Does anyone here build computers?

My son is desperate for a gaming PC. Apparently he needs:

Intel i7-2600k (4 CPUs - 3.4GHz)
NVIDIA Ge Force GTX 560 x2
8GB DDR3 RAM
1.5 TB storage

Personally I don't know if he needs all this, apart from anything we have a 2TB network drive he could use (as it only has about 300GB of stuff on it at present!!)

Anyway, am looking for quotes for building a system with this spec, sub £800 if possible ... he'd also like a new monitor (in addition to the spec) as his is only 15 inches.

Can you PM or email me please if you can do this kind of set up , with prices.

Thanks!

Hey Alison

Going to be blunt here but for someone to build the above system will be unlikely for £1000 let alone £800. I just put the components through ebuyer.com and that is nearly £800 without the monitor, operating system, case, mouse / keyboard, etc

The parts he want are new releases and hard drives have doubled in price due to the floods in Thailand. Personally I would recommend either waiting for hard drive pricesto come down or reduce the specification (less HDD space, one graphics card).

Screenshot

Have a look on dino pc - you can build the computer to pretty much the spec you want. That is going to be considerably over £1000 though.

I doubt he really needs all that, is it not the more the case he wants all that?

Ask him what games he wants to play, look at the specs for the games and adjust price accordingly ;) 

I work online and have my computer absolutely full of bumf i.e. design software, ranking software, video editing software, the videos themselves and so on and even I don't have close to that spec!

What would he need 1.5TB of storage for? Even if the game took up about 2GB of space, there's 1024GBs in a Terrabyte. A simple 500GB hard drive would more than suffice for "gaming". 

The main limitation will probably be the graphics card (but again, this depends on the game), but why not invest in a lower spec PC then stick a powerful graphics card in there - he will be able to play any game he likes. 

That's what I'm trying to tell him! He's getting into loads of online games like Minecraft and World of War and stuff. Apparently one of the Yogz team (???) have posted a YouTube video about the perfect gaming computer spec. I am trying to persuade him he doesn't need all that, not least because we have a 2TB network drive anyway!! And I can't fot the life of me work out why he would need TWO graphics cards ... any ideas?

The disk space on your NAS wont be of much use to him, its to slow for running games from.

But for £800 he is not going to get a machine with the spec mentioned.

Drop the i7 down to an i5. (Over clock it so its faster if he wants, and is willing to learn a bit)

Go with two Hard Disks, 1 small SSD drive, and a 500Gb Sata for data

Two graphics cards in SLI mode work together and are faster. But he cant afford 2, so why not get 1 and then he can save up for the 2nd.

8GB RAM - Yes dont change

Add Case, Win7, Cooling, Power Supply Unit, monitor, Mother Board etc. Any stuff he already has Keyboard, optical drives etc will save a few quid.

He is really going to need the most bang for his bucks, so a self build would be the way to go.

Id suggest he goes to http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/index.php creates an account and asks the people on there to help him spec up a system he can build himself and matches his budget. Then use the same forum to learn about building PC's. That way he learns, and gets the best he can for the budget. 

I can understand why he would want this spec then

the geeky bit?; (sorry!)

Yogz Team (Yogzcast) on Youtube is a gaming community channel, mainly focusing on Minecraft but also expanding their views over other games.

The hard drive space would actually be advised if he is indeed with Yogz cast, as the youtube side of things will take up 500GB in no time, although if you say you have a 2tb one, that would be perfectly suitable.

I completly understand why he would ask for all that.

The reason for 2 graphics cards really is because that way they share the load of the games, e.g. both working at 50% capacity rather than 1 at 100% that can has no potential to go any further.

And the 8Gb of Ram, well 2 heavy graphics cards like that need atleast 8Gb of ram else they're useless.

I could explain further but it must be boring people and I'm more than sure you may fall asleep

I gotta say, as a computer builder/enthusiast chappy, he doesn't really need all that kit.

A far more sensible spec would be a cheaper Core i5 2500K and a single GeForce 560ti.  Even the 2500K isn't necessary unless he intends to overclock (tune the PC to run faster than manufacturer spec).   

A lot of it depends on his monitor resolution - the higher resolution/bigger the screen, the more pixels need to be drawn and so more power is needed.  But World of Warcraft will run pretty well on middle-range graphics cards and Minecraft ain't exactly demanding either.

Thanks for all the advice here. I showed Dan the thread and after much gnashing of teeth and slamming of doors (fairly average behaviour for a slightly stressed 14 year olf with ADHD!) he's decided to compromise. We've now ordered a copmputer from Doni PCs with an i5 processor, 500GB hard drive and one graphics card for under £800 and I'm sure it will do the job. I'm also told him that once he has a highspec computer he has to learn how to program, so he'll be trying to make some Minecraft mods after Xmas - now that's going to be interesting!

Heh, I remember being a teenager - it was fraught with moments like those! 

He's definitely better off with a lower spec PC for now - that way, he can save his cash and upgrade it if he feels the need, and that means he'll get a feel for how expensive things are and how they all work together 

Very true - my only concern is that the one we've gone for only has one slot suitable for graphics cards (I thin k) but if he's that keen he can always upgrade the motherboard I guess!!

(And of course I meant Dino PCs .... I'm struggling to type at the moment, no idea why, but I've been typing entire words perfectly correctly but backwards!!) 

He should be fine with one card - these days you don't really need more than one unless you've got a screen the size of Buckinghamshire  PC games aren't as demanding as they once were.  But yes, the great thing is that there is that flexibility for the future.

Thanks - that's good to know!

A friend of mine spent around £1,200 on a PC purely so he could play Battlefield 3 in Ultra settings... now that's over the top!