Need specs for a 1300$ gaming and devleopment PC

Discussion in 'New Build / Upgrade Advice' started by itkeman, Mar 7, 2014.

  1. itkeman

    itkeman Geek Trainee

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    Hi guys!
    My computer has officially died, so I'm in need for a new one. My budget is around 1200$, with a wiggle room of 300$. What I usually do on my computer is:
    • Develop software (the heaviest program I use is probably Visual Studio).
    • Watch HD media (I have two screens: 24' and 19') and listen to music.
    • Do some graphic design using Photoshop.
    • Play games. Now, I'm not a hardcore gamer... I play some Team Fortress 2, and I'd like to be able to play GTA 5 when it does come out for the PC.
    • Run a VM or two in the background.
    There is no need for any part beside the computer itself. I think my only specific request is for the computer to have an SSD drive.
    Thank you very much!
     
  2. Wicked Mystic

    Wicked Mystic Big Geek

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    How many cores you need for virtual machines? To be more spesific, do you need more than 4 cores?
     
  3. Big B

    Big B HWF Godfather

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    I concur. That and RAM are probably the biggest concerns here. A socket 1150-based Haswell might be the ticket, but if you need more than a quad-core and/or hyper-threading that moves into Socket 2011 i7's or even a Xeon.

    For the SSD, are you looking to this as a the main drive for everything, for software development and/or Photoshop, or something else? I know of 960GB SSD's, but that would eat up a lot of your budget. Going with a smaller SSD (say 256GB or less) for the OS and essential programs and a larger one(s) for everything else would be a way to go. Additionally, there are some drives that feature a small SSD in tandem with a traditional one all in a 3.5" package.

    You have a pretty generous budget for the PC itself, but a few more details will allow us to have a better idea on what to suggest for your needs.
     

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