Inserting a new video card?

[ExpatJ]

If I have a standard new desk top average build. Can i just buy a top of the range video card and slot it in? Will I then be able to play all the new games a maxed out settings?

(i realise that top of the range video cards can cost 100s£/$)

[Ace of Pop]

NO.

[phazey]

Depends which card and what games. Arms 3s' engine uses a lot of CPU along with the GPU. depends what spec your desktop is, I got good milage with a core2quad and a 660ti. What card are you thinking of getting?

[NanLaew]

Easier if the OP gives his rigs current hardware details like CPU, RAM and hardware support.

I just updated a 'legacy' HP Core 2 machine running XP (originally shipped with Vista but quickly 'upgraded' several years ago) that I had just done a clean installation of Win 7 32-bit. The PCIx16 graphics card that I had bought tested good on the XP installation didn't give any raster out on either VGA or DVI on Win 7. Chased my tail a wee bit until I ended up doing a BIOS reset to defaults and it's all good now.

The Gigabyte graphics card I got is powered by NVIDIA GeForce 210 GPU with 1GB DDR3 memory and 64-bit memory interface and 520 MHz core clock. Has dual link DVI-I/ D-SUB/HDMI with HDCP protection. Supports NVIDIA® CUDA™ and NVIDIA® PhysX™ Technology. Needs the system PSU to be greater than 300W. Cost me 870,000 dong here in Vietnam; say 1300 baht.

[SlyAnimal]

Provided your motherboard etc supports the graphics card, you should be able to increase the graphics settings etc by upgrading, but how smoothly your game runs etc also depends on other factors like the CPU/RAM etc.

Post your PC's specs, as well as the game you want to run, and people can likely give you an idea on whether a graphics card alone would be fine for what you want to do, or if you'd need other hardware to run everything on Ultra settings etc. It might also be, that you don't necessarily need a higher graphics card than what you already have, there might be another "weak link" in your PC's setup.

[KunMatt]

The answer is "maybe".

If you have less than an i5 CPU or 4GB RAM then your system will be bottle-necked no matter how good your graphics card is however it depends on the game. I installed an nVidia GTX970 into an old 32bit Intel CPU and 4GB RAM and most games were more than 60 fps at Ultra settings. Checking system resources showed that my CPU was 100% though meaning it was the bottleneck in my system.

You actually don't need a top of the range card to play games at max settings. Depending on your TV/Monitor the best you can achieve may be 1080p, Ultra settings at 60fps. Most TVs cannot handle anything higher than this so aim for these settings by checking the hardware requirements for a new game you want to play at max settings.

[ExpatJ]

Thanks for feedback.

The pc I'm thinking to buy is a lenovo i7 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr sdrm, 2tb sata hdd. Would that be able to deal with a top of the range card for maxing out games?

[KunMatt]

Thanks for feedback.

The pc I'm thinking to buy is a lenovo i7 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr sdrm, 2tb sata hdd. Would that be able to deal with a top of the range card for maxing out games?

Yes.

Like I said before, you don't need a top of the range gfx card to play games in max settings, I can run most games over 120fps on Ultra settings which is more than any monitor can properly display, you will probably be aiming for 1080p60 on Ultra settings.

The latest top of the range is an Nvidia Titan X and it's $1000 but you would only need it if you want to play games in 4k resolution. If not then a Nvidia GTX970 for about 15,000 baht would be much more than enough for the next few years.

[ExpatJ]

Thanks for feedback.

The pc I'm thinking to buy is a lenovo i7 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr sdrm, 2tb sata hdd. Would that be able to deal with a top of the range card for maxing out games?

Yes.

Like I said before, you don't need a top of the range gfx card to play games in max settings, I can run most games over 120fps on Ultra settings which is more than any monitor can properly display, you will probably be aiming for 1080p60 on Ultra settings.

