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As you may know, I'm saving for a new graphics card and I'm looking at the GTX 960 as a good card for the money that also works well with a standard 500w PSU.
But....what if I saved a bit more and bought a new PC? My CPU is not great, it's an A8 APU and it's struggling at times, the motherboard is creaky and only an FM2 and won't take anything other than the APUs due to the wonderful knobbling HP do on their Bios. So I'm thinking here's a challenge, find me a PC (on Amazon as I have vouchers making up some of my money towards it, or take £150-£200 off the maximum price) that will; a) run all the latest games at high settings or thereabouts (not necessarily ultra), b) costs less than or around £500 and c) looks pretty.
This is the best I've come up with so far:
Go!
But....what if I saved a bit more and bought a new PC? My CPU is not great, it's an A8 APU and it's struggling at times, the motherboard is creaky and only an FM2 and won't take anything other than the APUs due to the wonderful knobbling HP do on their Bios. So I'm thinking here's a challenge, find me a PC (on Amazon as I have vouchers making up some of my money towards it, or take £150-£200 off the maximum price) that will; a) run all the latest games at high settings or thereabouts (not necessarily ultra), b) costs less than or around £500 and c) looks pretty.
This is the best I've come up with so far:
Go!
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They've just put this Skylake PC up in price by another £50. Damn it!
Dr. Garin wrote:
The PROs win, 4-3. :)
Future proofing Garin ... hey go with it :¬)
The PROs win, 4-3. :)
Future proofing Garin ... hey go with it :¬)
The PROs win, 4-3. :)
So far I have for Skylake:
PROs
- Newer architecture, RAM and faster bus speed
- Will probably take a new CPU in a couple of years time should I need to upgrade
- Will take advantage of new Graphics Cards when they finally come out as the manufactures will no doubt make use of the faster PCI.
- USB 3.1
CONs
- Not really a huge speed boost over the i5 4460, espcially in games
- £100 more for half the memory and hard drive space (16GB vs 8GB RAM)
- Current GPUs will be pretty much the same across the motherboards
PROs
- Newer architecture, RAM and faster bus speed
- Will probably take a new CPU in a couple of years time should I need to upgrade
- Will take advantage of new Graphics Cards when they finally come out as the manufactures will no doubt make use of the faster PCI.
- USB 3.1
CONs
- Not really a huge speed boost over the i5 4460, espcially in games
- £100 more for half the memory and hard drive space (16GB vs 8GB RAM)
- Current GPUs will be pretty much the same across the motherboards
It's a mix of vouchers and money, but the money is just an amount I have set aside. I've read up on Skylake and the new motherboard features. It's exciting but I can't see it making a huge difference to games. So it's mainly the CPU upgrade factor, assuming they keep the same system for a few years as they bring out new processors.
The other issue is that DDR4 costs more, so if I did want to add more than 8GB RAM...
The other issue is that DDR4 costs more, so if I did want to add more than 8GB RAM...
Dr. Garin wrote:
Obviously if you don't have the extra £100 then its irrelevant but if you did......
Garin's spot on there pb ... is it 'cost' i.e. what can I get that'll run everything until the year dot as long as I can pay for it with vouchers or is it a desire to own a pc that could cost £700 but vouchers may not figure in the equation?
Obviously if you don't have the extra £100 then its irrelevant but if you did......
Garin's spot on there pb ... is it 'cost' i.e. what can I get that'll run everything until the year dot as long as I can pay for it with vouchers or is it a desire to own a pc that could cost £700 but vouchers may not figure in the equation?
pb wrote:
These vouchers are taking an age to come through. I'm getting impatient with TopCashBack now!
So now it looks like an i5 4460 with 970 and 16GB RAM is the best bet, though the Skylake i5 6600K is 'only' £100 more, but with only 8GB RAM. I don't see much of a boost in speed from the new Intel chip, though. It's only the DDR4 RAM that interests me there. probably not worth the extra.
Well upgradeability has been talked about a bit in this thread. Skylake has a new socket so you know that the i5-4460 socket is basically obsolete already. Also there is the accompanying new motherboard chipset to consider, it has some nice features like being able to use the integrated GPU with the external GPU card under DX12. Plus its got more bandwidth meaning you'll get more out of future GPU upgrades and a bunch more stuff I don't need to list as I'm sure you'll go look for yourself. :)
Obviously if you don't have the extra £100 then its irrelevant but if you did......
These vouchers are taking an age to come through. I'm getting impatient with TopCashBack now!
So now it looks like an i5 4460 with 970 and 16GB RAM is the best bet, though the Skylake i5 6600K is 'only' £100 more, but with only 8GB RAM. I don't see much of a boost in speed from the new Intel chip, though. It's only the DDR4 RAM that interests me there. probably not worth the extra.
Well upgradeability has been talked about a bit in this thread. Skylake has a new socket so you know that the i5-4460 socket is basically obsolete already. Also there is the accompanying new motherboard chipset to consider, it has some nice features like being able to use the integrated GPU with the external GPU card under DX12. Plus its got more bandwidth meaning you'll get more out of future GPU upgrades and a bunch more stuff I don't need to list as I'm sure you'll go look for yourself. :)
Obviously if you don't have the extra £100 then its irrelevant but if you did......
These vouchers are taking an age to come through. I'm getting impatient with TopCashBack now!
So now it looks like an i5 4460 with 970 and 16GB RAM is the best bet, though the Skylake i5 6600K is 'only' £100 more, but with only 8GB RAM. I don't see much of a boost in speed from the new Intel chip, though. It's only the DDR4 RAM that interests me there. probably not worth the extra.
So now it looks like an i5 4460 with 970 and 16GB RAM is the best bet, though the Skylake i5 6600K is 'only' £100 more, but with only 8GB RAM. I don't see much of a boost in speed from the new Intel chip, though. It's only the DDR4 RAM that interests me there. probably not worth the extra.
dav2612 wrote:
I've just read all of this and my verdict is... consoles are definitely for me. I guess being a programmer I should like all this talk of PC innards but I start glazing over.
Oh and one other thing. The bits that this refers to
"Please note how I repeat a certain part of my response just to ensure it's not missed again."
that confused me no end. I thought I was losing the ability to read the next line properly.
As an 'ex programmer' but one who still 'dabbles' I do agree but I did like to know what the programming would do within the selected environment and so I had an interest in gaming hardware ...
As for your 'quote' ... chas was trying to repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat his initial response, which to be honest had been forgotten during this long thread ;¬)
I've just read all of this and my verdict is... consoles are definitely for me. I guess being a programmer I should like all this talk of PC innards but I start glazing over.
Oh and one other thing. The bits that this refers to
"Please note how I repeat a certain part of my response just to ensure it's not missed again."
that confused me no end. I thought I was losing the ability to read the next line properly.
As an 'ex programmer' but one who still 'dabbles' I do agree but I did like to know what the programming would do within the selected environment and so I had an interest in gaming hardware ...
As for your 'quote' ... chas was trying to repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat his initial response, which to be honest had been forgotten during this long thread ;¬)
I've just read all of this and my verdict is... consoles are definitely for me. I guess being a programmer I should like all this talk of PC innards but I start glazing over.
Oh and one other thing. The bits that this refers to
"Please note how I repeat a certain part of my response just to ensure it's not missed again."
that confused me no end. I thought I was losing the ability to read the next line properly.
Oh and one other thing. The bits that this refers to
"Please note how I repeat a certain part of my response just to ensure it's not missed again."
that confused me no end. I thought I was losing the ability to read the next line properly.
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