I wasn't sure if this should go in hardware, tech support or gaming so apologies if this is in the wrong place. It's been a couple of years since I last had a serious gaming machine. IIRC I had: i5 (probably 4th gen), overclocked GTX 960, 8GB DDR3 , which ran BF3/Skyrim well at pretty high settings. I'm looking at a new gaming PC, but I'm not 100% up-to-date with hardware and prices. There's a ridiculous amount of choice and I don't know if I feel like speccing out and building one myself again. My budget is ~£1000 but can stretch to more if it's a really good deal. Here are a couple I've found so far, in no particular order. #1. Zoostorm Gaming Media Desktop i7-6700K @ 4.4Ghz 16GB Gskill DDR4 2400Mhz (Supports up to 32GB) 3TB SATA HDD + 120GB SDD Intel Z170 Chipset NVIDIA GeForce GTX-980 4GB Seems great price for the CPU and GPU but don't know is the SSD is M2 and not familiar with Zoostorm. #2. Chillblast Fusion Core i5 6600K @ 4.4GHz Asus Z170 PRO GAMING Motherboard NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card 16GB 2133MHz DDR4 250GB Samsung M2 PCIe SSD 2TB Seagate SSHD Hybrid Drive On the pricey side for me, but seems a big jump up from the next expandable machine they sell (any between are weird form factors that would be hard to upgrade). Of course there are tons out there so I won't list them all, but the above give you an idea. Would you reccomend either of these...or something else? Cheers! Res/Prom
I don't see how the M2 PCIe SSD is worth the £100 premium in addition to the CPU and GPU downgrade.... I guess maybe you get better support from the latter.
Well I built my first one from scratch and also done my second from scratch You can save a fair bit of money if willing to build or for your budget get a better machine. I thought learning how to build and speccing my own was part of the fun. Plenty of tutorials on the you tubes.
Anyone else one think an upgrade over his current PC at this moment in time would just be a waste of money? I'd wait at least until nvidia's next generation of GPUs before spending anything. The 9XX series has always seemed like a stop gap generation to me. +1 to Mr Happy's comment as well.
I think his current spec should do him nicely until the next line up of cards comes out, no major rush at this point. At most maybe an SSD to speed things up depending on current storage device and keep that for his next rig?
I guess I'm just wary of buying a PC from a supplier I've not heard of before. The Zoostorm does look like a better deal though. Yeah I built my last one. I'm comfortable assembling a PC, it just takes longer to decide on all the parts and you can't test the case/cooling with the various parts before buying them to ensure it's a good combination of hardware. I'm just trying to remove some of the time and hassle from the process if I can. I don't have that PC any more, or you'd be right (and I'd probably just upgrade it rather than replace it entirely). I only have a company laptop (Latitude E7440) which allows me to play some games on average/low settings.
If i was buying I would opt for Chillblast, but I would struggle to give them my money knowing i could have done it xxxx amounts cheaper and put the rest to games, beer, curry, or beer
Scan do free delivery for bit tech users. I have also used Overclockers but Scan would be my go to site now
Nice. I'm not sure how Zoostorm are selling that rig at that price, I hadn't even finished speccing out a similar setup on scan and had passed the £1200 mark. I'm going wrong somewhere! Also I realised...I'm not going to be overclocking a CPU myself, so if I buy one it's going to be standard unless already overclocked.
An alternative to the likes of ZooStorm and Chillblast's pre-built machines, if you want specific parts but are certain you don't want to put it together yourself. OverClockers can provide a computer assembly service if you contact them. I think Scan may also provide that service, you should be able to ask in their subforum or drop mark@scan, LeeP@SCAN or ChrisP a message to check.
Personally, I've messed with a few Zoostorm systems and found the BIOS to be locked out from changes and never managed to reflash, I don't see a mobo model listed so I suspect it's customised but seeing the chipset it might not be. Again this is just from personal experience of that brand, never had issues with the actual products. I'd recommend the scan guys aswell though for a custom build. Good luck
Zoostorm is Ebuyer who have abysmal customer service. I bought a £3500 PC from them in August of 2014 and they sent it in thin boxes (that all ripped open and had to be taped up by the courier) and they sent with Yodel. For £3500 worth of gear. There were numerous items missing and it took ages for them to sort out and that was before I had even built the thing. That said it does seem to be decent value, but personally I would not take the risk. Don't forget to check out PCspecialist and OCUK.
If you're hellbent on a pre-built, Dino PC have a pretty good rep: http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Primal-GT5-196p2448.htm https://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Reco...1&idproduct=2497&idconf=373162&act=placeOrder
Hi guys, I went with Zoostorm before seeing the last lot of replies! They only had 2 in stock so I decided to get the deal whilst I still could. Ordered last night at about 8pm, and it got here at about 9am (in one piece)! It's all set up and working though I've not had a chance to put it through it's paces yet. I've got to say it's a real beast - huge spacious case and the GTX 980 is massive (I double-checked and my last card was a GTX 570). One question - do pre-builds tend to ship with coolant/water in them (which seems unlikely), or do you have to fill them yourself? I got no instructions with mine, and didn't have the tool to hand to open up the reservoir (which is pretty small and part of the rear fan cover from the looks of it). Cheers for the input (I had looked into Dino PC and PC Specialist as well)
The all in one coolers are not user refillable in most cases which is what they will be using I assume.
Zoostorm was owned by CMS computers and was based in Liverpool I did worked for them . It was then sold to VIP computers. Argos also sell Zoostorm brand pc and a few other places