The latest top of the range is an Nvidia Titan X and it's $1000 but you would only need it if you want to play games in 4k resolution. If not then a Nvidia GTX970 for about 15,000 baht would be much more than enough for the next few years.

Thanks thats v useful.

[KunMatt]

Thanks for feedback.

The pc I'm thinking to buy is a lenovo i7 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr sdrm, 2tb sata hdd. Would that be able to deal with a top of the range card for maxing out games?

Yes.

Like I said before, you don't need a top of the range gfx card to play games in max settings, I can run most games over 120fps on Ultra settings which is more than any monitor can properly display, you will probably be aiming for 1080p60 on Ultra settings.

The latest top of the range is an Nvidia Titan X and it's $1000 but you would only need it if you want to play games in 4k resolution. If not then a Nvidia GTX970 for about 15,000 baht would be much more than enough for the next few years.

Thanks thats v useful.

If you are not too bothered about the cost to performance ratio then take a look at the Nvidia GTX980 which is the current best card on the market until the Titan X releases soon.

Also, if you are building this PC yourself make sure you get a PSU with a PCIe connector to power the graphics card.

[Bardeh]

The main thing to be careful of is the PSU. If you've bought a prebuilt system, chances are that the PSU isn't very good and you are at risk of blowing it up if you put a power hungry GPU in the computer. A graphics card like the Nvidia GTX 750ti is reasonably powerful and doesn't use a whole lot of power. In fact, it doesn't even need to connect to the PSU at all - you can just plug it into the PCI slot and it'll work. Whether or not that card will be enough for your needs really depends on what type of games you're going to be playing though. I would recommend you go to JIB or similar and just spec out your own PC from scratch and have them build it for you. That way you won't get any garbage components that are so common in prebuilt systems.

A GTX 970 is the best price to performance ratio card out there right now - if I was building a new system that's what I would be buying.

Edited March 26, 2015 by Bardeh

[KunMatt]

Thanks for feedback.

The pc I'm thinking to buy is a lenovo i7 3.4ghz, 8gb ddr sdrm, 2tb sata hdd. Would that be able to deal with a top of the range card for maxing out games?

An i7 CPU is overspec'd for a gaming PC. No games use 8 threads and I read somewhere that it can even have a detrimental effect on gaming performance. I can't find the price for an i7 3.4GHz on www.jib.co.th (I'm guessing it's a 3770 which is now out of date and uses the older 1155 socket) but you could save yourself about 3,000 baht and just get a newer i5 4690 3.5GHz using the newer 1150 socket which you can upgrade later if you wanted to.

I would recommend building it yourself instead of buying a pre-build, it's kinda like a rite of passage and a lot of fun to build your own rig, or at least spec it all up and get the shop to assemble it for you. JIB are very good at this and you can see their catalog online. You can build a decent i5 gaming PC for about 17,000 baht plus whatever graphics card you wanted, I guess GTX970's are around 13k now so 30k for a decent gaming PC that can play any game at max settings, will be future proof and can be upgraded.

[kekalot]

Lenovo desktop? aren't those all kind of smaller form factor cases nowadays?

you might have issues getting a newer full length video card in one of those small cases.. power supply would probably be another issue and also availability of PCI Express on those motherboards

I seen those small factor cases with no PCIX, not big enough for any good cards and lowest power supply ever.

[kkerry]

You're usually better off getting a built to order gaming machine rather than a Lenovo desktop. The big brand name desktops unless specifically designed for gaming will often use motherboards with a minimal amount of expansion slots and power supplies designed for quietness rather than performance. As suggested earlier, an i5 CPU will do the job for gaming. If you don't know what specs to look for then there are plenty of tech websites with suggestions for cheap, medium and high end gaming builds.

[rhythmworx]

One thing I would like to throw in if your building the system yourself.

Make sure the case you choose is large enough to fit the GFX card in, they are pretty long these days.

I had to hack 2 of the drive bays out of my old full size tower just to fit a GTX 770 in.

As someone above said a 970 will do you well.

