance is like for like.

STORAGE: Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green

Cost – £77
Given the high prices of platter based harddisks at the moment this isnt actually a terrible price. Decent cache and SATA III connectively should see it meet your storage needs happily, and the slightly lower spin speed and power consumption should keep the noise down.  Prices however are still inflated and although falling its taking some time to get back to where they were.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
Hazro HZ27WD 27″ IPS

Cost – £370
A real game changer in terms of recommendation.  24″ 1080p panels are getting cheaper and cheaper but getting the next level up is also becoming more available.  The Hazro is a 27″ monitor which is big indeed but the real difference is its 2560×1440 resolution which gives you significantly more desktop space and vastly improved definition over the now standard 1920×1080.  Additionally the Hazro is built from the same components that the £1000+ highend Apple and Dell screens are made from so at this price they are incredibly tempting.

Mouse:
Logitech G400

Cost – £30
The remake of the MX518 which is commonly regarded as one of the best gaming mice produced. The quality and the value of this mouse are second to none.  You can pay more for more buttons and weights and laser accuracy but these are usually just gimmicks.

Keyboard:
Corsair Vengeance K90 Mechanical Keyboard

Cost – £90
Looking at the price might make you wince a little but I did say this was going to aim at the higher end of the peripheral market.  In my mind there are two functions worth paying for in a keyboard.  Forget macro keys, usb hubs, volume sliders etc, mechanical actuations will significantly improve the typing experience and more importantly will last forever.  Additionally back lit keys are a god sent to anyone who ‘games’, like myself, predominantly in the evening hours.  If £90 really is too much then cheaper non backlit alternatives can be found around the £60 mark.

Headset:
Corsair Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound Headset

Cost – £68
Corsair have launched their new Vengeance range and as has become typical of them, they are hitting a very high quality indeed.  Its obvious that every element of the design has been carefully thought through from the quality of the sound, the microphone and the comfort and build quality.  As this headset is connected via USB I have opted to remove the sound card and rather rely on the drivers included with the headset.  If you are also planning on having speakers connected then I would add the soundcard back in.

Total cost of the above:

£1535

 

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (July)

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I know, I know, I missed a month, its been busy ok?  Anyway I’m back again and on the whole not a great deal has changed.  AMD have promised some price changes to their upper level 7870 and 7900 series cards but not enough to really dislodge the 7850 as the midrange of choice.  Thats unlikely to happen until later in August which is when Nvidia are rumoured to be releasing the GTX 660 Ti.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Tempest 210

Cost – £42
The Tempest is a revision of the NZXT Source I have previously recommended and is currently slightly cheaper.  That said cases seem to have a slight price hike at the moment.  As before you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot.

Power Supply:
OCZ CoreXStream 500W

Cost – £35
Slightly less powerful than previously but you really dont need all that power.  In truth a 350W would manage but its always good to have a little headroom any most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency, which at this price is excellent and should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3570 3.4Ghz

Cost – £165
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games as well as a number of revisions that Ivybridge brings over the previous series. Admittedly there isnt a great difference in performance between the Ivybridge and Sandybridge, but the price is largely the same too so you may as well get the new one.  The reason for the top end CPU rather than lower down the pecking order is again to do with negligible price difference but more about this being a good time to buy a PC so invest in quality.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
The board remains the same, I previously switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support but given the power of single card GPUs you really dont need to go to this length.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £39
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort and at this price I would even be tempted to double that to 16GB if you can stretch the budget.

Graphics Card:
Gigabyte HD 7850 OC 2GB Windforce X2

Cost – £189
Since the release of the Nvidia 680 and 670 and the upcoming 660, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Right this second, the 7850 has no competition for the midrange bracket and this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a few of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind although the 660 is due in August I would expect initial prices to be around £250 on release.  We’ll have to wait for the benchmarks to see if they justify that tag.

Hard Disk:
Seagate 1TB Barracuda 7200RPM 32MB Cache

Cost – £65
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have finally been able to recommend a 1TB storage as well as SATA III which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. We are finally back to being able to put in good performing platter based drives without remortgaging the house, but hopefully the prices will continue to drop.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid due to their tendency not to support all disk types, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
LG IPS234V-PN 23″ Monitor

Cost – £119
LG, AOC and Asus may have started the trend of lost cost IPS screens, but there are now a number on the market including this offering from Ilyama.  As with the other panels these are getting favourable reviews consistantly getting better with every model released.  On that basis its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more unless you are interested in 3D.  IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh and the Ilyama Prolite X2377HDS, its worth shopping around although this is by far the cheapest Ive seen so far.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £18
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £39
Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price, what more do you need?

