Gaming PC upgrade

[Daragon]

So I'm feeling it's time for a new rig after 2 years with my current one and after recently discovering Nvidia's Titan X card it looks to be quite a big hitter in terms of VRam which should future proof me very nicely. I've decided to budget for ?2,000 and so far, this rig from PCSpecialist http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/view/Titan-X-MINI/ appears to fit the bill, but I'm wondering if I could get more for the money or pretty much the same build elsewhere for less money. I don't currently have a 4k monitor, but I would like a rig that could accomodate one happily in the future.

I'm not great at building my own rigs so I'd want a pre-built one so I have the peace of mind with a warranty as well.

Any recommendations from people more in the know than myself?

[eastyy]

what rig do you have at the moment ?

[Daragon]

i5 3330 3.00ghz processor, 6GB of ram, radeon HD 7800-ish graphics card with 1024 mb of V-ram. Those are the core stats, seems to handle games up until the last 2 years reasonably well, but I would like to start maxing out my settings and getting more than 30 fps.

[eastyy]

ahh was thinking if you had a reasonably modern motherboard may be able to just upgrade the processor and the graphics card on there own would save you a few quid

[Daragon]

Ideally I'm after some opinions on that build and whether it's worth the best part of 2k or not. The processor could bottleneck it, my only minor concern. I've compared it to other builds on the likes of dinopc and ocuk and it seems ok but I'm no expert.

[Brad]

Well, a quick bit of maths shows they are charging about ?420 to put it together for you but if you don't want to do it yourself and don't have anhyone that can do it for you then I guess you have no option.

All seems like pretty good kit. Did you particularly want a mini ITX form factor? That motherboard is about ?180 worth. Seems excessive. A normal sized Z97 m/board from Asus is ?70.

Bottom line IMO is that it's Ok I guess. There's almost ?900 of GPU in there so it's gonna be expensive nomatter what. Personally I wouldn't pay that much money for that spec but then I'd never spend ?900 on a gpu either and I'd build it myself. So, I don't know how useful my comments are except perhaps to show you where the money is going. I'd not be able to get past the fact that that PC without the GPU is ONE THOUSAND POUNDS!!!

[Daragon]

That's just the first one I've looked at. There may well be better machines out there for the same or similar money, but that's the amount I'm setting aside.

Also, I might not be able to build my own rig, but I know people who would do it for me. A pre build is mostly for warranty purposes. Last thing I want is a for a mish mash machine to die on me with no peace of mind I could get it repaired or replace it for minimal (if any) cost.

[Brad]

I understand the logic there. My thoughts are that the PC won't break; one of the components will. When it does either get it replaced and wait while that happens or - what I do - buy a replacement and when the new exchange item eventually arrives sell it as new and sealed. Huge savings that way.

However, if you want to go the pre built route I'm sure there are many on here who would happily spec a machine for you. Get a few and choose!

[Daragon]

Having someone spec one for me within budget is my hope

[eastyy]

i would say though if you have a bit of patience might be best to wait the new Amd graphics cards are due in the next few months which may encourage a price drop for nvidia cards and Intel have there new processors due in october i believe

Two 980's in sli are faster then a titan x and a little bit cheaper but i have no experience with Sli so not sure if there are any issues

[Daragon]

Doesn't really matter when I buy, the next best thing will always be round the corner. The titan appeals because of its vast amount of V ram. Most games out the minute will barely use 50% of it so I imagine for the benefit of several years of future proof, the expense is worth it.

[EvilBoris]

Anybody can build a PC.

If you can plug a USB stick in you can plug a graphics card in.

[Daragon]

Again, a professionally built system as opposed to one myself or perhaps my brother puts together will allow me peace of mind. To me that is worth the few hundred I will save. If I could manage a system with the same or greater specs built myself for half the price I would go fit it.

[Jei]

You still in the NW? If so I'll come over and build a machine you spec for a couple of pints if you want to save a bit.

[EvilBoris]

I'd request payment for having to go near Warrington