[ExpatJ]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

[kekalot]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

had to google that particular computer..

it's hard to say about the Erazer, they don't really show the inside of the case or which motherboard.. I'd assume the PSU should be enough tho.

I am curious.. how much would you pay for this computer, not sure where you found it but saw it listed at 49,770 baht?

seems quite a bit high? I built an equivalent system in July last year but with an i5-4460 and 8gb of ram instead of 16gb (don't really need 16gb or i7 for gaming tbh) for 27,460 baht.

it didn't include a video card (I brought my lifetime warrantied Radeon 7970 with me) and had 2 different hard drives instead of a hybrid one (my preference)

but if you add a GTX 970 for ±15,000 baht and only have it up to 42,460 baht or so.

now if my pricing is correct on the Erazer that would bring you over 64,000 baht not including monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse, headphones and a nice mousepad.

[kkerry]

If you look at sites selling those two video cards, the 970 appears to be slightly shorter but a tad higher.

Looking at value for money, then buying the Lenovo only to immediately replace the video card doesn't make much sense even if you can sell the card it comes with for a good price.

For gaming, the i7-4770k the Lenovo has could be replaced with an i5 4590/4690/4690k and save you a few thousand baht. The Lenovo does get reasonable reviews but if you pay 49k for it in Thailand and then have to upgrade the video card then it's not a great deal imo. Either buy it as is or simply have something built to order.

[ExpatJ]

If you look at sites selling those two video cards, the 970 appears to be slightly shorter but a tad higher.

Looking at value for money, then buying the Lenovo only to immediately replace the video card doesn't make much sense even if you can sell the card it comes with for a good price.

For gaming, the i7-4770k the Lenovo has could be replaced with an i5 4590/4690/4690k and save you a few thousand baht. The Lenovo does get reasonable reviews but if you pay 49k for it in Thailand and then have to upgrade the video card then it's not a great deal imo. Either buy it as is or simply have something built to order.

Do you think the Base lenovo specs I mentioned would play Skyrim maxed out?

[MaeJoMTB]

That was my mistake,

Graphics card just fitted inside the case, but didn't work with the stock heatsink.

Heatsink + graphics card is 2cm wider than the PC tower.

Been running it with the side off for the last 6 months.

Nice and cool now though.

PS

Lenovo use pretty crappy mobos, you'll be lucky to fit anything as an upgrade.

(Does the Lenovo mobo even have a slot for a graphics card, I thought i7 had integrated graphics)

Edited March 31, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[rhythmworx]

If you plan on getting a 4770K or any other Haswell that uses thermal paste instead of solder under the CPU lid you will need either watercooling or a high end fan and heat sink if you want to it to have a decent lifespan.

Especially if gaming and overclocking.

I use a Corsair H80i on 4770K (Costa Rican model) Oc'ed to [email protected] volts...with an ambient room temp of 21 Celcius, Battlefield4 tops out at 61 Celcius which is a good temp.

I would hate to see that figure with the shitty OEM fan and the default setting of 1.23 volts my Mobo has I would guess somewhere in the 90's...I unknowingly ran it like that for the 1st 2 weeks.

Edited March 31, 2015 by rhythmworx

[kkerry]

PS

Lenovo use pretty crappy mobos, you'll be lucky to fit anything as an upgrade.

(Does the Lenovo mobo even have a slot for a graphics card, I thought i7 had integrated graphics)

The specs on one site I looked at says it is available with a GTX 650 or 760

Lenovo Erazer

It's not a work station and it does have gaming features, however assemble your own and you could include a decent SSD to get better bang for your buck.

[kkerry]

If you look at sites selling those two video cards, the 970 appears to be slightly shorter but a tad higher.

Looking at value for money, then buying the Lenovo only to immediately replace the video card doesn't make much sense even if you can sell the card it comes with for a good price.