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £20
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£811

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (May)

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Ill admit that I have once again pushed the budget to its max for this months PC however the reasoning behind this is that this is genuinely an excellent time to buy a gaming PC.  Intel, Nvidia and AMD have now largely released all of their major releases and a sensible purchase now will last you a good long time without becoming obsolete.  The system below will stand you well for years to come.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Tempest 210

Cost – £43
The Tempest is a revision of the NZXT Source I have previously recommended and is currently slightly cheaper.  That said cases seem to have a slight price hike at the moment.  As before you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot.

Power Supply:
OCZ CoreXStream 500W

Cost – £35
Slightly less powerful than previously but you really dont need all that power.  In truth a 350W would manage but its always good to have a little headroom any most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency, which at this price is excellent and should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 3550 3.3Ghz

Cost – £166
My first expensive change in that I have both upgraded to one of Intels new Ivybridge CPUs and I have also gone for their top end i5.  Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games as well as a number of revisions that Ivybridge brings over the previous series. Admittedly there isnt a great difference in performance between the Ivybridge and Sandybridge, but the price is largely the same too so you may as well get the new one.  The reason for the top end CPU rather than lower down the pecking order is again to do with negligible price difference but more about this being a good time to buy a PC so invest in quality.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
Last weeks big change remains the same, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support but given the power of single card GPUs you really dont need to go to this length.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £31
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort and at this price I would even be tempted to double that to 16GB if you can stretch the budget.

Graphics Card:
Sapphire HD 7850 2GB

Cost – £186
Since the release of the Nvidia 680 and 670, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Its true the 6870 I have recommended is now even cheaper, but this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a couple of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind and the 660 is likely delayed till the tail end of this year.

Hard Disk:
WD 1TB Caviar Blue 7200RPM 32MB Cache

Cost – £70
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have finally been able to recommend a 1TB storage as well as SATA III which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. We are finally back to being able to put in good performing platter based drives without remortgaging the house, but hopefully the prices will continue to drop.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid due to their tendency not to support all disk types, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
Ilyama Prolite 23″ X2377HDS

Cost – £134
LG, AOC and Asus may have started the trend of lost cost IPS screens, but there are now a number on the market including this offering from Ilyama.  As with the other panels these are getting favourable reviews consistantly getting better with every model released.  On that basis its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more unless you are interested in 3D.  IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh and the LG IPS235V, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £35
Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price, what more do you need?

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£816

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (April) cont.

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Following on from April’s update to the entry level system, I have also made some big changes to the Overclocking system along similar lines with the motherboard and graphics card and Im really pleased with the results!  There are a few other changes too, this is a really decent system, possibly one of the best that Ive put together to date.

The Enthusiast’s Overclocking System:

Case:
CoolerMaster Silencio 550

Cost – £64
Yet another case to debut in my monthly recommendations.  Ive long been a fan of CoolerMasters cases who across their whole range typically create options nice to work with.  The Silencio is no exception, another sleek looking case with heavy duty sound proofing and all the connectivity options including USB3 that you would expect.  Couple that with the fact that CoolerMaster have reduced the price it just pipped the Fractal Design R3 in this months recommendation.

Power Supply:

OCZ MXSP Series 700W Modular PSU

Cost – £70
Plenty of power headroom for upgrades and overclocking, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform, and a modular cabling system to manage airflow. Its pricey but when you are playing with voltages, a PSU you can trust is critical.  Once again a change this month to the OCZ purely based on price.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2550K 3.4Ghz

Cost – £171
As before, I haven’t choosen the i7K due to the similarities in performance, if you are planning on doing lots of video encoding then get the i7 otherwise save your money, the i5 is rock solid. More interestingly, despite Ivybridge coming out in the next few months, the current highend Sandybridge chips arent losing out on much in comparison to whats in the pipline. You could invest now and not regret it later. The price is now almost aligned with the older 2500K, you get the extra speed and headroom for just £1!

Motherboard:
Asus P8Z77-V

Cost – £133
As with the entry level system, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits. . This board is the direct successor of the Asus Z68 board I have previously been recommending however we are still waiting for the PRO edition to be released which will have a marginal impact on the OC options available to you.  That said I still think the upgrade is worthwhile, Intels changes are very broad and Asus have gone out of their way to include almost everything possible onto this board for you.  It should last a good long time.

