Advice on upcoming gaming system purchase.

[cactusjack]

My next question refers to warranty.

What does the 2 Years Scan Extended System Warranty cover you for - When customising the system, when I click on the link for more info, it goes to HTTP 404 - File not found.

Thanks.

[drharvey12]

With the above in mind, I am looking at gaming systems. My budget is approx £1300, and I would want the system to last me approx 3 years before I consider buying another. I would be looking for the system to play games at mid to high level settings – I am not an enthusiast and I don’t look for perfection with graphics or frame rates – just smooth play in general.

Hey cactus.

System looks good to me.

I'd probably go with the 670 myself in your position too.

My only word of warning with regards to the lasting 3 years is that with the next gen consoles due out in 2013 it's possible there could be a pretty large leap in what will be required to run the same / similar games on PC's. PC's being far more inefficient in gaming than their console counterparts as consoles can be programmed "direct to metal" which allows games developers to program directly to the graphics processors and skip software that PC's require to unify the different architectures we run games on.

I'm certainly not saying hold off buying now - I'm thinking of doing an upgrade myself. Just may be worth bearing in mind that a lot of the games that have come out recently have all been held back technically because of 6 - 7 year old console hardware. If the next gen consoles come even close to a current PC specs then we could all be looking at a significant jump in the quality of games being produced. On one hand this is great news for PC gamers who have had to put up with a lot of low res textures and effects in current games. On the other it might necessitate another hardware upgrade down the line.

The only other thing I should mentio is it was announced that anybody buying a PC with Win 7 HP should be eligible for a cheap upgrade to Win 8 when it is released. In the US it seems to be PC's purchased after 2nd June will be able to upgrade for $14.99.

Not too sure about the UK but apparently an offer will be rolled out to all countries so it would be worth checking before purchase

[Edit: My Scan sytem warranty came with 2 years parts and labour. The first year was onsite - ie an engineer would come out to your house. The second year is back to base - returned to their headquartes in Bolton, I think.]

[cactusjack]

Thanks for the reply drharvey - some very informative points that I had not thought of!
The next gen consoles point is very interesting...

I have tried to do some reading - seems only rumours around at the moment, but this is interesting: an article talking about next gen consoles using old Graphics cards?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...raphics-cards/

[kalniel]

I have tried to do some reading - seems only rumours around at the moment, but this is interesting: an article talking about next gen consoles using old Graphics cards?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...raphics-cards/

Compared to PC cards that's certainly true, but drharvey12 made the very good point that one specification systems like consoles can be optimised for because you don't need to go through as much 'one-size fits all' compromises or middleware/APIs. That means games can get much more out of the less powerful graphics technology if it's present in a console than they could if its in a PC.

[drharvey12]

Hi Cactusjack,

Yeah, I have heard that the specs on the new consoles are not supposed to be too powerful compared to today's systems.

Epic who have created the new Unreal 4 engine that a whole heap of games will use are apparently lobbying Sony & Microsoft to put better hardware in their new consoles:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...n-game-screens

As kalniel has confimed though, programming on consoles allow for much better optimisation and so can do a lot more with less power than a PC. A PC basically has to brute force graphics to get them looking good. There is an issue with Vram limitations in games consoles which has dragged down in-game textures for PC users too due to sloppy ports for the past few years

If nothing else I'm hoping the new consoles have at least 2gb of fast Vram which should improve things for us PC users immensely

Anyway, back on topic getting a 670 and having a PSU, case...etc to put another in at a futue date would be a good way of future proofing your system for when the new consoles come out. I'm reasonably certain that 2 670's will be fine for anything in the next 2 years or so if you're gaming at 1920x1080. Really only 1 is required at the moment and hopefully they will come down in price next year once the next gen Nvidia cards come out.

[Edit: Just noticed that you might not be overclocking your system. That should be fine for a single 670 but you might need to get your processor to around 4ghz if you plan on running 2 at a later date. Overclocking is generally considered pretty safe if done properly and with adequate cooling. I'd certainly consider letting SCAN do it for you. Admittedly I am running a watercooling setup but I have a rather toasty Intel 980X hex core chip. It's running at 4.2ghz from the stock of 3.33ghz. Considering it very rarely seems to go above 40C and is generally mid to high 30's I have been very happy with mine. I've also had no problems with stability in any games (of which I play a lot!).]

[cactusjack]

Hi Cactusjack,

[Edit: Just noticed that you might not be overclocking your system. That should be fine for a single 670 but you might need to get your processor to around 4ghz if you plan on running 2 at a later date. Overclocking is generally considered pretty safe if done properly and with adequate cooling. I'd certainly consider letting SCAN do it for you. Admittedly I am running a watercooling setup but I have a rather toasty Intel 980X hex core chip. It's running at 4.2ghz from the stock of 3.33ghz. Considering it very rarely seems to go above 40C and is generally mid to high 30's I have been very happy with mine. I've also had no problems with stability in any games (of which I play a lot!).]

Thanks for the reply Drharvey12. Indeed, I won't be going for overclocking. It seems safe, but I won't be taking the risk :-)

Another question: I am now pondering the 4GB 670 vs the 2GB 670. After doing some reading, I see that 4GB is overkill now, but may be required in a couple of years. Would you say 2GB will still be fine for games in 2 years time?

[drharvey12]

A 4GB 670 would be useful if you are playing at resolutions of 2560x1600 or above. It's really more for multiple monitor setup resolutions of 5760x1600 with lots of AA.

