[bello]

Hi guys. So my good mate said he wanted some help building a desktop. He's sick of gaming on a laptop, so i thought id ask the smart people of OCN

The pc is for gaming purely.
He will not be over clocking it ( doesn't know what that even is)
Wants to run games like WOW and LoL quite well,
Preferably 8gb ram
120gb ssd,
And finally his budget is about $1500
So i ask the question, what's the best gaming set-up money can buy for now with those requirements?
thanks guys

 

[MisterFred]

Uh... the budget is quite large for what he wants to do if he only needs a tower. Is he also going to need a monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, windows all that? (If not WHAT IS HIS CURRENT MONITOR RESOLUTION? (caps, because people always ignore that question_

He should know WoW & LoL are some of the easier games to run, so there could be some question as to if he wants to run those games well & that save as much money as possible or spend more on a video card strong enough to run any game well (potentially a one or two hundred dollar question).

Also, presumably he's also down under?

 

[svenge]

I've quickly come up with a decent stock-clocked rig costing ~$1000 USD, which ought to leave you some wiggle room for the "Australia Tax" and other accessories that your buddy may or may not need (since you didn't specify exactly).

CPU: Intel Core i5-3470 (Ivy Bridge Quad-core @ 3.2GHz / 3.6GHz turbo)
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H (SLI & Crossfire capable)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP CML8GX3M2A1600C9 (2x4GB DDR3-1600)
GPU: EVGA GTX 660 02G-P4-2662-KR (w/ 2GB GDDR5 memory)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EZEX (1TB @ 7200RPM)
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 SV300S37A/120G (120GB)
DVD: Lite-On iHAS124 (24x Burner)
PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX500M (500w 80-PLUS Bronze, modular)
CASE: Corsair Carbide Series 200R (ATX mid-tower)

This is just a starting point, there may be models of various components that I missed that may be better suited to your friend's needs and/or less expensive where you are located.

 

[bello]

In reply to Fred. At the moments hes using a macbook pro 15' to game. He'll need a keyboard, monitor (24') and just win 7 oem version.
He wants to know why he shouldn't get a i7 processor. What should i tell him? And yes he is down under with me.

Svenge. I told him that build and he seems to be impresses with it. Im just talking to him to see what he wants more

 

[Cheeseinat0r]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bello

He wants to know why he shouldn't get a i7 processor.

Show him the price of the i7 and then he'll agree with you.

All jokes aside, for this build I would recommend intel as in the games you mentioned intel tends to pull ahead in fps. Also if you can convince him to spend even less money something like an i3 3220 might even be adequate for his needs. This would give you room in the budget for a nice 1080p monitor and maybe even an upgrade to a 7870. Just throwing out some suggestions.

 

[MisterFred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bello

In reply to Fred. At the moments hes using a macbook pro 15' to game. He'll need a keyboard, monitor (24') and just win 7 oem version.
He wants to know why he shouldn't get a i7 processor. What should i tell him? And yes he is down under with me.

Svenge. I told him that build and he seems to be impresses with it. Im just talking to him to see what he wants more

There's exactly one significant difference between an i7 & i5. The i7 has hyperthreading (essentially, four weak simulated extra cores). Otherwise they are identical quad-core CPUs. Games don't make use of hyperthreading. So unless he's doing some hard-core video encoding or rendering 3D models or running proprietary scientific research applications, there's simply no reason to spend the extra $100.

My recommendations:

Asus MX239H monitor - $300 (High end IPS monitor. You can go cheaper.)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=558_1212&products_id=22546

i5-3470 - $190 (very strong processor given you're not overclocking, you have the budget for it)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=187_346_1184&products_id=20894

Gigabyte H77 motherboard - $105 (more expensive than I usually recommend, but full-sized)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=138_1183&products_id=20433

Power Cooler 7950 - $300 (pretty darn high-end. EXTREME overkill for WoW & LoL. Save $150 or so if you don't play more demanding games.)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=193_1311&products_id=21965

2x4gb RAM - $55
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=186_538_913&products_id=18373

Bit Fenix Ghost Case - $120 (pretty luxury, you can save money here if you want)
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25_1171&products_id=21431

Antec Neo Eco 450c - $65
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15_535&products_id=22634

Samsung 840 120gb - $100
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_902_909&products_id=22033

Seagate 1TB HDD - $75
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=210_344&products_id=19747

DVD-burner - $19
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=658_667&products_id=19482

Microsoft Windows 7 - $99
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17003

Total: Roughly $1430

 

[svenge]

I concur with the others advising against the i7. While the hyper-threading of the i7 gives a definable performance increase in certain situations, gaming really isn't one of them. The extra ~$100 required to go from an i5 to an i7 would be better allocated elsewhere where you could get more bang for the buck.