Far Cry 4 - anyone played it yet

[#1]

I think I will wait for the price to drop
My only problem - other than being a mean old git - is that my rig won't run it at all (apparently it just refuses to load on a dual core processor) so I need to upgrade
Note the graphics card meets the recommended spec
The best way is a new Intel i5 CPU but that also means a new motherboard, memory and new cooler.as my quiet running one won't fit - about £360 - £400
The cheapest way is to buy a q8400 quad (about £35) from Ebay
Thoughts

[#2]

Not played it but heard quite good things. You can get an i5-4440, an Asus H81M-K motherboard and 8GB RAM for £227.98 (current price) here. I would pay the extra for Corsair or Kingston RAM though. The CPU is retail so will come with the cooler and Intel's coolers are pretty decent nowadays at stock.
I linked to the same components in this thread but I have no connections to the company other than that I use them regularly.

[#3]

I tend to use Scan but in any case that motherboard wouldn't fit as my case with a removable tray will only take a full ATX board
Adding up the components it comes to a £10 saving so I would rather pick my own bits
I would have gone for a Gigabyte H97 board - I find them very reliable - plus a slightly higher spec CPU for only a few pounds extra and Crucial Memory
You may be correct about the standard Intel cooler as they have definitely improved - at present I have a Scythe Mine which is very quiet
I will however look at  Overclockers when I do jump as they must have improved from the dire support they used to offer

[#4]

*cough* ps4 *cough* (it's cheaper )

[#5]

@ OJ: I use both companies; sometimes Scan are cheaper other times OCUK are. I have noticed that if you fall into the habit of assuming one is automatically cheaper than the other you can get caught out though.
Don't know which i5 and other components you were looking at on Scan but the OCUK bundle represents a saving of up to £132, If cases are your thing you could even factor in a Lian Li and still come out cheaper than £360.
@ dvorak: I got a PS4 this time around. Haven't owned a console since the original PS1 but my gaming habits have changed a bit. I have been pleased so far and it fulfils my needs nicely and is quiet. Was also cheaper than upgrading my PC although I miss out on the game mods and sometimes anti-aliasing. For the money very impressed though; it's capable. Oh, there is always TLoU too.
ETA: @ OJ: I favour Asus and MSI as a rule; have used Gigabyte mobos and usually fine although fitting the original i7 into a Gigabyte (cannot recall the model) was nerve-racking; that retention lever. Out of interest - and if you can excuse my nosiness - which i5 are you looking at?

[#6]

The saving from the individual prices is £10
M'board £37.99 CPU £139.99 Memory £59.99 = £237.97
Bundle price £227.98
See my edit for what I was thinking about

[#7]

Yep, apologies, was editing my post as you were typing I believe.
ET: just noticed your comment about support. I have found both companies excellent. I only once felt let down by OCUK and that was RMAing a HDD that was clearly faulty. I had to wait a few days for them to test the unit and bearing in mind I am a regular customer this was annoying. You only needed to power up the drive to know it was broken.

[#8]

It depends on what is on offer but the price difference between the i5- 4440 and the i5- 4570 is only £10
Referring to the stupid lever on the Gigabyte boards - that was probably an AMD CPU as the Intel ones have used push pins for ages and they are very easy to install (not like the very old push pin designs which were a nightmare)

[#9]

At £10 it would be worth going for the 4570, I agree.
It was definitely an i7; the original 920 (C0). I can find out which motherboard model it was as I built the system for a friend. Other than that the board has been fine though

[#10]

From experience - nothing as extensive as yours - I tend to go for cool and quiet and use sites like this to pick my cooler http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/5629/39-cpu-coolers-review-what-is-the-best-choice
Interesting for noise level the stock cooler isn't too bad but it gets extremely hot
The reason for Gigabyte as well as the Ultra Durable is the dual bios which has got me out of trouble a couple of times on a failed bios upgrade
Checking on the lever
I forgot - I was thinking about the cooler attachment 

[#11]

If you are willing to invest for quiet cooling Noctua produce many of the best parts I have ever used. I'm using an Intel here and it is pretty quiet, definitely a vast improvement over some of their older coolers.
Asus use a similar system on their boards, luckily I have never had to use it. Both of the retailers mentioned in the thread will flash the latest stable bios onto the board before shipping though, usually for a small fee. I've been forced to do this in the past as I have sometimes purchased boards  that won't even post with the CPU I have picked until applying a bios update, and I haven't had a compatible CPU to update it here.

[#12]

Fortunately I don't intend to do anything until Far Cry 4 drops in price in the sales and by then the performance with the older processors will have been benchmarked
I just wish Intel would produce a decent range of CPU's without graphics as it just puts the cost up

[#13]

I've played it! I've found it amazing! Really enjoying it! I agree the price tag is really steep.

[#14]

If you find yourself drawn toward the second-hand Q8400 you can get a used Xeon X5650 for £55-65 on ebay at the moment. Don't be put off by the server thing, they run games like a boss and you'll get 6 cores (12 hyper threaded) and 12MB cache on die. You would need an LGA1366 motherboard compatible with Xeons but many are. It also uses triple-channel RAM. If you compare the X5650 against current CPUs you will get a hell of a bang for your buck though. You can probably bag the CPU, motherboard and RAM (used) for £150 if you shop carefully.

[#15]

Was thinking about Wolfenstein the new order as it is in the Black Friday sales but checking and my CPU won't handle it
So will ignore the whole thing until middle of next year then decide what to do
Re the X5650 - as far as I can tell  that will still require a new motherboard and memory so not really a sensible option