Spec me a PC, bitches.

[Grimmie]

I asked you all before last year, but put off buying things till I had a bit more spare cash.

Here's last year's build: http://www.wishlistr.com/grimpc

And here's a processor Tezz suggested. It looks shiny.
http://www.scan.co.uk/products/intel-co ... x-ratio-77

What do?

[Thompy]

You reeeally don't need an i7, not since 2nd gen, unless you do some serious multimedia editing and rendering.

Last year's build looks fine, just get more recent GPU, motherboard and SSD. Can recommend specifics but that's all I'll say for now because bed.

[Grimmie]

So I need a what, i5 2nd gen?

[deject]

So I need a what, i5 2nd gen?

The i5-3570k is generally considered the best performance/cost for gaming.

[FatherJack]

So I need a what, i5 2nd gen?

The i5-3570k is generally considered the best performance/cost for gaming.

Looks that way, unless you want to pay stupid money for hex-core with questionable benefits, the i7s don't look that much better that the quad i5s these days.

I'm not really sold on SSDs, while they are undoubtedly fast, they are expensive, have tiny capacity compared to spinners, and unless you get DRAM-based (as opposed to Flash-based) ones have a finite (as opposed to an HDD's indefinite) lifespan. The emergence of cheap 'SSDs' which are in fact memory cards housed in a SATA casing would make me much more careful about checking out specific devices.

With a finite lifespan, I'd be leary of using them as anything as critical and as in constant-use as your boot (OS) drive - preferring to have one as a dedicated swap-file drive (128G of fast virtual memory, yes please) or for a few choice games (insta-loading Steam games, ah, go on then). I'd rather wait a bit for booting, but have fast operation or fast game loading.

Supposedly they're more reliable than HDDs these days, but I'd be very careful about checking out the architecture inside one I chose to buy - for an OS drive or a swap-file drive they're going to see a lot of cycles, and if they fail, unlike a regular HDD they tend to fail utterly with full data loss - with a swap-drive that's no biggie, but with your OS that's a bitch.

[deject]

So I need a what, i5 2nd gen?

The i5-3570k is generally considered the best performance/cost for gaming.

I'm not really sold on SSDs, while they are undoubtedly fast, they are expensive, have tiny capacity compared to spinners, and unless you get DRAM-based (as opposed to Flash-based) ones have a finite (as opposed to an HDD's indefinite) lifespan. The emergence of cheap 'SSDs' which are in fact memory cards housed in a SATA casing would make me much more careful about checking out specific devices.

With a finite lifespan, I'd be leary of using them as anything as critical and as in constant-use as your boot (OS) drive - preferring to have one as a dedicated swap-file drive (128G of fast virtual memory, yes please) or for a few choice games (insta-loading Steam games, ah, go on then). I'd rather wait a bit for booting, but have fast operation or fast game loading.

Supposedly they're more reliable than HDDs these days, but I'd be very careful about checking out the architecture inside one I chose to buy - for an OS drive or a swap-file drive they're going to see a lot of cycles, and if they fail, unlike a regular HDD they tend to fail utterly with full data loss - with a swap-drive that's no biggie, but with your OS that's a bitch.

That really isn't a thing anymore. Any SSD you buy today will have a lifespan of at least like 5 or 6 years, and that's assuming a ridiculous level of writing to them (10x write amplification at constant 24/7 usage). The majority of SSDs use MLC NAND that is reliable and much, much faster than the fastest HDD. Characterizing current SSDs as "memory cards housed in a SATA casing" is just not really reasonable. The technology between the NAND in SSDs and memory cards and USB sticks is roughly the same, but they're miles apart in performance and reliability. Also, the controller technology plays a huge role in performance and wear leveling.

There were definitely some USB flash drive performance level SSDs put out, but those were mostly back in the infancy of SSDs, and at that mostly put into shitty netbooks and other low cost computers. The cost of SSDs has been dropping like crazy and the performance keeps on getting better at the low end. Right now, you can get 128GB and 256GB SSDs that get real world performance of 250-400 MB/s random read and write speeds for under $1/GB. If you have some extra money and want really fast storage, it's a no brainer at this point. A couple years ago the cost wasn't worth it, but now I'd almost say you'd be crazy not to.

Now, there are some caveats with SSDs. Larger capacity drives are generally faster and have a longer lifespans. I recommend buying no less than a 128GB drive, and really if you can afford it at all, 256GB or higher is ideal. SSD controllers are evolving all the time, so it's a good idea to research what the latest and greatest models are. Avoid OCZ Vertex 2 and 3 drives, they're shit. Vertex 4 doesn't seem to have any similar problems. If you are having stability problems, check for firmware updates.

Right now the best SSD you can buy is the Samsung 840 Pro, although there are plenty of cheaper models out there that are plenty good for less money. The best place for reviews and analysis on SSDs (and indeed all PC hardware, IMO) is AnandTech. The level of knowledge the staff there has is truly absurd, and they give well reasoned opinions and reviews.

[Dog Pants]

PC Gamer is doing a round up of SSDs this month. From their reviews I'd go for the 240GB Corsair horse GS if I was buying right now. Which I'm not, but it looks to offer pretty good value for money at £170 (70p/GB) and decent performance.

[Grimmie]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Thoughts on the motherboard (looking at reviews, the "thermal shielding" might just be a cheap gimmick) or RAM?

Tezz informs me that the MOBO is a bottleneck for RAM, so I guess I should get a good one, and lots of memories.

Ah, memories.