RAM:
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz

Cost – £73
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding, whether you are building a whole system or not a RAM upgrade should be on your radar. Lifetime warranty and good service from Corsair when you need it. Additionally on this set you have the benefit of decent heatspreaders to support overclocking and also quad channel support should you look to take this RAM with you into a future board that supports it (currently only the socket 2011 boards support quad channel).

Graphics Card:
2 x HIS HD 7850 2GB

Cost – £378
Last month we were making the most of Nvidias price changes and this month its AMDs turn almost certainly with a view to setting the benchmark before Nvidia expand their 600 series range.  There are some cracking deals out there on AMD cards however Ive simply gone with doubling up the 7850 I recommended in the entry level PC.  The price and performance of this card coupled with the size of the memory make this an exceptional deal.  There are a few nuances to crossfire with AMDs latest however they arent unconquerable and are likely to be soon smoothed over with new driver releases.

Hard Disk:
BOOT: Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD

Cost – £96
SSD prices have been unaffected by the price hike on platter based harddisks and are currently going through quite a coup. I have switched from the Corsair Force 3 purely on the basis of price.  When asked about SSDs these are the two I recommend, buy whichever is the cheaper of the two as performance is like for like.

STORAGE: Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green

Cost – £81
Given the high prices of platter based harddisks at the moment this isnt actually a terrible price. Decent cache and SATA III connectively should see it meet your storage needs happily, and the slightly lower spin speed and power consumption should keep the noise down.  Prices however are still inflated and although falling its taking some time to get back to where they were.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:
Asus PA238Q LED 23″ IPS

Cost – £230
Consistently reviewed as the best IPS monitor in its class for both image replication and gaming response time. The picture quality is excellent, the panel and the stand are well designed the only real complaint is the 16:9 ratio rather than the preferable 16:10 but that really is nit-picking.

Mouse:
Logitech G400

Cost – £28
The remake of the MX518 which is commonly regarded as one of the best gaming mice produced. The quality and the value of this mouse are second to none.

Keyboard:
Logitech G110 Gaming Keyboard

Cost – £62
Seeing as I have been saving money left, right and centre on the other components, I thought I would splash out on the keyboard a little and switch it to the one I personally use at home.  Yes its twice the price of both the X4 and the Cyborg previously recommended but the G110 is first and foremost a reliable, nice to use keyboard with a decent key action and then provides all the additional features you would expect on a gaming keyboard such as programmable keys, anti ghosting, powered USB and audio hub and various media and shortcut keys and switches.  Most useful of all is the ability to disable the windows key with a switch which helps avoid nasty situations where you find yourself dumped out of a game by accident with your start menu open.

Headset:
Corsair Vengeance 1500 Dolby 7.1 Surround Sound Headset

Cost – £65
Another big change.  Regular readers of these recommendations may have noticed the absence of a sound card in this build which is largely to do with this change right here.  Corsair have launched their new Vengeance range and as has become typical of them, they are hitting a very high quality indeed.  Its obvious that every element of the design has been carefully thought through from the quality of the sound, the microphone and the comfort and build quality.  As this headset is connected via USB I have opted to remove the sound card and rather rely on the drivers included with the headset.  If you are also planning on having speakers connected then I would add the soundcard back in.

Total cost of the above:

£1464

 

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (April)

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Although not a lot of change in the market I have actually made some fairly significant changes to this months system.  Admittedly this has pushed the price up a little and I’ve had to sacrifice the sound card but being able to sport one of the latest and greatest graphics cards is worth it in my opinion.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Source 210

Cost – £35
Slightly more expensive than the Coolermaster case I have been recommending of late however for the extra £1 you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design, a bottom mounted PSU as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot. Also available in white if you are a tart!

Power Supply:
Corsair CX V2 600W

Cost – £53
A trusted brand, plenty of power headroom for most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1Ghz

Cost – £146
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games. Given the specs released on the Ivybridge CPUs there isnt a great deal to get too excited about. Sandybridge will do you for a good while.

