New Pre Built PC & Monitor

You have a very nice budget, but if you buy, rather than build, your not going to get anywhere near as much for your money.

How far out of the question is building it yourself? There's a great 3-part video series on NewEgg that goes through the stages of building a computer. Part 1 is all about selecting parts, part 2 is all about building the components, part 3 is all about installing the software.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPIXAtNGGCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_56kyib-Ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxaVBsXEiok

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If you really think theres no possible way for you to build the system yourself, I suggest looking at PC SPECIALIST http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/gaming-computers/

This is pretty much what £1500 will get you (its SLI ready so another GTX 580 could be added if you ever wanted to)
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8779/builduf.jpg - from your list this is only missing an SSD and 2nd Optical Drive

Hello ajh1979;

It appears your requirements exceed your resources by several hundred pounds.

Pricing your requests with a reputable custom gaming boutique builder I came up with £1629 and that was without a SSD but included a 24" monitor, Core i5-2500K and GTX 570 graphics card.

Do you have a Plan B?

Hi guys

First of all thank you for your replies,

Im definately not able to build my own at present im not very confident when it comes to hardware but something I plan to remidy at some point in the future.

Im currently looking at the below system from Chillblast who have come up trumps on both PC Advisor and PC PRO currently and in the past I have also looked at customers reviews (Not on Chillblast website) and all look very good.

This is the system I am looking at:

Chillblast Fusion Volt:

http://www.chillblast.com/pconf.php?productid=17907

With the below customisation:

Xigmatek Asgard Black Case
Intel Core i7 2600K Processor Overclocked to up to 4.5GHz
Corsair A70 Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler
Asus P8Z68-V LE Motherboard
8GB Corsair PC3-12800 1600MHz DDR3 Memory (2 x 4GB sticks)
Asus 1536MB GeForce GTX 580 DirectCU II NVIDIA Graphics Card Overclocked Edition
1st Hard Drive - 60GB Corsair Force 3 Solid State Drive
2nd Hard Drive - 1000GB 7200RPM Hard Disk
SSD Caching Configuration
1st Optical - Sony 24x DVD-RW Drive
2nd Optical – LG Blu Ray RW Drive
Power Supply - Corsair TX 750W PSU
Internal Card Reader - 17 in 1 3.5" Internal Card Reader
Wireless Networking - 300Mbps 802.11n Wireless PCI Adaptor (for Wireless networks)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
24" Asus VS247H Widescreen LED Monitor
NO keyboard or mouse is required
NO speakers are required
Install and configure AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition

Please note I had to eamil the sales team for a price on this as teh graphics card is not a standard option.
The sales team emailed me back and gave me a total price of £1490 inc VAT and shipping.

I asked many questions and the sales team were very prompt in their replies very helpful and very friendly.

I would appreciate any views recomendations and opinions on this please?

You help and advice is much appreciated

AJ

That's a great price for a pre-overclocked CPU & a premium GTX 580 GPU.

The included 24" Asus VS247H monitor is OK but doesn't quite match the quality of the other parts.
Is there a list of optional monitors?

Hi WR2

Thanks I think ill be going with this build then i just wanted to post to ensure I was on to a winner so to speak.

Just out of curiosity I guess im going to have no problems with general multitasking or framerates when playing games with this build ( I will only be using the monitor that comes with the package no more ) ?

Thanks in advance

Hi WR2

There are a list of additional monitors and the company will supply most things at your request at a competitive price however if you remove this monitor the deduction is only £85 so I thought I would go with this for the time being below is the list of offered alternatives and the extra costs:

24" Asus VS247H Widescreen LED Monitor
Price: [£0.00]

24" Iiyama E2409HDS Widescreen TFT Monitor
Price: [+£29.00]

27" Asus VE278Q Widescreen LED Multimedia Monitor
Price: [+£144.99]

24" Dell UltraSharp U2410 Widescreen TFT Monitor
Price: [+£314.00]

30" Dell UltraSharp U3011 Widescreen TFT Monitor Extreme Power
Price: [+£714.00]

None [-£85.00]

What you have is certainly overkill for WOW:Cat on ultra settings.
It should run even most future games on very high, or ultra settings, games much more demanding than WoW.
And you'll have a some serious multi-tasking capabilities too. The OC'd CPU, 8GB RAM and SSD cache will make it a very responsive system.

Did they explain about that "SSD Caching Configuration"? It's a hybrid system where all the files are actually stored on the HDD but frequently used programs and data are cached on the SSD.

I would email them and say I want a core i5-2500k with £100 off the price   It has the same performance for gaming.

I really liked the monitor AdrianPerry suggested in his recommendation:
Iiyama ProLite E2473HDS Review
That's a very good review from Overclock3D.net
See what the guys @ ChillBlast can quote you for the monitor.

I'd support FinneousPJ suggestion to go with the OC'd Core i5-2500K CPU to get a better quality monitor.

Here is a review of the Asus VS247H

Hi
They did not really explain the SSD Caching in detail but from what you have said that everything is stored on the hard drive I could just leave the standard 40gb SSD and not upgrade to the 60gb SSD and save myself £50? Unless its worth me upgarding to the 60gb ssd

Im hoping the system will be very responsive like when you fire up a apple ready to go in seconds I have to wait for like 10 mins when I turn on my current laptop before I can actually use the dam thing! Current (HP Pavillion DV7 2070ea)

I will email them to get a quote for the monitor you suggest

i think you should really upgrade the PSU

Hi

I have already upgraded the PSU from the 600w to the 750w as per the additional upgrades I listed above I read the review of the upgrade I chose which came with good reviews?

The only guidance I could find on the Z68 SSD Cache size vs performance was over at AnandTech: The tested a 20GB and 40GB (same Corsair F40 as the basic SSD cache drive @ Chillpoint).

The Force3 SSD has max read/write speeds of 550/490 vs 40GB Force having 285/275. Im thinking the 60GB Force3 SSD might be worth the extra £50 - BUT it's also OK to just go with the 40GB Force to trim the budget a bit. Having the SSD caching is more important that having a more expensive model.

Once you've gone through a couple program and game startup cycles you'll see an improvement in load times.
Win7 bootup in 30 seconds. WoW level load times around 5 seconds. That type of performance.