Looking to buy a new comp, need some help.

Forums › Desktop computing › Looking to buy a new comp, need some help.

bigdog

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#103537 9-Jun-2012 21:23

hi, registered here in the hopes that people can help.

i don't know a huge amount about computer hardware, i'm currently running a computer i bought in 2007 and i'm looking to get something new, primarily to play games (mostly strategy, total war, company of heroes 2, x-com etc) and maybe a little bit of photoshop.

i don't think i'm going to require anything super-powerful but i'm told that i should prob be looking at an i5 processor, i'd like 8ish gb of ram and a 1tb hdd.

i don't know enough about video cards to have any idea what i need - i've been reading up but going from almost zero knowledge to trying to decide which to buy is slightly daunting.

so.

i've been messing around on ascent and this is what i have:

looking at spending as little as possible, i can prob stretch my budget to $1500 but ideally i'd keep it as close to $1k as possible. that one above (assuming the parts are compatible) comes out at $1240 incl windows.

bigdog

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#638345 9-Jun-2012 21:27

alternatively, looked at this (appealing because then i don't have to learn how to build a computer).

http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=WKSPB1466&name=PB-1466-Intel-Ivy-Bridge-Core-i5-3450-Quad-Core-3.

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#638353 9-Jun-2012 21:48

Uh, the I5-3550 is socket 1155, so you'll need an intel socket 1155 board for it..

kyhwana2

2566 posts

Uber Geek

#638354 9-Jun-2012 21:49

That PBtech system would be OK for a midrange gaming box, though.

mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#638361 9-Jun-2012 22:13

bigdog: hi, registered here in the hopes that people can help.

i don't know a huge amount about computer hardware, i'm currently running a computer i bought in 2007 and i'm looking to get something new, primarily to play games (mostly strategy, total war, company of heroes 2, x-com etc) and maybe a little bit of photoshop.

i don't think i'm going to require anything super-powerful but i'm told that i should prob be looking at an i5 processor, i'd like 8ish gb of ram and a 1tb hdd.

i don't know enough about video cards to have any idea what i need - i've been reading up but going from almost zero knowledge to trying to decide which to buy is slightly daunting.

so.

i've been messing around on ascent and this is what i have:

looking at spending as little as possible, i can prob stretch my budget to $1500 but ideally i'd keep it as close to $1k as possible. that one above (assuming the parts are compatible) comes out at $1240 incl windows.

One thing I have found while also looking to build a computer, is that the 2TB drives aren't much more than the 1TB ones. The 1 TB ones seem to be more expensive now than they were 18 months ago when I last built a PC, possibily due to teh thailand floods.
You may also want to look at getting a SSD drive for booting the computer, as well as loading software, as it will load a lot faster with a SSD.
Photoshop eats ram, so you will want to make sure it is upgradable to 16GB in the future.
You may want to look at pricespy for building a PC, as you can save a lot, and get more bang for your buck, and you can actually choose a nice looking case, unlike the ugly cheap things that many prebuild PCs come with.

bigdog

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

#638436 10-Jun-2012 11:01

alright cool, thanks for the replies.