Mid-range - Gaming PC

[Stu]

Hi All,

a mate of mine is looking to get back into Gaming and thus requires a PC to do so.

Being cost sensitive is also a key factor.

Looking at a build up PC that falls in the mid-range so +/- 2 to 3 years shelf life.

What would the uber techies of our glorious clan suggest?

[RussianElite.]

Hey Stubagszor, I recommend you give the budget amount to get a better picture?

[BadA$$jack]

Hi All,

a mate of mine is looking to get back into Gaming and thus requires a PC to do so.

Being cost sensitive is also a key factor.

Looking at a build up PC that falls in the mid-range so +/- 2 to 3 years shelf life.

What would the uber techies of our glorious clan suggest?

Stu, I'm going to upgrade my current pc soon and looking for a buyer of my old machine, CPU, GPU, RAM and Motherboard.

[Stu]

Price range between ZAR 5000.00 spaced over 5 months, only hardware required all else is provided.

[NoMaD]

sho, from my experience, the shelf life is determined by the graphics card, and one that will last 3 years will generally cost you 4k... I was lucky with my pc in the sense that i only needed to relace my cpu, mobo and ram... which cost 4,2k... if i had had to buy a new gfx card it would have gone to 9k... in my honest opinion you would be looking at a 9k budget for a midrange gaming pc... 5k you will be looking at low budget that wouldnt last long... just my 2c

[pmurgs]

Price range between ZAR 5000.00 spaced over 5 months, only hardware required all else is provided.

Thats an entry level pc, no where near midrange. Will only play current games on lower settings, future games it will struggle with.

For R5000, you would be better off buying second hand stuff from the carbonite forums than new.

[RussianElite.]

^^ This though there are 7870 AMD Cards (awesome card btw) going for in the 3K right now. You could probably if your luck get away with 7.5K for a decent Mid range PC

[Hubris]

Yup, I'm afraid the upper scale of high end PC is REALLY high. So mid range is really around 10k depending on what and where you put the cost emphasis. In my experience, you can get away with a crappy monitor, keyboard, mouse, case and sound options pretty easily. What you really need is a) a solid PSU, mobo, ram, cpu combo ; b) a good GPU and c) the fancy peripherals when you can afford them.

It depends what he intends to play though, but if it's online multiplayer anything you really can't get good performance on anything less than 10k and that's just barely meeting the 2-3 year shelf life. My advice is take a long term view on it, see what you can scrounge from your old PC, friends or the second hand market. If you can get the core right you can up the performance as it is affordable and necessary for eye sex.

[Stu]

Seem's I've been out of touch for quite some time! Well I've discussed and I'll assist my mate were necessary, might look at second hand MB components and save the big spend on the GPU! seems that his is one of the more important factors in a mid range build. Will keep you all posted and asking more questions as we go along.

thanks for the suggestions all! keep em coming

[Stu]

Mobo - Idea

MSI Z77A-G43 LGA 1155 ATX Intel Z77 Desktop Motherboard

http://www.wootware.co.za/msi-z77a-g...therboard.html