Motherboard:
MSI H77MA-G43

Cost – £67
One of the first big changes, I have switched from the older 6 series intel boards to one of their new 7 series boards which support native Ivybridge, USB3 and PCI-E3 support as well as the various enhancements that Intel have made to caching, SSD support and other benefits.  The limitation of the board selected here is that it only has a single high speed PCI-E socket and therefore will be more suited to a single GPU setup.  An extra £10 will get you a Z77 board with this support however I needed to save the money for my GPU upgrade.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £31
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort.

Graphics Card:
HIS HD 7850 2GB

Cost – £189
Since the release of the Nvidia 680GTX, AMD have been reviewing the prices of their current market cards which has seen price reductions across the board.  Its true the 6870 I normally recommend is now even cheaper, but this is an excellent price for a card that’s only a couple of months old!  AMDs latest architecture and 2GB of memory put it clearly above the Nvidia 560Ti 448 core in my mind.

Hard Disk:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Cost – £61
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have switched to the Seagate as this is a SATA III drive which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. The prices still need to drop considerably to start looking at the drives you would typically want to use.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Monitor:

LG 23″ IPS235V

Cost – £133
LG are leading the charge for low cost E-IPS screens and at this price and with the favourable reviews they are generally receiving its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more. No change here however IPS options in this price bracket are becoming more and more common, with the AOC i2353Fh hot on LG’s tails, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £36
I have switched from the Microsoft X4 on the basis that as MS are closing the brand, its arguably better to buy something thats going to recieve ongoing support. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price which is more or less like for like with the X4.

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£800

As before, Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (March) cont.

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As promised in the previous hardware update, Ive now updated the recommendations for the higher end overclockers system. Despite the changes from both Intel and Nvidia, there isnt quite as much change as you might expect. As always, rationale provided against each component.

The Enthusiast’s Overclocking System:

Case:
Fractal Design R3

Cost – £70
The Corsair Carbide I previously recommended has now gone up in price probably due to the favourable reviews it has been getting of late however this Fractal Design case is equally good, superbly designed with good features for best airflow, easy build and noise reduction and in my opinion is seriously sleek looking.

Power Supply:
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Modular PSU

Cost – £70
Plenty of power headroom for upgrades and overclocking, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform, and a modular cabling system to manage airflow. Its pricey but when you are playing with voltages, a PSU you can trust is critical.  I have switched from the Corsair 750W purely on the basis of price.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2550K 3.4Ghz

Cost – £178
As before, I haven’t choosen the i7K due to the similarities in performance, if you are planning on doing lots of video encoding then get the i7 otherwise save your money, the i5 is rock solid. More interestingly, despite Ivybridge coming out in the next few months, the current highend Sandybridge chips arent losing out on much in comparison to whats in the pipline. You could invest now and not regret it later. I spent an additional £6 this month putting in one of the new Sandybridge K CPUs just for the bleeding edge overclock.

Motherboard:
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Gen3

Cost – £147
This Asus board sports all the features you would expect from a highend board as well as plenty of future proofing options. Support for both Crossfire and SLI as well as both PCI 2 and 3 which the latest nVidia and AMD graphics cards use, the Z68 chipset should see you for a while. The addition of bluetooth is a nice touch too. This board doesnt come with some of the overclocking functions that some of the ‘for gamers’ boards do at the higher end however it does come with the ASUS CPR suite to help protect on some of your more adventurous overclocks and the BIOS has more than enough features to get you going.

RAM:
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz

Cost – £80
RAM is very cheap at the moment but prices are creeping up. Lifetime warranty and good service from Corsair when you need it. Additionally on this set you have the benefit of decent heatspreaders to support overclocking and also quad channel support should you look to take this RAM with you into a future board that supports it (currently only the socket 2011 boards support quad channel).

Graphics Card:
2 x Gigabyte 560Ti GTX 448 Core 1280MB

Cost – £340
Due to the recent release of the latest nVidia 680 GTX some hunting around can find you some excellent deals on nVidia cards at the moment. The cost of the 680 GTX really was a little inhibitive to recommend in a system like this and the offers being made available on the cards selected are difficult to ignore. That said it wont be long before nVidia start expanding the 600 range which could change that. Here and now of course the 560Ti 448 Core is probably just about the best card for overclocking that you can buy and at this price they really are a steal.

Hard Disk:
BOOT: Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD

Cost – £110
SSD prices have been unaffected by the price hike on platter based harddisks and are currently going through quite a coup. This Corsair disk is about as fast as you can buy and 120GB should be enough to get your system running nicely.

