Worth it?

[Erelyes]

+1 for computerlounge.co.nz

I have found them best for most parts tbh, especially graphics cards, and their 'combo deal' on mobo/cpu/RAM.

www.playtech.co.nz can also be good - graphics cards and monitors.

Ascent are great for little things like coolers and fans.

Won't comment on the setups other than to suggest Intel and Nvidia, but that's just me being a totally justified fanboy

[Indiana_Jones]

Yea I'm leaning towards Computer Lounge, I only hear good things about them.

Also leaning towards Intel as that's what I have in my current rig and has served me well for 6+ years

Was thinking of trying to figure out what was wrong with my old box, but it's getting on now and think it's time for an upgrade.

-Indy

[bogan]

Yea I'm leaning towards Computer Lounge, I only hear good things about them.

Also leaning towards Intel as that's what I have in my current rig and has served me well for 6+ years

Was thinking of trying to figure out what was wrong with my old box, but it's getting on now and think it's time for an upgrade.

-Indy

AlphaCity and Ascent also good places.

Brands I'd recomend Intel, Asus, Cooler Master, Corsair

Silent style cases are worth the extra too imo.

[\m/]

+1 for AlphaCity. Got my build for about $1600 June last year. AMD FX-8150, Corsair 8GB 1866mhz, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, Gigabyte 7870OC, Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, LG Blu-Ray drive in a CM Centurion 5 II. Already had an SSD in my PS3 so used that. Good enough to max out most games I play except for Crysis 3 which I can only run on high.

[SMOKEU]

So it is, that all happened pretty under the radar, I'm guessing not a huge performance improvement over ivy bridge then?

Haven't read up on it at all. Ivy Bridge was just fine, had a sweet motherboard choice for good quality builds.

But hey, lets just change things coz we can

Haswell is only about 5-10% faster than IB, and 10-20% faster than SB clock for clock. However, Haswell clocks much lower than SB and IB partially due to some fucking retarded engineering which partially negates the clock for clock improvements. The heatspreader uses thermal paste to contact the die, not solder like in SB and previous Intel chips. There's a thick layer of adhesive between the heatspreader and the PCB, meaning that Haswell runs excessively hot. The VRM is on the CPU now too on Haswell.

The only way to get good temperatures on Haswell is to either use a good custom water loop, or delid if going with air. It's common to get temperature drops of between 10°-20°C after delidding. It's been 2.5 years since SB, and the performance increase is only around 10%.

[Grasshopperus]

Don't buy anything with an entry-level GPU. That cellotech link has an nvidia 630 which is rubbish. The builtin GPU on the CPU is about the same power so it's a waste of $100 or so.

If you're going to buy a gaming system then prioritise your spending on GPU then monitor, in that order. The bigger the monitor (in terms of screen resolution) the better but you need a better GPU to run it smoothly.

Spending good money on a monitor is actually the best investment you can make for a computer, it's the part that you will spend most time using and unlike RAM, CPU or hard disks, it's the part you'll always appreciate no matter what you're doing on the PC. I'm still using a 2004 Dell 1920x1200 24" monitor. It's still a helluva lot better than those bang-for-your-buck 1080p 22" jobs that you see most people using.

Here's the new version of what I've got http://www.playtech.co.nz/afawcs0139...ctdetails.html

Here's what I'd get if I was having to buy something new http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/p...287&redirect=1 (27" @ 2560 x 1440)

[bogan]

Here's what I'd get if I was having to buy something new http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/p...287&redirect=1 (27" @ 2560 x 1440)

Got a similar one from ebay, shimian for half the price, there's a small kind of watermark along the RHS I noticed after about 4 months use when the screen was displaying a certain uniform color, but other than that I can't see it, and has been great. But yeh, high res is fairly demanding on the GPU.

[SMOKEU]

+1 to 1440p monitor. 1080p is for phones and cheap TVs.

[Indiana_Jones]

Bugger, I see computer lounge don't the the upgrade box anymore *doh*

Pay day is coming up:

http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/comp...p?partid=20116

-Indy

[Indiana_Jones]

Update, new PC ordered and on the way.

Cheers for the advice everyone

-Indy

[SMOKEU]

Update, new PC ordered and on the way.

Cheers for the advice everyone

-Indy

Have fun, and post up your overclock results!

[Indiana_Jones]

lol na, no overclocking for me. I just wanna stick games in and play.

-Indy

[SMOKEU]

lol na, no overclocking for me. I just wanna stick games in and play.

-Indy

Then why buy a K series chip and an overclocking motherboard? That's a lot of money wasted right there if you're not overclocking.

It's like buying a GSXR1000 and then never riding it past 100kmh.

[BuzzardNZ]

lol na, no overclocking for me. I just wanna stick games in and play.

-Indy

Should get a PS4 then.

[Indiana_Jones]

Then why buy a K series chip and an overclocking motherboard? That's a lot of money wasted right there if you're not overclocking.

It's like buying a GSXR1000 and then never riding it past 100kmh.

I didn't buy a K series chip or overclocking board

Got a i5 4570 cpu and a Z87-C Asus M-board, along with a new case, psu, hd...

Should get a PS4 then.

Yeah.....but I wanna play Total War and Red Orchestra 2.

-Indy