For gaming, the i7-4770k the Lenovo has could be replaced with an i5 4590/4690/4690k and save you a few thousand baht. The Lenovo does get reasonable reviews but if you pay 49k for it in Thailand and then have to upgrade the video card then it's not a great deal imo. Either buy it as is or simply have something built to order.

Do you think the Base lenovo specs I mentioned would play Skyrim maxed out?

Best place to ask is to locate a forum dedicated to Skyrim, there's sure to be some out there. The Skyrim website should also have a guide to what hardware they think you should use.

[KunMatt]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

That PC can already play Skyrim at Ultra settings, the GTX760 graphics card is 2 years old but Skyrim is about 4 years old.

See here http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=625&game=The+Elder+Scrolls+V&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i7-4770K+4-Core+3.5GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+760+EVGA+SC+2GB+Edition&ram=16&checkSubmit=#systemRequirements

As I said before, you don't need an i7 for gaming, an i5 is the gamer's choice. Also, why buy a pre-build if you are not going to use the graphics card it comes with? It's a waste of 7,000 baht.

If I was you I would spec your own PC and get the shop to assemble for you if you cannot do it yourself. You will get better specs for less money. Pre-builds use cheap generic components for things like the PSU and RAM so you can choose your own brands when you do it yourself, I prefer ASUS and Corsair for just about everything.

All you need to spec is;

CPU: i5 4690 3.5GHz = 7.5k Baht

MB: H97 = 3k Baht

RAM: 2x G.Skillz 4GB 1600Mhz = 2.5k Baht

SSD: 120GB (for OS) = 2k Baht

HDD: 2TB (for Data) = 3k Baht

GFX: GTX970 = 13k Baht

PSU: 700W with a PCIe connector = 3k Baht

Case: 2k Baht

So for a total of about 36,000 baht you could build a pretty high end gaming PC that would smash that Lenovo you're talking about.

How much is that Lenovo on sale for?

[ExpatJ]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

That PC can already play Skyrim at Ultra settings, the GTX760 graphics card is 2 years old but Skyrim is about 4 years old.

See here http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=625&game=The+Elder+Scrolls+V&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i7-4770K+4-Core+3.5GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+760+EVGA+SC+2GB+Edition&ram=16&checkSubmit=#systemRequirements

As I said before, you don't need an i7 for gaming, an i5 is the gamer's choice. Also, why buy a pre-build if you are not going to use the graphics card it comes with? It's a waste of 7,000 baht.

If I was you I would spec your own PC and get the shop to assemble for you if you cannot do it yourself. You will get better specs for less money. Pre-builds use cheap generic components for things like the PSU and RAM so you can choose your own brands when you do it yourself, I prefer ASUS and Corsair for just about everything.

All you need to spec is;

CPU: i5 4690 3.5GHz = 7.5k Baht

MB: H97 = 3k Baht

RAM: 2x G.Skillz 4GB 1600Mhz = 2.5k Baht

SSD: 120GB (for OS) = 2k Baht

HDD: 2TB (for Data) = 3k Baht

GFX: GTX970 = 13k Baht

PSU: 700W with a PCIe connector = 3k Baht

Case: 2k Baht

So for a total of about 36,000 baht you could build a pretty high end gaming PC that would smash that Lenovo you're talking about.

How much is that Lenovo on sale for?

Not sure the price here. In the US it's 1300$ . That's very useful the specs you give. But is the computer as reliable if it's custom built by the shop like this?

[kekalot]

Not sure the price here. In the US it's 1300$ . That's very useful the specs you give. But is the computer as reliable if it's custom built by the shop like this?

it should be as reliable

plus you would get warranties PER parts instead of one the machine,

invade.it is a good place to buy it from, they are in Hua Hin and do ship anywhere in Thailand

it's more than enough for Skyrim most likely by itself

but if you start adding 250 HD mods it might make the game much slower on the Erazon itself

I fully agree with the parts above.. i7 is overkill, over 8gb mostly same.