STORAGE: Seagate 2TB Barracuda Green

Cost – £90
Given the high prices of platter based harddisks at the moment this isnt actually a terrible price. Decent cache and SATA III connectively should see it meet you storage needs happily, and the slightly lower spin speed and power consumption should keep the noise down.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Sound Card:
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro

Cost – £85
Firstly this is a top notch card which will deliver awesome sound, however it also has its own processing capability thus easing burden on your CPU which may help up your framerate. Was a tough choice between this and the previously recommended Asus Xonar however I went with Creative for the price.

Monitor:
Asus PA238Q LED 23″ IPS

Cost – £220
Consistently reviewed as the best IPS monitor in its class for both image replication and gaming response time. The picture quality is excellent, the panel and the stand are well designed the only real complaint is the 16:9 ratio rather than the preferable 16:10 but that really is nit-picking.

Mouse:
Logitech G400

Cost – £25
The remake of the MX518 which is commonly regarded as one of the best gaming mice produced. The quality and the value of this mouse are second to none.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £34
I have switched from the Microsoft X4 on the basis that as MS are closing the brand, its arguably better to buy something thats going to recieve ongoing support. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price which is more or less like for like with the X4.

Headset:
Roccat Kave Solid 5.1 Surround Sound Headset

Cost – £64
After forking out the cash for such a decent soundcard you want a set of cans that are going to make the most of it which rules out anything using USB. This headset has a true surround sound system connected by each channel direct into the soundcard and the experience is hard to beat. The mic attached is decent and convenient if there is only one complaint it is that these can be a little heavy and may be comparatively less comfortable than other headsets.

Total cost of the above:

£1526

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide (March)

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Just a little more than a month has passed since I last made my recommendations however there has been quite a reasonable amount of change, firstly Intel’s confirmation that the current Sandybridge motherboards will be compatible with their soon to be released Ivybridge CPUs as well as Nivida launching their new 680 GTX which has reclaimed the the ‘top graphics card’ crown.

What does this mean for our entry level system? Directly, not a great deal however it has had some impact on prices as well as give a view on future upgrade paths.

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
NZXT Source 210

Cost – £36
Slightly more expensive than the Coolermaster case I have been recommending of late however for the extra £2 you are getting rear and ceiling fans included, internal cable management, screwless design, a bottom mounted PSU as well as a USB3 compatible front socket. From a personal perspective, I think its a nice looking case to boot. Also available in white if you are a tart!

Power Supply:
Corsair CX V2 600W

Cost – £53
A trusted brand, plenty of power headroom for most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1Ghz

Cost – £146
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games. Given the specs released on the Ivybridge CPUs there isnt a great deal to get too excited about. Sandybridge will do you for a good while.

Motherboard:
Asus P8Z68-V LX

Cost – £76
Excellent highend Sandybridge board with lots of upgrade potential (including support for Ivy Bridge this year) as well as support for mSata connectors to enable Mini SSDs to use Intels caching capabilities. Switched to the Asus over the Gigabyte purely due to it being a few pounds cheaper however both are excellent value boards. A slight creep in prices which may be due to confirmation of compatibility with future Ivybridge CPUs

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £30
RAM is very cheap at the moment and prices seem to be holding although I woundnt count on that forever. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort.

Graphics Card:
PowerColor HD 6870 1GB

Cost – £135
This is a decent low cost card that will fill all your gaming needs on a single monitor. Also cheap enough to consider chucking in a pair to run in crossfire in the future should the inclination take you. The XFX I previously recommended can be found cheaper than this however I upgraded to the PowerColour as in my experience they offer a better service generally than XFX and their aftermarket cooler is also better than the reference design. The icing on the cake is that this card is also boxed with a coupon for Dirt 3. All of this seems worth the few extra pounds.

Hard Disk:
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Cost – £60
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I have switched to the Seagate as this is a SATA III drive which will perform better than the budget drives I have been previously recommending although this has raised the price a little. The prices still need to drop considerably to start looking at the drives you would typically want to use.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Sound Card:
Asus Xonar 5.1 PCI with Headphone AMP

Cost – £24
This card has no onboard processing so it wont boost framerate, however having a plug in card gives a much cleaner experience to sound by separating it from the electrical noise of the other onboard components and the headphone AMP will improve the sound output for unpowered headsets.

