Buying a Gaming PC (one for all voucher)

neilryan68

Hi guys,

I have a fairly big one for all voucher I would like to put towards a gaming PC. The only retailers on the approved list that seem to be useful are Currys/PC World. Their online listings are over-priced compared to a self-build (which I haven't done) or UK counterparts. That said, this is the only way I will do it without feeling guilty about spending the money otherwise and there isn't anything else I want to spend the voucher on.

I'd love an Nvidia 960 based machine. Something fairly cool but powerful. Any help and advice is appreciated. Can't include url, but one machine in this ball park is just over 1,000

Pricey for not including a monitor etc.! Not sure if there is a particular one of the stores I should go to. If anyone has been in a similar situation let me know.

Digital Solitude

That's very, very pricey. Any hope of selling the voucher to someone else for some cash?

Short of that there's really nothing can be done, you should be looking for an i3 or i5 from there, with either a 950, 960, 270X or 380

neilryan68

Figured as much! These seem to be the best specs I can squeeze out of circa 1,000 (without a monitor too...)

PC SPECIALIST Vortex Marauder Gaming PC
Intel® Core™ i5-4460 Processor
(lists 16GB ram at the top and 8 GB in the fine print?!)
GTX 960
1 TB HDD, 7200 rpm
Mobo: ASUS H81M-PLUS
DVD/RW
Corsair VS450, 450 W

Not sure if I can find a buyer for the voucher. If there was a Dublin-based PC builder that's interested in some kind of exchange that would be great!

No idea what the cooling is like besides in-built case stuff. Would like better than a stock CPU cooler but could try to sort that afterwards.

No idea if I can knock a better price out of them with a monitor bundle deal or something...

Digital Solitude

There's nothing wrong with the Intel stock cooler.

To build, that'd be about €650 or so, maybe pushing €700 so your call on if its worth.

It isn't a bad PC, I was pushing a similar for a good while, will play the majority of games at Ultra/High settings

I'd add an SSD though

TerrorFirmer

The Maurader seems to be a Skylake i5 with 16GB of ram and a GTX960.

Not criminal for €1K from a retail shop.

neilryan68

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The Maurader seems to be a Skylake i5 with 16GB of ram and a GTX960.

Not criminal for €1K from a retail shop.

Yeah I figured that would be the best model. The tech specs underneath say 8gb with a max of 16 though so need to clear that up.

If I was to get this PC, anyone have recommendations for a monitor? Don't need a giant monitor so is a 21 inch ok? Any particular brand I should be looking at?

Thanks,
Neil.

riclad

Look at the refresh rate ,
has it got dvi in, hdmi in,
2 or 3 connectors .
whats the refresh rate .

http://www.maximumpc.com/refresh-rate-2013/

i think 60mhz is fine for most people .
http://www.scan.co.uk/info/guide/gamingmonitorsguide
i prefer 21 inch screens for pc gaming .