Edited April 1, 2015 by kekalot

[KunMatt]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

That PC can already play Skyrim at Ultra settings, the GTX760 graphics card is 2 years old but Skyrim is about 4 years old.

See here http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=625&game=The+Elder+Scrolls+V&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i7-4770K+4-Core+3.5GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+760+EVGA+SC+2GB+Edition&ram=16&checkSubmit=#systemRequirements

As I said before, you don't need an i7 for gaming, an i5 is the gamer's choice. Also, why buy a pre-build if you are not going to use the graphics card it comes with? It's a waste of 7,000 baht.

If I was you I would spec your own PC and get the shop to assemble for you if you cannot do it yourself. You will get better specs for less money. Pre-builds use cheap generic components for things like the PSU and RAM so you can choose your own brands when you do it yourself, I prefer ASUS and Corsair for just about everything.

All you need to spec is;

CPU: i5 4690 3.5GHz = 7.5k Baht

MB: H97 = 3k Baht

RAM: 2x G.Skillz 4GB 1600Mhz = 2.5k Baht

SSD: 120GB (for OS) = 2k Baht

HDD: 2TB (for Data) = 3k Baht

GFX: GTX970 = 13k Baht

PSU: 700W with a PCIe connector = 3k Baht

Case: 2k Baht

So for a total of about 36,000 baht you could build a pretty high end gaming PC that would smash that Lenovo you're talking about.

How much is that Lenovo on sale for?

Not sure the price here. In the US it's 1300$ . That's very useful the specs you give. But is the computer as reliable if it's custom built by the shop like this?

Yes of course. I would trust my own or JIB's build over a Lenovo, that's for sure! Lenovo's suck!

I know it seems daunting if you've never built a PC before but there's really not much to it. You literally just put the components into the case and connect the power and data cables and setup the BIOS. As long as everything is compatible there should be no problems.

If you are a beginner then go to JIB, spec it with them and let them build and test it. Any problems you can always take it back to them, everything has a warranty.

You will also know a lot about the rig you built and you can upgrade it as you go.

[KunMatt]

OP, if you do spec this yourself I would recommend a bigger HDD than you are current looking at. You can get a 2TB for 3k but a 4TB is about 4k. Games are about 10GB to 40GB these days and they will only get bigger.

Also, get additional fans for the case to keep your system cool. I have a Corsair Carbide 400R case (which I recommend) and I spent days choosing and trying fans all over the case to keep the graphics card and the CPU cool. I'm not overclocking so I didn't want to mess around with water cooling so I just bought as many fans as I could and they work very well at keep the temps of everything down. I have 2x 120mm inlet fans on the side of the case, 2x 120mm exhaust fans on the top of the case, 1x 140mm exhaust fan on the rear of the case, plus the case comes with 2x inlet fans at the front to keep the HDDs cool. You can get a motherboard with a fan controller for all of tese but I bought a Bitfenix Recon Fan controller so I can manually set and monitor them independently with a bay mounted controller.

What I did was total overkill (as usual) but I recommend at least one fan on the side of the case blowing onto the graphics card and a decent exhaust fan at the back. They are cheap, decent quality fans (Corsair, NZXT etc) are 500 baht, I have a couple of Cougar 120mm fans from JIB for 250 baht and they are great too,.

Edited April 2, 2015 by KunMatt

[NanLaew]

I see that Lenovo Thailand has an Erazor/x510 PC desk top- would i be able to put a GTX 970 video card in there ?

• 4th Generation Intel® Core™i7-4770K Processor (3.5GHz, up to 3.9GHz, 8MB Cache)
• 16GB DDR3L/1600MHz (2x8GB)
• SSHD 2TB (7200rpm)
• nVidia® Geforce GTX760 2GB DDR5

610W PSU

That PC can already play Skyrim at Ultra settings, the GTX760 graphics card is 2 years old but Skyrim is about 4 years old.