Monitor:
LG 23″ IPS235V

Cost – £140
LG are leading the charge for low cost E-IPS screens and at this price and with the favourable reviews they are generally receiving its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more. No change here however more options in this price bracket are becoming available, its worth shopping around.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £17
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Cyborg V5

Cost – £34
I have switched from the Microsoft X4 on the basis that as MS are closing the brand, its arguably better to buy something thats going to recieve ongoing support. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price which is more or less like for like with the X4.

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 380

Cost – £19
Plantronics have recently updated their Gamecom range and this 380 replaces the outgoing 367. As before the 380 has high quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached as well as a much improved build quality around both its cabling and headband. Not something you typically see in headsets of this price.

Total cost of the above:

£783

Ill be shortly following this article up with an update to the Overclocker’s system previously recommended.

PC Gaming Hardware – What PC to Buy Guide

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I was inspired by the articles Ive been reading in UK PC Gamer and PC Format on this subject and thought I would do one of my own as I seem to spend most of my time recommending to friends and family what to buy.

To that end I have put together two systems to meet both ends of the market. Both systems are designed specifically with gaming in mind are are complete systems including all necessary peripherals such as screen, mouse, keyboard etc.

The first system is targeted at entry to mid level gamers who are looking for ‘out of the box’ performance. A system that will play all the latest games, possibly offer them some easy upgrades in the future but will largely just do what they want at an affordable price.

The second system is targeted at gamers who like to spend more time inside the case of their PC tweaking and upgrading to get the best possible performance.

So here they are:

The Entry to Mid Level System:

Case:
Coolermaster Elite 335

Cost – £34
A decent build quality case that isnt too showy (if you arent into that sort of thing) but has the capability to be (if you are). Lots of features inside which make it both easy to build and nice to maintain.

Power Supply:
Coolermaster GX 650W

Cost – £58
Plenty of power headroom for most upgrades you might consider later, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform. Spending less on a PSU is usually false economy especially in a machine you plan on using for games.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2400 3.1Ghz

Cost – £148
Unless you are planning on overclocking there really is no point in spending money on the higher spec K series chips and on the whole for gaming its best to put the money into graphics power. This i5 sports intels turbo boost and has more than enough power for games.

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3

Cost – £72
Excellent highend Sandybridge board with lots of upgrade potential (including support for Ivy Bridge this year) as well as support for mSata connectors to enable Mini SSDs to use Intels caching capabilities.

RAM:
8GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz Ballistix Sport

Cost – £35
RAM is very cheap at the moment but prices are creeping up. Lifetime warranty and good service from Crucial when you need it. I would also say that we are now getting to the point that its worth having a minimum of 8GB RAM for gaming comfort.

Graphics Card:
XFX HD 6870 1GB

Cost – £133
A decent low cost card that will fill all your gaming needs on a single monitor. Also cheap enough to consider chucking in a pair to run in crossfire in the future should the inclination take you.

Hard Disk:
Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache

Cost – £52
Hard disks are still pretty expensive but prices are falling quickly from their peak. I wouldnt be rushing out to buy them just yet though.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Sound Card:
Asus Xonar 5.1 PCI with Headphone AMP

Cost – £26
This card has no onboard processing so it wont boost framerate, however having a plug in card gives a much cleaner experience to sound by separating it from the electrical noise of the other onboard components and the headphone AMP will improve the sound output for unpowered headsets.

Monitor:
LG 23″ IPS235V

Cost – £142
LG are leading the charge for low cost E-IPS screens and at this price and with the favourable reviews they are generally receiving its hard to argue in favour of the older TN panels any more.

Mouse:
Gigabyte M6900

Cost – £16
Clearly modelled after other successful gaming mice, Gigabyte have pulled together a very attactive combination of functionality, performance and price. Its very hard to justify more expensive options with this on the table.

Keyboard:
Microsoft Sidewinder X4

Cost – £33
Microsoft are closing down their gaming peripherals brand so these are going for bargain prices. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price.

Headset:
Plantronics Gamecom 367

Cost – £19
High quality sound, comfortable for long play sessions with a reasonable mic attached. All the convenience without the cost.

Total cost of the above:

£781

The Enthusiast’s Overclocking System:

Case:
Corsair Carbide 500R

Cost – £88
It may not have the ‘moar lights’ mentality however there are few cases on the market that run cooler or quieter than the 500R and they are significantly more expensive. Couple this with the fact that the Carbide is a joy to build with and its perfect for the person who plans to spend a lot of time dipping in and out of their case.

