New PC required for gaming

Time has taken it's toll and my old computer has vanished with the cavemen. I need a new one that will be great for gaming, I've heard of Alienware being phenomenal, but I've also heard it's overpriced.

I'm not sure if I could build a PC either, let's avoid that. If you could link me to a good PC i'd be thankful. My limit is £2000.

[caveman26]

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 SOCKET AM3 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE) - BLACK EDITION

Memory (RAM)
8GB CORSAIR XMS2 DUAL-DDR2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY

Motherboard
ASUS® M4N72-E: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, 2 x PCI-Ex, 2 x PCI

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
150GB WD VelociRaptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
22x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX285 PCI EXPRESS

2nd Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX285 PCI EXPRESS

3rd Graphics Card
was one here but board only uses 2
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK FUSION CASE inc. 2 FRONT USB

Power Supply & Case Cooling
1010W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£109)

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)

Firewire & Video Editing
NONE

TV Card
NONE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

Anti-Virus
MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS - Free Basic Protection

Office Software
FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2007 Professional Edition

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days

Quantity
1



Other Features Included As Standard...

Software
CD/DVD/BLURAY viewing & authoring software is included with all DVD Writers/BD Drives.

Ports
Each computer comes with 1 x PS/2 keyboard port and either 1 x PS/2 mouse port or 2 extra USB ports.

Fans
Where necessary your computer will come with extra case fans fitted.

Memory
Our memory comes with a 100% tested lifetime warranty!

Bezels
All our drives come in either silver, black or beige and are all of a
high quality & matched brand.

Support
We offer lifetime hardware technical support during normal office hours.

Cables & Manuals
A power cable, all drivers, manuals, and a heatsink & fan are included with every order.

Service
Our computers come fully assembled & thoroughly tested. We are so confident in the quality of our computers that we offer a free collection and re-delivery service* should you ever have a problem with your computer.

Installation
If you order an operating system it will come fully installed with the CD and licence key.

Low Total Cost of Ownership
Taking into consideration our low cost telephone support, free collection warranty service* and our strive to use energy efficient components where possible, the total cost of owning a pcspecialist computer is reduced as much as possible.


£1436.60 ex VAT.


£1688 inc VAT and Delivery.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk


Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Processor i7-870 (2.93GHz) 8MB Cache + HyperThreading

Free Item
FREE Assassin's Creed 2 DVD Game (RRP: £34.99) with any Intel® Core™ i3/i5/i7 CPU!

Memory (RAM)
8GB CORSAIR DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY!

Motherboard
ASUS® P7H57D-V EVO: DDR3, 6 x USB 3.0, 2 x PCI, 2 x PCI-Ex 2.0

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
150GB WD VelociRaptor® SATA 16MB CACHE (10,000rpm)

2nd Hard Disk
1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
22x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NONE

Graphics Card
2GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5970 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11

2nd Graphics Card
NONE

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND

Floppy Disk Drive
NONE

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE (£107) **SPECIAL**

Power Supply & Case Cooling
800W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£89)

Processor Cooling
COOLIT DOMINO A.L.C. CPU LIQUID COOLER (£60) **SPECIAL**

Firewire & Video Editing
2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

TV Card
NONE

Monitor
NONE

2nd Monitor
NONE

GeForce 3D Vision
NONE

DVI Cable
NONE

Keyboard & Mouse
NONE

Mouse
NONE

Speakers
NONE

Webcam
NONE

Headsets (VOIP)
NONE

Surge Protection
NONE

Printer
NONE

Anti-Virus
MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS - Free Basic Protection

Office Software
FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2007 Professional Edition

External Hard Drive
NONE

Home Installation
NONE

Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days

Quantity
1



Other Features Included As Standard...

Software
CD/DVD/BLURAY viewing & authoring software is included with all DVD Writers/BD Drives.

Ports
Each computer comes with 1 x PS/2 keyboard port and either 1 x PS/2 mouse port or 2 extra USB ports.

Fans
Where necessary your computer will come with extra case fans fitted.

Memory
Our memory comes with a 100% tested lifetime warranty!

Bezels
All our drives come in either silver, black or beige and are all of a
high quality & matched brand.

Support
We offer lifetime hardware technical support during normal office hours.

Cables & Manuals
A power cable, all drivers, manuals, and a heatsink & fan are included with every order.

Service
Our computers come fully assembled & thoroughly tested. We are so confident in the quality of our computers that we offer a free collection and re-delivery service* should you ever have a problem with your computer.

Installation
If you order an operating system it will come fully installed with the CD and licence key.

Low Total Cost of Ownership
Taking into consideration our low cost telephone support, free collection warranty service* and our strive to use energy efficient components where possible, the total cost of owning a pcspecialist computer is reduced as much as possible.

And Finally
If you are lucky enough to have seen a cheaper quote, click here.



Price for this PC System:

Price for this PC System:

£1672.34 ex VAT.


£1965 inc VAT and Delivery.

[bes]

Nice PC caveman26 posted, should fly through games easily.