See here http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=625&game=The+Elder+Scrolls+V&p_make=Intel&p_deriv=Core+i7-4770K+4-Core+3.5GHz&gc_make=Nvidia&gc_deriv=GeForce+GTX+760+EVGA+SC+2GB+Edition&ram=16&checkSubmit=#systemRequirements

As I said before, you don't need an i7 for gaming, an i5 is the gamer's choice. Also, why buy a pre-build if you are not going to use the graphics card it comes with? It's a waste of 7,000 baht.

If I was you I would spec your own PC and get the shop to assemble for you if you cannot do it yourself. You will get better specs for less money. Pre-builds use cheap generic components for things like the PSU and RAM so you can choose your own brands when you do it yourself, I prefer ASUS and Corsair for just about everything.

All you need to spec is;

CPU: i5 4690 3.5GHz = 7.5k Baht

MB: H97 = 3k Baht

RAM: 2x G.Skillz 4GB 1600Mhz = 2.5k Baht

SSD: 120GB (for OS) = 2k Baht

HDD: 2TB (for Data) = 3k Baht

GFX: GTX970 = 13k Baht

PSU: 700W with a PCIe connector = 3k Baht

Case: 2k Baht

So for a total of about 36,000 baht you could build a pretty high end gaming PC that would smash that Lenovo you're talking about.

How much is that Lenovo on sale for?

Not sure the price here. In the US it's 1300$ . That's very useful the specs you give. But is the computer as reliable if it's custom built by the shop like this?

Is a bespoke machine more reliable than a production line, cookie-cutter machine?

Between the US, UK and Thailand, I have built or upgraded well over a dozen machines since 2000, pretty much using the latest widgetry at each creation. Apart from stuff like HD's failing after 10's of 1000's of hours on the older builds, the odd PSU dieing and a fair few case, CPU and VGA fans grinding to a halt, the bits that mostly don't have whirring mechanical parts tend to outlast any individual component warranties. They become obsolete long before they die.

As mentioned by others, the individual components get an individual, dated warranty sticker here in LOS but I always check that there's only the one sticker attached at the time of sale/build. Some shops may try and sell you or use a component that some other buyer returned, either under warranty or some in-house, 7-day 'suck it a see' policy. The part may not be defective in any way at all but was either overkill or unsuitable in the previous customers build; but it's not new. I only ever had an issue here with something that actually had 3 stickers attached... but that was a while back, before I realised the significance of the stickers!

[rhythmworx]

No need for fan controllers all motherboards and vid cards worth their salt use software to control that. (P.S. Not knocking the guy that bought one).

You can even set up how many RPM you want per fan and even set slopes of how many RPM you want per given temp on the CPU.

You state a 610W PSU how efficient is it? Lenovo don't state that.

eg...a 610W PSU with 80% efficiency is only really a reliable 488W PSU. Capacitors lose capacity over time especially when running hot.

For PSU I would go for Corsair they are stress tested in prolonged 55 degree C heat. Heat kills PSU's.

For RAM I would go Corsair vengeance (cheaper than dominators) too as they have a lifetime warranty. Don't get the ones with the fins on unless you are going for water cooling as no decent heatsinks can be fitted on the CPU as the RAMs fins are in the way, Fins are a gimmick anyway wish I had bought the regular profile as I wouldn't have to have gone the water cooling route.

If you decide to choose your own components its a good idea to download the manual for the mobo you want.

Websites and sales can say oh it supports 2133 mhz RAM, but when you read the manual that's only if overclocking. natively it might be 1600.

8 gig RAM will do you and you can always upgrade in the future.

For CPU and gaming an i5 is adequate if you want to save some money as most of the work is done by the GPU.

If you want an i7 I suggest the older sandybridge or Ivybridge models as they are cheaper and run way cooler.

If you want quiet and cool GPU I would go for whatever GTX model you want but a Gigabyte windforce 3 model, 3 fans and they are silent even under load.

Edited April 2, 2015 by rhythmworx