Gaming computer, issues + advice.

[geoffreym]

I am thinking about getting this, http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoostorm-Intel-i7-4770-3-4GHz-Windows/dp/B00I5K4YE0/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1410280733&sr=1-4&keywords=I7, immediate replacement on the graphics card (cheap recommendations if at all possible).

Games I want to be able to play:

Planetary annihilation

Space engineers

Sins of a solar empire

Sword of the stars 2

Civ 5

Wargame red dragon

[ak2m4]

Almost half the price is eaten up by the CPU alone, personally unless I was doing a lot of number crunching I would opt for a cheaper CPU and go for a SSD main drive with a 2TB secondary. 16GB again is only needed if doing large workloads. No mention of motherboard or HD brand, guessing lower end (not a massive problem) but good to know what you're buying. Windows 8, less said about that the better :-)

[Mack]

You would also need a new PSU if your putting a chunkier GPU in, Will need some cooling fans too and possibly a better case for better airflow

[Moose87]

i agree, the motherboard can have a large effect on upgrading, generally people who make an sell computers online put cheap motherboards in. only has a 250w power supply which i dont think is gonna be good enough, you want prob about 500w if your making a half decent gaming pc.

in your price range

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshtech-Gigabyte-Motherboard-Performance-Barracuda/dp/B00IOQVBWI/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0PWWJ8A7M09GZSBDP7RH

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshtech-Computer-Motherboard-Performance-Barracuda/dp/B00IOR14WY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SVK5X7G4SZ5J4E1CPV9

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Powerful-gaming-Speed-4718u-Core/dp/B00B5CTTJA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_8?ie=UTF8&refRID=1MF121TG9TDDV1S3VMHA#productDetails

http://www.amazon.co.uk/High-End-Gaming-Speed-A25892uH-Windows/dp/B00FEF5WFY/ref=sr_1_43?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1410283724&sr=1-43&keywords=gaming+pc#productDetails

 

all better then your original i would say. if you have the money and wanna spend it then its yours. i would say search the kind of graphics card you want, i recommend Geforce as i dont get on with Radeon.

[Airsoft_Mr B]

In my experience, you really want a good gaming PC you should be prepared to built it tbh.

I spent ~ £900 on mine, including OS / monitor etc (which will have been about £250 IIRC)

Some of the specs - i5 3570K, HIS Ice 7850 GPU and Gigabyte motherboard (can't remember the model though)

[geoffreym]

I must admit that this looks pretty good http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freshtech-Computer-Motherboard-Performance-Barracuda/dp/B00IOR14WY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_computers_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1SVK5X7G4SZ5J4E1CPV9, basically I'm aiming for a start up and go computer capable of playing the aforementioned games, a bit of word processing, maybe a bit of graphic/video design.

Installing the operating system will be a b**** but I'm sure I've got a set of windows 7 somewhere.

[BBrotherwood]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WQxr59KRto

Watch this guide, realise how easy it is and then use his list of parts to build your own, modifying it to suite your needs (and save yourself a bit of money). From what he recommends I would recommend on also picking up an SSD as well to install your OS on. The graphics card he recommends has very good performance for the money but a 280x is not that much more either. The FX6300 is a solid processer which will handle anything you throw at it and does not cost a bomb. Performance wise it is comparable with the older Sandy Bridge I5s.

Just my two scents but it will be far more satisfying and cost effective then buying pre-built.

[AK47frizzle]

In my experience, you really want a good gaming PC you should be prepared to built it tbh.

I spent ~ £900 on mine, including OS / monitor etc (which will have been about £250 IIRC)

Some of the specs - i5 3570K, HIS Ice 7850 GPU and Gigabyte motherboard (can't remember the model though)

EEhhemmm, *cough* Pir..... *BLURGH* ...ate*SPLUR*...the..*UhhuHYBURGghh*.. OS..*ArGhHhHh!*

[cropzy]

No.

[geoffreym]

Bought myself an i7, liquid cooler, both a hdd and an sdd, graphics card and everything (deliberately being vague as everything is already bought) put it together and it worked brilliantly, blink and it had booted.

Plugged it in to the internet to start loading norton and steam etc, but even before I could start up norton I had a dozen pop-ups and the first quick scan brought up 25 Trojans, I hadn't even been able to browse anything.

Anybody else have crap like this happen?

[jcheeseright]

Nope... silly question; The copy of windows you've installed, is it legit?

[geoffreym]

Nope... silly question; The copy of windows you've installed, is it legit?

Yep it is, formatted everything and started afresh, works perfectly, must have just gotten unlucky first time.

[Lozart]

Norton? *sucks through teeth* well...THERE'S your problem.

 

 

 

 

Seriously though, Norton is a massive resource hog that works little to no better than the free antivirus packages out there. Some companies actually class it as malware because it's so difficult to get rid of.

[ak2m4]

Are you sure they are trojans? Could be false positives. And Norton does suck eggs. Personally I don't run any Virus Scanner, just give my machine a scan once a month with something free, Malwarebytes etc

[team flex]

So, when I had a virus, I booted it into safe mode, and then got malwarebytes to deal with it all. I used to like norton a lot, until it would randomly delete "dangerous files", not let me download very important things!!! and now it won't even go away, ever hour a stupid ad pops up. Malware bytes is seriously good, it said the trial ran out for me, but that was like a year ago and I still have it. I also use comodo firewall, quite complicated but seems to be good...

[Lozart]

Microsoft security essentials works absolutely fine for me. Ditto Windows firewall. It's as much about being careful where you point your browser and not opening blind links in unsolicited email.