It may also be useful for heavily modified versions of Skyrim / New Vegas where a LOT of texture mods can mean that a 2GB card runs out of Vram whilst loading all the necessary texture information. One of the reasons I'm thinking of upgrading at present is because I'm memory limited with the 1.5GB of Vram in my GTX480's when playing my modded version of Skyrim. I'm hoping a 2GB card will be ok though or I'll have to tone down the number of mods I use.

I think it is safe to assume that 4GB cards may be needed at some point in the future but I would still stick with a 2GB version personally for now. I'd probably want a faster card when 4GB becomes mandatory anyway. I'm certainly not at that stage yet and I would assume you aren't either unless either of the above 2 exceptions apply to you

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 4GB cards don't seem to produce much higher framerates AFAIK,and I suspect bandwidth is more important in the case of the GK104.

[cactusjack]

Thanks drharvey12 and Cat-the-fifth.
I will buy Skyrim once I get the PC - but probably won't be into heavy modding.

Looks like thats the Scan PC sorted then.
Now I am looking into a good monitor to go with it.

The criteria I am considering are:
-24 inch,
- height adjustable
- LED (I read that LED is better for your eyes than LCD - and health of my eyes is a primary concern for me)
- 2ms (which I hear is ideal for gaming and to avoid ghosting)
- Approx £150 - £200 budget

Do you know much about good quality monitors? - primary concern is health of my eyes given that I play games and spend long hours working too.

[drharvey12]

I'm not really up on monitors I'm afraid

I have a mate who bought this one though and was very happy with it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Ultrash...8722804&sr=8-1

It has an IPS panel which is supposedly the type to get. It has a response time of 8ms though. He does play quite a few games on it but mostly RTS and RPG that probably would demonstrate less ghosting than say a fast moving driving game.

I would think that any other advice you get for monitors is likely to be better than I can give you though!

[Edit: Just noticed it's a 16:10 @ 1920x1200 as opposed to the slightly more common 16:9 @ 1920x1080. If anything it should give a better picture because of this although a very few games (Bulletstorm for one) seem to prefer standard widescreen resolutions. My friend hasn't told me of any issues with the exception of Bulletstorm though and even that was fixed with a workaround].

[NumbuK]

Hello,
I'd like to thank everyone in this thread, I'm in a very similar position to Cactus (also from the UK). After reading through this thread I've learned so much. I'm looking for a high end gaming machine, under a similar budget. I however don't have such good knowlege when it comes to computers and components etc. I also looked into AlienWare, but for better specs that are overclocked you seem to be able to get a lot more bang for your buck at Scan.

I would love to be able to capture video games on my PC and sometimes on my Xbox 360, to share with my friends on YouTube (HD PVR HDMI or capture card???). Play high end games such as Mass Effect, Skyrim and maybe Battlefield. I would love to learn how to edit videos (not sure what software I'd require or spec), Photoshop and online game streaming via Twitch.tv.. Would this machine be suffient for that or would I need something more beefy? I really don't mind paying more money for a better machine. The last thing I want is to pay out £1300 to only be disappointed, and not be able to do everything I want to do.

I don't mean to hijack your thread Cactus, but I didn't want to make a new one like everybody else does and clog up the forum. I hope you don't mind.

[cactusjack]

No worries at all NumbuK - I am curious to see what answers are provided to your question. Since it also could apply to me too at some point.

[NumbuK]

No worries at all NumbuK - I am curious to see what answers are provided to your question. Since it also could apply to me too at some point.

Thank you for been cool about it. I look forward to getting some answers...

[drharvey12]

I'm pretty sure that most people use FRAPS to capture videogame footage on their PC. Not too sure about Xbox 360 though.

http://www.fraps.com/download.php

It's free if you don't mind recording at a slightly lower res and it has a watermark on your videos. You can pay for the full version if this gets annoying though. Fraps also does useful things like including a frame limiter which can help in some games as part of troubleshooting.

Not really into video editing so not too sure about the best programs for that.

[NumbuK]

Ok I see. I'm looking for something that can capture 720p/1080i. I know the Elgato Game Capture HD box can record Xbox 360 to your PC. It also supports HDMI which means I could use it with my Slim Xbox 360 Gears of War Limited edition.

But that means that's I won't have anything to capture my gameplay on the PC. Would a capture card work and are they easy to fit? I see many on amazon, but I haven't got a clue what would fit. I'm assuming the price dictates the quality?

[drharvey12]

Hi Numbuk.

Just seen that FRAPS (full version) will allow you to record at 1920x1080p.

22nd October 2011 - Fraps 3.4.7 Released
The latest version of Fraps includes an update to the loop recording mode, allowing you to specify a custom length for the buffer (rather than the default 30 seconds). To activate the recording loop simply press and hold your video capture hotkey until the Fraps counter turns pink, indicating that loop recording has begun.

We have also included new optimizations for recording at high resolutions such as 1920x1080 (1080P). Performance gains should be seen in most OpenGL and DirectX games with Fraps 3.4.

This would definitely be what I would try first before getting a capture card which I imagine is going to be more expensive. The full version of FRAPS is £24.95 but you can try the free version first. I think the amount of time you can record on the free version is rather limited though.

If you haven't already I'd maybe post a topic about video capture hardware in the Hexus PC hardware forums as more people tend to view those forums and you're more likely to get specific (and knowlegeable) advice