Calling on your expert knowledge! (Because I suck :< )

[Rhythm]

Ok, so I've recently been to hell and back at work due to our exams officer leaving us in the lurch and work 'forcing' me to cover her duties for the past few months until we appoint a new one.

However despite all that something rather nice came out of all of this, they rewarded me with a nice £1000 bonus! Ka-ching! So I thought I would treat myself to a new PC as the rather battered 5 year old one I have has problems even starting up these days...

I've kind of budgeted myself £700-£900 for this new PC, I want a system that I don't have to think about upgrading for at least about 3 years or so if possible. It's been many a moon since I last dipped my toes in the murky world of PC gaming. What I would love more than anything is just some basic advice (I'm not expecting people to list whole specs - although that would be lovely >.>) on the 'basic' things I would need to get in a PC, what I mean by this is...

How many gigs memory are standard these days? 4? 6? 12?

What kind of processor should I be going for? Are I7's the best? Are AMD best for gaming?

Graphics cards? NVidia? AMD? 1gig? 2gig? Crossfire? (whatever the deuce that is!)


It's those kind of things I am not sure about, I don't have the knowledge required to build the machine myself but if I know what kind of things I should be aiming for I can have a good scout around and hopefully not get my pants pulled down over the price.


Many thanks in advance you wonderful people ^.^

 

[Number 6]

What have you already got, mouse, keyboard etc. Or do you want a completely new system?
Do you want an SSD for booting?

8 gigs of RAM will do you fine for pretty much any game on decent settings.

EDIT: Ask these guys, they've helped me before
[link]http://forums.bit-tech.net/forumdisplay.php?f=30[/link]

 

[JochemDude]

I'm no expert on it, but there surely are sites out there that can help you and if you have one in your area you could try a shop that custom builds them for you. They can usually advice you very well on it, just don't buy into everything they tell you and do research.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Build-Gaming-Computer

 

[Flutterguy]

Well I was going to post some reccomendations I just got off futureshop, but seeing as your in the UK I'm sorry I have no idea what a decent computer would be out there, I only spent 400 Dollars here fora comp w/ moniter that was runing WoW on max graphics and still getting 30 FPS. In Canadaa for a very powerful gaming computer that you would not need to upgrayed for easily 4 years or so for any hardware, its about 900-1200.

 

[Rhythm]

What have you already got, mouse, keyboard etc. Or do you want a completely new system?
Do you want an SSD for booting?

8 gigs of RAM will do you fine for pretty much any game on decent settings.

EDIT: Ask these guys, they've helped me before
[link]http://forums.bit-tech.net/forumdisplay.php?f=30[/link]

I'm no expert on it, but there surely are sites out there that can help you and if you have one in your area you could try a shop that custom builds them for you. They can usually advice you very well on it, just don't buy into everything they tell you and do research.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Build-Gaming-Computer

Thank you kindly for the guys I'll check them out.

My apologies Number 6 I should have pointed that out. I have a fairly decent widescreen monitor already and keyboard and mouse I already have. It's just the main base unit I am after. And I have no idea what an SSD is I am afraid >.<

 

[Shymer]

I've always used Arbico [http://www.arbico.co.uk/] in the UK to build my PC for me. However I've always looked at the articles on building your own system in PC Gamer magazine and the additional cost-power you can get from doing so does appeal. You might want to look up some of these articles, as they have a clearly articulated reasoning behind why they pick certain processors, graphic cards, how much RAM, storage options etc.

 

[Griffolion]

How many gigs memory are standard these days? 4? 6? 12?

What kind of processor should I be going for? Are I7's the best? Are AMD best for gaming?

Graphics cards? NVidia? AMD? 1gig? 2gig? Crossfire? (whatever the deuce that is!)


It's those kind of things I am not sure about, I don't have the knowledge required to build the machine myself but if I know what kind of things I should be aiming for I can have a good scout around and hopefully not get my pants pulled down over the price.


Many thanks in advance you wonderful people ^.^

4 is the minimum, 8 is the new recommended.

Intel I5 2500K, you don't need an I7 since games tend not to take advantage of more than 3 threads.

Depends on your monitor resolution. At 1080, you'll be looking at a 6950 or a 570. At 1600, a 6970 or a 580. If you're doing multi-monitor, you'll be looking at 6970 crossfire or 580 SLI.

BTW Crossfire and SLI are AMD's and Nvidia's (respectively) technology to link two graphics cards together so as to boost graphics performance.

If you want more personal advice, PM me and we can go through parts. I tend to be on the Homebuilt section of the Toms Hardware forums too if you go over there. People tend to be far more qualified to talk on there than here at the Escapist.

I've always used Arbico [http://www.arbico.co.uk/] in the UK to build my PC for me. However I've always looked at the articles on building your own system in PC Gamer magazine and the additional cost-power you can get from doing so does appeal. You might want to look up some of these articles, as they have a clearly articulated reasoning behind why they pick certain processors, graphic cards, how much RAM, storage options etc.

http://www.scan.co.uk is the best to use in the UK.