The one with the HD5970 of course, but I would put that HD5970 with the AMD computer...since then it would be a dragon platform :-P

[Lister of Smeg]

Dude, check here - http://www.cclonline.com/

CCL Ultimate Gamer System - WaterCooled

CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Quad Core Processor 2.8GHz
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz HDD: 1.64TB SATA II
DVD: BD-ROM AUDIO: 6 Channel Surround
GRAPHICS: Radeon HD 5870 1GB
WARRANTY: 12 Mths RTB
No Operating System

Add a copy of 7 64Bit from - £88.94

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...urer_id=0&tid=

or

CPU: Intel Core i7-960 Processor 3.20GHz
RAM: 6GB DDR3 2000MHz HDD: 1TB SATA II
DVD: BD-ROM AUDIO: Dedicated 7.1 Surround
GRAPHICS: ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB
WARRANTY: 12 Mths RTB
No Operating System

Again, add your own O/S

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...urer_id=0&tid=

@ caveman26

What PSU is in those systems? A Quiet Quad Rail, doesn't mean anything... i expect it to be a decent brand ie Tagan, OCZ, Coolermaster, Seasonic etc.

Great replies, I'm extremely interested in this one.

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...urer_id=0&tid=

[Lister of Smeg]

No worries, here's one I specced up too... you can't want to spend that much without a decent SSD now

http://www.cclonline.com/basket/myba...asp?id=2013671

You can use NCIX.com to pick custom parts and for $50 they will build it for you.

[Freakshow2599]

The only thing with the first computer listed is he chose THREE video cards yet the mobo only has TWO PCI-e slots.

[YahooElite]

lol nice catch.

the OP is apparently from the UK i would imagine from using that currency symbol so any site you guys suggest will have to be UK.

[Kaboom]

It's got three graphics cards that cant run DX 11 and the ram is over kill, 4GB ram is also overkill but would save money for a nextgen graphics card. For that amount of money I would want a top of the range sound card the PCi-E Creative X-FI cards are the only cards that can do hardware Open Al and EAX 3D under Windows 7 or Vista.

If you want it really decent build it the ready made computers tend to be over kill in RAm to make it look good but they lack great gaming features like sound cards. if I had to buy a ready made computer it would be from Alienware or Scan Computers at Scan you can choose what you want and they build it IF you want to buy the parts seperate and build it Scan computers are the cheapest in the UK.

[Atranox]

Memory (RAM)
8GB CORSAIR XMS2 DUAL-DDR2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY

Motherboard
ASUS® M4N72-E: DUAL DDR2, S-ATA II, 2 x PCI-Ex, 2 x PCI

Why DDR2 and AM2+?

[Lister of Smeg]

Originally Posted by Kaboom

It's got three graphics cards that cant run DX 11 and the ram is over kill, 4GB ram is also overkill but would save money for a nextgen graphics card. For that amount of money I would want a top of the range sound card the PCi-E Creative X-FI cards are the only cards that can do hardware Open Al and EAX 3D under Windows 7 or Vista.

If you want it really decent build it the ready made computers tend to be over kill in RAm to make it look good but they lack great gaming features like sound cards. if I had to buy a ready made computer it would be from Alienware or Scan Computers at Scan you can choose what you want and they build it IF you want to buy the parts seperate and build it Scan computers are the cheapest in the UK.

I wouldn't say 4GB of RAM is overkill not nowadays, most games need about 4GB of RAM to function properly, plus RAM is not only used in gaming, what about people using Photoshop, some even use upto 12GB lol

I beg to differ, most modern mobo's these days have on-board HD 5.1 or 7.1 sound which defeats the object of buying a dedicated sound card, unless you need extra SPDif ports etc.

Also, CCL is also a very competitive company for your hardware products... and i believe is cheaper than Scan.

In regards to the bespoke system, i wouldn't touch a Alienware, they'll an absolute waste of money... you can get CCL or another similar company to build you one at half the price you pay.

Also, already built PC's tend to come with cheap materials... and upgrade-ability is limited by the design of their cases, see DELL for example.

[Amun]

Get 4GB of ram or more if you're using windows 7 64bit. I went from 2GB to 4GB and saw a pretty hefty performance gain.

[Atranox]

For that price, you can probably get an i7-930 and a 5970, or 5850/70 Crossfire easily.

A GTX 285 tri-SLI doesn't make much sense to me at all, especially when paired with a Phenom II II 965. Even though the 965 is an excellent gaming processor, there are much better options when you're looking to spend upwards of $1500 or so. There are also superior GPU solutions in terms of value and optimizing a build. Any CPU out there will limit that GPU setup, so the third card is honestly just going to waste. Plus, there's a lot of games that don't support SLI/Crossfire very well, if at all, so you're putting a lot of money towards something that you may not be fully utilizing at times.

I would probably go for a 1366 i7, a 5970, and 6GB of DDR3 1600 RAM. Once you figure out the price, start upgrading/downgrading components and selecting your PSU, case, motherboard, etc.

[Kaboom]

Onboard sound chips are licenced to only run EAX 2 and microsoft wrote out support for eax in vista and windows 7. Surround sound is not the same thing as Open Al or EAX. Creative X-fi can run EAX 5 on full 128 channel sound under vista or win 7 also Open Al runs on the card instead of on the CPU. The sound card also does what the CPU would normally do for onboard sound. 4GB is more than you need I run games on full with just 3GB of ram I would advise 4GB of ram for an AMD system but 3Gb for a core i7 system as it tripple channel motherboard so it performs better with three sticks of ram. No point putting 8GB of ram in when games wont use that amount the money can be spent on a sound card or better graphics card.

Only get one graphics card a mid range card can run most games on full at good performance. More than one card requires a more expensive motherboard and a more expensive power supply unit and you will have to throw two cards away when you want the next gen card.

Lister Smeg your right about the PC cases they use crap tiny cases and also cheap power supply units so you have to spend loads of money later upgrading your plastic box to take the next graphics card.