[SOLVED] Upgrade or buy a new prebuilt

[Vampo]

Hi All

I'm looking for some advice on whether to upgrade my current system or invest in a new prebuilt system. I could build a new system if the cost saving is worth it.

My current system is:

CPU: Intel i5-4690k
GPU: ASUS AMD R9 290 4GB
Storage: Samsung 840 Evo 120GB (boot drive) and Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 1TB
RAM: G.SKILL RipjawsX DDR3 1866 C9 2x4GB
PSU: 550w

I would also like to change the case and from a quick look online it seems that this is as labour-intensive as a whole new build.

My budget for a new system is £1,000-£1,500.

My main use is for gaming - as long as I can play highest settings at 1080p with a decent framerate on all recent titles, then I'm happy. Anything better is a bonus for my budget. I also have more general use, e.g. for studying, etc, but I haven't had any problems with my current system for this.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Vampo]

Forgot to mention that the MB is:

MSI Z97 GAMING 3 Motherboard

 

[kevinburrow]

If it were me I'd just get a new build. You can easily play at ultra settings for that budget or less. What PSU do you have? 550w would be enough if it's a good model. You could also keep the 1tb drive for storage. The 120gb SSD might be a little space-limited these days. And if you're comfortable with building it's much cheaper, usually about £100 or more.

 

[Vampo]

If it were me I'd just get a new build. You can easily play at ultra settings for that budget or less. What PSU do you have? 550w would be enough if it's a good model. You could also keep the 1tb drive for storage. The 120gb SSD might be a little space-limited these days. And if you're comfortable with building it's much cheaper, usually about £100 or more.

Thanks for the feedback. New build was my initial thought, but then I started to question whether I could upgrade instead.

The PSU is a Corsair RM Series .

Any suggestions for prebuilt? I was looking at the Alienware Aurora R9 (the £1,399 on the Dell UK website). I can get a 10% student discount so it comes in at £1,259 after the discount is applied.

 

[kevinburrow]

Well I'm in the market for a new build myself, and part of me wants to get a pre-built for the hassle-free'ness of it all. I would steer well clear of Alienware - they charge you more for the name and aren't very good from reviews I've seen. You're better off picking your parts at Overclockers and firing them an email asking for a quote for them to build it (should be about £100 on top of parts). They do have pre-built sytems as well but I think you'll get a better deal that way, and all parts you want. Especially since you already have a good enough PSU if it isn't worn out and some storage.

My budget is a bit less than yours but here's what I have saved for about £850 minus build costs, just for reference. This will be sufficient for ultra at 1080p, too. Your budget would allow for better, obviously.