Power Supply:
Corsair TX750M 750W Modular PSU

Cost – £87
Plenty of power headroom for upgrades and overclocking, 80% efficiency which should give you a nice stable platform, and a modular cabling system to manage airflow. Its pricey but when you are playing with voltages, a PSU you can trust is critical.

CPU:
Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3Ghz

Cost – £172
No I didnt choose the i7K. Why not? Performance-wise, particularly with overclocking the i5 and the i7 are similar, the only real benefit of the i7 is hyperthreading which actually can impact games for the worse rather than the better. If you are planning on doing lots of video encoding then get the i7 otherwise save your money, the i5 is rock solid.

Motherboard:
Asus P8Z68-V PRO Gen3

Cost – £147
This Asus board sports all the features you would expect from a highend board as well as plenty of future proofing options. Support for both Crossfire and SLI as well as both PCI 2 and 3 makes it adaptable for graphics and the features offered by the Z68 chipset should see you for a while. The addition of bluetooth is a nice touch too. This board doesnt come with some of the overclocking functions that some of the ‘for gamers’ boards do at the higher end however it does come with the ASUS CPR suite to help protect on some of your more adventurous overclocks and the BIOS has more than enough features to get you going.

RAM:
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz

Cost – £75
RAM is very cheap at the moment but prices are creeping up. Lifetime warranty and good service from Corsair when you need it. Additionally on this set you have the benefit of decent heatspreaders to support overclocking and also quad channel support should you look to take this RAM with you into a future board that supports it (currently only the socket 2011 boards support quad channel but its a good guess for Ivybridge).

Graphics Card:
2 x Gigabyte 560Ti OC 1GB

Cost – £350
The 560Ti coupled with SLI technology arguably beats everything on the market currently and that argument can only really be held against the GTX590 or AMDs latest 7000 series offerings which two of these cards is significantly cheaper than. Gigabyte overclock this out of the box for you, but the decent cooling will let you take this further. The only real hindrance is the 1GB memory which will be mirrored in SLI not expanded. Truth be told, now is not the time to buy graphics cards, wait until Nvidia show their hand with their new Kepler cards which should be a matter of weeks.

Hard Disk:
BOOT: Corsair 120GB Force 3 SSD

Cost – £120
SSD prices have been unaffected by the price hike on platter based harddisks and are currently going through quite a coup. This Corsair disk is about as fast as you can buy and 120GB should be enough to get your system running nicely.

STORAGE: WD 2TB Caviar Green

Cost – £105
Given the high prices of platter based harddisks at the moment this isnt actually a terrible price. Decent cache and SATA III connectively should see it meet you storage needs happily, and the slightly lower spin speed and power consumption should keep the noise down.

Optical Drive:
Samsung 22x DVD/RW

Cost – £13
With the exception of Sony which I would tend to avoid, all optical drives are the same so buy the cheapest. No real point getting Blu-Ray yet unless you are planning on using the PC as a media centre.

Sound Card:
Asus Xonar D2X 7.1 Surround Sound

Cost – £85
Firstly this is a top notch card which will deliver awesome sound, however it also has its own processing capability thus easing burden on your CPU which may help up your framerate. Was a tough choice between this and the Creative Titanium however I went with Asus as Creatives drivers are still truly awful.

Monitor:
Asus PA238Q LED 23″ IPS

Cost – £220
Consistently reviewed as the best IPS monitor in its class for both image replication and gaming response time. The picture quality is excellent, the panel and the stand are well designed the only real complaint is the 16:9 ratio rather than the preferable 16:10 but that really is nit-picking.

Mouse:
Logitech G400

Cost – £25
The remake of the MX518 which is commonly regarded as one of the best gaming mice produced. The quality and the value of this mouse are second to none.

Keyboard:
Microsoft Sidewinder X4

Cost – £33
Microsoft are closing down their gaming peripherals brand so these are going for bargain prices. Back lit, anti ghosting and macro keys make it hard to beat at the price.

Headset:
Roccat Kave Solid 5.1 Surround Sound Headset

Cost – £64
After forking out the cash for such a decent soundcard you want a set of cans that are going to make the most of it which rules out anything using USB. This headset has a true surround sound system connected by each channel direct into the soundcard and the experience is hard to beat. The mic attached is decent and convenient if there is only one complaint it is that these can be a little heavy and may be comparatively less comfortable than other headsets.

Total cost of the above:

£1584