I live in the UK and mostly play poker online. Im currently using a laptop with windows but i now want a pc to play poker on which i can mutli-table easier. I would like to no from other online players what they use and what i would need. I not that good with all the computer tech so not sure what i need and what is the basic/best. I have about £500-£1000 to spend on new stuff.

Thanks in advance

i5-2500k
ssd
8gb ram
some sort of graphics card if you intend on playing games
other stuff like appropriate mobo, case, hdd, dvd

should come in nowhere near a grand and will do what you want

Thanks but im going to be dumb now and ask a few questions.

What is the i5-2500k & ssd?

I wont really be playing games so can i ignore a graphics card?

Cheers

Well how good are you looking to go? Do you just want something to get by okay with, or would you rather pour more money into future-proofing and speed the thing up a bit? You have the budget to do a little or a lot.

Need to know how many monitors you're running out to, what connections they have, and what their resolutions are. Unless this is too demanding of integrated graphics then yes, you can ignore a graphics card. For reference I have two 1080 displays running off of a semi-recent processor's integrated graphics. It's fine.

Do you play a lot of tables, and do you use HEM or PT3? How much hard drive storage space do you typically use (or expect to use)?

Do you do any kind of workstation tasks at all? Anything else we should consider you didn't mention?

The way it sounds I'll also guess you're nowhere near £1000.

At the mo i can only play 2-3 tables but i want to get 2 screens now so i can play more tables and scroll forums n watch videos while i play. I play poker nearly every night but only play a few tournys. This year i have really started to take poker more seriously and i have had a few big wins (for an amateur) and now want to take the next step. Basically i want a new work station so i can start grinding and have a set place to sit and play properly.

I am going to purchase either HEM or PT3 once i have set up with a new pc. I really dont no how much i use but i only have itunes and play poker on my laptops i dont really use it for much else.

Im not all tech'd up on the hard drive space and ram so thats why i asked cause i really dont no what i would need.

Thanks

i5-2500k is an Intel Processor, SSD is the newer technology hard-drives. You'll probably need dual vid cards depending on your budget or you can just get a video card with mutliple inputs.

I suppose you could not worry about the 2nd display for now and add in a card later if necessary, but it helps to plan that out a bit.

If you're not storing movies and tons of big files a 120GB-128GB type hard drive should do. If you click on My Computer it should tell you how much space you're currently using up. Windows + a normal compliment of light programs will usually go about 30GB, plus pictures and mp3s. I can't guess at what you have but if the primary purpose is poker and you don't load it up with video and big games even an 80GB-90GB might work fine.

I looked up microdirect in the UK and as far as processors, it's £93 for the lowest end of what you'd want, £189 for the highest end + another £18 to get the fan you'd need to overclock it. I think there is a pretty good value or two in between at £156 and £166 which are effectively pretty close to the high end. That's with VAT.

Long story short, just doing a real quick sample build you get a pretty solid PC for £500, though you'd need to factor in the cost of Windows too (£72, or use Windows 8 preview frree until Jan 15th). Anyway one of the best new CPUs, a lot of RAM, and a very fast SSD. If you want to play games you'd need to add a video card, if you want Blu-Ray that's extra, etc.



You'd want to refine that and shop around for deals and alternate parts, this is just to give you an idea of where you're at. The core components here are really more than you "need" but if you're not looking to go for the bare minimum this seems to work for your budget range. As far as processing power thats as much as anybody really needs today.