Hi everybody, this is my first post so I apologise if I've done anything wrong. Anyway, I have a bit of an unusual situation that I'd like some opinions on. Let me explain.
I've only recently realised how much better PC gaming is compared to consoles - the upgradeability, the low price games and the huge catalogue. So I want to build myself a PC. I don't strictly have a budget - it's just limited by how much money I can get in the time I want to wait, because I'll be driving soon and I don't get a huge income at the moment - but it's around the £900/$1400 mark. Now I'd like to build the PC as soon as possible, because I've bought a load of Steam games that don't run on my late 2011 model 15" MacBook Pro, well, because it's a Mac. The games it does play it runs beautifully, but it's just not practical having it take up most of the space on my desk with an external keyboard and mouse connected.
So basically, my question is, should I sell my MacBook Pro, which would give me enough money to build the PC I want straight away - or do I keep it, because I'm going to uni (hopefully Cambridge!) to study computer science next year and it might be helpful then - but I have an iPad which would be perfectly good for taking notes.
Another thing to note - in the future (maybe 1.5/2 years) I'd like to start doing captures of my games and starting a YouTube channel to upload them to. And don't worry, it won't be Minecraft or Call of Duty!
But anyway this complicates things further because I could keep my MacBook and use it with iMovie to edit the videos. By then it would be 4 years old so I'm not too sure how well it would perform. But if I do sell it, I'd have to use the PC for editing - which begs another question: should I buy an Ivy Bridge i5 or i7 for the new build? I don't quite know what difference the hyperthreading will bring in terms of render speed - so is it worth the extra £60 or so?
Here are the specs for the PC I'd hope to build:
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) ATX Motherboard
-Intel Core i7 3770 (not too worried about overclocking) OR an i5 3570k
-PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
-8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Jet Black 1866MHz CL9 DDR3 Dual/Quad Channel Kit
-2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 3.5" SATA III HDD (for games and videos)
-120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD (for OS)
-500W Corsair Builder Series CX500M 80PLUS Bronze Modular PSU
- A Blu-Ray drive
-Sharkoon VS3-V Chrome Black Midi Tower Case
-Two extra fans: one Corsair SP120 Performance Edition 120mm and one Noctua 80mm ultra low noise
-And finally a 23" LG monitor.
(if anyone would mind checking the specs to see if it's compatible that'd be awesome too - this is my first build but I did triple check it!)
I would just like some opinions to see what other people would do, because I'm still on the fence. Obviously there's no right choice here so I'll see what most people say then make a decision.
Thank you in advance
Tom
I've only recently realised how much better PC gaming is compared to consoles - the upgradeability, the low price games and the huge catalogue. So I want to build myself a PC. I don't strictly have a budget - it's just limited by how much money I can get in the time I want to wait, because I'll be driving soon and I don't get a huge income at the moment - but it's around the £900/$1400 mark. Now I'd like to build the PC as soon as possible, because I've bought a load of Steam games that don't run on my late 2011 model 15" MacBook Pro, well, because it's a Mac. The games it does play it runs beautifully, but it's just not practical having it take up most of the space on my desk with an external keyboard and mouse connected.
So basically, my question is, should I sell my MacBook Pro, which would give me enough money to build the PC I want straight away - or do I keep it, because I'm going to uni (hopefully Cambridge!) to study computer science next year and it might be helpful then - but I have an iPad which would be perfectly good for taking notes.
Another thing to note - in the future (maybe 1.5/2 years) I'd like to start doing captures of my games and starting a YouTube channel to upload them to. And don't worry, it won't be Minecraft or Call of Duty!
But anyway this complicates things further because I could keep my MacBook and use it with iMovie to edit the videos. By then it would be 4 years old so I'm not too sure how well it would perform. But if I do sell it, I'd have to use the PC for editing - which begs another question: should I buy an Ivy Bridge i5 or i7 for the new build? I don't quite know what difference the hyperthreading will bring in terms of render speed - so is it worth the extra £60 or so?Here are the specs for the PC I'd hope to build:
-GIGABYTE GA-Z77-DS3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) ATX Motherboard
-Intel Core i7 3770 (not too worried about overclocking) OR an i5 3570k
-PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7950 Boost Edition 3GB GDDR5 Graphics Card
-8GB (2x4GB) Corsair Vengeance Jet Black 1866MHz CL9 DDR3 Dual/Quad Channel Kit
-2TB Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 3.5" SATA III HDD (for games and videos)
-120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD (for OS)
-500W Corsair Builder Series CX500M 80PLUS Bronze Modular PSU
- A Blu-Ray drive
-Sharkoon VS3-V Chrome Black Midi Tower Case
-Two extra fans: one Corsair SP120 Performance Edition 120mm and one Noctua 80mm ultra low noise
-And finally a 23" LG monitor.
(if anyone would mind checking the specs to see if it's compatible that'd be awesome too - this is my first build but I did triple check it!)
I would just like some opinions to see what other people would do, because I'm still on the fence. Obviously there's no right choice here so I'll see what most people say then make a decision.
Thank you in advance
Tom
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